Hohenbrunn Palace

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Hohenbrunn Palace

The Hohenbrunn Castle is located at an altitude of 270 meters in Hohenbrunn the municipality of St. Florian in District Linz-Land .

history

Establishment

The castle is the former hunting lodge of the St. Florian monastery . It was built on the site of the birthplace of Provost Johann Födermayr according to plans by Jakob Prandtauer by master builder Jakob Steinhuber between 1722 and 1732. Provost Födermayr was a farmer's son from Pfaffenhofen, who gave St. Florian Monastery a number of magnificent buildings (such as the south wing of the monastery building). His home, the Födermayrhof zu Phaffinhovin , has been documented since 1071. So originally there was a farm here. The palace construction is interpreted as a monumentalization of a square courtyard. Provost Födermayr died in 1732 when Hohenbrunn Palace was being completed; his architect Jakob Prandtauer was different as early as 1726.

The name of the Hohenbrunn Palace is derived from a well that was built here between 1719 and 1724 with a high water tower from which the monastery was supplied with drinking water. The tower in the middle of the south front of the castle was demolished in the first quarter of the 19th century for security reasons.

A number of talented craftsmen and artists were involved in the construction and its design, such as the plasterer Franz Josef Holzinger , the sculptor Leonhard Sattler , who designed the statues of Diana and Actaion above the entrance in 1729 , the painter Johann Georg Faistenberger, the trellis painter Johann Christoph Heinz, the pencil carpenter Stefan Jegg and the painter Matthias Müller.

Redevelopment

After the death of Abbot Födermayr, the castle was used less and less. The palace was in need of renovation just 100 years after completion. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (1875–1927), one of the Mauracher organ workshops was housed here. Even then, the castle was structurally in poor condition. The Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education demanded a large sum in 1913 to carry out the most necessary repairs. Due to the outbreak of the First World War , this project was not carried out. In 1929 part of the ceiling collapsed. After the Second World War , the castle was in acute danger of deterioration. The castle was rescued in the summer of 1946; the roof was re-covered in 1949–1957. In 1960 the castle was turned into a guest house. Another time of crisis followed. In 1961 a fundraising campaign to save the castle was initiated by the Federal Monuments Office and the cultural department of Upper Austria. The castle was first leased and sold in 1963. The palace was finally revitalized by the Association for the Rescue and Preservation of Hohenbrunn Palace, founded in 1963.

description

Hohenbrunn Palace is an almost square, two-story four-wing building with a hipped roof around a square inner courtyard. On the north and south facades are open loggias decorated with hunting trophies . In the past, utility and domestics rooms were housed on the ground floor. On the first floor there are well-proportioned halls on the left and the abbot's apartment on the right. In the so-called Venetian Room, the walls are decorated with paintings of sailing ships. The altarpiece in the castle chapel shows Duke Tassilo's youngest son Gunther, who is fatally wounded by a boar while hunting. The front loggia is reminiscent of the staircase of St. Florian Monastery. Above the entrance is next to the mentioned monumental figures of the hunting goddess Diane and Aktaion, the coat of arms of St. Florian Monastery and the year of construction.

  • Hohenbrunn Palace

  • Entrance portal of Hohenbrunn Palace

  • Loggia on the front of Hohenbrunn Palace

  • Courtyard of Hohenbrunn Palace

  • Torstöckl in front of Hohenbrunn Palace

  • Torstöckl Portal

  • View of Hohenbrunn Palace through the Torstöckl portal

In front of the castle is an elongated entrance building parallel to the castle (the so-called Torstöckl) with a coat of arms that reminds of the time it was built. The oversized deer antlers above the portal indicate the function of a hunting lodge. The entrance portal allows an interesting perspective of the actual castle. A well-tended garden leads to the castle. Above the gate to Torstöckl there is the following inscription: "After the Alt got too scolded, I took the name Hochbrün". Abbot Födermayr wanted to express that "Pfaff" had become a swear word since Martin Luther and that Pfaffenhofen has therefore been renamed Hohenbrunn.

use

Today the castle houses a hunting museum. This was opened on September 2nd, 1967 by Governor Gleißner . Hohenbrunn Palace is the seat of the Upper Austrian State Hunting Association and its education and information center. The castle can be rented for festivities, family celebrations and conferences. The owner is the Association for the Rescue and Preservation of Hohenbrunn Palace.

Collections

In the stairway to the northern loggia, lithographs by Josef Anton Strassgschwandtner are on display, showing the types of hunting that were common around 1850. There is also a hunting cynological collection with dog collars from 1580 to 1804. The castle is decorated with remarkable Baroque paintings (e.g. bear hunting by the Dutch painter Frans Snyders from Antwerp ). A showcase contains devotional objects that are reminiscent of Emperor Franz Josef I , who was known to be a passionate hunter (including hunting chair, mountain stick, Ischler neck, tobacco box). A rifle cabinet from Mayerling Castle commemorates Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary . In the castle there is also a collection of hunting weapons and a collection of porcelain with hunting motifs.

literature

  • Georg Clam Martinic: Castles and palaces in Austria. Landesverlag in Veritas Verlag, Linz 1991, ISBN 3-85001-679-1 .
  • Norbert Grabherr : Castles and palaces in Upper Austria. A guide for castle hikers and friends of home . 3. Edition. Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Linz 1976, ISBN 3-85214-157-5 .
  • Georg Grüll : Castles and palaces in Upper Austria, Volume 2: Innviertel and Alpine foothills . Birken-Verlag, Vienna 1964.
  • Oskar Hille: Castles and palaces in Upper Austria then and now . Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Sons, Horn 1975, ISBN 3-85028-023-3 .
  • Alfons Wunschheim: The Upper Austria. Hunting museum in Hohenbrunn Castle near St. Florian. For its 20th anniversary. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Year 41, Linz 1987, issue 4, pp. 361–364 ( online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).

Web links

Commons : Hohenbrunn Palace  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Wunschheim 1987, p. 361.
  2. ↑ a b Hohenbrunn Castle Hunting Museum. In: ooeljv.at. Upper Austrian State Hunting Association, accessed on August 30, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Wunschheim 1987, p. 362.

Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 56.7 "  N , 14 ° 21 ′ 22.3"  E