Groß-Roop Castle

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Groß-Roop Castle, view from the west

Groß-Roop Castle ( Latvian Lielstraupes pils ) is a castle complex in the northern Latvian town of Straupe ( German  Roop ) in the historical region of Livonia . It goes back to a medieval castle of the von Rosen family, which has been damaged several times over the years and has been rebuilt again and again. Remodeled into a baroque palace in the 18th century , the complex was still inhabited into the 20th century, before the owners were first expropriated and then relocated . Used as a tractor workshop after the Second World War , a clinic was set up there from 1963 to 2017. The facility is currently empty, but the palace gardens and courtyard are open to visitors.

The castle has been protected as a cultural monument since December 16, 1998 .

history

Beginnings in the late Middle Ages

The land around Straupe had belonged to the diocese of Riga since the beginning of the 13th century , and at the end of that century it was owned by the bailiff Otto von Rosen as an archbishop's fief . His family was an old Livonian noble family and was one of the most influential vassals of the Riga archbishop. It is possible that there was already a castle on this site in the second half of the 13th century, because at that time the Roop settlement already existed as a hook factory, i.e. a small town surrounded by a palisade . In addition, a Waldemar von Rosen is documented for the year 1288, but no fiefdom was mentioned when he was named. Tradition has it that the facility was founded in 1263, but there is no documentary evidence of this dating. The first written mention of a castle of the Rosen family in what was then Roop dates back to 1310 when it was besieged by Lithuanians . In 1350, Archbishop Fromhold von Vifhusen awarded the "husz tho roses" to the knight Wolmar von Rosen and his nephew Hennecke. A generation after Hennecke, the Rosenschen estates were divided into three independent estates, which were named Groß-Roop, Klein-Roop and Hochrosen after their noble residences . At that time, the Groß-Roop complex probably consisted only of a fortified square and a castle courtyard to the north, which bordered the town of Roop. So she belonged to the tower castles .

Damage and confiscation

Presumably around 1500 Groß-Roop was extended by a residential wing, which joined the castle tower in a south-westerly direction. At the same time, a Gothic church was built to the east , which was integrated into the defense system of the complex by being connected to the tower and the new residential wing by a curtain wall . While the system was called "hoff to Rope" in documents up to the time of the expansion, it appeared in written documents as "dat sloth rope" from 1512.

In 1529 the plant was bought by a family line belonging to the Hochrosen family. At the beginning of the 17th century it was badly damaged during the Northern Wars . In 1624 it was mentioned that it was unused without a roof and with the exception of two chambers, a cellar and a kitchen. Since the owners were on the side of the Poles in the Polish-Swedish War and thus the losers, King Gustav Adolf confiscated the restored Groß-Roop Castle in 1625 after his troops had gained the upper hand in the Riga area , and gave the complex as a fief the Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm von Wallenstein. Already in 1629 he sold it for 3,100  speciestalers to the widow of Jürgen von Albedyll, Elisabeth b. from Ihlenbach. The von Stackelberg family succeeded the von Stackelberg family as lords of the castle in 1704. They acquired a facility that had already been repaired for the second time, because in 1684 a fire had badly damaged the castle and church.

Baroque remodeling in the 18th century

Groß-Roop Castle 1778, detail from a drawing by Johann Christoph Brotze

Renewed destruction took place in the Great Northern War . Shortly after the end of the war, Count Peter von Lacy acquired the damaged complex and had it rebuilt and rebuilt until 1743. This was accompanied by a Baroque transformation of the palace. The old castle tower was given a curved dome , the residential wing on the southern front side a tail gable and a new portal on the courtyard side . In addition, the new lord of the castle had the badly damaged church redesigned to its present form. He was followed by the chamberlain from Electoral Saxony , Peter von Vietinghoff, as owner. He sold Groß-Roop in 1780 to Peter von Lacy's nephew, the governor-general of Livonia Georg Graf Browne , who in turn was succeeded by the Counts of Solms and Tecklenburg as lords of the castle. Heinrich Friedrich von Solms and Tecklenburg pledged the property in 1797 to the secretary Jakob Bernhard Müller, who ceded it to the Russian Emperor Paul I that same year .

In 1857 the baron Johann Gustav von Rosen, resident at Schloss Klein-Roop, succeeded after many years of efforts to buy back Groß-Roop for his family, and in 1866 he turned it into a family fideikommiss . At that time the property comprised around 800  hectares of land, the majority consisting of forest.

