Retti Palace

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Street facade of the Retti-Palais from the south

The so-called Retti-Palais is a representative late baroque building in the Central Franconian residence city of Ansbach . Originally designed as a private residence by the Lombard architect Leopoldo Retti , the building was completed in 1749.

history

In 1743, the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, presented his court architect with a building site in Jägergasse, today's Bischof-Meiser-Strasse, on which Retti subsequently built the city palace named after him, which was to "adorn" the street as the Margrave expressly stated.

The property with today's house number 9 was next to the house of a high official (No. 7) and the margravial hunting secretariat (today the State Building Department). The court joiner's workshop was on the property, and the rear buildings (adjacent to the courtyard garden) were preserved until 1825. In 1861 a new staircase in timber frame construction was built on the south facade. An older rear part of the building in the southeast of the main house, belonging to the former carpenter's workshop, was only demolished in 2005.

The construction

In terms of construction, the palace is a two-storey hipped roof building with a three-axis central projection and a dwarf house . It has rusticated pilaster strips , a plaster structure and stucco ornamentation on some walls and ceilings. The stairwell and a large hall on the first floor have been preserved in almost their original condition. The main usable area of ​​the building is 587.80 m², plus 154.80 m² of secondary usable area and 225.20 m² of traffic space such as stairs and corridors. A further 61.50 m² are allocated to the ancillary rooms under 1.5 m high. The house consists of the basement, the ground floor, the first floor and the first and second attic floors.

The residents

Retti himself no longer moved into his palace, which was completed in 1749, but instead sold the property of the city of Ansbach for use as an upper bailiff and thus the seat of the upper bailiff and secret minister, Christoph Ludwig Graf von Seckendorff-Aberdar . In 1757, the new bailiff (and son of the margrave), Friedrich Carl von Falkenhausen (1734–1796), who had acquired the property from the city in 1760, moved in. His marriages with the barons Caroline von Beust and, after her death in 1767, with Florentine von Beust, had eleven children who grew up in this house. After his death, the house was used in different ways through inheritance sharing procedures: While the widow had lifelong right of residence on the upper floor, the lower part was rented out. Contrary to the regulations of 1749 that the house should remain in municipal ownership and be used as an upper bailiwick, it was transferred to Friedrich Carl von Falkenhausen in 1760.

The chief forester Albrecht Freiherr von Schirnding , who married into the von Falkenhausen family, acquired the house from them in 1825. In 1849 von Schirnding handed the house over to his son Friedrich Karl August, the district forester of Stauf. In 1852 it was sold to the gendarme captain Freiherr von Waldenfels. For a long time, the ground floor was rented to aristocratic members of the garrison, for example to Lieutenant Baron von Eyb in 1886 or to Count Seinsheim in 1891 .

After the death of Baron von Waldenfels, the community of heirs sold the property in 1891 to the straw mosaic seller Wilhelm Wagenhöfer. In the historical address book of 1894 he is listed as an employee of the Friedrich Ebert company (straw mosaic and cardboard manufacturer), and in 1921 as the main cashier of the Ansbach equipment establishment. Garrison members, such as Second Lieutenant Baron Julius Ludwig Gustav von Eyb , Rittmeister and squadron chief Theodor Konitzky, and Lieutenant and Regimental Adjudant Freiherr Philipp von Seefried auf Buttenheim , who later became the commander of the 8th Cavalry Association of the Bavarian Army, were still living in the palace until around 1909 . 1935 was u. a. the later Wehrmacht commander of Kulmbach, Lieutenant Kurt Myrus, is listed as a resident on the first floor. During this time the house and outbuildings were inhabited by a total of twelve parties.

The address book from 1910 shows the practice of Adam Alexander Krampf on the ground floor of the main building, while the district judge Heinrich Kadner shared the first floor with his wife and widowed sister Rosa and the customs officer widow Sofie Schmitt. Lina Wagenhöfer, meanwhile also widowed, lived in the rear building next to the teacher's daughter Auguste Graf. The top floor was also inhabited by individuals during this period and the following. After the death of the Wagenhöfer widow, the property passed to the daughter Marie, who had married the general practitioner Adam Krampf. He had served as a medical officer in the First World War and practiced in the palace. After his death in 1951, his daughter, Elisabeth Krampf, took over the practice, which she ran until 1999. The property remained in the possession of the Wagenhöfer-Krampf heirs until 2004, before it was acquired by the city of Ansbach. Since then, the house has been waiting for a new usage concept and is currently empty. On the initiative of the art historian and curator Christian Schoen , the doors of the house opened for the first time in summer 2014 for a site-specific exhibition concept. As a result, a development association was founded that is committed to maintaining the house and other important buildings in Ansbach.

Future use

The property was sold to a private art collector from Crailsheim who wants to expand it into a museum. This means that the Retti-Palais can be made accessible to the public again.

In addition to the renovation of the house, an extension is to accommodate the technical infrastructure, barrier-free access to the first floor and a museum foyer. A museum depot is also planned to store the art objects.

The Retti Förderverein will take over the operation of the house. The city of Ansbach will advertise the new museum and support its operation financially for the first five years.

literature

Web links

Commons : Retti-Palais  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ City of Ansbach, press office (ed.): Retti-Palais becomes a living museum - sale to private art collectors under one roof . Press release from the city of Ansbach. Ansbach July 25, 2017.

Coordinates: 49 ° 18 ′ 4.8 ″  N , 10 ° 34 ′ 38.9 ″  E