Altenhausen Castle
The Castle Altenhausen is a castle in Altenhausen in Saxony-Anhalt .
location
The castle is located in the northern part of the village. A palace park extends to the north and west. The castle itself consists of a round core castle with a residential building in the style of the Renaissance , to which a high neo-Gothic palace with built keep connecting. To the west of the main castle is a farm yard with buildings from the late Gothic , Baroque and historicism periods . The buildings stand on the medieval curtain wall .
history
.jpg)
Today's castle emerged from a Niederungsburg , which was built in the 11th or 12th century and which in turn may have been based on previous buildings. The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1303. By the middle of the 13th century, the family of the Counts of Altenhausen originally residing in the castle had died out. Both the dukes of Braunschweig and the archbishops of Magdeburg tried to take possession of the castle complex. Initially, the Braunschweiger were able to prevail.
In 1351 the castle was conquered and completely destroyed by Magdeburg troops in the course of a knighthood feud between the city of Magdeburg and the archdiocese nobility. The castle was rebuilt by the Brunswick side. After the reconstruction and the death of the Duke of Braunschweig, the Archbishop of Magdeburg demanded the surrender of the castle complex in 1368, but refused. In 1370 there was a violent conflict, as a result of which the Archbishop of Magdeburg Albrecht von Sternberg took possession of the castle. However, he then pledged Altenhausen Castle for 12,000 silver marks to a Brunswick knight family. From here, however, the knights undertook raids against the ore monastery. As early as 1371 they had to return the castle as compensation. Archbishop Peter Jelito ceded the complex to Emperor Charles IV in 1377 . 13 years later it fell again to the archbishop. In a short change, various lendings and pledges were made to the Braunschweig or Magdeburg nobility.
From 1485 the castle belonged to the von der Schulenburg family . The oldest parts of the building still preserved today date from the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Thirty Years War , the facility was badly damaged by a major fire in 1625. Looting and the plague led to extensive destruction and depopulation of Altenhausen. The destroyed tracts were rebuilt by Alexander von der Schulenburg (1616–1681) and his son of the same name, Lieutenant General Baron Alexander von der Schulenburg , at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. The roof of the renaissance castle was probably renewed in simpler forms, as were the buildings on the farm yard. In the castle there is a knight's hall and stuccoed salons.
After another fire at the beginning of the 19th century, the facility was renovated in 1834. The castle got its present appearance from a castle-like extension at the end of the 19th century, which was completed in 1901. The renovation was carried out in the style of historicism using red sandstone by the architect Ferdinand Schorbach from Hanover . After the Second World War , the von Schulenburg family was expropriated by land reform in the Soviet occupation zone in 1945 .
The palace complex now serves as a youth hostel and hotel. Riding holidays and other leisure activities are offered. In addition to jousting and a magic school, the number of evening events is growing.
architecture
The main access to the complex is through the Alexandertor , located in the south of the palace area , through which you can get from the village to the palace area. It is named after Alexander von der Schulenburg (1616–1681) and, according to the date on the gate, was built in 1671 during the reconstruction after the Thirty Years' War. The gate is made of brick and plastered. The archway is diamond-cut . Above the gate there is an inscription panel, above it the Schulenburg coat of arms and on both sides of the panel two other coats of arms (Bismarck's on the right).
North of the gate Alexander joins the atrium, one at the northern end by the as Andreastor designated Gatehouse reaches the farmyard. At the Andreastor the folds of an originally existing drawbridge can still be seen. In addition to the actual passage, there is also a slip gate . There is an old plaque with a double coat of arms and an inscription above the gate.
The round shape of the inner castle has been preserved, a narrow footbridge leads over the moat to the church.
literature
- Folkhard Cremer, in Dehio, Handbook of German Art Monuments , Saxony-Anhalt I, Magdeburg District , Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich / Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-422-03069-7 , page 9 ff.
- Corinna Köhlert, Jürgen Blume: Of palaces and fortresses in Saxony-Anhalt. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2000, ISBN 3-89812-058-9 , p. 157 f.
- Material on Altenhausen Castle in the Duncker Collection of the Central and State Library Berlin (PDF; 188 kB)
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 15 '46 " N , 11 ° 15' 14.4" E