Lichtenstein Castle (Württemberg)

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Lichtenstein Castle
Exterior view of Lichtenstein Castle am Albtrauf, May 2010

Exterior view of Lichtenstein Castle am Albtrauf, May 2010

Creation time : 1840-1842
Conservation status: Receive
Place: Honau (Lichtenstein)
Geographical location 48 ° 24 '24 "  N , 9 ° 15' 29"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 24 '24 "  N , 9 ° 15' 29"  E
Height: 817  m above sea level NHN
Lichtenstein Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Lichtenstein Castle

Lichtenstein Castle , also known as " Wuerttemberg's fairytale castle ", is a 19th century castle built in the style of historicism over the town of Honau , Lichtenstein municipality , in the Reutlingen district in Baden-Wuerttemberg .

Geographical location

Location on the Albtrauf

The castle is located on the Alb eaves of the Swabian Alb at an altitude of 817 m above sea level. NN above the valley of the Echaz , which rises as a small tributary of the Neckar about 250 meters lower in the valley. About 500 meters southeast of the castle are the remains of the ruins of the medieval Alt-Lichtenstein Castle ("Alter Lichtenstein").

history

The Lichtenstein forester's lodge built on the castle ruins in the early 19th century. Steel engraving after e. Drawing by Ludwig Mayer. (Source: Walks through Swabia by Gustav Schwab. Leipzig 1838)
The forester's house when it was demolished in 1839
Outbuildings

Lichtenstein Castle was built on the site of today's castle around 1390 after the previous castle Alt-Lichtenstein in the neighborhood was destroyed in the Swabian City War in 1381 and then abandoned. The new Lichtenstein Castle was one of the most defensive of the late Middle Ages . The early casemates on the south side with notches for firearms are remarkable. However, its strategic importance waned over time, and in 1567 it lost its status as a ducal seat. It was now used as a forester's house. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the building was taken over by the Tyrolean line of the House of Habsburg as part of the Achalm pledge . In the period that followed, the facility gradually fell into disrepair.

The last Lichtensteiner died in 1687 in the fight against the Turks . Since no other successors are known, they have since been considered extinct. The original coat of arms of the Lichtensteiners, the golden angel wing on a blue background, is still shown on the wall in the knight's hall of the new Lichtenstein Castle.

In 1802 parts of the castle ruins were torn down and a princely forest and hunting lodge was built at the behest of Duke Friedrich II , who later became King Friedrich I of Württemberg .

In the 19th century, in the course of the Romantic era, there was a great interest in medieval knighthood. Wilhelm Hauff published his novel Lichtenstein in 1826 , which refers to the late medieval Lichtenstein Castle. In this novel, a piece of Württemberg regional history was popularized. The focus of the story is u. a. the outlawed Duke Ulrich , who was expelled from Württemberg by the Swabian Federation in 1519 and is said to have temporarily found refuge on the Lichtenstein and in the neighboring Nebelhöhle .

Wilhelm Graf von Württemberg (later Duke of Urach), a cousin of the king, was very interested in medieval history and historical buildings and art monuments. He was enthusiastic about Hauff's novel and decided to buy the Lichtenstein after he had been looking for a castle ruin on the Swabian Alb to be rebuilt as a summer residence for a long time . The forester's house located there at that time was acquired by Count Wilhelm in 1837 after negotiations with Urach's chief forester Philipp Freiherr von Hügel and his successor Friedrich von Mandelsloh . The count, a passionate collector of weapons, armor and paintings, needed a place to store his art objects and wanted a knight's castle that was as authentic as possible. After the forest and hunting lodge was demolished, the castle was built between 1840 and 1842 according to the plans of Carl Alexander Heideloff , under the later construction management of Johann Georg Rupp (1797-1883). In addition to Georg Eberlein, the sculptor Ernst Machold, the Reutlingen glass painter Friedrich Pfort and other students of Heideloff were involved in furnishing the palace . In addition to the core castle built on a steep rock tower above the medieval walls, an extensive outer bailey with corner bastions and gun turrets was built, which included two older farm buildings that were rebuilt. The neo-Gothic Lichtenstein is one of the first historicist palace complexes in southwest Germany, which can be counted among the best creations of romantic historicism in Germany due to its embedding as accessories in the Alb landscape and its high-quality architecture and interior design .

The new palace corresponded to the romanticizing ideas common in the 19th century about medieval knight castles and can be assigned to the neo-Gothic architectural style . Count Wilhelm sought to create a patriotic monument for the House of Württemberg , which is particularly evident in the rich, high-quality neo-Gothic interior with paintings by Georg Eberlein. After the revolution of 1848/49 , Count Wilhelm, who was elevated to Duke of Urach in 1867 and was a passionate artillery officer, had the outer bailey fortifications expanded according to his own designs. In the center a caponier was built corresponding to the German fortress at the time, with an outer structure in front, as shown in a much larger scale similar to the federal fortress in Ulm . A trench was dug around the outer wall. The count tried to secure his castle and the art treasures it contained against feared attacks. Cannons were set up in the bastions and behind the walls. At the same time, Count Wilhelm tried to demonstrate the development of fortress construction from the Renaissance to his own time as a model.

From 1899–1900 the so-called Gerobau was built in the outer bailey and finally in 1907/08 the Fürstenbau, which stylistically fits into the historicist complex.

Two paintings by an as yet unknown Gothic painter kept in the castle helped him to get his emergency name Meister von Schloss Lichtenstein .

Current situation

1997–1999 the second and third floors of the castle were restored, funded by the Wüstenrot Foundation and the Association for the Preservation of Lichtenstein Castle

Today the castle can be visited for a fee as part of a guided tour (without a guided tour, tourists cannot enter the interior of the castle). Alternatively, there is the possibility of only visiting the castle courtyard, for example to get an impression of various structurally distinctive features such as a cannon tower and the like. a. To provide. Collectibles such as B. various historical artillery pieces ( cannons ) that are exhibited there.

