Braunfels Castle

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General view, dominated by the new keep (left) and the old floor (right)
Braunfels Castle, photo by E. Roepke, 1895
General view from 1866
Braunfels Castle - painting by Johannes Deiker , 2nd half of the 19th century
Braunfels Castle - Excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655
Aerial photograph 2007

The castle Braunfels is located on a basalt hill west of the health resort Braunfels in Central Hesse Lahn-Dill-Kreis . It has been the seat of the Counts of Solms since the 13th century and is still owned by the Counts of Oppersdorff zu Solms-Braunfels in the 21st century .

Braunfels Castle dominates the landscape far into the Lahn valley and can be seen as a landscape and cultural-historical counterpart to Schaumburg Castle in the lower Lahn valley. The expansion and renovation at the end of the 19th century belonged to a phase of creative historicism in neo-Gothic elements, in which individual forms were consciously used. As one of the most important historicist castle conversions, Braunfels is of great national importance.

history

The castle was first mentioned in a document as Castellum Bruninvels in 1246. Originally a defense castle against the Counts of Nassau , it became the residential castle of the Counts of Solms from 1280. After the aristocratic property was divided under three lines and the family castle of Solms was destroyed by the Rhenish Association of Towns , Braunfels Castle became the new ancestral seat of the Counts of Solms-Braunfels in 1384 , which was the only one of the three lines to survive and in 1418 to inherit the entire property. After another division and reunification, this line still exists today.

Extensive expansions of the core castle took place between the 15th and 17th centuries. Count Otto II had the medieval castle expanded into a fortress around 1500. The late Gothic castle church has been preserved from this construction phase . The engraving by August Rumpf , which Matthäus Merian depicted in his Topographia Hassiae from 1655, provides information about the condition of the castle before it was converted into a baroque palace (from 1680).

During the Thirty Years War , Braunfels Castle was contested and badly damaged. By supporting Friedrich V , Count Johann Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels fell under imperial ban . His Braunfels Castle was occupied by Spanish troops on behalf of the emperor in 1621 without a fight. In 1629 Count Philipp Moritz von Hohensolms successfully besieged the city and Braunfels Castle. Emperor Ferdinand II enfeoffed Johann t'Serclaes von Tilly with the castle in 1630. In 1632 the castle was conquered by Swedish troops, who lost it to the imperial family in 1634. A year later, in 1635, Count Ludwig Heinrich von Nassau-Dillenburg occupied the castle with a surprise attack. In 1640, after a siege, troops from the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar captured the castle. Count Johann Albrecht II of Solms-Braunfels was able to take possession of it again in 1641.

Count Heinrich Trajektin (1648–93) had the residence redesigned into a baroque castle, which in 1679 fell victim to a widespread city fire. His successor, Count Wilhelm Moritz , succeeded in rebuilding quickly at the beginning of the 18th century. The plans by him and his master builder Johann Philipp Meyer from Wetzlar for the construction of an extensive baroque palace around 1720 were not realized.

With the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, the political independence of Prince Ferdinand zu Solms-Braunfels ended ; the territory fell to the Duchy of Nassau . The castle remained in the princely family ownership and from 1828 to 1848 the seat of the Princely Solms-Braunfels government .

Prince Ferdinand had neo-Gothic redesigns and restorations carried out around 1840. Out of the romantic attitude of mind to allow the Middle Ages to emerge anew, an idealized fantasy castle emerged, which in reality did not exist in the Middle Ages. The model for the work was the expansion of Rheinstein Castle in the spirit of Rhine romanticism . In parallel to the expansion of the castle, Prince Ferdinand had the Dianaburg near Greifenstein built as a hunting lodge.

From 1880 a second keep followed by Prince Georg , additions and additions of bay windows and small towers in the style of historicism; Builders of his taste, whose ideas he oriented himself with his architects Edwin Oppler , Hugo von Ritgen and Rudolf Wiegmann , were Eugène Viollet-le-Duc as well as Émile and Paul Boeswillwald .

The Braunfels property passed in 1970 with the death of the last male descendant of this line, Prince Georg Friedrich zu Solms-Braunfels (1890-1970), to his daughter, Countess Marie Gabrielle von Oppersdorff Solms-Braunfels (d. 2003). Her husband, Hans Georg Graf von Oppersdorff -Solms-Braunfels (1920–2003) managed the property for over 50 years and had the castle, its inventory and the associated buildings renovated, restored and maintained.

