Ebenthal Castle (Lower Austria)
| Ebenthal Castle | ||
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 Ebenthal Castle |
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| Conservation status: | Received or received substantial parts | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 26 '11.9 " N , 16 ° 47' 30.5" E | |
| Height: | 171 m above sea level A. | |
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The Ebenthal Castle (also: Schloss Coburg) is a baroque palace, which dates from the 18th century, for the most part. It is located in the Lower Austrian market town of Ebenthal , Gänserndorf district.
history
We know about the existence of a medieval castle in Ebenthal, because a document from 1371 speaks of a "Veste Ebenthal". According to another document, Ebenthal Castle in 1478 was "desolate and broken". In 1487 Jakob Grabner appeared in Rosenburg as Lord von Ebenthal. Then there is silence for a long time. Only at the end of the 17th century did you find it again. The first pictorial representation of Ebenthal Castle can be found in the castle book of Georg Matthäus Vischer from 1672.
A precise description and assessment of this engraving can be found in the “Topography of Lower Austria. Vienna 1885. "take from:
“The illustration of the castle by Math. Vischer (c. 1672) shows a two-storey high building, partly removed from the roof, which is continued on both sides in a wall flanked by round turrets, surrounded by a ditch and on the other side with a Picket fence bordered, from which a bridge leads to the gate on the left side of the main front. It seems that the drawing with the half-covered house meant to denote damage to it by fire or an incomplete renovation. […] By the way, it is not likely that the oldest fortress at Ebenthal stood on the site of today's castle. It is more likely to be found at the height behind the castle in today's castle park. "
Most of the present castle dates from the first half of the 18th century. In 1732 Ebenthal came into the possession of Andreas Josef Count Koháry . Under the general, regiment owner and captain of the Hungarian bodyguard, it was expanded into a representative country residence. The stylistic findings of the architecture as well as some archival materials found in the Kohàry archive in Banska Bystrica, together with a sketch dated 1736, point to a building tour immediately after the acquisition of the rule. At the beginning of the building season in 1733, high sums of money for an unnamed master builder “for the building of the Ebenthal rulership” are shown in the archival documents.
Franz de Paula Graf Kohary died in 1826 and bequeathed all of his property to his only daughter Maria Antonie Gabriele von Koháry , who had been married to Ferdinand Georg August von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld since 1816 . Ebenthal was the favorite place of residence of their son August von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry , who died here on July 26th, 1881. His son Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria chose his asylum in 1918, who had already brought his two daughters here towards the end of the war, but his brother-in-law Emperor Karl I refused him so that he had to take his asylum in Germany.
The castle was owned by the Saxe-Coburg-Koháry family until 1970 and is now privately owned after several sales.
description
At first glance, the two-storey structure around a rectangular courtyard presents itself as a unified creation of the late Baroque. However, there are small irregularities in the window layout and deviations from the right angle in the square of the courtyard, which suggests that older parts have been included. This could be the building fabric of the object reproduced by Vischer.
The main facade in the north-east consists of low side wings and a three-axis, heavily raised pavilion that houses the ballroom and the double-armed staircase on the courtyard side. A thin Ionic order of pilasters, doubled at the edges, with a triangular gable at the end, ennobles the hall with segmented arched windows and oval skylights. In contrast, the structure on the long, multi-axis side wings is largely reduced. Simple window shapes with straight roofs and parapet fields are used here. This system is strengthened on the triaxial flanks by overlapping plaster frames and concluding rectangular strips. The ground floor is grooved throughout and provided with simply framed windows.
The north-western side facade also shows the same structure. Since this side only takes into account the visual relationship between the castle and the location, it is accentuated by a three-axis central risalit with a mixed-line gable top, which is not taken into account in the room arrangement and, together with the blinds on the ground floor, is to be understood as a "dignity quote". In the foremost rows of Viennese baroque master builders, the plan author of the Ebenthal palace building will hardly be to be found; this is indicated by detailed solutions such as the meager main portal, on which the great order of the pavilion stands, or generally the rather dull presentation of the flat facade structure, the concept of which was generally in circulation at that time as a "usage type". However, it should be borne in mind that the baroque scene of the thirties of the 18th century is already tending towards a calmer, noticeably chilled form, the lack of which in the repertoire does not necessarily mean that it is of poor quality.
