Augustenburg Castle (Denmark)
The August Castle ( Danish Augustenborg Slot ) in August castle on the island of Als in Denmark was eponymous for the line Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-August Castle , a family branch of the House of Oldenburg . The ducal family lived in the castle until 1848, when they had to leave it as a result of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising . The building was then misused and served, among other things, as a barracks. From 1932 to 2015 the palace area housed a psychiatric clinic.
The construction of 1770 goes back to an older castle from the 17th century. It is the largest and most uniform baroque complex in southern Denmark. Apart from Gottorf Castle in today's Schleswig-Holstein, it is the largest surviving residential building in the former Duchy of Schleswig .
History of the castle
prehistory
The history of Augustenburg Castle begins with the legacy of Duke Johann of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg . When he died in 1622, he left each of his five sons entitled to inheritance a small titular duchy . His son Alexander received the area around Sønderborg . After the death of Duke Alexander in 1627, the small Duodec principality of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, separated from the state government, was no longer divisible. Of the duke's six sons, five only inherited the ducal title, but had to purchase goods outside of the sub-duchy to provide for them. After the various Sonderburger lines had initially all designated themselves as the Dukes of Sønderborg or as the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein , the individual branches of the family were officially named after the place of residence until the 18th century.
Alexander's third eldest son Ernst Günther bought some estates and farms on the islands of Ærø and Alsen . On Alsen he had some farms in the village of Stavensböl demolished and instead built a noble estate , the center of which was a castle built between 1661 and 1663.
The first castle of the Augustenburg dukes
The first castle in Augustenburg was a spacious, half-timbered building, which was named Augustenburg after the duke's wife, Auguste von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg . This building was the predecessor of today's palace complex.
The castle became the ancestral seat of the Augustenburg family branch, which acquired further property in the second half of the 17th century and was able to expand its goods complex. After the bankruptcy of a related branch line, the Augustenburg family, who had close ties to the Danish crown, also received the old ancestral seat of Sønderborg Castle as the official seat of the Danish royal family in 1675 . The family's holdings continued to expand in the 18th century, and Gravenstein Castle was acquired on the Sundewitt peninsula as a summer residence. Augustenburg Castle, however, remained the main residence of the ducal family, which was also regularly visited by members of the Danish royal family. Duke Christian August I held an extensive court with numerous celebrations and banquets. It was under him that plans were drawn up for the first time around 1733 to replace the castle with a new building, for which the financial means were initially lacking.
The income from the numerous estates was needed for an elaborate, befitting court, and the constant expenses led to increasing indebtedness of the ducal house in the course of the 18th century. Under Duke Friedrich Christian I , however, after more than ten years of negotiations, a contract was concluded with the Danish crown in 1764, which restructured the ducal budget in one fell swoop: As a direct descendant of a royal Danish branch - the progenitor Duke Johann von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg was a son of the Danish King Christian III. - the Augustenburg had full inheritance rights in Schleswig and Holstein. The Duchy of Plön threatened to die out in the male line around 1760, and the Augustenburg line could have made inheritance claims in this case. Duke Friedrich Christian offered the Danish king, who was also Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in personal union, to waive all of his inheritance rights in Schleswig and Holstein, which also affected the titular duchy of Glücksburg . Since the completion of the entire state was one of the greatest political goals of the Danish Empire in the 18th century, King Frederick V agreed to it. The Duke of Augustenburg received a very generous settlement, several large royal goods, church patronage rights and tax exemption, and Sønderborg Castle passed into his possession. In addition, a wedding was arranged with Charlotte Amelie von Plön, the daughter of Duke Friedrich Karl of Plön , who brought a rich dowry into the marriage.
