Melsungen Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Melsunger Schloss as seen from the east with the projecting central risalit with attached half-timbered upper floor ; on the narrow side which is bow window recognizable
The north-west facing facade of the castle with two bay windows , which also end with a half-timbered floor
Hessian coat of arms of the first Landgrave of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel Wilhelm IV. On the Marstall

The Castle Melsungen is a building in the style of the late Weser Renaissance in the North Hessian town of Melsungen in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis . It was built from 1550 to 1557 by Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse as a hunting lodge for his father, Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous . Today it houses the tax office of the Schwalm-Eder district and the district court of Melsungen .

The previous castle

From 802 to 817, Milisunge was mentioned several times in documents as a strategically important fortification at a ford over the Fulda . 973 gave Emperor Otto III. Parts of his possessions in Elesenge in pago Hassim , including a military building, a Dietrat von Melsungen. In 1040 Count Dietrich bequeathed all of his Melsung possessions to the Fulda monastery .

Heinrich Raspe II. (1130–1155 / 57), Count von Gudensberg from the house of the Thuringian Ludowingers , as bailiff of Hersfeld Abbey , operated the estrangement of Melsungen from Hersfeld's possession and left a castle at the strategically important Fulda crossing of the road from Gudensberg to Thuringia (“ Burgus Milsungen”). It secured the "Sälzerweg" (from west to east), the "Nürnberger Straße" (from north to south) and the trade and military road "Through the long Hesse" . In 1123 the Archdiocese of Mainz gained suzerainty over the castle and town of Melsungen. In 1183 Archbishop Konrad I of Mainz bought the small complex of for 350 marks from the Ludowinger Landgraves of Thuringia , but in 1193 pledged it back to the Landgrave. In 1193/94 it was destroyed in a feud between Mainz and Thuringia, but was soon rebuilt by the landgraves because of its important location. During this time, the city of Melsungen itself was fortified with a city wall.

In the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession after 1247, the castle was partially destroyed, but also soon restored. As a result, Melsungen was repeatedly the subject of a dispute between the Hessian landgraves and the Archdiocese of Mainz. In 1385 and 1387 troops of Archbishop Adolf I conquered the castle. After a siege of Kassel by an alliance led by Mainz, the Hessian Landgrave Hermann II had to cede Melsungen Castle in the armistice agreement signed on September 10, 1387. At the beginning of the 16th century it was already dilapidated and fell into disrepair after 1550.

The lock

history

Before his five-year exile (1547 to 1552), imposed by Emperor Charles V on him because of his role in the Schmalkaldic War in 1546/47, Philip the Magnanimous had bought two gardens in the immediate vicinity of the old castle in front of the Kassel Gate of the city of Melsungen. His son and governor Wilhelm IV (1532–1592) began building a hunting lodge in 1550–1557. After his return from exile in the Netherlands, Philipp continued the construction work. The old castle was demolished to make way for the royal stables, which were completed in 1577 under Landgrave Wilhelm IV .

During the Thirty Years' War Tilly quartered in the castle in 1625 ; his troops camped in the city until 1626. From 1627 to 1632, Moritz Castle served the scholar of Hessen-Kassel as a temporary residence after he had abdicated as Landgrave. In 1643 it was severely damaged by a flood of the Fulda. In 1648 the Swedish general Carl Gustav Wrangel took quarters in the palace for a short time. In 1675 the later "Great Elector" Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg visited his sister, the Hessian Landgrave Hedwig Sophie , in Melsungen before the battle of Fehrbellin . From 1733 to 1806 the castle and stables were used as garrisons for landgraves and electoral cavalry . Between 1807 and 1813, Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte , King of Westphalia , used the facility at irregular intervals.

From 1821 the building served as an administration building after the Hessian districts were formed. From 1825 to 1868 it was the seat of the Electoral Hessian Forest Academy; there studied u. a. 1836–1837 Karl von Grebe , who later became professor of forest science at the Greifswald Forest School . In 1841 the castle was again affected by a Fulda flood.

After the Prussian annexation of the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel , the palace became an administrative building. During the Second World War there was a prison camp for British officers in the castle and in the so-called Kreisgut in nearby Elbersdorf . Since 1974 the building has been the seat of the tax office, the judicial authority and at times also the land registry office.

investment

Today the complex consists of the main building, the former residence of the burgraves and the stables. The buildings are made of unplastered quarry stone masonry with corner blocks . The castle itself is a simple three-storey, rectangular building with a rectangular risalit with a spiral staircase on the south side and loft-like porches extending down to the lower gable storey on the east and west side. At the west gable is a two-storey transition to the stables. The stables, built at right angles to the castle, are two-story and today have a gable roof. From the transition from the castle to the stables, two gates lead into the side forecourt of the burgrave's residential building. This transition is two-story and connected on the outside with the city wall and a squat round tower.

A partial visit is possible after registration.

Garden area

The associated English garden is characterized by its old trees, a pond and parts of the old city wall. It was laid out in place of an earlier baroque symmetrical garden.

literature

  • Eduard Brauns: Hiking and travel guide through North Hesse and Waldeck . A.Bernecker Verlag, Melsungen, 1971, pp. 483-485
  • Karl. E. Demandt: History of the State of Hesse . Johannes Stauda Verlag, Kassel, 1980, pp. 193, 218, 320, 500 u. 561
  • Eckhart G. Franz (Ed.): The Chronicle of Hesse. Chronik Verlag, Dortmund 1991, p. 88.
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 81.
  • Dieter Wolf, Melsungen: A small town in the late Middle Ages; Topography, constitution, economic and social structure. (3 volumes) AFRA-Verlag, Butzbach 2003 ISBN 3-932079-74-4 , ISBN 3-932079-75-2 , ISBN 3-932079-76-0

Web links

Commons : Schloss Melsungen  - Collection of images

Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 58 "  N , 9 ° 32 ′ 27.8"  E