Burgk Castle
Castle Burgk an der Saale is a castle in the Saale-Orla district in the Thuringian Slate Mountains and Vogtland and today houses a museum of princely living culture. It belonged to the Reuss Princely House from its construction in the Middle Ages until 1945 .
The castle and village of Burgk are exposed on a rocky plateau above the Burgkhammer district of Burgk and the dam of the same name on a loop of the Saale. It is nine kilometers from the A 9 (Berlin – Munich).
history
The bailiffs of Gera (ancestors of the Reussians) built a castle in the Middle Ages at the location favorably located for defense purposes . After a temporary sale to the Teutonic Knights , it came back to the Geraer Vögten (later gentlemen), only to fall to the Greizer Reuss after their extinction. From 1596 to 1640 and from 1668 to 1697, Burgk was part of the older line of the Reuss family , namely Reuss-Burgk , with Burgk as the place of residence. However, this rule comprised only a small territory with a few localities.
The castle was expanded into a palace in 1403. Heinrich II. Reuss von Burgk (1575–1639) made this his residence. Noteworthy is the letter of protection issued to the rulers by Wallenstein in 1632, which was purchased for a considerable amount of money and helped to prevent the destruction of the castle and the town during the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War .
In 1697 the younger Reuss-Burgk house was inherited by Heinrich XIII, Count Reuss zu Untergreiz (1675–1733). From then on, the castle served as a hunting and summer residence for the counts residing in the Greiz lower castle . His son Heinrich III. (1733–1768) had it extensively modernized. The east tower was demolished and the front renewed. The windows were widened and given new walls . The lavatory and summer cottage were also removed. Since there was no garden, the count had the mountain spur leveled to the south and also designed the “Sophienweg” into a pleasure house. With the park , a complex was created that ultimately determined the character of the building as a pleasure palace . The interior was finished in 1763. With these measures, the counts created a representative hunting and pleasure palace.
After the death of Heinrich III. In 1768 Untergreiz and Burgk fell to Count Heinrich XI. Reuss zu Obergreiz, who was raised to the rank of imperial prince in 1778, as Prince Reuss of the older line . The older and younger lines lost their thrones in the November 1918 Revolution. When the older line with Heinrich XXIV. Died out in the male line in 1927, Burgk Castle fell to his sister Hermine , who had been married to ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II since 1922 . In 1933 she ceded the castle to her sister Ida, the wife of Prince Christoph Martin zu Stolberg-Roßla . After the Second World War , the castle came into state ownership through expropriation and was opened to the public in 1952. Since it remained in the family's possession until 1945 and afterwards it escaped looting, the interior is richly decorated, complemented by furnishings and works of art from other castles.
investment
The well-preserved castle still has the character of a castle with many medieval details. The original palace is still completely preserved, as is the keep and the two stone bridges that lead into the inner ring and the palace. Both bridges used to be drawbridges . A customs tariff board is displayed on the outer bridge under the office building. In 2016, when a baroque wall was opened, a medieval plank room from 1402 was found. In front of the inner castle gates, Blidensteine found their second use as a wheel deflector.
When the second gatehouse was demolished in 1739 , a room with a dog was found. Presumably this was walled in alive there as a building sacrifice (offering) around 400 years earlier. Today this dog can be seen in the entrance area in a mummified state behind a pane of glass.
The castle chapel and the kitchen are well preserved. The kitchen chimney is particularly noteworthy. At the western end of the complex is the “Red Tower” with a half-timbered hood in the style of the late Renaissance . Access to the “Red Tower” is via a walkable and covered battlement, from which there are three further battlements, some of which are located one above the other and which are located in the wall.
In the center of the mid-18th century in the French style landscaped park south of the castle is known as Sophie Lust called late baroque / classical pavilion .
