Alden Biesen Castle
The Alden Biesen Castle in Bilzener district Rijkhoven ( Limburg ) is a former Coming of the Teutonic Order . The moated castle near Tongeren north of Liège was the center of the Teutonic Order Biesen in what is now Belgium and the largest commander of the order in north-western Europe . From there, twelve subordinate land committees were administered in the Rhine-Maas area. Even today, Alden Biesen is still one of the largest castles between the Loire and the Rhine .
history
The beginnings
The story of Alden Biesen begins in 1220. To support the ideals of the crusade , Count Arnold III. von Loon and his sister Mathildis, Abbess of Munsterbilzen , gave the Teutonic Order a chapel and surrounding lands. This laid the foundation stone for the foundation of a commander in this area, because after the donation, the order built a hospital there, around which today's palace complex gradually developed. Hardly anything has been preserved from the buildings from this early period. The only exception are the excavated remains of a three-aisled chapel from the first half of the 13th century.
From 1317 at the latest, Biesen was its own ballot , which at that time already had a priority position in the Teutonic Order because it had an above-average amount of real estate in comparison to the other Teutonic Order branches in the region. However, around 1361 the order left the Coming to establish the new Nieuwen Biesen branch in safe Maastricht in 1362 . The old Ballei was called Alden Biesen from that year to differentiate it from the new establishment. Maastricht quickly became the preferred residence of the knights of the order, and it is possible that Alden Biesen developed into a purely summer residence for the commander . The old buildings were hardly used anymore and therefore gradually deteriorated.
New building
Under Landkomtur Winand von Breill , the construction of a moated castle in the form of a classic castle in the Maasland Renaissance style began in 1543 next to the chapel on the foundations of the old, dilapidated building . For this purpose, today's east wing was built first, followed by the construction of the north and south wings, before the west wing closed the square plan with a large hall for representation purposes. Its volute gable , built in 1566, was demonstrably the first of its kind in the Maasland. In the same year the staircase and bell tower in the north-east corner of the inner courtyard was completed and marked the completion of construction work on the main castle under Johann von Goer . Despite the defiant impression given by the form of the fort, it was very feudal. The appearance, which was based on late medieval forms, was intended to underline the sovereign rights of the order in this area.
From 1571 the castle followed east of the construction of a bailey , the 1616 under Landkomtur Amstenrade Edmond Huyn the establishment of the so-called hospital joined, a school for the youth of the area. It was also Amstenrade who initiated concrete plans to build a new chapel, because as early as 1561 Johann von Goer had received permission from Prince-Bishop Robert II von Berghes of Liège to tear down the old chapel and build a new one on the same site. However, it fell to Amstenrades successor Gottfried Huyn von Geleen to actually realize the new sacred building in the period from 1634 to 1638. An adjoining archway from 1635 and various farm buildings from the first half of the 17th century formed the so-called outer courtyard from around 1650.
Conversion to a baroque residence
The first remodeling of the old, well-fortified complex into a baroque castle goes back to the Landkomtur Hendrik van Wassenaar . Between 1690 and 1700 he not only had a baroque ornamental garden laid out, but also an orangery to the west of the chapel. In addition, around 1706 the interior rooms in the north-eastern area of the main castle were redesigned in order to meet the increased needs for living comfort. The so-called Cabinet of the Landkomtur in the east wing of the palace still testifies to the result of the redesign under the master builders du Chastillon and Lambert Engelen . In addition, the outer facades of the north and south wings received larger windows.
Wassenaar's successor Damian Hugo von Schönborn continued the renovation work of his predecessor by redesigning the west wing for residential purposes in 1715 and 1716. During his term of office, the hospital was rededicated as a hostel for craftsmen, traders and visitors, as well as the extensive renovation of the outer bailey.
Landkomtur Ferdinand Damian von Sickingen commissioned the last renovation measures in the Baroque style when he had a library set up on the ground floor of the northeastern castle tower.
Classicism and Napoleonic Period
Caspar Anton von der Heyden, known as Belderbusch , had the east wing of the outer bailey torn down between 1769 and 1775, in order to then erect two classicist buildings in the eastern extension of the remaining north and south buildings, which served as a tithe barn and riding school. Together with the redesign of the gate in the east wing of the main building, he gave Alden Biesen Castle its current appearance.
The site underwent one last major change in 1785/86, when a large English landscape park was created by the garden architect Ghislain-Joseph Henry on behalf of the Landkomtur Franz von Reischach .
For a long time, however, the then commander could no longer enjoy the lush greenery. After the French occupied the area in the coalition wars , Alden Biesen was confiscated by the French state in 1794 and auctioned at the highest bidder in Maastricht in 1797. The buyer was Guilleaume Claes from Hasselt . The buildings later fell into disrepair, while the precious interior was sold.
19th century and current use
In 1841 Ulysse Claes came into possession of the castle and bequeathed it to his daughter Valérie. In 1880 the facility was acquired by François du Vivier and remained in the possession of this family until 1971. On March 8 of the same year a fire destroyed large parts of the buildings. Little of the remaining interior could be saved from the fire; including some portraits of Landkomturen Alden Biesen. The Belgian state bought the ruins and had the entire palace complex rebuilt in the 18th century over the next 20 years. The provisional end of this restoration work was the restoration of the French garden based on the model from 1700 in 1991. The restoration of the landscape garden based on Henry's original design is also planned.