The new castle of the Augustenburg dukes
The income from the waiver contract not only paid off the duke's high debts, but also made it possible to demolish the outdated Augustenburg Palace and build a new one. The new palace was planned and built between 1770 and 1776 as a spacious family seat in the late Baroque style. Augustenburg meanwhile developed into a small residential town. The town's economy was almost entirely dependent on the ducal house, which, in keeping with the era, was largely a public court. The daily routine was based on the French court ceremony of absolutism ; Celebrations were staged with lavish splendor, and the city's residents were invited as spectators to the public banquets. After Duke Friedrich Christian II married the Danish Princess Louise Auguste in 1786 , the Augustenburg family belonged to the royal family and thus to the highest nobility in the kingdom, even if they were not independent rulers, but basically only large landowners. Your family castle on Alsen was a meeting place for high nobility, politics and culture. Duke Friedrich Christian was in close contact with Friedrich Schiller , and Hans Christian Andersen was later one of the frequent guests at Augustenburg .
In the 19th century, however, the dukes of Augustenburg no longer wanted to be satisfied with their role as titular princes. In 1809, Duke Christian August successfully applied for the Swedish throne, but died before the coronation. The throne was then offered to his older brother Friedrich Christian II. This was then set in Augustenburg by a Danish flotilla , because the Danish King Friedrich VI. was interested in rule over Sweden and tried to keep his competitor out of the election. The Swedish crown ultimately went to Charles XIV Johann , who came from France .
The conflicts with the Danish royal family intensified from 1846 after Duke Christian August II had registered future inheritance claims to the Danish throne with King Christian VIII due to an unclear legal situation , which referred to Louise Auguste and were therefore not affected by the former waiver contract . During this time, the Schleswig-Holstein question led to increasing unrest in the duchies. The conflict over whether Schleswig was part of the Danish State or the German Confederation erupted in the revolutionary year of 1848 in the Schleswig-Holstein War . After Duke Christian August II had openly sided with the insurgents, hoping to be made sovereign Duke over Schleswig and Holstein by them, the bond with Denmark was finally torn. As a result of the events, the family had to leave their ancestral castle on Alsen.
The castle after the ducal family moved out
The last ducal resident, Christian August II., Left the Augustenburg Palace together with his court on March 26, 1848. He and his brother Friedrich Emil August were regarded by the Danish crown as traitors and after the end of the so-called uprising in 1851 also officially of the country referenced. The castle was confiscated by the Danish army and served as a military hospital from 1848 to 1850 and then as a barracks until 1864 .
In 1852 there was a settlement between Christian August II and the Danish kingdom, in which the unclear inheritance law of the Augustenburg family in Denmark was regulated. As in the previous century, the official waiver of inheritance law was offset by a severance payment. In addition to the compensation, the ducal family received back the movable property from the Schleswig property. However, in 1853 she had a large part of the inventory of the castles Gravenstein and Augustenburg auctioned and took only a few pieces of furniture, jewelry and the collection of paintings with her to the Primkenau estate in Silesia, which was acquired from the settlement sum . After the German-Danish War of 1864, the Danish crown had to give up the Duchy of Schleswig, but the Augustenburgs' hopes for a return were not fulfilled: in 1865 the family was able to regain some properties in and around Alsen, but Otto von Bismarck made a permanent one Return to Augustenburg prevented because the Prussian Prime Minister feared Duke Friedrich's interference in his plan to integrate Schleswig-Holstein into the Prussian state.
After the German War of 1866 , the duchies became part of Prussia in 1867 as the province of Schleswig-Holstein . Although the ducal family got back both the Augustenburger and the Sonderburger palace in 1884, they no longer lived in either building; she only used Gravenstein Castle. The Augustenburg Palace was a Prussian barracks until 1876, after which it housed a teachers' seminar .
After Northern Schleswig was incorporated into the Danish state in 1920, Duke Ernst Günther negotiated a takeover contract for the Augustenburg possessions, and in 1921 the castle was sold to the Danish state. In 1932 a mental hospital was set up in the complex, which existed as a psychiatric facility until 2015. The castle survived the First and Second World Wars without damage.
The castle in the present
Augustenburg Castle housed a psychiatric clinic until 2015. The facility with the patient rooms and the administration were located in the main building of the palace complex and in some of the earlier outbuildings. The hospital had departments in general psychiatry , child and adolescent psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry .
Since May 2, 2016, the agricultural authority , which relocated state jobs from the Copenhagen region to the rural areas of Copenhagen to Augustenborg Castle , has been using the historic buildings, which have been vacant since 2015. 345 jobs were relocated to Augustenburg.
