Blieskastel Castle
| Blieskastel Castle | ||
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 The Blieskasteler Schloss, drawing from 1779 |
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| Creation time : | 1661-1676 | |
| Conservation status: | Wall remains, garden architecture partially preserved |
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| Standing position : | Imperial Count | |
| Place: | Blieskastel | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 14 '14.4 " N , 7 ° 15' 27.7" E | |
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The Blieskastel Castle was 1661-1676 by Karl Kaspar von der Leyen and Damian Hartard von der Leyen on a rock above Blieskastel built. Of the baroque palace complex , only the foundations and the basement of the central wing of the palace as well as remnants of the former gardens, including the so-called "long building", have been preserved.
history
The castle's predecessor was a castle that rose above the steeply sloping Schlossberg rock and dominated the town and Bliestal. The castle was largely destroyed in the Thirty Years War .
After the Electorate of Trier Blieskastel had passed into the possession of the Barons Von der Leyen in 1660 , they immediately decided to build a palace complex on the old castle area above Blieskastel.
The builders are the Trier Elector and Archbishop Karl Kaspar von der Leyen (1618–1676) and his brother Damian Hartard von der Leyen (1624–1678), later Elector and Archbishop of Mainz . Construction work on the palace began in autumn 1661, and work on the gardens began at the end of 1665. The Capuchin brother Bonitius von Trier is considered the master builder. Construction news suggests that the exterior of the palace complex was completed around 15 years after construction began.
As a result, the exterior structure and the layout of the castle did not undergo any significant changes. In the course of the transfer of residence of the Counts von der Leyen from Koblenz to Blieskastel in the second half of the 18th century, some renovation work was carried out, which mainly affected the interior of the castle. These structural changes were primarily limited to the farm buildings belonging to the palace and to parts of the garden architecture. The castle church , which was also built in the second half of the 18th century, did not belong to the district of the castle, but was the monastery church of the adjoining Franciscan monastery.
Destruction and demolition of the castle
In 1773 Count Franz Karl von der Leyen moved his residence from Koblenz to Blieskastel. After Franz Karl died on September 26, 1775, his wife Marianne took over the government. During her reign, last construction work was carried out on Blieskasteler Schloss from 1784.
In the spring of 1793 the unrest that followed the French Revolution spread to Blieskastel. On May 14, 1793, Marianne von der Leyen had to flee the castle to avoid the danger of being arrested by the French military who had already surrounded the castle. Shortly afterwards, the soldiers began to loot the valuable castle inventory and put it up for auction in Blieskastel and Saargemünd .
In the winter of 1793/94 the castle served French troops as winter quarters, with new looting, destruction and a major fire.
In the following years the castle deteriorated more and more. Residents from Blieskastel and the surrounding area were v. a. Wood and metal of the vacant castle. Around the turn of the year 1801/02 or the beginning of 1802, large stones fell from the now very dilapidated castle onto the houses at the foot of the rock on which the castle building stood, causing greater damage. As a result, in May 1802, the parts of the castle that posed the risk of falling rocks were auctioned off for demolition down to the cellar. The material resulting from the demolition was sold. The sale of the building remains dragged on until 1804. The remaining building rubble was poured into the still intact basement of the castle. The Bavarian government , under whose administration Blieskastel had been since 1816, had the last remains of the castle removed and the square leveled in 1820.
From the middle of the 20th century, a number of new buildings were built on the site of the former castle. Over the ruins of the former castle, the schoolgirls 'home (popularly called boarding school ) of the Blieskastel teachers' college was built in 1952/1953 . Today a part of the Von der Leyen-Gymnasium is housed in it.
The existing building stock
- The long building (the so-called "orangery") is the only remaining part of the castle complex in the rising masonry.
According to tradition, it was only spared demolition because the gardener there was given the opportunity to continue drying his madder in the building that had been converted into a greenhouse . This presumably long-term use of the long building as a kind of greenhouse probably contributed to the fact that the term "orangery" was retained up to the present day. In reality, the Long Building is a framing garden architecture.
In the 1980s, the long building was extensively renovated and modern extensions added.
The long building is listed as a single monument in the Alt-Blieskastel ensemble in the Saarland's list of monuments.
- The enclosing walls of the palace complex are partially preserved on three sides. At the western end of the southern perimeter wall, the basement of the south-western garden house has been preserved. The wall that bounded the garden area to the west has been completely removed.
- The basement of the residential wing has been preserved in full as part of the surrounding walls.
- To the west of the long building are the remains of a square tower (northwest garden tower).
- From the former garden architecture of the Blieskasteler Schloss, in addition to the long building, the staircase that connected the two palace gardens has been preserved. At the foot of the stairs there is a niche well.
The long building, the rest of the palace complex
Stairway between the former palace gardens
Base floor of the residential wing
See also
literature
- Margit Vonhof-Habermayr: The Blieskastel Castle. A work of secular Capuchin architecture in the service of Trier Elector Karl Kaspar von der Leyen (1652–1676) . (= Publications of the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland, vol. 37), Saarbrücken 1996, ISBN 978-3-923877-37-9 , p. 322 .
- Literature on Blieskastel Castle in the Saarland Bibliography
Web links
- Entry on Blieskastel Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- The "mineral treasures" of Blieskastel - excavations in the residential palace of the Counts von der Leyen (PDF; 1.7 MB)
- Excavations on the Schlossberg at: www.vdleyen.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vonhof-Habermayr 1996, page 15
- ↑ Kapuzinerchronik Chronologia Provinciae Rhenanae Fratum Minorum Capucinorum (1608–1699)
- ↑ Vonhof-Habermayr 1996, page 284
- ↑ Ludwig Eid (1937): Countess Marianne von der Leyen born. from Dalberg. Life-State-Work . (Edited by Wolfgang Krämer after the author's death), Saarbrücken (Unchanged reprint 1980) pp. 286–301 and pp. 319–322
- ↑ Laufer, Wolfgang 2011: The last years of the von der Leyenschen Residenzschloss Blieskastel in French times: "... the castle, ornament Blieskastels" - In: Saarpfalz. - Homburg, Saar: Saarpfalz-Kreis, ISSN 0930-1011 . Pp. 28-55
- ↑ Vonhof-Habermayr 1996, pages 78-79
- ↑ Bernard, Christel: The rediscovery of the Blieskastel castle ruins. 2011. http://www.zeitensprung.de/ re-discovery_Blieskastel.pdf.
- ↑ Vonhof-Habermayr 1996, pp. 127–128
- ↑ List of monuments of the Saarland, sub-monuments list Saarpfalz-Kreis (PDF; 1.2 MB), accessed on August 25, 2012