Prinzenhaus (Plön)
The Prinzenhaus in Plön in Schleswig-Holstein is a former garden palace in the park of the Plön Castle . It is the only preserved pleasure palace in the state. It got its current name because it served the sons of the German Emperor Wilhelm II as a place of residence and school at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century . At that time it was enlarged with two extensions.
History of the Prince's House
The Plön pleasure palace
The planning of the future Prinzenhaus began with the expansion work on Plön Castle, which was started under Friedrich Karl von Schleswig-Holstein-Plön from 1730. Under the influence of the Duke, the Renaissance Plön Castle was transformed into a Baroque residence , the inside was rebuilt and a contemporary garden was added to the outside area.
The Plön Baroque Garden was laid out between 1730 and 1748 by the landscape architect Georg Tschierske to the west of the then still existing farm yard. Due to the topographical situation of the site, the garden could not be aligned with the Plön Castle, instead a pavilion was built from 1744, which served as the pleasure palace and the central building of the new garden. This pavilion has been preserved to this day and forms the central building of the Prinzenhaus. The outwardly quite simple garden house served as a pleasure palace and not a representative court, but as the private residence of the duke and his wife. For this purpose, it was fully equipped with living rooms, salons and bedrooms as well as valuable furnishings. It was inhabited at irregular intervals alongside the other residences of the ruling couple, such as the summer palace in Traventhal . With the death of Friedrich Karl in 1761, the Duchy of Plön fell as a fiefdom to the Danish royal family and with the death of Duchess Christiane Armgardis in 1779, the period of the Plön residence ended. The garden house was mostly empty and the small baroque park was increasingly overgrown due to lack of maintenance. From 1783 it even served as an orchard.
From 1782 the pavilion served as the residence of the family of the royal Danish hunter and chief forester Andreas Gottlieb von Rosen. It remained in the possession of his family until 1871. With the reign of the Danish King Christian VIII. Plön became a summer residence from 1840 and the park around the garden palace was redesigned in the style of an English landscape garden. With the outcome of the German-Danish War in 1864, the Danish rule in Schleswig-Holstein ended and with it the time of Plön as a residential city. The castle grounds passed into Prussian ownership and the Plön Castle was converted into a cadet institute . After 1871, the garden palace served the pastor as a residence.
Prince school and girls' house
From 1895 the garden palace got its present form. The German Emperor Wilhelm II designated Plön as the place of training for his sons and the pavilion in the garden of the cadet institute was expanded into a prince's house. In order to create space for the six princes, the castle was expanded almost three times on the long sides by an extension and the marble hall was converted into a classroom. A teaching farm was built on the Prinzeninsel and the so-called Prinzenbahnhof was built for the imperial family below the Plön Castle. Crown Prince Wilhelm and his brother Eitel Friedrich moved into the Prinzenhaus on April 18, 1896 ; the other brothers followed in the next few years.
The prince's house served the emperor's sons as a residence and school, it did not belong to the cadet institute in the castle. Although individual students of the institution were selected as classmates of the princes, closer contact with the cadets from there was not desired, the area around the prince's house remained closed to walkers for safety reasons. In 1910 the princes' schooling ended and the house stood empty until it was used as a hospital during the First World War .
With the establishment of the state boarding school at Schloss Plön in 1946, the Prinzenhaus received a new task. It now became the student residence; Up to 60 girls and their tutors were housed in the small house. The house kept this function until 1997. The Prinzenhaus was now empty, the windows were boarded up. With the planned closure of the boarding school and the sale of the castle grounds, a new usage concept had to be found.
The castle in the present
The state of Schleswig-Holstein could not find an investor for the Prinzenhaus, and so it was transferred to the German Foundation for Monument Protection in 1999 . Citizens of Plön founded an association that provided for the preservation of the house and possible public use in the future. In cooperation with the city of Plön, the district and the State Office for Monument Preservation , the renovation of the building began in 2000. Among other things, moisture damage had to be removed, the stucco replaced and the statics checked. The work was completed in 2003, the Prinzenhaus was handed over to the Prinzenhaus zu Plön eV association on May 16 of that year .
Today the prince's house plays a public role. A permanent exhibition deals with the history of the house, which also hosts concerts. The halls with their rococo furnishings can be visited as part of guided tours, and the Plön registry office also operates a wedding room.
The building
The Prinzenhaus is the only surviving pleasure palace in Schleswig-Holstein. It is not only one of the main works, but also one of the few Rococo buildings in the country. The main building of the Prinzenhaus was carried out from 1744 to 1751 by Johann Gottfried Rosenberg on behalf of Duke Friedrich Karl. The stuccoing of the interior was designed by Bartolomeo Bossi. The core building is a typical Maison de Plaisance , a pleasure house, as can often be found in Baroque gardens. Falkenlust Castle near Brühl is believed to be the model for the Plön garden house .
The building is made of brick and has not been plastered, the decorations of the portals and capitals are made of sandstone. The facade of the old castle facing the courtyard is seven-axis and is emphasized by a slightly protruding central structure framed with pilasters . The facade facing the garden takes up the shape of the courtyard front, but is only windowed through in five axes. The polygonal vestibule of the courtyard facade is followed by an oval garden hall, which is supplemented by two cabinets on the left and right . The floor plan of the ground floor is repeated on the upper floor, from where the gallery of the garden room is also accessible.
The current shape of the Prinzenhaus goes back to the renovations of the late 19th century. In order to create space to accommodate the imperial children, the area of the core building was more than doubled by two extensions from 1895 to 1896. The extensions, which are sometimes referred to as the north and south wings, emerge from the building as flat risalits with three additional window axes on either side and are clearly stylistically delimited. They are - adapted to the older component - built in a relatively simple neo-baroque brick architecture. A wooden veranda adjoins the southern narrow wall . In the course of the restoration of the castle, the interior of the core building was given back its old Rococo style. The rooms of the annexes are largely more sober and serve, among other things, a music school, administration and supply and disposal.
literature
- German Foundation for Monument Protection (Hg.in): Preserving cultural heritage. Funding projects of the German Foundation for Monument Protection. Vol. 3: Palaces, castles, parks . Monuments, Bonn 2004, ISBN 3-936942-44-7 , pp. 202-211.
- Dehio: Handbook of the German Art Monuments Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 978-3-422-03033-6
- J. Habich, D. Lafrenz, H. Schulze, L. Wilde: Castles and manor complexes in Schleswig-Holstein . L&H Verlag, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 978-3-928119-24-5
Web links
- Prince House of Plön
- Friends of the Plön Prinzenhaus e. V.
- Plön views with historical postcard motifs of the Prince's House
- More information and pictures at Monumente Online
Coordinates: 54 ° 9 ′ 14.8 " N , 10 ° 24 ′ 32.8" E