Exterior construction

Due to its building history, the exterior of the palace was stylistically quite heterogeneous until the last major renovation. Since this redesign, which was completed in 1885, the complex has shown the style of historicism in many areas. The main elements are

  • the core castle from the 13th century with Grenzwartturm (Friedrichsturm), keep ( old floor ), palas and shield wall; Despite the later changes, Romanesque style elements (solid masonry with round arched bifors with overhanging arches , central column with leaf capitals) can still be made out;
  • Extensions with an outer bailey and battlements to the east towards the city (attack side): lowest gate around 1350, middle gate tower around 1460 (baroque superstructure and redesigned bell tower in 1682), upper castle gate with pointed arch portal from 1491; Ottonian building (princely building, around 1500), castle church as a three-aisled hall church above the galleries of the uppermost Zwinger (probably consecrated in 1501, wall paintings from 1504);
  • the baroque additions: Neutor (archive gate) in the north-west, Entréebau (gate to the castle courtyard) and Langer Bau (south of the New Bergfried), Weedenbau as well as Marstall, castle guard and barracks (built shortly before the town fire in 1679 and then reconstructed);
  • in the historicist style: in particular the Georgsturm (opposite today's castle café) as well as the addition of the tallest tower in the castle, the new keep with its flanked turret (1884).

Due to the continuous redesign, the older buildings were also subject to constant change; For example, in the 19th century, the old floor, hall and north tower were provided with crenellated wreaths and open spaces were closed between previously isolated structures.

  • View from the west with Kleppertor

  • Medieval core castle: Palas and old floor

  • Castle church from the park side

  • South. Battlements with a new keep

  • Exterior view from the south

  • Stairway to Wache and Paradeplatz

  • Former Official apartments at the castle entrance

  • South courtyard

  • Braunfels Castle, staircase and gate

inside rooms

The interior is designed as a museum and some are accessible with a guided tour. A distinction is made between the princely state rooms, the collections from the Altenberg monastery and the family museum .

Princely rooms

The furniture and art historical collections of the Princely von Solms family range from the 13th to the 19th century.

  • The knight's hall in the medieval hall, which was restored in the 19th century, contains striking, stabbing and firearms as well as armor for warriors and horses from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period. The oldest objects are a Gothic sword and a chain mail from the time of the Crusades , consisting of 60,000 small rings (forging time 1–2 years). Armaments from the Maximilian era are believed to have come from Milan.
  • In the stair room and in the picture gallery hang oil paintings - especially family portraits, mythological and allegorical scenes - from the schools of Italian, Spanish, Dutch and German masters from the Renaissance to Classicism . In the center of the staircase is the bust of the 99-day emperor Friedrich III.
  • The tapestry room is characterized by five Flemish tapestries from around 1600, depicting hunting and shepherd scenes. The stove dates from 1674 from the Aßlarer Hütte.
  • An art historical highlight is the Flemish Room with portraits, seascapes and genre scenes. Represented are u. a. Adriaen van de Velde , Jan Miense Molenaer and Adriaen van Ostade . Here, too, there is a fireplace from Asslar.
  • The Tischbeinzimmer is named after the family of painters who worked for several generations in the 18th century on behalf of the Counts of Solms.
  • The Deiker Gallery (court painter to Prince Ferdinand 1843–1868), the Blue Salon and the Pink Salon contain further portraits, hunting pieces and genre paintings . The family's antiques in the representative rooms include vases of East Asian provenance, from the St. Petersburg and from the Berlin porcelain factory. There is also a small glass collection on display in a showcase, including Venetian thread glasses and Romans.

Altenberger rooms

The so-called "Altenberg rooms" contain inventory from the former Altenberg monastery. When it was secularized with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, the princes of Solms took over the facility.

  • The Gothic Room contains a late Gothic altar and a Rhenish Madonna (around 1400). A chest comes from Gertrud von Altenberg , in which supposedly objects of her mother Elisabeth von Thuringia were kept. When Elisabeth had to leave the Wartburg in 1227 after the death of her husband, Landgrave Ludwig IV (Thuringia) and in 1229 became a nurse under the aegis of Konrad von Marburg in a Franciscan hospital she founded, she had to have her then 4-year-old daughter At the instigation of her confessor, give Gertrud to the Altenberg monastery for education.
  • Even more presumed memorabilia of Saint Elizabeth, verifiably from the 13th century, are kept in the adjoining parament room. Whether the silver jug ​​from which Elizabeth donated wine to the sick, and the ring, a present from the Landgrave, with the large oval stone that is said to have shattered at the moment of his death, really belonged to Elisabeth can no longer be proven. Tourism at Braunfels Castle thrives on this history and legend.
  • As a work of an unknown artist of true Altenberger altar is from the year 1330, a triptych with Gothic tracery. A sculpture of a Madonna and Child from the second half of the 14th century was originally placed on this altar.

