Marienfels Castle

Marienfels Castle (2009)

Aerial photograph (2012)

Marienfels Castle in Remagen , a town in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate , was built as a villa from 1859 to 1863, mainly in the neo-Gothic style . The palace with its approximately 800 square meters of living space in 18 rooms is surrounded by a wooded park of around 100,000 square meters. Castle Marienfels stands as cultural monument under monument protection and is equipped with equipment, outbuildings and park as a conservation zone reported.

location

The castle is located between the Remagen city center and the district of Unkelbach above the federal highway 9 and the Cologne – Koblenz rail line on the left side of the Rhine at a good 90 m above sea level. NHN and thus 40 meters above the river. It is accessible via a north-western, winding access road from the entrance of the Calmuthtal .

history

The foundation stone of Marienfels Castle was laid on May 14, 1859; The architect was the Cologne engineer Colonel Carl Schnitzler . However, the Cologne cathedral master builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner , who built the Apollinari church in Remagen , is mistakenly named as the architect of Marienfels Castle . In August 1860 the client, the Uerdingen sugar manufacturer Eduard Frings († April 16, 1875), moved into the residence as a second home. The main house was completed in the spring of 1861, the construction of the outdoor facilities and the entrance portal (no longer available today) dragged on until 1863; the entire complex was not complete until 1874 and until then, excluding inventory, had cost 87,670 thalers (around 4.5 million euros in today's purchasing power). Today there is nothing left of the original inventory on the castle. This also included some important works of art, such as the portraits of Eberhard III. Jabach and his wife Anna, geb. Reuter, painted around 1600 by Gortzius Geldorp , which are now on loan in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn. The inventory was made under the Frings heirs Guido Mengen from Viersen, Henriette Tilmann nee. Herbertz from Dortmund as well as Max [imilian] and Gustav Scherbius split up.

The castle itself became the property of the Cologne industrialist Max von Guilleaume in 1907 . He renovated it and had a bath and a water flush installed. Von Guilleaume was also the owner of the Calmuth Hunting Lodge , now owned by Frank Asbeck , in the nearby Calmuthtal, where the International Film Union later set up its business. In 1936 the building was bought by the door manufacturer Otto Becher. He had a large terrace built on the Rhine side of the castle.

The building was subsequently owned by the Marienfels Clinic Sanatorium and served as a sanatorium . In 1949 Marienfels Castle became the seat of the Fischerkoesen film studio , which at the time was considered the most famous animation studio in Germany. It had around 20 employees and produced animated commercials in particular ; The owner was Hans Fischerkoesen , who also lived in the castle. In 1952 the company was relocated to Bad Godesberg ( Mehlem district ). In 1975 the property became the property of Paul Spinat , then owner of Schloss Drachenburg . He had the southern one-story extension added.

On March 14, 1988, the terrace, built in 1936, began to slide. Several cubic meters of rubble had loosened and slipped beneath the porch . Due to heavy rainfall, the facility, which was built on loose ground, had started moving. The debris avalanche had broken through a protective wall made of wooden planks, which had been built to protect the busy federal highway 9 running below the castle. The federal highway was closed for a month for safety reasons. Earthwork specialists from Essen examined the rock and suggested a series of securing works. Thereupon the drainage of the terrace was diverted; the veranda was secured with concrete girders to prevent slipping.

In 1989 the building contractor and " castle collector" Herbert Hillebrand bought the castle on behalf of his daughter Katharina. The castle was renovated for several years for around eight million DM and adapted to the needs of the owners (installation of swimming pool, whirlpool and sauna). With expert advice from the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments , the palace almost regained its original neo-Gothic architecture. From 1994 to 1996 Hillebrand rented the palace to the Republic of Kazakhstan as the building of the embassy office , in which 14 diplomats and 50 other employees were employed (→ list of diplomatic missions in Bonn ). The castle was then used by Hillebrand's daughter Katharina.

On November 16, 2004 the entertainer Thomas Gottschalk acquired the castle for 3.5 million euros. He had the building renovated and moved in in the summer of 2006. A glass house was built on the southern one-story extension. In 2012 the castle including its furnishings was for sale for 6.2 million euros plus broker's commission and, as it became known at the end of January 2013, found a new owner as Frank Asbeck's second castle .

legend

The name of the castle goes back to a legend. The devil , they say, doesn't like the castle because he was once driven from here. He used to live in a cave in the mountain on which the castle stands when he was not in his grandmother's cave. Before the castle was built, the client had a semicircular grotto built in a crevice in which he set up a figure of the Mother of God ; it was supposed to counter the popular belief that the devil lived, and it gave the castle its name.