Hohenaschau Castle

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Hohenaschau Castle

The Hohenaschau Castle is from a hilltop castle Resulting Castle in the town of Aschau in the Bavarian - Tyrolean border. It is located about a kilometer outside the city of Aschau on a 50 meter high rock ridge.

For about seven centuries it was the seat of important noble dynasties and the center of the Hohenaschau rule . From the last third of the 12th century it was built as a medieval ring castle on a rocky ridge in the Priental , but in the 18th century the castle increasingly lost its importance and fell into disrepair. After the last noble ruling family died out in the middle of the 19th century, the complex changed hands several times and was finally acquired by the industrialist Theodor Freiherr von Cramer-Klett as his family's country residence and, above all, converted into a castle by his son. Today the castle is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany and is used as a holiday and recreation home.

Building complex

Floor plan of the ring castle and the late additions (outer castle and chapel are missing)
Inner courtyard with a view of the gate tower
Vogelbau and Cavalierbau
One of the three Gothic rooms

The facility extends in an approximate east-west direction on the ridge of a freestanding, roughly oval rock ridge in the Priental. In its historical core, it consists of a continuous, mostly two to three-storey ring of buildings from different eras. To the west of the complex is the striking tower next to the inner gate and the equestrian staircase to the upper castle courtyard. In front of the inner castle is located in a fore-castle from defense wall with loopholes , two small semi-circular bastions and outer door system the chapel with Benefiziatenhaus (also Mesnerhaus ) and an average score. The castle complex is mainly built on the north side and parts of the south side right up to steep cliffs, sometimes even overhangs of the castle hill, which rises about 50 m above the valley level. To the west, the mountain falls less steeply, so that the driveway is laid out from this side and the old fortifications of the outer bailey can be found.

Some rooms in the historical part of the castle stand out due to their size and furnishings. These are, for example, the dark wood baroque designed ballroom consisting of two connected rooms on the upper floor of the north wing with the master’s dining rooms below. Is located on the upper floor of the south wing of the existing of three connected by doors rooms " Ahn ensaal" with a number larger than life statues. Underneath are the servants' former living and dining rooms, the so-called " Gothic rooms".

On the south side, during renovations at the beginning of the 20th century, the so-called "Vogelbau" was built to the side and below the tower with living rooms for the family of the last private owners. In addition, a two-storey guest wing with a low round tower and a new entrance was created at the foot of a rocky slope, which incompletely encloses another inner courtyard. From this building, known as the "Cavallierbau", there is a staircase to the "Vogelbau" in the west and an octagonal stair tower with a built-in elevator rises to the level of the old castle in the east. It is connected to the ring castle via a closed passage. In addition, a funicular was built from a valley station to the basement of the "Cavallier building". In addition to other technical modernizations, sanitary facilities, a modern kitchen (no longer available today) and a dumbwaiter to the ancestral hall were installed in the old ring castle.

Almost nothing is left of the movable equipment and the armory . The Priental Museum , set up in the Benefiziatenhaus and two rooms of the Ringburg, has collected some original exhibits such as two cannons and mortars and the guiding sword of the Hohenaschau rulership. Some old wall and ceiling decorations and a number of old tiled stoves have been preserved in the buildings. The majority of the floors and wall surfaces, some tiled stoves, some of the sanitary facilities and the lighting date from the time of expansion and renovation from 1905-08. The furniture, a large part of the lighting and the decoration of the rooms is modern or supplemented by government stocks of other origins. The castle now has oil central heating, and most recently cooking and sanitary facilities were created for the residents of the rest home.

history

The expansion of the facility is closely linked to the representatives of the families and the economic development of the upper Priental. The castle only experienced military attacks when such castle complexes were militarily outdated. The old castle only became a residential palace at the beginning of the 20th century.

founding

The area around Hohenaschau was owned by the Archbishopric of Salzburg from 891 AD . Around 1158 the Salzburg areas in the Priental and the possessions of the Herrenchiemsee monastery there were transferred to the Counts of Falkenstein-Neuburg as bailiffs . These in turn transferred the administration of the area as sub-guilds to the Lords of Hirnsberg.

Then the brothers Konrad and moved about from 1165 Arnold of Hirnberg its headquarters from the castle Hirnberg in the upper Priental and left there as the first parts of the castle probably a palace , tower and curtain wall building. Around 1170 the Castro Aschawe is mentioned in a document in the Codex Falkensteinensis . As a result, the Hirnsberger family called themselves Aschauer.

Even in the turmoil surrounding the fall of the Falkenstein family, the Lords of Hohenaschau managed to preserve the sovereign rights such as the right of high and blood jurisdiction, which came from belonging to Salzburg. At the beginning of the 14th century, the people of Aschau got into economic difficulties, from which the last Aschauer believed he could only get free by marrying his daughter while still a child with the middle-class Friedrich von Katzenberger. However, this family, who became very prosperous as Mautner von Burghausen , quickly became impoverished and died out in 1382. As a result, the castle came into the possession of the son-in-law Konrad Freiherr von Freyberg , who had already been named co-owner in 1374.

