Agathenburg Castle
The Agathe castle in Agathenburg at Stade in northern Lower Saxony has been the estate of Count Hans Christoph von Königsmarck . The renaissance castle now serves as a cultural center.
historical overview
The story of Agathenburg Castle
Hans Christoph von Königsmarck was a successful military leader in the Thirty Years War . In the wake of his successes , he was awarded the dignity of count by the Swedish Queen , and he was appointed Governor General of the united duchies of Bremen-Verden . Stade became their administrative seat , so von Königsmarck built a small country palace in the neighboring village of Lieth . The Königsmarcksche Landschloss was named after the wife Agathe von Leesten Agathenburg , and the name of the castle was transferred to Lieth. Those who ignored the new village name were allegedly punished with the riding whip, and those who used it correctly are said to have been rewarded with a thaler.
Construction work on the castle was completed in 1655, but the count was rarely able to live in the building. From 1656 to 1660, Königsmarck was imprisoned by Brandenburg-Prussia , three years later, in 1663, he died of blood poisoning . The castle was his wife's main residence, and his granddaughter Aurora von Königsmarck, born in 1662, spent most of her childhood here. After Agathes death in 1671, the castle remained in the possession of the von Königsmarck family until 1694 . The first heir was the youngest son of the builder, Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck . His wife, Catharina Charlotta de la Gardie , used the palace after his death, as did her mother-in-law Agathe, as a widow's residence. Her husband's nephew, Philipp Christoph von Königsmarck , was the actual heir to the castle, but he was accused of a relationship with Sophie Dorothea von Braunschweig-Lüneburg and murdered in 1694. After Catharina's death in 1697, the question of inheritance regarding the possession of Agathenburg Castle remained unresolved for decades. In 1740 the Electorate of Hanover acquired the castle and from 1753 - the Swedish rule was over - made it available to the respective bailiff as the seat for the administration of Stade.
In 1866, the Kingdom of Hanover became part of the Prussian Province of Hanover and the castle and its lands were auctioned off. In 1881 the farmer Hans Wilkens bought the building after his farm had been sacrificed for the construction of the Hamburg-Cuxhaven railway. The castle, which was now the center of an estate , remained in the family for almost a hundred years. A fire broke out on April 26, 1921 and severely damaged the castle, only the heavy outer walls and the stair tower withstood the fire. The interiors burned out. In the following years the damage was repaired and the building was largely restored. Sophie zum Felde, the last owner of the castle, bequeathed the building to the Stader Heimat- und Geschichtsverein.
Current usage
In 1985 the district of Stade took over the property. The restoration in the period from 1990 to 1993 was significantly funded by the Lower Saxony Foundation. From 1991 to 2004, Agathenburg Castle was looked after exclusively by the Stade district. The cultural foundation was established in 1992 by the district of Stade and was responsible for the cultural program in the castle. It is now the bearer of the entire palace complex.
At its meeting in June 2004, the district council of the Stade district decided to make Agathenburg Palace independent. Since then, all lock-related tasks have been handled directly from here. This independent action is made possible largely by the district of Stade, which provides the funds previously made available in the budget of the district for the castle as a grant from the cultural foundation for its own budget. Today the castle is used as a cultural center. The cultural foundation offers an extraordinary program with exhibitions of contemporary art, concerts from classical to jazz, readings and writing workshops. There is a café and a museum shop. The premises of the castle and the horse stable can be rented for conferences and parties.
Rear view of
the castle
The cottage garden
behind the castle
Pergola in the
cottage garden
Outbuildings
and courtyard
The palace area
The castle building
The castle is built in economical forms of the Nordic Renaissance . The three-storey, rectangular building is made entirely of brick , the courtyard side is emphasized in the middle by a polygonal stair tower and the facades are decorated with blind arcades . The north side once had another tower extension serving as an abortion bay, but this was not restored after the fire. The most striking ornament of the building is the portal made of sandstone . The asymmetrical arrangement of the windows corresponds to the division of the interior, the symmetry of the approaching baroque was not yet used in the facades of Agathenburg. Due to the fire in 1921, the castle's furnishings are not completely original. The top of the tower was only raised after the fire, originally the tower only extended up to the third floor and had a balcony-like viewing platform here. The vaulted cellar supported by heavy pillars, the tiled stoves from the 18th century and the manorial hall on the first floor are noteworthy. The preserved cellar vault from the 17th century will be extensively renovated from 2010 onwards, and the addition of an elevator will make the entire castle accessible for the first time.
The courtyard side was originally surrounded by a gatehouse , a stables and servants' apartments, which formed a kind of court of honor . However, these buildings have been demolished over time. The large horse stable, which is now to the left of the castle, was only moved to this location in 1881 as part of the renovation work on the estate.
The castle park
The castle stands above a steep Geesthang , and from the terrace on the north side you have a wide view over the Elbmarsch. It once had a large park. Below the complex was a four-part baroque garden surrounded by moats . This was largely destroyed in the course of the railway construction and the remains were no longer maintained. On the slope below the east facade there was a terraced garden laid out in several stages.
In front of the castle there is a cottage garden surrounded by hedges, which today is reminiscent of the former baroque ground floor. The more distant areas of the palace park were laid out in a landscaped garden, including the relics of the palace cemetery. The landscape park almost completely dispenses with the usual lines of sight and lawns and with its dense vegetation gives an enchanted impression.
The sculpture park
Sculptures by contemporary artists are set up throughout the park . Since 1991, the Kreissparkasse Stade has been pursuing the concept of building a sculpture collection in the park of Agathenburg Palace. First, a sculpture was selected from the annual solo and group exhibitions with renowned artists for permanent installation in the palace gardens.
The background to all exhibitions and the remaining sculptures is to offer contemporary art in rural areas a forum and to introduce a broad audience to the diverse and rich worlds of experience that art can open up through the presentation in a publicly accessible park. The aim is to reach people who have not yet come to art. This goal is aimed at both residents and visitors to the district of Stade and the Lower Elbe region.
The conceptual approach of the sculpture park consistently meets the challenge of expanding the traditional limits of sculpture in an experimental project and opening up new areas of activity for young artists.
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Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 42.1 ″ N , 9 ° 32 ′ 5.2 ″ E