The interiors of the castle are usually not accessible to visitors. Exceptions were the Duke's garden room and study, which are occasionally opened during viewing appointments. The castle chapel is open to visitors on weekdays during the summer months. In the northern wing of the gatehouse there is a small exhibition devoted to the castle and its history. The courtyard area and the castle park are freely accessible at all times, the castle park is a regular venue for various music events. In addition to classical music, pop and rock concerts are also presented; for example, Eric Clapton performed there in the summer of 2006 and Mark Knopfler in the summer of 2008 .
Buildings
The castle building
Little is known about the previous building of today's castle. The four-wing building described as a spacious half-timbered house was demolished for the new residence. The new building was from 1770 to 1776 on behalf of Duke Friedrich Christian I by Johann Gottfried Rosenberg built. It was the last and largest building by the architect, who also designed the Marstall, the Reithaus and the Prinzenhaus at Plön Castle as well as the Manor in Windeby, the Cavaliers Houses in Rundhof and the now demolished Marstall ("Krummhaus") in Ludwigsburg .
Augustenburg Castle was built as a large, three-wing complex. The main wing is the transom-like corps de logis facing west and opening onto the courtyard with fifteen and the garden with nineteen window axes. Both facades are accentuated by a flat projecting central projectile with a triangular gable and trophy reliefs with the owner's initials. On the courtyard side, the three-storey building is extended by a northern and a southern five-axis wing structure in the shape of a horseshoe. The side wings are extended by a further seven axes by two-storey extensions. The castle chapel is located in the north of these wings. All window axes are separated from one another by wide pilaster strips that structure the three-story main building in line with the colossal order .
The castle surrounds a paved courtyard in a typical baroque manner . Opposite the building are three symmetrical outbuildings, which frame a former commercial area. All buildings together form a large rectangular, almost closed courtyard.
inside rooms
In contrast to the austere appearance of the facades, the interior of the palace was still in the Rococo style . The first floor with the princely apartment was on the first floor, the basement was reserved for the official rooms. The design of the rooms was done by the Italian Michelangelo Taddei, who also created the stucco work in the mansions of Gelting and Lundsgaard . The most important room in the palace is the garden room, decorated with fine rocailles stucco, which served as a centrally located salon on the ground floor of the Corps de Logis. The garden hall is the only room in the palace that has largely been preserved in its old form and is occasionally accessible to visitors, along with the rococo-shaped study of the last duke. Until 2015, the rooms were largely used for hospital operations. Most of the castle's furniture, works of art and other original inventory were auctioned as early as 1853. Due to the fact that the building was used for a long time, little of the former furnishings has been preserved and the former function of the rooms has hardly been documented.
The castle church
The largest room of the palace is occupied by the palace church, which - not visible from the outside - occupies the entire two-story extension of the north wing. It is the successor to an older chapel from 1671, which was also demolished before the new castle was built. The church hall from the late 18th century with its uniform Rococo furnishings has been preserved almost unchanged to the present day. The stucco work was probably also done by Michelangelo Taddei. A special feature is the baptismal font made of Carrara marble , which was set up in 1821 as a gift from the Russian Tsar Alexander I.
The as Predigtkirche scale nave is following, the window axes in seven bays divided. The yokes are separated on both sides by six Doric columns on the ground floor and six Corinthian columns at the height of the gallery , so that a three-aisled hall is formed. The room is oriented towards a high pulpit altar on the eastern outer wall, separated from the hall by a curved balustrade . Opposite the altar on the west wall is the glazed prince's chair at the height of the gallery ; The lord of the castle and his family could watch the sermon from this lavishly designed box.
The church served not only the ducal family, but also the court who lived in the palace and whose members had their place in the galleries. The residents of the village employed at court had their places on the ground floor of the church. The roof turret of the gatehouse served as the church tower , from whose bell cage was rung for the services. The castle church has served as the parish church of the city of Augustenburg since 1874. An extensive restoration of the church hall took place in 1972.
