Bergedorf Castle

The Bergedorf Castle, view of the city side with the stepped gables

The castle around 1850

The castle in 1899, view of the neo-Gothic tower

The Bergedorfer Schloss is the only preserved castle in the Hamburg city area. It is located in the Bergedorf district in the middle of the former town center on the Bille .

historical overview

History of the castle

Storming of the castle in 1420

The origins of the Bergedorf Castle cannot yet be clearly clarified. A “permanent house” was first mentioned in documents in the 14th century. Since in 1208 Count Albrecht von Orlamünde dammed the river Bille and built a mill, it is possible that a first protective device was built back then. Presumably it was a palisade-enclosed structure secured with a double moat and drawbridge. Inside - as in other New German low castles - there will have been a massive tower as a place of retreat in the event of an attack, as well as a commercial and residential building with stables and fountains. Since no systematic soil surveys have been carried out so far, this remains speculation.

Until 1420, the complex served as a residence for the dukes of Saxony-Lauenburg at times . Thereafter, the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck and Hamburg brought the Bergedorf office (including the four-country villages Altengamme , Curslack , Kirchwerder and Neuengamme as well as Geesthacht ) under their rule, and the castle became the seat of a two-city administration. ( → List of officials of the two-city office Bergedorf ).

In 1868 Hamburg bought the Lübeck stake and thus ended the almost 450-year-old condominium . From then on, the building housed various parts of the municipal administration, such as the court and the police.

Sign at the castle entrance

Todays use

Since 1953 the castle has housed the Museum for Bergedorf and the Vierlande and, together with the Rieck-Haus open-air museum, is part of the Bergedorf museum landscape. The permanent exhibition presents the history of the region. Annual changing exhibitions highlight social and historical topics. Several times a year regional artists show their works in the house. In the castle, cultural events take place almost every week - both in the museum rooms and in the inner courtyard of the castle, where, for example, free outdoor cinema is offered in summer. There is a museum café on the ground floor of the castle. It is also possible to get married within the castle walls.

Buildings

View of the inner courtyard

Bergedorf Castle, view of the west wing with the gate

The lock

The castle is an approximately 30 × 30 meter large four-wing complex, which is surrounded by a moat. The oldest components form the face of the city. Two opposite wings date from the beginning of the 17th century and are stylistically on the border between the brick Gothic and the brick Renaissance . They are connected by a half-timbered wing built in 1661 . Between 1899 and 1901, the dilapidated gateway, the north wing and the tower were rebuilt in neo-Gothic forms in line with the taste of the time . In 1939 the roof turret on the west wing that had previously shaped the silhouette was removed. In the castle including the court and in the recall Heimatstil furnished Mansion rooms to the building's past as the administrative headquarters.

The castle park

After the end of French rule, the administrator Lindenberg - who was also a well-known botanist - had the area around the palace designed as a park and greenhouses built for his plants on the south side. However, the park was not open to the public. Only at the end of the 19th century, with the onset of industrialization, did the call for a public park become louder. Finally, the fortifications and the immediate vicinity of the castle were redesigned into a landscape garden. The idyllic castle park bordering the Bille has been a listed building since 1926 .

literature

Erich von der Heide : Pray about "Dat Huss" Bergedorp . In: Lichtwark Committee (ed.): Lichtwark booklet . No. 61 . HB advertisement, 1996, ISSN 1862-3549 .
Martin Knorr : The Bergedorf Castle . In: Jörgen Bracker (Ed.): Bergedorf portrait . 2nd Edition. No. 3 . Museum for Bergedorf and the Vierlande, Hamburg-Bergedorf 1989.
Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt : The acquisition of the Bergedorfer Castle by Hamburg and Lübeck in 1420 as part of the urban territorial policy . In: HB advertising (ed.): Lichtwark booklet . No. 73 , 2008, ISSN 1862-3549 .
Jörg Meyn : Thoughts on the origin and early history of the Bergedorf Castle . In: HB advertising (ed.): Lichtwark booklet . No. 68 , 2003, ISSN 1862-3549 .
Victoria Overlack (Ed.): The Bergedorfer Castle: Een sloten Huss. Origin, functions, building history . Museum for Bergedorf and the Vierlande, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-936300-49-9 .
Helmuth Thomsen : The Bergedorfer Castle in the course of history . In: Lichtwark Committee (Ed.): Lichtwark . No. 3 , 1951, ISSN 1862-3549 .