Montfort Castle

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Montfort Castle on Lake Constance

The Montfort Castle on Lake Constance is the landmark of the town of Langenargen . Once planned under the name Villa Argena, it was intended to serve as a pleasure palace for King Wilhelm I of Württemberg . It was built on a promontory at the site of the ruins of Argen Castle. Today it houses a discotheque and a restaurant, and summer concerts are held in the hall on the upper floor.

history

Argen Castle, the predecessor of today's castle, on a representation from 1675
The steamship Crown Prince of Württemberg in front of the ruins of the old castle (around 1850)
Landside view of the new palace built in the Moorish style in the 1860s
View of the castle tower
Montfort Castle at sunset
Concert in the hall of Montfort Castle

In the days of the Romans , two huge watchtowers stood close to each other on an island in the lake. In the 14th century, the Counts of Montfort had the "Veste Burg Argen" ( Argen moated castle ) built on this site .

The town and the castle of the Montforts were badly destroyed in the Thirty Years War , but were later rebuilt. The castle was expanded into a castle in the following period (late 17th century), used as a prison around 1800 and released for demolition in 1810.

In 1858 Wilhelm I of Württemberg bought the ruins of the old Argen Castle for 3,000 guilders and had the walls demolished in 1861.

The plan of the Ravensburger Oberamtsbaurat Gottlieb Pfeilsticker was to build a villa in the Moorish style based on the model of the Villa Avigdor in Nice . However, due to the king's state of health, the project was only realized slowly.

After Wilhelm's death in 1864, King Karl von Württemberg took over the throne. He gave the villa the name Schloss Montfort , which is still in use today .

In 1867 the palace and the offices were completed. A total of 261,000 guilders were spent on the building, of which 30,000 guilders were used for furnishing and 5,800 guilders were spent on chandeliers.

As early as 1864, Karl offered his mother Pauline to use the castle as a widow's residence in the summer months. This was regulated in detail in 1867 by an agreement between the royal court chief and the royal mother’s court marshal.

However, as early as 1868 Pauline gave up its use, whereupon King Karl decided to sell the building.

A buyer was found in 1873 in Princess Luise of Prussia (1829–1901). She bought the castle, including all associated real estate and movables, for 130,000 guilders. Princess Luise used the castle as a residence, especially in summer, until her death in 1901.

20th century

In 1902, the heir Prince Friedrich Karl von Hessen sold the castle to the privy councilor Wilhelm Oliver von Leube (professor of the medical clinic at the University of Würzburg ; 1842-1922). The castle was converted into a bourgeois property.

In 1940 the castle was bought by the Deutsche Reichsbahn , who wanted to turn it into a rest home for their officials. Due to the war, these plans could not be implemented, so that the castle became the property of the Association for the People's People Langenargen eV . The purchase price at that time was 225,000 Reichsmarks , and it was then converted into a health resort.

In 1961 the castle was transferred to the municipality of Langenargen, who owns it to this day. There were further renovation and maintenance measures that continue to this day.

use

In the rooms of the castle there are paintings from the 16th to 18th centuries from the former Grzimek collection. This collection, consisting of 35 paintings by Waldemar Grzimek, is owned by the municipality of Langenargen and has been restored since 2000.

There is a disco in the basement, a restaurant on the ground floor and a concert hall on the upper floor.

Surroundings

There is a concert shell in the palace garden , which is used for promenade concerts in summer. The Kavalierhaus , which was built in 1866 to complement the ensemble, stands on the edge of the palace park . The baroque church of St. Martin and the waterfront promenade are also nearby .

literature

  • Municipality of Langenargen: Montfort Castle . ( Langenargener story (s) ; 7). Printing and publishing house Lorenz Senn GmbH & Co. KG, Tettnang 1993, ISSN  0931-9352
  • Hermann Klos, Volker Caesar: Montfort Castle in Langenargen on Lake Constance. After red now stone-colored again - the handling of windows and their construction-time coloring. In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg , 32nd year 2003, issue 4, pp. 327–331 ( PDF )

Web links

Commons : Montfort Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Pohle: Montfort Castle. In: 99 x Lake Constance as you haven't seen it yet. Bruckmann Verlag GmbH, Munich 2014. ISBN 978-3-7654-8303-5 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 35 ′ 50 ″  N , 9 ° 32 ′ 10 ″  E