The prospectus of the organ above the altar structure comes from the Holstein organ builder Johann Daniel Busch . The organ was built in 1978 by the organ builder Marcussen & Søn (Denmark). The slider chests -instrument has 26 registers on two manual works and pedal . The actions are mechanical.
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
- Register (organ) # Secondary and effect register : Cymbal star with 4 bells
Stylistic classification
In the former Duchy of Schleswig, Augustenburg Castle is the only lordly residential building from the 18th century. After Denmark occupied the Gottorf portion of the duchy in 1713, the country was officially annexed to the kingdom in 1720. No residential buildings were built in Schleswig under the Danish crown, and numerous older castles were even demolished, such as Tönning and the Duburg . The lands of the other Sonderburger branch lines in Schleswig, Norburg and Glücksburg also came to Denmark after barter deals or inheritance in the 18th century. In any case, the so-called cadet lines lacked the financial means for major construction projects. Castle-like buildings were only built with the mansions on the noble estates .
The Augustenburg Castle was created in a stylistic transition phase, which is particularly evident on the facades. The horseshoe-shaped complex with large wing structures and the strong color accents in white and yellow are still typical of the baroque residences , the economical use of decorative elements , the festive, temple-like gables and the block-like garden facade, on the other hand, are clearly influenced by classicism . The designs are simple geometric bodies , a staggered pavilion system has been dispensed with, as has curves.
The pilaster strips with the recessed angles are a motif that the architect Rosenberg used on several of his works, for example on the outbuildings of Rundhof, the church of Hohenwestedt and the manor house of Windeby . They are also located at Sandbjerg Castle , which was built from a former Sonderburger estate on the Sundewitt peninsula and, with its strong color accentuation, looks like a smaller version of Augustenburg.
The area around the castle
The court and the city
Opposite the castle are three outbuildings to the east, which surround their own former farm yard, which is now provided with a lawn. The entire system is completely symmetrical ; The main axis of the castle area, coming from the castle avenue, leads across the gatehouse, over the courtyard and the garden hall to the castle park and from there into the forest area.
The baroque buildings of the farm yard are made of unplastered, clay-colored brick . They date from the years 1764 to 1770 and were erected before the new castle was built. As a counterpart to the castle, the middle building with the gatehouse is more elaborately designed than its side counterparts. The middle of the building with the gate passage is emphasized by a three-axis clock tower crowned with a roof turret. The roof turret contains the bells of the castle church. The gatehouse served as a porter's apartment and coach house , as indicated by four large gates to this day. The so-called mini-museum, in which the history of the castle and its inhabitants is explained, is housed in the northern wing of this building. The gatehouse is flanked to the north and south by two elongated commercial buildings. The southern building was formerly used as a stables , the northern one as a riding arena , which also housed the manor office and rooms for the grooms. Behind the riding arena are the former castle kitchen and the former wash house as additional outbuildings. Today, the buildings of the farmyard are mainly used for the administration of the clinic.
The town of Augustenburg was completely tailored to the castle in terms of its economy. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Augustenburg consisted of just two larger streets. In 1845 660 inhabitants were counted. The actual main street runs north of the castle, while the castle avenue was designed as a representative driveway with reference to the gatehouse. Most of the houses followed a uniform construction principle, they were mostly eaves-facing, whitewashed buildings with half-hip roofs and attic gables. Numerous houses of the so-called Augustenburg style are still preserved. Since the middle of the 19th century, other types of construction have also prevailed.
The palace garden and the pleasure houses
The castle park surrounding the complex emerged from a baroque garden . The area in front of the castle was once adorned by broderie parterres and bosket . The baroque garden was transformed into a landscape park in the 19th century. Since then, the original shape can only be seen in basic features: some avenues from the 18th century have been preserved, especially in the nearby forest area. After the ducal family moved out in 1848, no major changes were made.
