Göppingen Castle

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View of the city and Göppingen Castle in the 17th century
copperplate engraving by Matthäus Merian
Rear view of the Göppingen Castle
Postcard from Göppingen Castle at the beginning of the 20th century
Castle model during the historic parade on May Day

The Castle Göppingen is a four-wing Renaissance , considered today district court is used and notary. The castle is located in Göppingen in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg .

Building history

In the middle of the 16th century, Duke Christoph von Württemberg regularly came to Göppingen for a cure in order to use the Göppingen sour water. It is also said to have helped him with a poisoning suffered at the French court.

He commissioned the builder Aberlin Tretsch to build a castle on the site of an already existing moated castle , first mentioned in 1455 , which was to serve as an apartment for him during his stays. It was built between 1550 and 1568 at the north-western end of the city center as an almost regular four-wing Renaissance complex with low pavilions sitting on the corners. The unadorned exterior facade to the city is only adorned by the elaborate decoration of the entrance gate to the city. The masonry of Hohenstaufen Castle , which was destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525 , is said to have served as building material .

The building was accessed through three (originally four) round stair towers in the corners of the inner courtyard. The first stair tower on the left with the Württemberg coat of arms above the door was reserved for the rulers and contains the so-called vine staircase, which was created by the Göppingen stonemason Hans Neu, as a special gem. 71 of the 79 steps of this spiral staircase, built in 1562, were decorated on the underside with a stone network of leaves and fruit from a vine, in whose tendrils a total of 13 different animals such as birds, a bear and a wild boar were incorporated. The middle staircase was the servants' entrance. Because the table silver was carried up there, it is called the "silver staircase".

In some of the offices there are still remnants of the original painting and decoration. The wall painting in the inner courtyard indicates on three sides that the arcades were previously open on the first and second floors. The west side to the stables , however, is lower and a half-timbered building. The stables have also been preserved and are now used as a youth detention center . The town church was built south of the castle in 1618 and 1619 by the ducal master builder Heinrich Schickhardt - also in the Renaissance style, which can only be seen on the outside since the interior renovation in 1772.

Research and restoration work has been carried out in the Göppingen Castle since 2002.

In the north there was a large park, laid out in 1567, with several fountains and summer houses, of which only a small remainder still exists.

Residents

The Göppingen Castle was initially used by Duke Christoph during the spa stays. Later it was used repeatedly as a widow's residence for the Duchesses of Württemberg. In particular, Duchess Maria Augusta was under house arrest from 1750 until her death in 1756 on the orders of her son Duke Carl Eugen . Later the still existing district court and official apartments for its judge, as well as the seat of the upper office in Göppingen and the camera administrator were housed in the castle . Wilhelm August von Breitling (1835–1914), Wuerttemberg's Prime Minister from 1901 to 1906 , spent the first years of his life at Göppingen Castle after his father Paul Breitling (1798–1867) became Chief Magistrate in Göppingen in 1835 and moved into one of the official apartments in the castle with his family . The castle also housed the district office of Göppingen as the successor to the upper office. After the district office moved out in 1968, the castle was renovated for six years. After the renovation, the palace also housed a tax office.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Description of the Oberamt Göppingen. Issued by the Royal Statistical-Topographical Bureau; unchanged new edition of the version from 1844, Bissinger, Magstadt, 1973, p. 110.
  2. ^ Walter Ziegler [ed.]: The district of Göppingen. Theiss, Stuttgart, 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0374-1 , p. 158.

Coordinates: 48 ° 42 ′ 18 ″  N , 9 ° 39 ′ 5.5 ″  E