Possible architects
According to Dr. Wilhelm Georg Rizzi, to whose studies this section refers, two architects are shortlisted as authors. With reservation, Johann Baptist Martinelli , who has been a master since 1728, in the thirties as a court architect and then as a Hungarian cameral engineer and was even able to rise to the position of imperial court architect in 1755. It is possible that his activity in Hungary was responsible for the entrustment with the construction of the castle in Ebenthal by the representative of an old Hungarian magnate family. However, it is much more likely that the representative of the Viennese building school working in Ebenthal is Johann Enzenhofer . According to the documents in the Kohàry archive, in 1755 a Rosina Catharina Enzenhofer in Vienna received a final payment for the “Gott seel. Mann ”made work in Ebenthal. Her husband, the bourgeois master builder and mason Johann Enzenhofer, died in Vienna in 1753. In Hungary in particular, Enzenhofer has been proven several times.
The type of fort of the Ebenthal facility, which was already obsolete at the time of construction, can be found in large numbers in Slovakia and thus in the Hungarian half of the empire. In this context, the mighty two-storey square building of the castle in Antol from 1744 is interesting, as it is secured for Johann Enzenhofer on the one hand and, on the other hand, the circle around Ebenthal is closed by its builder Andreas Josef Kohàry.
The social rise of Andreas Josef Kohàry, who since 1731 was a bailiff of Hont County, at the side of Prince Eugene of Savoy, required a proper representation of the offices he had achieved and exercised and led to the emergence of in the short period of the thirties and forties of the 18th century Ebenthal Castle and Antol Castle - Sväty Anton Castle - near the mining town of Banská Štiavnica in central Slovakia. The mighty two-storey square building of the castle in Antol from 1744 has been secured for Johann Enzenhofer.
Interior
The ballroom deserves special attention as a scene of baroque splendor. Uniform freshness determines the effect of the steeply proportioned, one-sided illuminated room. The main accent of this splendid hall with its fluted pilasters on the wall, the grisaille figures in the wall niches, over the doors painted over the doors with the "Four Seasons" and the richly designed mantelpiece comes from the ceiling painting "Glorification of Olympus". In continuation of the wall structure, a pseudo-architectural zone spreads out over the entablature, simulating a gallery and revealing a view of the heaven of the gods. Zeus and Hera are enthroned in the midst of the Olympic gods who have settled on cloud banks. Since the painting practices of that time very often differentiated between figure painters and quadraturists, a division of labor should also be considered in Ebenthal with regard to architecture and figural composition. In Ebenthal, however, the quadraturist was certainly the leading master, who determined the overall decoration and thus the overall concept. The figure painter comes from the circle around Paul Troger and could be identical to the academic painter Anton Schmidt. The specific reason why Schmidt is shortlisted as a figurist for Ebenthal is his activity in furnishing the aforementioned castle in Antol under the same builder Andreas Josef Kohàry.
In terms of art history, however, the squaring of the ceiling is important, which in the present case serves not so much to elevate the real space as to connect it with the heavenly world floating in the air. The sketch, dated 1736, entitled “Salla in fresco del Conte Kohàry” shows this pseudo-architecture in virtuoso pen strokes as preparation for execution. It comes from the hand of the most famous quadraturist, decorator and imperial theater engineer of the time, Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena . In view of the fact that the artist was mostly used for ephemeral works, his work in Ebenthal - next to the furnishings of the theater in Bayreuth - is the only surviving example of this genre and is therefore to be regarded as a rarity in every respect. The rooms in the west adjoining the ballroom on the upper floor have bandwork stucco from the second quarter of the 18th century, original doors and lambria. The rooms to the east were redesigned in the late classicist style in the first quarter of the 19th century. In the ceiling area there is decorative stencil painting over delicate stucco cornice. Another room with a sleeping alcove behind set columns is remarkable.