Lords of the castle

The lords of Lichtenstein Castle are the descendants of the builder, the Dukes of Urach (a branch of the House of Württemberg):

Others

Location

Lichtenstein Castle was a location for the fairytale film Sleeping Beauty in 2009 . In the film adaptation of the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm , Lichtenstein portrayed the enchanted castle overgrown by a hedge of thorns.

Postage stamps

Lichtenstein Castle was chosen as the motif for various stamp series. During the French occupation of southwest Germany after the Second World War, a stamp issue for the French Württemberg-Hohenzollern zone was issued in August 1947 at 84 Reichspfennig.

On June 16, 1982, a 35-Pfennig postage stamp from the Deutsche Bundespost Berlin with the motif Lichtenstein Castle was issued. The Deutsche Bundespost as well as the Deutsche Bundespost Berlin issued 21 values ​​each in the castles and palaces stamp series .

Emergency money

5- Pfennig - emergency money from 1947 in Württemberg-Hohenzollern

In October 1947, during the French occupation after the Second World War, Lichtenstein Castle was depicted on a 5-Pfennig makeshift note from the state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern .

Replicas

In Lietzow on Rügen there is a small castle built in 1868, which is largely a copy of Lichtenstein Castle.

In Osthofen near Worms ( Rheinhessen ) there is a vineyard house built in 1891 in the form of a miniature castle, which is similar to Lichtenstein Castle. The building stands above the "Leckzapfen" vineyard, above the old town of Osthofen. The area is freely accessible and is managed by the Schönauer Hof winery.

In the South African Hout Bay near Cape Town , the German-born businessman Reynier Fritz built a replica of Lichtenstein Castle between 1986 and 1998, which is now one of the sights of the place. The replica of the castle houses a guest house and can be used for various events.

Models

The model railroad accessories manufacturer Faller offers a kit model of the castle in 1:87 scale .

literature

  • Wilhelm Hauff : Lichtenstein . Romantic legend from the Württemberg [sic!] History. 3 vols. Franckh, Stuttgart 1826. [Numerous new editions; Digital copies: Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 , Vol. 3. ]
  • Albert Minzenmay: Lichtenstein Castle. Württemberg. Laupp, Tübingen [approx. 1950]. [Reprint: Laupp & Göbel, Tübingen (approx. 1991)].
  • Heinz Biehn : Residences of Romanticism. Prestel, Munich 1970, ISBN 978-3-7913-0302-4 , pp. 19-28.
  • Christoph Bizer, Rolf Götz: Forgotten castles of the Swabian Alb . DRW-Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-87181-244-7 , pp. 47-51.
  • Günter Schmitt : Castle Guide Swabian Alb, Volume 4 - Alb Mitte-Nord: Hiking and discovering between Aichelberg and Reutlingen. Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1991, ISBN 3-924489-58-0 , pp. 315-332.
  • Rolf Bidlingmaier: Lichtenstein Castle. The building history of a romantic symbol . In: Reutlinger Geschichtsblätter NF 33/1994, pp. 113–152.
  • Sylvia Hartig: Lichtenstein Castle - a memorial belonging to Count Wilhelm von Württemberg. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg 28, 1999, issue 2, pp. 98-106.
  • 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 .
  • Hans-Christoph Dittscheid: Invention as a memory. Lichtenstein Castle between Hauff's poetic fiction and Heideloff's artistic concretization . In: Ernst Osterkamp , Andrea Polaschegg , Erhard Schütz in connection with the German Schiller Society (ed.): Wilhelm Hauff or The Virtuosity of Imagination. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-860-0 , pp. 263-298.
  • Christoph Bizer: Surface finds of castles in the Swabian Alb - A contribution to ceramic and castle research. Edited by the regional council of Stuttgart - State Office for Monument Preservation. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2038-7 , pp. 108-111.
  • Christian Ottersbach: Fortified palace buildings in the German Confederation. Sovereign representation, aristocratic self-image and the monarchs' fear of the revolution 1815–1866 (=  studies on international architecture and art history. Vol. 53). Verlag Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-066-2 , pp. 100-120 (also University of Marburg, dissertation 2005, content , overview ).

Web links

Commons : Lichtenstein Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Lichtenstein Castle  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See magazine of the West Prussian History Association . Edited by the West Prussian History Association. Born 1908, p. 179.
  2. ↑ Negotiations on the purchase of the forester's house on the Lichtenstein with the associated land, first plans for the construction of a castle on the Lichtenstein , Baden-Württemberg State Archives, inventory GU 20: Lichtenstein Castle: construction, use and administration, 1. Prehistory of the castle construction: purchase negotiations .
  3. ^ History of Lichtenstein Castle , accessed on July 5, 2013.
  4. ^ Heinz Biehn: Residences of Romanticism. Prestel, Munich 1970, ISBN 978-3-7913-0302-4 , pp. 19-28.
  5. ^ Sylvia Hartig: Lichtenstein Castle - a memorial belonging to Count Wilhelm von Württemberg. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg 28, 1999, issue 2, pp. 98-106.
  6. ↑ Christian Ottersbach: Fortified palace buildings in the German Confederation. Sovereign representation, aristocratic self-image and the monarchs' fear of the revolution 1815–1866 (=  studies on international architecture and art history. Vol. 53). Verlag Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-066-2 , pp. 100-120.
  7. ↑ rbb-online.de ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rbb-online.de
  8. ↑ Gebr. FALLER GmbH: FALLER - Lichtenstein Castle. Accessed January 24, 2018 (German).