Family museum

The family museum in the long building (individually accessible by inserting coins) contains further collections of weapons and art, coins, medals, items of clothing and a collection of Bohemian glass belonging to the princes of Solms. There is also a prehistoric department that can be traced back to a collaboration between Prince Wilhelm around 1815 and the archivist Jakob-Carl Schaum , who was in lively correspondence with Johann Wolfgang Goethe . An unexplained find is a fertility god from the 3rd millennium BC. BC, excavated in 1959 near Kraftsolms , of a species commonly found in Asia Minor. The family-owned antiques also include a collection of Meissen porcelain and a Bohemian glass collection, a sculpture collection and table silver .

Outdoor facilities

Braunfels Castle

To the north is the battery , on which four bronze cannons from the 16th century are placed. From the terrace the view to the southeast extends far into the country over the old town of Braunfels.

Protection under the Hague Convention

On June 8, 2010 it became known that the castle - like the Wilhelmsturm (Dillenburg) , the Hohe Schule Herborn or the Grube Fortuna - is now subject to the protection of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict . Deliberate attack and damage would be a war crime in the event of war and could be punished by the International Criminal Court.

Surroundings

Braunfels Castle Golf Course: water hazard between hole 16 and hole 18

A hilly and technically challenging 18-hole golf course , designed in 1971 by Bernhard von Limburger , is embedded in the forest and park landscape that surrounds the castle extensively to the north and west . The course is rich in historic trees and natural ponds serve as water hazards. The clubhouse is a redesigned half-timbered farm.

Film set

The children's film Max und die wilde 7 was filmed at the castle in 2019 .

literature

  • Michael Losse: Castles and palaces on the Lahn. From Biedenkopf and Marburg via Gießen, Wetzlar and Weilburg to Limburg, Nassau and Lahnstein. Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-070-9 , pp. 69-74.
  • Johannes Graf von Oppersdorff Solms-Braunfels, Peter Schlagetter-Bayertz: Braunfels Castle. sn, Braunfels, 2009, ISBN 978-3-939609-66-7 .
  • Karl-Heinz Schellenberg: Braunfels Chronicle. Magistrate of the City of Braunfels, Braunfels 1990.
  • Karl-Heinz Schellenberg: Braunfels Castle (= large architectural monuments . Issue 309). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich et al. 1982.
  • Karl-Heinz Schellenberg: Braunfels Castle in the Hochtaunus Nature Park (= Institute for Nature Conservation. Series of publications. 11, 1, ISSN  0416-7465 ). Unchanged reprint of the 2nd edition. Verlag Institut für Naturschutz, Darmstadt 1974.
  • Peter Schlagetter-Bayertz: Braunfels Castle: 150 years of the knight's hall. In: Home yearbook for the country on the Dill in the Lahn-Dill district. Vol. 40, 1997, ISSN  0939-5180 , pp. 279-289, ( digital version (PDF; 2.14 MB) ).
  • Peter Schlagetter-Bayertz: Braunfels Castle: Shape and Representations through the Ages. In: Home yearbook for the Lahn-Dill district. Vol. 6, 1996, ISSN  0939-5180 , pp. 41-52.
  • Peter Schlagetter-Bayertz: A journey through the history of Braunfels Castle. In: Home yearbook for the Lahn-Dill district. Vol. 2, 1992, pp. 245-260.
  • Peter Schlagetter-Bayertz: The towers and turrets of Braunfels Castle. In: Home yearbook for the country on the Dill in the Lahn-Dill district. Vol. 53, 2010, pp. 212-224.
  • Carl Seiler : Braunfels Castle then and now. A guide through 8 centuries. Prince of Solms-Braunfels administration, Braunfels 1936.

Web links

Commons : Braunfels Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Braunfels Castle In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  2. ^ Print edition of the Dill newspaper (June 8, 2011)
  3. ↑ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/film-braunfels-filmteam-dlassung-mit-uschi-glas-auf-schloss-braunfels-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-190822-99-567577

Coordinates: 50 ° 30 ′ 50.8 "  N , 8 ° 23 ′ 14.6"  E