Some of the rooms on the ground floor are equipped with stitch caps and round stucco mirrors; the corridors predominantly with barrel vaults. The castle chapel is also located on the ground floor in the south-west corner of the castle. The two-storey chapel, made up of the main room and presbytery and provided with oratorios and galleries, shows a stucco marble decor that corresponds to the style of the hall, but is strictly tectonic. According to the detailed form of the main altar, which is integrated into the hard pilaster structure of the wall, it is likely to be a few years younger, as the late consecration date of August 15, 1747 speaks for. Together with the main altar, the altar of Johannes Nepomuk , who depicts the figure of the saint on a cloud bank in stucco, was consecrated. An unknown artist painted this fresco in the middle of the 18th century.
The small main altar has a modern picture, framed with a stucco frame, depicting Mary with child. Also worth mentioning is the fresco painting in the mirror fields of the flat vaults of the chapel, which depicts the Holy Trinity and the instruments of Christ's passion and was created in the second quarter of the 18th century. Unfortunately, the heavily overpainted condition of the fresco makes it impossible to assign an artist.
At Franz Xaver Schweickhardt the chapel following is noted:
“In the castle, which deserves a praiseworthy mention as a spacious splendid building, there is also a beautiful chapel, of which the altarpiece in the portrait contains the dying Savior. In the same church service is held in the presence of the rulership. "
The chapel originally housed the colossal grave monument of Duke August von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who died in Ebenthal in 1881, by Viktor Tilgner , a sculptor who was born in Pressburg, Hungary at that time . Today the monument, which, according to an inscription, dates from 1885, stands on the Coburg estates in the forest southwest of Ebenthal. Under Duke August, on the one hand, the extensive gardens were created in the middle of the 19th century, on the other hand, the palace was rebuilt for the last time, in which the round corner towers were incorporated into the side wings of the main front.
The interior of the castle has been lost since 1945; however, a report on an excursion to Stillfried and Ebenthal in the "monthly newspaper of the Association for Regional Studies" from 1916/17 gives information about what it originally looked like:
“In Ebenthal the goal was the castle, which Se. Royal Highness Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had graciously allowed. […] Today the idyllic little castle has gained great attraction for us Austrians, because here King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who was loyal to us in the great struggle of nations, spent his childhood and still today every year he spends a short time here in quiet and simple seclusion. [...] The rooms are characterized by the impression of cozy comfort (some with exquisite pieces of furniture from the Rococo to the Biedermeier period), an impression that is often reminiscent of that of Ernstbrunn Castle visited by our association in the previous year . "
Outdoor area
The palace park is not open to the public.
The Ottokarkreuz von Ebenthal , a stone cross at the side entrance to Ebenthal Castle, commemorates the battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen .
swell
- Andrea Boehm: Ebenthal. Home chronicle from the beginnings of the place until today. Ebenthal 1999.
Web links
- Legends from Ebenthal
- Entry via Ebenthal to Burgen-Austria
- Entry about Burgstall Ebenthal on NÖ-Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, University of Salzburg
Individual evidence
- ^ Topography of Lower Austria. Vienna 1885.
- ↑ Hans-Joachim Böttcher: Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha 1861 - 1948 - A cosmopolitan on the Saxon throne . Osteuropazentrum Berlin-Verlag (Anthea Verlagsgruppe), Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-89998-296-1 , p. 340-341 .
- ↑ Franz Xaver Schweickhardt: Representation of the Archduchy of Austria under the Ens, through a comprehensive description of all castles, palaces, lordships, cities, markets, villages, Rotten etc. etc., topographically, statistically, genealogically and historically processed and according to the existing four district Quarters [alphabetically]. First volume. District under the Manhartsberg. Vienna 1833, p. 179 ( archive.org ).
- ^ Monthly newspaper of the Association for Regional Studies, 1916/17.
- ↑ Ottokarkreuz. In: marterl.at. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .