Landestrost Castle

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Castle wing with champagne cellar

Landestrost Castle is a castle complex in the Weser Renaissance style , which was built between 1573 and 1584 in Neustadt am Rübenberge in Lower Saxony . Integrated into a fortress together with the city , the result was a city fortress typical of the 16th century. The castle was the representative residence and administrative seat of its builder, Duke Erich II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. During the construction period from 1574 he renamed the city Neustadt in Landestrost, which was reversed after his death in 1584.

history

Merian copper engraving of the castle and town around 1650
Site plan of the castle in 1885 with an arrow-shaped south bastion
Fortress walls

The castle was built in the flat land on a natural elevation, the "Rouvenberg", near the Leine . The increase presumably gave the place its later name affix "on the Rübenberge". The castle was built on the foundations of the castle , first mentioned in 1493 as "castrum Rouenberg" . Erich I was born on it in 1470 . Most of this castle was destroyed by fire in 1563. The construction of the later, fortified castle served to represent the power of its builder Duke Erich II in the northern area of ​​his principality. But it also had practical reasons, such as monitoring a passing trade route and leash shipping . He seldom stayed at the castle, as he went on military expeditions through Europe as a mercenary leader and had his official residence in Hann in 1555 . Münden relocated. It was common for this group of people to invest the wealth gained in this way in lavish and representative buildings. Numerous foreign architects and craftsmen were involved in the construction. Based on the stonemasons' marks found on the building, it is assumed that over 200 stonemasons were employed here. The name Landestrost was intended to express that it was a trusting resting place in the territory of the Principality of Calenberg .

However, the duke died in Italy in 1584 before the palace was completed, leaving no legitimate heirs. His domain was united with the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . Duke Julius, as his nephew, left the expensive construction work unfinished. During the Thirty Years' War , the castle and the town were occupied by Tilly's troops between 1626 and 1635 . 1635 was liberated by Duke Georg von Calenberg . The complex remained the residence of the dukes of Lüneburg until 1636. Then it became the seat of the bailiff of the Neustadt am Rübenberge. He used the old fortress plateau as an orchard and vegetable garden, which is why the area is still called the “Official Garden” today. A site plan of the castle from 1885 shows the old network of paths and the garden layout, which was retained in the current redesign. Future changes are linked to a garden monument preservation concept that has been implemented since 2003.

Building description

Casemate entrance in the inner fortress wall
Ornately ornamented sandstone door portals in the inner courtyard

According to the will of the builder, the construction of a four-wing palace complex was originally planned. In fact, only the north and east wings were rebuilt. The south wing was still present from the previous castle. When the castle was besieged in 1635 during the Thirty Years War , it was badly damaged and collapsed the following year. The quarry stones used in the construction of the castle came from the heights of the Stemmer Berg and Gehrdener Berg , about 25 km to the south, and the sandstone from the Deister . The transport was carried out by hand and tension services of compulsory subjects with horse-drawn vehicles . Sometimes it was carried out by ship on a leash . The red bricks of the castle came from a brick factory in Wunstorf, about 8 km to the south . Earth material from the area around the construction site was used for the walls.

The palace complex has stair towers that provide access to the individual floors. The brick masonry facade is in the Renaissance style. It is loosened up by friezes and cornices made of sandstone. The richly decorated entrance portals made of sandstone are striking. The castle's cellars consist of vaults and are connected to the casemates of the fortress that extends outwards.

Renovation and excavation

In the 20th century the castle was completely renovated. In 1985 the roof structure built in 1837 was re-covered. They discovered severe damage to the floor slabs as a result of woodworm infestation . Almost all of the internal fixtures from the past 400 years since the building had to be removed, and new ceilings were partially put in place. During the renovation, the foundations of the previous castle were discovered under the castle. The fountain in the courtyard was also found and restored. The costs for the six years of work amounted to 9 million DM .

In 2017, an archaeological investigation was carried out on the castle grounds in the western area near a building from the 1950s, in which the city library is located. The excavation concerned a wall up to 5 meters high with a presumed early modern casemate . Instead, the archaeologists came across a castle mound which, based on the finds, could be dated to the 13th century. You can see a high medieval tower castle of the Motte type , which was later integrated into the early modern fortifications. The discovery corresponds with a document from the years 1221–1231, which speaks of a castle-like house of the Counts of Wölpe . The castle hill confirms the long-standing assumption that the Counts of Wölpe owned a castle near the town of Neustadt they founded in the early 13th century, probably also to control the Leine crossing there.

Attachment

Fortress wall and south bastion (east side; towards Leine)

The expansion of Neustadt as a fortress including the Landestrost Castle was an obvious choice because of the topographical location in the flat terrain. The other domains of Erich II in southern Lower Saxony were less suitable for this because they were in valleys and enemies would have had an advantage if they had been bombarded from the mountains. In the sense of the military architecture of the time, Neustadt and Landestrost Castle were a New Italian bastion fortification in the Principality of Calenberg . It was on a par with other fortifications or towns in Germany, such as Wolfenbüttel , the Spandau and Jülich citadels . Landestrost was one of the most heavily fortified structures of its time in northwest Germany . The renaissance castle was integrated into the fortress.