Augustenburg Castle stands in an idyllic location directly above a bay of the Augustenburg Fjord, an arm of the Baltic Sea . The views of the fjord and the landscape behind it appear like a continuation of the garden in the distance, an effect that is characteristic of a landscape garden with English influences . Typical garden architecture such as temples or grottoes are missing. The palace garden in its current form consists of a large lawn parterre in front of the Corps de Logis, the northern boundary of which is a shaped hedge. To the west, a visual axis leads into the forest area, while the garden allows a view of the Baltic Sea bay to the south. The garden area in front of the palace building is designed by groups of trees and a modeled hilly landscape, which is made accessible by circular paths. Under one of the linden trees in the palace gardens, a plaque commemorates the poet Hans Christian Andersen, who is said to have worked on many of his works there.
The so-called palace and the house of the prince are located within the palace park . These are two pleasure houses with ancillary buildings, which went into public use after the ducal family moved out in 1848. The prince's house is a small, relatively spartan-looking house. It was built in 1765 for Emil August, the younger brother of Duke Friedrich Christian I. The prince said goodbye to his military career at the age of 42 and wanted to lead a quiet life there without splendor. The red house was to serve as a hermitage for him. Emil August lived there until his death in 1786. In his will, the small property was passed on to his sister Louise Christine Caroline, who was to have all the facilities there for life.
Since the old prince's house was too small for an adequate court, her father had the so-called palace built, which was completed by 1788. The princess lived there until her death in 1815. From 1820 to 1843, as a Wittum , it was the main residence of the Dowager Duchess Louise Augusta. The classical palace is only slightly larger than the Prinzenhaus, but it is more elaborately furnished. The seven-axle structure is located above a lawn parterre with a view of the fjord. Its garden facade is emphasized by a flat projecting risalite, which is structured in a colossal order by high pilasters . The rear facade is opened to the courtyard through a loggia adorned with columns. The decoration of the interiors can be assigned to classicism.
The building, now known as Palæet Augustiana , together with the prince's house, forms the center of a sculpture park within the palace gardens. The house is open to the public and houses exhibition rooms in which primarily works by contemporary artists are presented.
Web links
literature
- CR Rasmussen, E. Imberger, D. Lohmeier, I. Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg . Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2008.
- Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1980, ISBN 978-3-422-00712-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 311.
- ↑ Augustenburg Castle on the website of the Municipality of Sonderburg ( Memento from September 13, 2010 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 230.
- ↑ Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 312
- ↑ a b c d Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 313.
- ^ A b Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein , page 104.
- ↑ Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 314.
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 316th
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 317.
- ↑ a b c Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 318.
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 319.
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 331
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 335.
- ↑ Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 320.
- ↑ a b Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 322nd
- ↑ a b c Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 325.
- ↑ a b c Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 326
- ^ Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 328.
- ^ Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 341.
- ↑ Castle Augustenburg on www.wehrbauten.de, accessed on 20 January 2017th
- ↑ Augustenburg Castle in Psykatrien i Region Syddanmark (Danish), accessed on January 20, 2017.
- ↑ visitsonderjylland.de: Augustenborg Castle , accessed on February 9, 2018.
- ↑ Landbrugstyrelsen: Flytning til Sønderjylland , Danish, accessed on February 9, 2018.
- ↑ Visit Augustenborg Castle
- ↑ Announcement on www.whereseric.com (English) ( Memento from November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Announcement on www.lastfm.de.de .
- ^ A b Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein , page 163.
- ↑ a b c d Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 332.
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein , page 196
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein , page 200.
- ↑ Contact details for visitors to www.flensborgfjord.eu ( Memento from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Rasmussen, Imberger, Lohmeier, Mommsen: The princes of the country - dukes and counts of Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg , page 333.
- ↑ Information on the organ ( Memento from September 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
- ^ A b J. Habich, D. Lafrenz, H. Schulze, L. Wilde: Castles and manor complexes in Schleswig-Holstein , page 15 u. 16. L&H Verlag, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 978-3-928119-24-5
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Mansions and castles in Schleswig-Holstein , page 164
- ^ Map of Augustenburg from 1796; At that time, the area in front of the palace was still adorned by the baroque parterres .
- ↑ website augustiana.dk , (Danish), accessed on May 16, 2016.
- ↑ www.visitsonderborg.de: Contact information for visitors (German), accessed on May 16, 2016.
Coordinates: 54 ° 56 '40.42 " N , 9 ° 51' 58.39" E
