Heiligenberg Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heiligenberg Castle, view from the southeast

Heiligenberg Castle is a castle in Renaissance style in the town of Heiligenberg in Linzgau , north of Lake Constance . It is owned by the zu Fürstenberg family .

Geographical location

The castle is visible from afar on a high plateau at around 730  m above sea level. NN over Lake Constance with a view down over the lake and the Alpine chain behind.

history

The Graf family von Heiligenberg had their origin in the castle Altheiligenberg to the west (today only recognizable as a castle place in the forest). Around 1250, Count Berthold von Heiligenberg had another castle built at the site of today's castle , which was initially called Neuheiligenberg and was bought by Count Hugo von Werdenberg in 1277 . Under the Counts of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg, the complex was enlarged and expanded in the late Middle Ages , while Altheiligenberg was abandoned after 1300.

Through the marriage of Countess Anna von Werdenberg with Count Friedrich zu Furstenberg in 1516, the castle in 1535 got to the house Fürstenberg , in which it holds today. Shortly before his death in 1559, Friedrich decided to convert the castle into a renaissance palace. The most important builder was Count Joachim (1538–1598), who from 1560 to 1575 expanded the late medieval castle to a palace with a Renaissance courtyard and a wing with a ballroom facing south. The old part of the castle was clad with a renaissance facade. The two wings in the east and west were created and became connecting pieces to the now most important part of the castle, the south wing. These structural changes gave the palace its present-day appearance in the Renaissance style. The work was directed by Hans Schwarz.

Entrance to the castle

Inside the four-wing complex, the knight's hall was built between 1580 and 1584 , one of the most splendid ballrooms of the German late Renaissance . The room, together with the knight's hall in Weikersheim Palace , is one of the few remaining state rooms from this period. The richly carved coffered ceiling suspended from the roof structure was created by Jörg Schwartzenberger from Meßkirch between 1580 and 1584 . The chimney superstructures on the sandstone chimneys on the narrow sides with niche and column figures were made in 1584 and are believed to have been made by Hans Morinck .

Ballroom

The narrow and richly decorated castle chapel extends over three floors with glass windows from the 14th century, which originally come from the Dominican Church in Constance . It too is a gem of the German Renaissance. Under the altar there is a coffin which is said to contain the remains of Pope Felix I.

After 1598, Heiligenberg Castle was no longer used as a permanent residence . After the independent Heiligenberg line of the Fürstenberg family died out in 1716, the castle was only inhabited temporarily in the following centuries, for example from 1817–1822 by Princess Elisabeth zu Fürstenberg . The lords of the castle usually held high offices in imperial services or at the court of August the Strong in Saxony. The main place of rule was Donaueschingen at the beginning of the 18th century .

During the Thirty Years' War , the castle barely escaped destruction. If a detonator had not failed, it would have been blown up by the retreating French garrison.

A restoration of the chapel and the ballroom took place from 1878 by Adolf Weinbrenner .

Building description

A forecourt with extensive buildings belongs to the castle; here the free-standing bell tower

The palace complex is characterized by a knight's hall extending over two floors in the south wing with its artistically carved wooden ceiling and the palace chapel in the west wing, which is also a monument to the Fürstenberg family history.

Every now and then, members and guests of the princely family spend the night in the castle. It served as the princely family's summer residence until 2013. Hereditary Prince Christian zu Fürstenberg has lived in the palace with his family since 2013. For this, the east wing was renovated and made habitable. Part of the facility can be viewed as part of a guided tour.

literature

  • Eduard Berenbach : The finding of St. Cross and the foundation of the castle and "pilgrimage" Heiligenberg. Feyel publishing house, Überlingen 1932.
  • Eduard Berenbach: Veronese guests at Heiligenberg Castle , 1930.
  • Eduard Berenbach, Franz Karl Barth: Heiligenberg: climatic high altitude health resort near Lake Constance , Feyel publishing house in Überlingen 1935.
  • Eduard Berenbach: Heiligenberg bei Bodensee , Feyel Verlagbuchhandlung, Überlingen 1935.
  • Eduard Berenbach: 800 years of the Counts of Heiligenberg , Meder, Donaueschingen 1936.
  • Eduard Berenbach: The Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Hofkapelle in Heiligenberg , Feyel Verlagbuchhandlung, Überlingen 1937.
  • Eduard Berenbach: Heiligenberg , Feyel Verlagbuchhandlung, Überlingen 1938.
  • Eduard Berenbach: The master of the knight's hall in the castle of Heiligenberg , Feyel publishing house, Überlingen 1939.
  • Eduard Berenbach: The miraculous image of Heiligenberg , Feyel Verlagbuchhandlung, Überlingen 1939.
  • Eduard Berenbach: The Princely Fürstenberg Church Patronages , 1947.
  • Ulrich Feldhahn: Castle Tour Baden-Württemberg - a guide to castles and palaces in private ownership . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-935590-63-6 .
  • Carl Borromeo Alois Fickler: Heiligenberg in Swabia. With a story of its old counts and the Linzgau ruled by them . Macklot, Karlsruhe 1853 ( digitized version )
  • Susanne Krause: Heiligenberg Castle Park. From documentation to park maintenance. In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg , 35th year 2006, issue 4, pp. 234–237 ( PDF )
  • Michael Losse (ed.): Castles, palaces, aristocratic residences and fortifications on northern Lake Constance, Volume 1.1: Western part around Sipplingen, Überlingen, Heiligenberg and Salem . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86568-191-1 , pp. 68-77.
  • Ernst Wilhelm Graf zu Lynar: Heiligenberg Castle . Schnell + Steiner publishing house, Munich + Zurich 1A 1981, ISBN 3-7954-0830-X .
  • Theodor Martin: Heiligenberg Castle in Swabia , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 12th year 1883, pp. 70–79 ( digitized version ).
  • Theodor Martin: Castle chapel in Heiligenberg. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 12th year 1883, pp. 121–155 ( digitized version ).

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A jewel of the Renaissance . In: Bad weather tips . Special issue of the Bodensee Ferienzeitung. Edition 2/2009. Südkurier GmbH Medienhaus, Konstanz 2009, p. 8

Coordinates: 47 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  N , 9 ° 18 ′ 36 ″  E