Aschach Castle on the Danube
Aschach an der Donau Castle is located at the southern end of the municipality of Aschach an der Donau , in the Eferding district in Upper Austria's Hausruckviertel , about 25 km west of Linz .
history
When the Schaunbergs died out in 1559, the Stauf rule and the toll in Aschach fell to Wolfgang von Liechtenstein, but inheritance disputes dragged on until 1572 (1574). In 1570, Wolfgang von Lichtenstein acquired the Neuhof near Aschach from the Aschach toll leaseholder Hans von Miltenberg , since Stauf Castle had already "burst out" at that time, that is, burned down and without a well and thus uninhabitable. From now on the rule was called Stauff zu Aschach . In 1593 the rulership was sold to the Jörger , who began expanding Aschach Castle in 1606. In 1622 the rule came, again through sale, to the Harrach , who owned Schloss Aschach until 1959 (Alice Countess Harrach married Karl Baron Dreihann-Holenia in 1940). The next owner of Aschach Castle was Donaukraftwerk AG , which sold it to Upper Austria Goods Brokerage in 1966. In 1987 the Gerstner family acquired the castle, which had been vacant for many years and was in a desolate condition, and began its gradual, careful renovation.
Castle Park
Aschach Castle was originally surrounded by an extensive park, which was redesigned from 1825 by the Count Harrach's gardener Schanderer to an English park and was once one of the most remarkable English parks in Austria.
The park had two parts: the park around the castle itself, which was not open to the public and had a size of 14.05 hectares, and the Danube Park , which was open to the population with a size of 13.30 hectares. In both parts of the park there were numerous native and non-native trees such as spruce, fir, pine, cedar , softwood pines , oak, beech, birch, linden, ash, but also white poplar, elm, tulip trees and trumpet trees . The pheasant garden with a size of 33.50 hectares bordered the Danube Park . Hunts took place here every year, on the occasion of which high personalities such as Archduke Franz Salvator , Prince Luitpold of Bavaria , Prince Albert von Schaumburg-Lippe or Cardinal Prince Schwarzenberg visited Aschach Castle.
Only a part of the English park of Aschach Castle is preserved today, namely that which is located to the west of the castle and is privately owned by the Dreihann-Holenia family. Instead of the part of the park that extends towards the Danube, one can find the premises of the company Garant , formerly OÖ Warenvermittlung.
architecture
Aschach Castle consists of a three-story south wing, a two-story east wing (Fürstenstöckl) and ground-level north and west wings, which are of little importance in terms of art history. The four wings enclose an almost square inner courtyard, the current facade of the palace is essentially based on the renovation that took place around 1825. As early as 1593, the south wing, the original main building of the castle, was referred to as "three gades " high in the land register of the Aschach rulership . The southern facade of this wing facing the park has 15 axes and is kept very simple. The windows on the first floor, above which there are triangular gables , are lower than those of the second. In the middle there is a three-axis risalit with a triangular gable. The east and west sides of the south wing have four axes and are also crowned by triangular gables. On the courtyard side in the south wing there is a portal dated 1606 . On the courtyard side, the south wing also houses arcades with eleven and a half bays on all three floors; the arcades are supported by twelve mighty round granite columns and were only erected before 1650 after the castle was rebuilt in 1606, the occasion of which was probably the marriage of Karl Jörger zu Tollet to Anna Hofman zu Grünbühel.
The east wing, the Fürstenstöckl of Aschach Castle, was originally a ground floor outbuilding that was rebuilt in 1709/10 by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt . The client was Count Aloys Thomas Raimund von Harrach . After Hildebrandt's renovation, this wing was crowned by a tower in the middle, on the ground floor of which the main entrance to the castle was located. The aim of the expansion of this wing was to give the castle a magnificent view of the Danube. The above-mentioned tower was demolished a little more than a hundred years after its construction because it had become dilapidated. Today the facade of the east wing is kept extremely simple: It is twelve- axis, the attic emphasizes the three window axes, which are located approximately in the middle. On the south side the east wing is connected to the south wing by terraces , on the north side it is extended by a three-axle ground-level extension. This ground-level extension represents a counterweight to the three-storey south wing and shows, as Erwin Hainisch writes, "... in an excellent way the striving of late Romantic architecture for asymmetrical , but well-balanced arrangement of assemblies".
Castle chapel
The palace chapel is located at the northern end of the east wing. It is a barrel-vaulted , single-nave, three-bay room that extends over both floors and on the upper floor of which there are six windows - three on each side. Correspondingly, stitch caps cut into the vault . The three yokes are divided by belt arches resting on pilasters . The palace chapel housed a high altar built from 1712 with a magnificent column structure based on a design by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt ; The altar was donated by Prince Archbishop of Salzburg Count Franz Anton von Harrach . The main painting represented Christ on the cross, the top painting God the Father and the Holy Spirit. According to Erwin Hainisch, it was not possible to assign the main painting “due to the appearance of the painting, which has been greatly altered by the restoration”. The top painting was an “excellent work by Georg Schmidt from Krems (before 1721)” Statues of St. Francis and St. Anthony , on both sides of the top painting, angels kneeled on one volute each . On the “ cafeteria of rare beauty” that belonged to the altar was a cross, an “excellent baroque work” from the third quarter of the 17th century. The altar was sold for 200,000 schillings in October 1961 and is now in the Prandtau Church in St. Pölten .
The assassination
The trigger for the First World War was the assassination of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on June 28, 1914; The shooting attack was carried out by the high school student Gavrilo Princip . For the trip through Sarajevo Franz Graf Harrach had made his car, an open Count & Abbey , available. Count Harrach himself was present at the assassination attempt : to protect the heir to the throne with his body, he sat on the left in front of him, but the assassination attempt took place from the right. The letter that Count Harrach wrote to his wife a few days after the assassination “under the pressure of the most terrible human fantasy that can develop” reads as shocking as it is touching . "I held him by the back of the collar and said: 'Imperial sovereignty must suffer terribly.' He said, 'Oh no, it's nothing.' Then he mumbled on, being silent, whereupon blood rattles began, which ended in hemorrhage . He only died after about 10 minutes. ... It was all like a bad dream. Today I woke up and asked, 'Is it possible? Can it be true? ' When you have experienced that and are a friend and patriot , something is broken in there that you can never pick on ... What am I living for? Why did the great die when discord and hatred are sown on the blood-soaked field ? "
After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Karl I became heir to the throne , after the death of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1916 he became emperor . He tried in vain to negotiate peace with France , and the increasing dependence on Germany as an ally made his peace efforts increasingly difficult. On November 11, 1918, Emperor Karl signed a declaration of renunciation of government affairs. The KuK monarchy had finally ceased to exist.
Todays use
Most of the castle is open to the public; the annual Open Monument Day invites you to do so . The tours offered include the marble hall, redoubt halls, sissy and imperial suites, stone pine parlor, saloon and wine cellar. The spacious halls are used for exhibitions, theater performances, weddings and celebrations of all kinds.
literature
- Ludwig Commendas: Aschach, Eferding, Waizenkirchen and the surrounding area. A historical, topographical and landscape description. Linz 1905.
- Erwin Hainisch : Monuments of the fine arts, history and culture in the political district of Eferding. Linz 1933.
Web links
- Site of the Aschach Castle on the Danube
- Entry via Aschach (Danube) to Burgen-Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hainisch, memorials ... , p. 19
- ↑ From the handwritten letter from Count Franz Harrach to his wife of July 3, 1914
Coordinates: 48 ° 21 '43.4 " N , 14 ° 1' 11.5" E