Palatine Crypt
The Palatinusgruft ( ung. Nádori Kripta) on the castle to the furnace is the burial place of the Hungarian branch of the Habsburg , the Archduke Joseph of Austria and Palatine of Hungary was founded.
history
In 1769 the castle church consecrated to Saint Sigismund was completed at the Ofen Castle. In the crypt below this church, the deceased of the middle class were buried. Elisabeth Karoline, the eldest daughter of Archduke Joseph and his third wife Maria Dorothea, who died on August 23, 1820, was buried here as the first member of the House of Habsburg . In 1837 the thirteen-year-old son of the Palatine, Alexander Leopold, was buried here as the second member of the Habsburg family.
After these two burials of family members, Archduke Joseph decided in 1838 to expand this crypt as a hereditary burial for the Hungarian branch of the Habsburgs. After he received permission from Emperor Ferdinand , he commissioned the architect Franz Hüppmann to carry out the construction project. Work began on March 23, 1838. The strangers who had previously been buried here were exhumed . In the revolutionary year of 1849, the castle and the castle church were badly damaged. The tomb was also affected. Then the architect August Pollack, a son of Michael Pollack, was commissioned with the further expansion . After the death of Maria Dorothea, the work was continued by the architects Nikolaus Ybl and later by Alois Hauszmann on behalf of Archduke Joseph Karl . The tomb of Platin Joseph designed the sculptor György Zala (1858–1937).
The castle of Ofen was bombed during the Second World War, but it was rebuilt. In the 1950s, the church above the crypt was demolished. The Palatine Crypt was the only one in the castle area to keep its original shape, but was not open to the public. In 1973 the crypt was broken into, the coffins were broken open with brute force, the bones of Maria Dorothea and the others resting there, in search of jewelry, were scattered throughout the crypt. The then director of the Hungarian National Gallery then had the crypt walled up. It is thanks to the tireless commitment of the Hungarian anthropologist István Kiszely that the scattered bones could be put back together and reburied with dignity. On October 3, 1987, the crypt was rededicated in the presence of 14 members of the Habsburg family and numerous festival guests. In 1992 the remains of nine members of the Hungarian line of the Habsburgs (who had previously been buried outside Hungary) were transferred here and reburied. At present, 24 Habsburgs from the descendants of Palatine Joseph are buried here.
The crypt can be viewed today by appointment at the Hungarian National Gallery.
Personalities buried in the crypt (until 1945)
- Alexandrine (* / † 1801), daughter of Alexandra Pavlovna, the first wife of Archduke Joseph
- Hermine von Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym (* 1797, † 1817)
- Elisabeth Karoline (* / † 1820)
- Alexander Leopold Ferdinand (* 1825, † 1837), son of Archduke Josephine Maria Dorothea
- Hermine Amalie Marie (* 1817, † 1842)
- Joseph Anton (* 1776, † 1847), Palatine of Hungary
- Maria Dorothea of Württemberg (* 1797, † 1855)
- Elisabeth Klementine (* 1865, † 1866), daughter of Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria
- Stefan Franz Viktor (* 1817, † 1867)
- Ladislaus Philipp (* 1875, † 1895), son of Joseph Karl of Austria
- Gisela Auguste (* 1897, † 1901), daughter of Joseph August of Austria
- Klothilde Maria (* 1884, † 1903), daughter of Joseph Karl of Austria
- Joseph Karl Ludwig (* 1833, † 1905)
- Matthias Joseph (* 1904, † 1905), son of Joseph August of Austria
- Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (* 1846, † 1927)
After 1945 Hungary became a people 's democracy ruled by communists . The Habsburgs who were still alive left Hungary and fled to the west. Most of the Habsburgs who fled lived (and died) in Germany . Only after the turnaround and turning away from communism was it possible to bury family members (who died outside Hungary) of the Hungarian branch of the House of Habsburg in the Palatine Crypt. The remains of Joseph August von Austria († July 6, 1962 in Straubing ) and his wife Augusta Maria Luisa von Bayern (* 1875, † 1964) were transferred to the Palatine Crypt in 1992. (In 1992 a total of 9 deceased of the House of Habsburg were transferred here.) Today, a total of 24 Habsburgs rest in the crypt.
literature
- Brigitte Hamann : The Habsburgs. A biographical lexicon. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-492-03163-3 .
- Ildikó Hankó - István Kiszely: A nádori Kripta. Budapest 1990, ISBN 963-7805-54-0 (Hungarian)
- Budapest Lexicon. 2 volumes, Budapest 1993, ISBN 963-05-6409-2 (Hungarian)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elisabeth Karoline was only 23 days old.
- ↑ Alexander Leopold (* 1825, † 1837)
- ↑ Alexandra Pavlovna was of the Russian Orthodox faith . It was therefore decided to build a separate Russian Orthodox burial chapel in the village of Üröm (near Budapest) for her. Because of the fear of French troops during the Napoleonic War , the coffin (which was already buried in the unfinished chapel in 1802) was relocated and only brought back to Üröm in 1814. The burial chapel survived the two world wars unscathed. Shortly after the Second World War , however, the chapel was broken into, and the coffin was forcibly opened in search of valuables. The burial chapel was broken into a second time on April 26, 1981, but this time the devastation was so great that the coffin (with the desecrated remains of the Grand Duchess) had to be brought to the Palatine Crypt in the castle of Ofen . In 2003 the burial chapel was thoroughly renovated so that a new burial was possible in 2004.
- ↑ Hermine von Anhalt, the second wife of Archduke Joseph, was an Evangelical Reformed believer and was originally buried in the crypt of the Reformed Church on Calvinplatz in Pest . After the devastating flood of 1838, however, her coffin was transferred to the Palatine Crypt.
- ↑ Maria Dorothea was a Lutheran and was only allowed to be buried in the crypt with a special permit from the Roman Catholic Church.