Alexandersbad Palace

Front view of Alexandersbad Palace 2018

location

The so-called Schloss Alexandersbad forms the historical center of the health resort Bad Alexandersbad in the Fichtel Mountains .

history

Alexandersbad Palace around 1850

The source Monopteros and the bathhouse in Alexandersbad around 1850

Actually, the building known as Alexandersbad Palace is not a real palace at all, because it was not built as a residence or residence of a noble potentate, but as a bathhouse, as it were as a hotel to accommodate the spa guests. The healing spring was discovered by chance in the valley south of the village of Sichersreuth in 1734. After the cure of the farmer Brodmerkel , who was seriously ill with gout , had got around in Sichersreuth by enjoying the Sauerbrunnen, the former Wunsiedler Kastenamtmann Schwarz had a ditch dug around the spring. “In order to keep the wild water from rushing in, dig the opening 5 shoes (= 1.46 m) deep and 6 shoes (= 1.75 m) wide, fasten it with boards and a pillar and close it with slats on the outside. In the following year, a large hollowed-out fir tree was set into the depth of the well carved through the rocks and a wooden railing with three entrances was erected. “(Sommerer p. 14 f.) Under the governor Leo Bernhard von Lindenfels , the construction of a wooden house followed in 1741 as an apartment for the well overseer. After Margrave Friedrich had acquired the land on which the spring originated from the community of Sichersreuth in 1751, he privileged the owner of the Dünkelhammer hammer estate , Matthäus Purucker, in 1753 to build a bathhouse in which 10 spa guests could find accommodation, albeit modest. The well master Strinz, who has been employed since 1760, finally began shipping the Sichersreuther well water; In 1774 alone - the year before his retirement - Strinz had brought 1,200 bottles of the precious water to the market of 8 kreuzers each. In a memorandum from 1774, the Wunsiedler doctor Dr. Erdmann Friedrich Martius points out that full baths in the water of the mineral spring would support the internal use of the same. The change from a mere mineral spring to a mineral bath began.

Margrave Alexander zu Brandenburg-Ansbach, who in 1769 took over the principality of Bayreuth , which was close to bankruptcy , tried with all means to reduce the state debt. He recognized what an important role a functioning bathing establishment in Alexandersbad could play in the national economy. That is why he began in 1780 with the expansion of the Sichersreuther Sauerbrunnen to the Alexander bath. At first he was concerned with the source itself. The old version was lifted out and the well shaft was given a stone version. Two bathing pavilions were built on both sides of the spring according to plans by Bayreuth's court building inspector Johann Gottlieb Riedel . On August 12, 1781, the newly erected spring buildings could be handed over to their destination in the presence of the prince. In 1782 the foundation stone was laid for the building known today as Alexandersbad Palace, which was intended as accommodation for bathers. It was also built according to plans and under the direction of Johann Gottlieb Riedel and contained 27 rooms and cabinets as well as - in the central projectile - a large hall. Finally, Margrave Alexander had various stables and coach houses, avenues, grounds and walking paths laid out in order to offer the spa guests all possible amenities. He himself also enjoyed spending time in Alexandersbad with his mistress Lady Craven. In total, he had spent almost 40,000 guilders on the expansion of the health resort.

In 1833 the facilities in Alexandersbad are described as follows: " The beautiful, massive, castle-like main building, 200 Schuh (= 58.4 m) long and 40 Schuh (= 11.7 m) wide, lined with bricks because of the dryness, contains a high, tasteful building decorated hall with an orchestra and two adjoining rooms, in one of which there is a billiard table and a grand piano, and also 43 smaller rooms.The large free space above the castle, on which two granite pyramids pour delicious water into stone basins, is through a second House with 11 more rooms, then by stables and wagons, enclosed further up by trees. The ridge running transversely at some distance and a wide avenue leading up to it, which ends with a slender tree that is visible to the eye on the height, provide a very good one Pleasant view, tall, shady rows of linden trees, one with a variety of deciduous bushes and pretty larch trees Park on one side, a small forest with a hermit's house, the ice cellar, in its cool darkness, on the other, guarantee a very pleasant stay and entertaining walks. A four-fold dense tree corridor leads in front of a small building, also furnished for bathers, the old fountain house, in the upper floor of which there is often dancing on Sundays, down to the healing spring. This is located in a pleasant Wiesenthale, in the middle of a large flat square on the Zwenderbach. Otherwise it enclosed a bricked-in recess surrounded by a tasteful stone railing, into which two stone stairs led down; In the middle of the bridged floor were two circular granite tanks, one of which was used to enclose the spring and the other to contain the drain. Several benches offered the drinkers pleasant resting places. Of all this comfortable and beautiful arrangement one can now see nothing more than the significantly raised cylinder that holds the spring, which has 4 shoes (= 1.2 m) in diameter and over 8 shoes (= 2.3 m) deep and now, like other baths, is covered by a dome resting on eight granite columns. Two tasteful buildings on either side of the square contain the bathing rooms. "(Sommerer pp. 7–9)

Building description

The Alexandersbad Palace is a simple but stately complex in the style of early classicism . A slightly protruding two-and-a-half-storey central projection with four axes is followed by two-storey wings with seven window axes each to the south and north. The floors are separated by a continuous belt. The main viewing side is directed down the valley to the healing spring. Here is the following inscription:

A. 1783. Sanitati publicae. Aedes hasce. Suo aere exstrui jussit ALEXANDER MBDPBNPPAOR MDCCLXXXIII. Exstructas aedes miraris, candide lector Quas sistit nitidas haec solitudo tibi; Desine mirari. Princeps has condidit Almus. Qui monimenta sui nobiliora dedit.

(Alexander Margrave of Brandenburg, Duke in Prussia, Burgrave of Nuremberg etc. in 1783 ordered this building to be erected at his own expense for the benefit of general health care). You look at the proud building in amazement, admiring reader Das in the silence of the valley rises brilliantly before you; hold back your astonishment, a sublime prince was the founder, who created much more noble in memory of himself.)

Alexandersbad Palace, west side
Inscription plaque on the central projection of the east facade
Avenue from the mineral spring to the castle
The Monopteros over the source
The Queen Luise Monument
Classicist memorial stone

literature

Bernhard Hermann Röttger : The art monuments of Upper Franconia, Volume I: District of Wunsiedel and urban district of Marktredwitz . Munich 1954, pp. 51-54.
August Sieghardt: The Margrave Castle Alexandersbad In: The seven star . Association magazine of the Fichtelgebirgsverein e. V., Volume 10, No. 5, May 1936, pp. 69-71.
Andreas Sommerer: The Alexandersbad, the Luisenburg and the surrounding area, especially the most interesting of the Fichtelgebirge . Wunsiedel 1833.
Walter von Stokar : The history of the Alexander bath . 3. Edition. Alexandersbad 1963.