Renewed destruction and renewed reconstruction in the 20th century

The burnt out castle in 1906

During the Russian Revolution , the castle was badly damaged by a fire set by revolutionaries in December 1905. The then owner, Baron Hans von Rosen , it was from 1906 to 1909 according to plans of from Riga originating architect Wilhelm Bockslaff rebuild and restore . Destroyed items were reconstructed as much as possible, for example the stucco ceilings in the interior or the large oak baroque staircase . The work is considered to be the first restoration in Latvia to be carried out according to scientific standards. However, some parts that did not exist before were also added, including the second floor of the northeast wing and some half-timbered buildings .

In 1920 Hans von Rosen - like all large landowners in Latvia - was expropriated as part of a major agrarian reform . Only about 50 hectares of his huge property were given to him, including the Groß-Roop Castle. He lived there until he was relocated in 1939.

Since 1945

After the end of the Second World War, a tractor workshop was initially housed in the castle complex. From 1963 she housed a state clinic. Renovation work was carried out again between 1966 and 1970 , but the clinic had to cease operations at the end of 2017 due to the dilapidation of the building. Since then, local politicians have been looking for a new use for the facility. The Pārgauja administrative district has meanwhile taken care of it and opened it to visitors.

description

location

Groß-Roop Castle is in the immediate vicinity of the A3 on the way from Riga to Valmiera ( German  Wolmar ) on the left bank of the Brasla ( German  Raupa / Ropa), a tributary of the Livonian Aa . Less than a kilometer to the northeast is Klein-Roop Castle, which was built by the same family. The fortified predecessor of Groß-Roop was on an elevated point above the river and was protected against attacks by a bend in the Brasla and dammed ponds on two sides. On the other sides of the castle there was a rampart and artificial ditches for defense. Of these defensive elements, only the ponds in the west and south of the castle are preserved today.

architecture

Castle wing

Castle floor plan as it was before 1723

The castle is a two-wing complex, the wings of which adjoin each other almost at right angles and thus surround an inner courtyard on two sides. The two non-building sides in the southwest and southeast of the courtyard are closed off by the remains of a defensive wall that dates back to the time of the castle. The masonry of the building consists mostly of brick and is plastered in yellow and white . Where the two wings meet, there is an almost square tower measuring 9 × 9.45 meters, the walls of which are up to four meters thick. In all likelihood, it still comes from the first castle complex and would therefore be the oldest part of today's castle. Its four floors are closed off by a baroque dome with an open lantern and a crowning weather vane . The latter shows the year 1743 and thus the year in which the baroque renovation of the complex under Peter von Lacy was completed. On all four sides of the roof there is a clock face for the tower clock installed by a local master watchmaker.

The north-west wing, 27 meters long and originally nine meters wide, was used for residential purposes. Its tail gable on the southern end bears a strong resemblance to the gable on the cathedral church in Riga from 1727 . During the renovation under Count von Lacy, the wing was widened to its present size. Its courtyard-side portal with blown gable and the vestibule behind it comes from the same time. The new building was necessary because the baroque staircase was destroyed in a fire in the 17th century. The inscription dating of the portal to 1909 results from repair work in that year. The terrace in front of the portal, including the outside staircase, dates from the same time . The north-west wing is adjoined by a two-storey rectangular building with a tiled hipped roof , which was previously called the Knight's Hall . Part of the old curtain wall was integrated into its ground floor.

The north-east side of the castle courtyard is bordered by a two-story wing that is 27.8 meters long. There is the large main gate to the inner courtyard, above which the coat of arms of the von Rosen family and an inscription can be found on the outside. This mentions the alleged year the facility was founded in 1263, but the inscription itself dates from the 19th century at the earliest.

Castle Church

The north-east wing is joined to the east by the 32.4 meter long castle church from the Gothic period. For a long time the lords of the von Rosen family were buried in the church. The surviving tombstone of Georg von Rosen, who died in 1590, testifies to this. More tombstones - also of recent ones - are placed in the castle courtyard. The church with the high pointed arched windows was formerly three-aisled and had a vaulted interior, but was rebuilt in a different form after being damaged by a fire. Today its nave has a single nave and the vault is only preserved in the choir . However, the wall pillars and remains of the shield arches are still preserved from the former nave vault . The interior features a painted pulpit from 1739 and stained glass windows in the apse , which were made according to designs by the artist Sigismunds Vidbergs and installed there in 1940/1941.

