Fürstenberg Castle (Fürstenberg on the Weser)

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Fürstenberg Castle seen from the Weser Valley
Inner courtyard of Fürstenberg Palace

The Fürstenberg Castle is located in Furstenberg (Weser) in the district of Holzminden in the Solling-Vogler and is the seat of the founded in 1747 Fürstenberg porcelain .

The listed castle has housed the Fürstenberg Castle Museum of the porcelain factory since 1957 .

history

middle Ages

On the "Vorstenberch" (Forstinberg), the rocky ridge of the Kathagenberg , a tower castle was built to secure the Heerweg and the Weser border across from Brunsburg and the town of Höxter on the other side of the Weser. This came to the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel around 1300 and was first mentioned in a document in 1355. In 1382 the tower castle was owned by Duke Otto I of Braunschweig-Göttingen and belonged to the Principality of Göttingen .

According to a legend reported by Johannes Letzner , the castle belonged to the county of Dassel in the early Middle Ages .

Modern times

The first pictorial representation of Fürstenberg Castle as a Merian copper engraving around 1650
Fürstenberg Castle, around the 18th century
Fürstenberg Castle above the Weser, photo from 1909

Around 1600, Duke Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel converted the fortifications into a hunting lodge , the facade of which was built in the Weser Renaissance style. The hunting lodge was also the seat of the Fürstenberg office, from where the princely lands and forest areas were administered. In the middle of the 18th century the castle was only partially used as a hunting lodge and Karl I von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel commissioned his court hunter Johann Georg von Langen to set up a porcelain factory, which was founded on January 11, 1747 and has been based in around 1750 Lock was.

The previous official buildings were relocated outside the castle and further production buildings and kilns were built in the castle. From 1807 to 1813, the castle belonged to the factory to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia and came after the Congress of Vienna to the Duchy of Brunswick . In the 19th century, the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff is said to have described the porcelain factory in Fürstenberg as the “smoking castle”. The poet often visited her aunt in Wehrden Castle on the other side of the Weser. She lived and worked in the so-called Drosteturm in the castle park, from where she had a good view of Fürstenberg Castle.

20th and 21st centuries

In 1972 new production buildings for the porcelain factory were built next to the castle and production in the castle was discontinued. The subsequent additions to the original castle were removed again. The castle, which is now a listed building, has housed the porcelain manufactory's museum since 1957 and gives an overview of their production from the beginnings of the Rococo period to the present day.

Since 1997, theater performances have also been performed by Schlosstheater GmbH, which was dissolved in 2015. Furthermore, there has been a traditional Christmas market for artisans and an Easter egg market in the castle in Fürstenberg for years.

Due to extensive modernization work, the castle was closed from October 2015 to March 2017. The exhibition was shown in the Alte Remise during this time . Around five million euros were invested in the renovation of the historic facility and the redesigned porcelain exhibition. In March 2017 the new Museum Schloss Fürstenberg was opened within the castle. In addition to the redesigned permanent exhibition, this also includes a visitor workshop and themed special exhibitions.

The castle café and restaurant Bistro CARL is located in the former cavalier house of the castle . Here all dishes are served on Fürstenberg porcelain .

literature

  • Thomas Kellmann: "The smoking castle" on the Weser. Fürstenberg: Castle - Palace - Manufactory - Museum. A history of construction and use in four acts. In: Lower Saxony Monument Preservation 1993–2000. 2001, Volume 16, pp. 260-289.
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : Das Schloss Fürstenberg , pp. 165–167, in: If stones could talk . Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5

Web links

Commons : Schloss Fürstenberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Wigand: Der Corveysche Güterbesitz, 1831, p. 163
  2. ↑ Weser Uplands: traveling in fairy tale land
  3. ↑ A journey through the world of Fürstenberg
  4. ^ Museum Schloss Fürstenberg - Bistro CARL

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 '51.9 "  N , 9 ° 23' 54.3"  E