Gatehouse
Weir system with "Red Tower"
Red tower from the kennel
Gatehouse
Mummified dog
"Sophienlust" pavilion
In the pavilion
Gate of Burgk Castle
Spaces
In the Knight's Hall of the Castle Concerts are regularly held. In addition, the baroque state room with alcove bed and the living rooms in the Rococo style, some of which are in the 18th century chinoiserie, provide an insight into the life of German princes. An extensive collection of weapons and trophies in the hunting room refers to the use of the complex as a hunting lodge . A special feature of the castle chapel is the organ, consecrated in 1743 by Gottfried Silbermann .
Historic castle kitchen
Knight hall
Bed alcove in the state room
Detail of the state room
Hunting room
organ
The organ with a prospectus in finely crafted rocaille shapes is a largely original work by Gottfried Silbermann from 1743 with 12 stops on a manual and pedal . After a missing building contract, Silbermann offered Count Heinrich III. von Reuss offered to build an organ with 12 registers including case, sculptural work and gallery cladding for 600 thalers. In order to gain space for the instrument, it was necessary to break out a strong wall and replace it with a weaker brick wall. The organ was accepted without a formal examination and played for the first time in the consecration service on April 14, 1743. Until the 20th century, only repairs can be proven. Presumably in 1860 the organ was given the same temperature. In 1939 the Hermann Eule company carried out a restoration and installed a pedal coupler. In 1956 the same company reduced the wind pressure from 100 or 90 mm water column to 85 mm water column. During a further restoration by Eule in 1982, further repairs and re-intonations were carried out and a modified Silbermann-Sorge temperature was established. The disposition is:
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Remarks
- Pitch: currently Chorton a 1 = 463 Hz
- Tuning : modified Silbermann-Sorge temperature taking into account the pipe lengths found
- Wind pressure: 84 mm water column
Film set
The castle served and serves as a backdrop for numerous film and television productions. So far these were z. B .:
- 1968: There's a fair in heaven ( DEFA )
- 1969: You are min. A German diary. (DEFA documentary film)
- 1970: The Test of Courage ( DFF )
- 1973–75: Das Wasserschloß, part 3 of the television film The invisible visor (GDR television)
- 1975: Til Eulenspiegel (DEFA)
- 1980/81: Rescuers, Avengers and Rapiers (GDR television), on the story of the Vogtland folk hero Georg Kresse
- 2005: Adventure Middle Ages - Life in the 15th Century ( MDR )
- 2006: Galileo ( Pro 7 )
- 2013: The Golden Goose (fairy tale film) ( ZDF )
literature
- Hagen Enke: The castle in Burgk. In: Roswitha Jacobsen, Hendrik Bäringhausen (Hrsg.): Residence locks in Thuringia. Cultural and historical portraits. Bucha near Jena 1998, pp. 245-253.
- Hagen Enke: Forgotten Residences. The castles in Lobenstein and Burgk. In: Yearbook of the Museum Reichenfels-Hohenleuben, issue 44 (= 159th annual report of the Vogtland antiquity research association in Hohenleuben eV ) Hohenleuben 2000, pp. 35–50.
Web links
- Website of the Burgk Castle Museum
- Adventure Middle Ages ( Memento from December 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), docu-drama , four-part series of the MDR , first broadcast: December 12, 2005, documents typical daily work in 1419 at Burgk Castle under the most authentic conditions possible (archived)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heiko Laß: Hunting and pleasure palaces of the 17th and 18th centuries in Thuringia. Michael Imhof Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-86568-092-5 , pp. 285-287.
- ^ Organ portrait on the website of the Gottfried Silbermann Society, accessed on April 9, 2013.
- ↑ Frank-Harald Greß, Michael Lange: Die Orgeln Gottfried Silbermanns (= publications of the Society of Organ Friends. No. 177). 2nd Edition. Sandstein-Verlag, Dresden 2001, ISBN 3-930382-50-4 , p. 114.
Coordinates: 50 ° 33 ′ 13 " N , 11 ° 42 ′ 56" E