Rule of the Freybergers

Gate to the outer bailey, above it the coat of arms Pankraz von Freyberg

Under the rule of the wealthy and influential Barons of Freyberg from 1374 to 1606, Hohenaschau Castle experienced extensive expansion and the Hohenaschau rule experienced a significant economic boom. Pankraz von Freyberg was finally able to buy the properties of the Archdiocese of Salzburg in the Priental in 1529, along with other smaller lands. He also built and rebuilt the castle in the Renaissance style . Because of his turn to Protestantism , although he had been a high court official, he was temporarily captured by the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V and died in exile at the castle in 1565. His son Wilhelm died in 1606 without a male successor. The dating of the transition of the castle to the following noble family is somewhat unclear, but it was probably not made immediately, but only in 1608 or 1610.

Rule of the Preysinger

Ancestral Hall in the south wing
The baroque palace chapel

After the male line of the Freybergers died out, the castle and the Hohenaschau rule came into the possession of the Barons of Preysing ( counts from 1664 ) through the marriage of Benigna von Freyberg to Johann Christoph von Preysing . They expanded the property and made the castle the center of administration for their rule. During the reconstruction and expansion of the palace in the high baroque style (1672 to 1686), the ballroom in the south wing of the castle and the baroque palace chapel with beneficiary house in the outer bailey were created. The painters Joseph Eder and Jakob Carnutsch designed the lavishly painted dining room ("Lauber-Stube") of the counts for Max II von Preysing-Hohenaschau in 1686/87 with vedute of Roman gardens from the floor to the coffered ceiling . For the Preysinger family, however, Hohenaschau was just one residence among many. At the end of the 18th century, the old knight's castle apparently no longer corresponded to the taste of the penultimate count and maintenance was neglected.

The castle was attacked twice by military force. In 1704 in the War of the Spanish Succession , it was surrendered and looted after eight days of siege and bombardment. In 1809 the castle was plundered again by rebellious Tyroleans , but without fighting . As a result, many furnishings and a large part of the armory were lost.

Fall and property of the Cramer-Klett family

With the abolition of the aristocratic rule in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1848, the castle finally lost its importance as an administrative seat. After the Preysinger family died out in 1853, the castle changed hands several times. All of the remaining furniture was lost. Since the owners were often only interested in the lands belonging to the castle, the building fell into disrepair.

Finally, in 1875, the industrialist Theodor von Cramer-Klett acquired the castle as his family's country residence. After that, extensive structural changes were made. Especially his son Theodor jun. expanded and modernized the building considerably from 1905 to 1908. During the First World War , von Cramer-Klett made the castle available as a hospital . At the end of the war in 1918, he also built a "Krüppelheim" in Hohenaschau. The later the personal physician of Heinrich Himmler became known Karl Gebhardt operational from 1926 to 1933 an "apprentice training camp" in Hohenaschau he led a staff of physiotherapists and sports instructors. Until 1942 the castle belonged to the von Cramer-Klett family, then Ludwig Benedikt von Cramer-Klett was forced to sell the castle to the German Empire due to financial problems . Until the end of the war it served as a rest home for the Navy . Only the castle chapel is still owned by the family.

Todays use

The lock seen from an elevated position

After the war, the castle became the property of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has been in the portfolio of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks since 2005 . The majority of the castle has been rented to the social welfare agency of the Federal Finance Administration since 1960 and is mainly used as a holiday and recreation home. It has limited public access. The chapel and the ancestral hall are used on special occasions. In 1988, the Priental Museum was opened in the former benefit house . The palace buildings were last renovated in 2006. In 2008 the Bavarian State Exhibition "Aristocracy in Bavaria" took place in Hohenaschau Castle .

Web links

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

literature

  • Gertrud Diepolder, Richard van Dülmen, Adolf Sandberger: Historical Atlas of Bavaria. Altbayern booklet 38. The regional courts of Rosenheim and Auerburg and the lords of Hohenaschau and Wildenwart . Munich 1978
  • Joachim Zeune: On the building history of Hohenaschau , in: Wolfgang Jahn, Margot Hamm, Evamaria Brockhoff (eds.): Adel in Bayern, catalog for the Bavarian State Exhibition 2008 , Augsburg: House of Bavarian History, pp. 252-273, ISBN 978-3 -937974-19-4
  • Johannes Erichsen: The realm of flora - Italian models for the Lauberstube at Hohenaschau Castle , in: Wolfgang Jahn, Margot Hamm, Evamaria Brockhoff (eds.): Adel in Bayern. Catalog for the Bavarian State Exhibition 2008 , Augsburg: House of Bavarian History, pp. 274–283, ISBN 978-3-937974-19-4
  • Homeland and history association Aschau i.Chiemgau and community Aschau i. Chiemgau: Museum guide - a documentation. Priental Museum Hohenaschau Castle. 2nd edition, Aschau 1996

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 ′ 56.6 ″  N , 12 ° 19 ′ 19.6 ″  E