Marksuhl Castle
The Marksuhl Castle is located in the center of Marksuhl in western Thuringia . It was initially built as a hunting and living quarters in the Renaissance style. From 1672 to 1686 it served as the residential palace of the Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach . From 1741 it was again considerably expanded and used again as a hunting lodge . The castle in Marksuhl, together with the neighboring St. Hubertus church, forms the landmark of the Marksuhl community and is therefore cited in the local coat of arms.
history
Following the 1572 division of the state of the Ernestine duchies Marksuhl became the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach assigned, the first jointly by brothers John Casimir and Johann Ernst of Coburg was ruled out. From 1587 Duke Johann Ernst had his own castle built opposite the St. Hubertus Church , which was in the Eisenach part of the principality. The building planned as a hunting lodge was completed in 1591 and was a wedding gift to the young duke. However, as a result of tragic circumstances, this duke lost all interest in this castle after the death of his wife and the first-born, so it was degraded to a hunting lodge and administrative building. During the Thirty Years' War , the remote and unfortified castle was selected and plundered several times by the troops moving through it. The hunting-loving Duke Johann Georg I from Eisenach made Marksuhl his place of residence from 1662 to 1672, without however withdrawing the administration and authorities from Eisenach. The duke couple had given birth to seven children in their rural idyll. The Eisenach Duke Johann Wilhelm had a baroque summer residence built in the years 1712 to 1715 not far from Marksuhl near the village of Wintershausen instead of an existing hunting lodge. This duke was also busy with renovations at the Marksuhler Schloss, in 1722 a wing extension named after him was built in the east of the original castle area, he also initiated the construction of an orange house and a castle garden. The dilapidated castle tower had to be renewed in 1739, the date of construction was set in the gilded weather vane.
On July 26, 1741, the last Duke of Eisenach, Wilhelm Heinrich, passed away during a hunting excursion not far from Marksuhl. His heir was the Weimar Duke Ernst August I of Saxe-Weimar who was also a passionate hunter. On behalf of the Duke, the Weimar court architect Gottfried Heinrich Krohne designed a stables , the Neue Wache and the expansion buildings considered necessary by the Duke (dog house, dog kennel, riding stable, coach house ). Krohne's modernization measures were carried out in the Rococo style .
With the construction of the Wilhelmsthal palace complex , which was only seven kilometers east of Marksuhl, which began almost at the same time , the Marksuhl hunting lodge soon became uninteresting for the Weimar court. From then on, the buildings were used again as storage buildings and for economic purposes. A branch of the ducal Weimar court stud was operated in Marksuhl, as was a post office as early as the 18th century. In the 19th century, an agricultural school, initially located on the neighboring Hetzeberg estate near Ettenhausen ad Suhl, was moved to the castle.
In the 20th century, lack of use led to further building losses; the coach houses and stables had already been demolished after the horse stud farm was closed.
During the GDR era, the palace complex was used by the community; the post office and the community administration were located here. Today's castle park school , residential buildings and a building for the Marksuhl volunteer fire brigade were built on the spacious meadow land of the former castle park to the east .
Further rooms of the main building are currently under restoration; the original structure of the former castle kitchen was also rediscovered and restored on the ground floor.
Building description
The complex, which has been expanded and modernized several times in its building history, goes back to the Renaissance castle of Duke Johann Ernst , built between 1587 and 1591, of which the western castle building - the main building - was retained as the original structure . This originally three-storey residential building was designed and embellished with expressive, realistic gaff heads and sculptural decorative elements of Renaissance architecture . In addition to the red-colored, coarse-pored sandstone from local quarries, high-quality yellow-gray Räth sandstone - probably from the quarries of Krauthausen and Madelungen 15 to 20 km away - was used for the construction.
On closer inspection, the main building consists of two wings with double windows and corner cores, butting together at right angles. In the gables of the windows and under the bay windows you can see gaff heads in the costumes of the construction period. The main entrance to the building and a striking eye-catcher in the courtyard was always the Wendelstein - a stair tower, partially renewed as early as 1739, with a half-timbered top and a gilded weather vane. To the north of the main building were the necessary farm and warehouse buildings, and the entire complex was protected by a high wall. The castle courtyard was entered through a representative gate with an attached gate guard. Due to ongoing weather-related damage and out of interest in redesigning the facility, the upper floor of the main building was demolished in 1714 and the previously missing north wing was erected in 1722 ; it bears the name Johann Wilhelm wing after its client, Duke Johann Wilhelm . During his reign the palace garden was also expanded to include the orange house . In 1736 a covered wooden connecting bridge was built between the castle and the church, this made it possible to visit the aristocratic church lodges without contact with the population.
The castle also always included (horse) stables, barns, storage and farm buildings, of which no traces are visible above ground today.
The hunting lodge, designed by the Weimar court architect and master builder Gottfried Heinrich Krohne , was intended to modernize the palace , which was already considered old-fashioned at the time, and at the same time considerably expand the eastern outer area. For 1744, the Weimar construction manager Johann David Weidner , who was entrusted with the construction management, reported completion. The first horticultural remodeling of the palace garden followed as early as 1745, for which an expensive extension of the outer wall was carried out. In 1803 the now dilapidated Johann Wilhelm wing was torn down.
Although the monument was already designated as a monument in the 1950s, there was a lack of financial means and opportunities to renovate the cultural monument. As a visible sign of the dilemma, the towering half-timbered top of the stair tower had to be demolished in 1976 due to the risk of collapse, and the magnificent castle courtyard portal was also dismantled for a planned restoration, it has since been waiting for its return in an Eisenach warehouse building. The tower was reconstructed in 1982-85.
use
The castle is currently home to the Marksuhl municipal administration and the offices and offices of the Marksuhl Forestry Office in Thuringia. Further municipal uses are created or expanded (youth club).
More pictures
Restored farm buildings
Courtyard entrance
In the castle courtyard (before)
In the courtyard (after)
Individual evidence
- ^ Waldemar Döpel: History of Marksuhl. The lock . Pp. 42-51
- ↑ Hans-Herbert Möller: Gottfried Heinrich Krohne and the architecture of the 18th century in Thuringia Bruno Hessling Verlag, Berlin 1956, p. 221f
- ^ Waldemar Döpel: History of Marksuhl. The lock . Pp. 42-51
- ^ Waldemar Döpel: History of Marksuhl. The parish. Pp. 28-32
- ^ Helmut Scherf: Architectural and art monuments in the city and district of Eisenach. In: Eisenacher Schriften zur Heimatkunde No. 12. Eisenach 1980. pp. 17–21
- ↑ Thuringian Forestry Office Marksuhl , accessed on January 28, 2013
literature
- Waldemar Döpel: History of Marksuhl , printing and publishing house of the Hofbuchdruckerei Eisenach H. Kahle, Eisenach 1909
- Hans-Herbert Möller: Gottfried Heinrich Krohne and the architecture of the 18th century in Thuringia Bruno Hessling Verlag, Berlin 1956, pp. 110f, 221f, 263f
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 49 ″ N , 10 ° 12 ′ 11 ″ E