Today Alden Biesen houses, among other things, a cultural center of the Flemish Community and a museum with a permanent exhibition on the history of the Teutonic Order and the commander Alden Biesen. Only in 2003 some rooms in the moated castle were restored according to old templates.
description
The palace complex is an ensemble of buildings that are grouped around three courtyards. Together with the castle park and other associated possessions, it covers an area of around 65 hectares.
Main castle
The outer
The heart of Alden Biesen is a two-storey four-wing complex with a vaulted cellar, which is surrounded by moats and encloses an inner courtyard. The brick building has round corner towers with kinked, polygonal helmets and a four-story bell tower on the courtyard side, which also serves as a stair tower and is also called a clock tower because of the clock that was installed at the time of the Provincial Commander Johann von Goer . The dimensions of the castle floor plan are about 36.3 by 41.5 meters. The east wing with cross-frame windows is 8.5 meters wide, while the somewhat younger west wing is ten meters wide. The other two wings in the north and south are only seven meters wide. In addition to brick as the material for the walls, gray Namur limestone and marl were used for columns , window, door and gate frames . The gate passage in the east wing of the castle can be reached via a stone arch bridge, which today replaces a former drawbridge . On the outer facade it is crowned by a frontispiece , on the side facing the inner courtyard the top floor shows a small Gothic stepped gable at the level of the gate .
The very simply designed entrance portal of the main castle on the inner courtyard side of the west wing, to which three simple steps lead up, shows the coat of arms of Damian Hugo von Schönborn above the lintel .
inside rooms
The east wing houses the former reception rooms of the land commander, some of which still have stucco ceilings in the Rococo style . The former library, the design of which dates back to 1745, joins them in the northeast corner tower. It contains numerous portrait paintings of family members of the von Sickingen family as well as ceiling paintings by Walthère Damerys. From there, you can enter Ferdinand Damians von Sickingen's salon in the east wing of the palace, whose stucco ceilings were designed by Giuseppe Moretti and Carlo Spinedi in the Liège Rococo style. In the middle of the wing there is also a cabinet , the unusual wall cladding of which consists mostly of deer parchment .
Outer bailey
To the east of the main castle lies the rectangular outer bailey area , which is surrounded on three sides by buildings and on its fourth side by a low wall with an attached grille from 1745. They thus delimit a courtyard of honor , to which - coming from the eastern part of the palace park - a long, straight avenue of lime trees leads. On the north side of the courtyard of honor there is an elongated brick farm building, the gate passage of which connects to the outer courtyard in the north of the palace complex and which has a tail gable at the western end with the year 1574. Opposite it is a very similarly designed building on the south side of the main courtyard. To the east, these two buildings are joined by two classicist buildings.
Outer courtyard
Around the outer courtyard on the north side of the complex, in addition to some farm buildings and the former tenant apartment, there is a gate , a chapel with interior fittings in the Baroque style and a ground-level arcade with Tuscan columns to the south of the chapel . It was originally intended to serve as a hospice , but that plan was never put into practice. The year 1635 heralds its completion.
The single-nave chapel has a suggested transept. Its six cross vaults are supported on the outside by buttresses in the Gothic style. Inside is the tomb of the Kurland bishop Edmund von Werth . The chapel, consecrated on September 12, 1638, has served as Rijkhoven's parish church since 1900 .
Garden and park
To the west of the chapel and the main castle is a baroque ornamental garden based on French models, with an orangery on the north side. For example, the Alden Pintuck Rose is grown in the garden today. The palace complex is surrounded by an English landscape park in the south and west. In it there is a historicizing, small temple of Minerva .
literature
- Guido von Büren: On the building and art history of the Teutonic Order-Kommende Siersdorf in the 16th century . In: Conrad Doose (Hrsg.): Die Deutschordens-Kommende Siersdorf. A documentation on their history and building history . 2nd Edition. Fischer, Jülich 2006, ISBN 3-87227-072-9 , pp. 34-35.
- Johan Fleerackers (Ed.): Alden Biesen. Eight centuries of a Teutonic Order land commander in the Rhine-Meuse area (= sources and studies on the history of the Teutonic Order. Volume 42). NG Elwert, Marburg 1988, ISBN 3-7708-0879-7 .
- Luc Francis Genicot: Le grand livre des châteaux de Belgique. Volume 1: Châteaux forts et châteaux fermes . Vokaer, Brussels 1975, pp. 27-33.
Web links
- Alden Biesen's website
- Aerial photographs of the palace complex ( Memento from December 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- 360 ° panorama in Quicktime format ( Memento from 23 August 2011 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ G. v. Büren: On the construction and art history of the Teutonic Order-Kommende Siersdorf in the 16th century , p. 34.
- ↑ LF Genicot: Le grand livre des châteaux de Belgique , p. 27.
- ↑ G. v. Büren: On the construction and art history of the Teutonic Order-Kommende Siersdorf in the 16th century , p. 35.
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 30.1 ″ N , 5 ° 31 ′ 14.1 ″ E