The castle, developed as a citadel , had an area of ​​2.5 hectares. The castle and town were surrounded by fortifications and acute-angled bastions . For this purpose, earth walls were built and surrounded by deep moats. The place and castle with a floor area of ​​10 hectares were surrounded by a wall-supported rampart of 1,800 m in length. The walls were 9 m high and 2.3 m thick. The entire wall was 37–42 m wide. The structure of the entire fortress corresponded to the requirements that the development of powder guns had brought about. Bastionnaires' fortifications in Italy and the Netherlands served as a model. Duke Erich II modeled himself on systems that he had seen in Antwerp during his mercenary service in the Spanish-Dutch war . Italian engineers who also worked in other locations were commissioned with the construction. Today only the south bastion and an approximately 100 m long casemate remain from the fortress in the area of ​​the castle . The remains of the Erichsbastion on the northern edge of the city were partially excavated.

Legend of the immured child

Relief of the "walled-in child" in the outer wall of the south bastion

There is a legend about the construction of the fortress walls around 1580 , according to which a child is said to have been walled in alive. Allegedly, the walls collapsed again and again when the south bastion was built. They originated in the swampy subsoil of the nearby Leine . The duke, as the builder, pushed for the complex to be completed, and sacrifice was seen as the solution . The child of a gypsy who was bought from his mother for a few talers is said to have served for this purpose. The mother is said to have thrown herself into the fortress moat later and drowned. In an outer wall of the south bastion there is a stone relief of a child to remember the story.

Todays use

The owner of the palace complex is the Stiftung Kulturregion Hannover . A sparkling wine cellar (Duprès-Kollmeyer, formerly Duprès) that works with bottle fermentation has been housed in the cellar vaults since 1888 . It is the only sparkling wine producer in Lower Saxony. In 1958, an extension was added to the castle for the then district administration, which today houses the city library and the district court . Another user of the palace complex is the Hanover Region archive , which is located in the east wing. Some castle rooms are rented out for events. From 1973 the fortress plateau, which in earlier centuries served the bailiff as a vegetable garden, was transformed into a public park.

Festivals and markets

Illuminated castle during the "castle lights" in December 2012
Music for the opening of the retrospective by János Nádasdy ;
in June 2014

In May, a “ Renaissance Festival ” with costumed performers, Renaissance-related events and a market is held on the grounds of the castle .

During the Advent season, there is a small market in the castle courtyard as part of the “Castle Lights” campaign. On this occasion, the entrance side of the palace is artistically illuminated .

Art exhibitions

For decades, the Neustadt am Rübenberge art association has regularly organized art exhibitions in the historical rooms of the castle. The Hanover region also enables visual artists from Lower Saxony to present their works. For example, the graphic artist and action artist János Nádasdy , the sculptor Wolf Glossner and Barbara Lütjen, who deals with the processing of self-made paper and uses it to create objects, have been invited to solo exhibitions (Dialogues 4). The participants in the “studio walks” in Hanover and the region were given the opportunity here every year to show their pictures and sculptures to interested visitors. In 2016 a group exhibition with the title "Wildness / Taming" took place, in 2017 the exhibition theme was "The essence of happiness". Designers and artisans also regularly exhibit their exhibits here.

A steel sculpture by the sculptor Hannes Meinhard is located in the spacious park of the palace .

Peat museum

In the castle there was a peat museum that documented the moorland west of Neustadt am Steinhuder Meer with its extensive peat extraction. The museum was divided into several areas, e.g. B. Formation of bog and peat, human use of the raw material peat as a livelihood for bog settlers, bog cultivation and today's protection of bogs.

literature

  • Veronica Albrink: "Great splendor leads to wealth ...". The buildings and finances of Erich the Younger of Braunschweig-Calenberg (1546–1584). In: The Weser area between 1500 and 1650. Society, economy and culture in the early modern times, ed. from the Institute for Architecture, Art and Cultural History in North and West Germany at the Weser Renaissance Museum at Brake Castle. Marburg 1993, ISBN 3-89445-138-6 .
  • Wolfgang Kunze: life and buildings of Duke Erich II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Catalog for the historical exhibition in Landestrost Castle, Neustadt am Rübenberge. Hanover 1993.
  • Burkhard Rühling: Landestrost fortress and castle, an "Architectura militaris" - and "civilis" of the Renaissance in Neustadt am Rübenberge. Dissertation. Hanover 1988.
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Landestrost Castle. In: If stones could talk. Volume II, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-7842-0479-1 , pp. 136-139.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kathrin Götze: Excavation points to the castle of the Counts of Wölpe in: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of October 4, 2017, p. 19.
  2. ↑ Ute Bartelt : Casemate wanted - moth found. Discovery of a medieval hilltop tower castle in Neustadt am Rübenberge in Archeology in Lower Saxony 21, 2018, pp. 125–127.
  3. ^ Rainer Ertel: Stiftung Kulturregion Hannover. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 605f.

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 9 ″  N , 9 ° 27 ′ 46 ″  E