Castle Park

The castle is set in a landscaped park where native and exotic tree species grow, including winter jasmine and balsam fir . In its eastern corner is a wooden bell tower that was erected there in 1848. The northern part of the park occupies an area on which the Hanseatic city of Roop was located in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period . However, it was completely destroyed during the Northern Wars in the 17th century and was never rebuilt. In the area of ​​today's castle park there was also the medieval Roops cemetery, where people were buried until 1775.

  • Northwest wing, view from the courtyard

  • Castle gate in the northeast wing

  • Castle church, view from the castle courtyard

  • Wooden bell tower

literature

  • Wilhelm Bockslaff : Gross-Roop Castle in Livonia. In: Yearbook of the fine arts in the Baltic provinces. Volume 3, No. 1, 1909, pp. 133-139 ( digital copy ).
  • Andris Caune, Ieva Ose: Latvijas viduslaiku pilis. Volume 4: Latvijas 12. gadsimta seiu - 17. gadsimta vācu piļu leksikons. Latvijas vēstures institūta apgāds, Rīga 2004, ISBN 9984-601-07-2 , pp. 283-287.
  • Karl von Löwis of Menar : Castle Lexicon for Old Livonia. Walters and Rapa, Riga 1922, pp. 104-106 ( digitized version ).
  • Heinz Pirang: The Baltic mansion. Volume 1. Jonck & Poliewsky, Riga 1926, pp. 31-33, 79-80 ( digitized version ).
  • Erik Thomson, Georg Baron von Manteuffel-Szoege: Palaces and manors in the Baltic States (= castles, palaces, manors. Volume 7). 3. Edition. Weidlich, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, ISBN 3-8035-1042-2 , pp. 69-71.
  • Armin Tuulse: The castles in Estonia and Latvia (= negotiations of the learned Estonian society. Volume 33). Dorpater Estonian Publishing House, Dorpat 1942, pp. 110–111 ( PDF ; 15.5 MB).
  • Albert's Zarāns: Latvijas pilis un muižas. Castles and manors of Latvia. Zarāns, Riga 2006, ISBN 9984-785-05-X , p. 216 ff.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Groß-Roop  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Information on the castle in the Latvian National Cultural Monuments Database , accessed on October 27, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Entry by Ieva Ose on Groß-Roop Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute, accessed on October 27, 2019.
  3. ^ A b Erik Thomson, Georg Baron von Manteuffel-Szoege: Palaces and manors in the Baltic States. 1980, p. 69.
  4. ↑ a b c d Gatis Pavils: Lielstraupe medieval castle , accessed on October 27, 2019.
  5. ^ Heinz Pirang: The Baltic mansion. Volume 1, 1926, p. 31.
  6. ↑ a b c Erik Thomson, Georg Baron von Manteuffel-Szoege: Castles and manors in the Baltic States. 1980, p. 71.
  7. ↑ a b Armin Tuulse: The castles in Estonia and Latvia. 1942, p. 111.
  8. ^ Heinrich von Hagemeister : Materials for a history of the country estates of Livonia. Volume 1. Frantzen, Riga 1836, p. 95 ( digitized version ).
  9. ↑ a b Heinz Pirang: The Baltic mansion. Volume 1, 1926, p. 80.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Karl von Löwis of Menar: Burgenlexikon für Alt-Livland. 1922, p. 105.
  11. ↑ a b c Erik Thomson, Georg Baron von Manteuffel-Szoege: Castles and manors in the Baltic States. 1980, p. 70.
  12. ↑ a b c Udo Bongartz: The uncertain future of Groß-Roop Castle , accessed on October 27, 2019.
  13. ^ Wilhelm Bockslaff: Gross-Roop Castle in Livonia. 1909, p. 136.
  14. ↑ Information on Groß-Roop on tournet.lv , accessed on October 28, 2019.
  15. ↑ a b c Information on the castle park on the Pārgauja administrative district website , accessed on October 28, 2019.
  16. ↑ Coordinate: 57 ° 20 ′ 51.8 ″  N , 24 ° 56 ′ 58.9 ″  E

Coordinates: 57 ° 20 ′ 50.3 ″  N , 24 ° 56 ′ 51.9 ″  E