Neuchâtel Castle (Freyburg)
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The Neuenburg Castle is a hilltop castle site in the south of Saxony-Anhalt on the spur-like spur a plateau above the east bank of the lower Unstrut . It is a station on the Romanesque Road . Below the castle in the north is the small winemaking town of Freyburg , which in turn is about seven kilometers north of Naumburg (Saale) . The castle is managed by the Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt as owner.
Neuchâtel Castle is once the largest castle and one of the oldest and most important castles of the Landgraves of Thuringia . For Saxony-Anhalt, these are the only reliably verifiable above-ground stone buildings from the first half of the 12th century on castles. But the large number of preserved masonry from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 13th century is also of great importance beyond central Germany. A special architectural gem is the double chapel built around 1180 with its unusual architectural decoration. The castle is clearly divided into two parts: on the one hand the main castle with the so-called castle building and the kitchen master's office and on the other hand the older outer castle , which is framed by gallery wings.
Surname
The name Neuchâtel is derived from the name new castle . In several medieval documents it appears as castrum Nuwenburg, niwen burch or as Novum Castrum . It is unclear against which complex the castle should be highlighted as new. The Haldeck Castle , the castle or the court ( curtis ) in the nearby Zscheiplitz or the Wartburg , an older foundation by Ludwig the Springer († 1123), the progenitor of the Ludowinger family, should be considered .
Historical development
The castle is closely linked to the history of the Ludowingers , who are believed to have come to Thuringia from Main Franconia in the 1030s . The area around Freyburg and Naumburg came shortly after 1085 through his marriage to Adelheid († 1110), the widow of the murdered Count Palatine Friedrich III. von Goseck , to Ludwig the Springer, who had the New Castle built here a little later . In doing so, he substantially consolidated his new position in the Saale-Unstrut area.
Until the dynasty died out in 1247, Neuchâtel was an important and at times even the largest castle of the Landgraves of Thuringia , one of the most influential families of the Holy Roman Empire . In addition to Landgravine Elisabeth of Thuringia , Neuchâtel also housed Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa within its walls. The poet Heinrich von Veldeke completed his Eneasroman there around 1185 .
After the Ludowingians died out, Neuchâtel came into the possession of the Margraves of Meissen from the Wettin family and initially lost a considerable amount of importance. It was not until Duke Wilhelm III. von Sachsen (1445–1482) began building again around 1440. Presumably he wanted to grant Neuchâtel a more important residence function, which he did not realize. Through the division of Leipzig in 1485, Neuchâtel came with the city and the Freyburg office to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin . After the Schmalkaldic War in 1547 it belonged to the Albertine Electorate of Saxony . Elector August of Saxony had the complex converted into a hunting lodge in the middle of the 16th century. It also fulfilled this function from 1656 to 1746 for the dukes of Saxony-Weißenfels and the Saxon elector Friedrich August II. (1746–56). With his death, Neuchâtel lost its importance for the Electoral Saxon court. It was handed over to the state administration in 1770.
With the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the buildings and properties passed into the hands of the Prussian state. At this time Neuchâtel Castle began to become a popular destination.
On May 27th, 1934, the school for women leaders was inaugurated in the castle and the first museum was opened in the summer of 1935.
The Neuchâtel Castle Museum was closed from 1970 to 1989, but the castle courtyards remained accessible. After the political change, the decay could be stopped through great government and private commitment and the castle was expanded again into an attractive place of experience. Since 1990 it has been used as a museum and for dining facilities. In 1997 the property became the property of the Castles, Castles and Gardens Foundation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, which is now responsible for maintaining the building fabric.
Research history
The art-historical interest of the double chapel has been of interest since the middle of the 19th century, while the rest of the building fabric hardly played a role in the older literature on castle history. This only changed with the investigations of the Halle architect and castle researcher Hermann Waschers in the 1950s and 60s. Its assumptions, dates and reconstructions, on which the state of research on the architectural history of Neuchâtel Castle was based for a long time, are largely out of date today. Reinhard Schmitt , State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Saxony-Anhalt, has been carrying out building archaeological research in connection with repair and restoration work on the double chapel since 1984 and in the area of the entire palace since 1990 , which has not yet been completed. In the following, the research status from around 1997/98 will be presented.
Building material
The stone material forming the locally pending almost exclusively limestone , for individual building tasks in the system has been the deep trenches occurring limestone used. A better stone quality comes from quarries in the vicinity of the castle. The sandstone for the longer column shafts was brought from the Großer Seeberg near Gotha , the column shafts made of coal-lime in the double chapel over 500 km from the northern French-Belgian region, the Ardenne.
The construction development of Neuchâtel Castle after the main construction phases
Construction phase from around 1090
From around 1090 the first circular walls were built in the north, west and south, which are still preserved up to a height of eight meters. They bordered today's inner courtyard between the prince and kitchen building as the core castle and the gallery wings to the west as the older outer bailey . The result is an enormous floor space of approx. 5000 square meters. Buildings with a certain level of comfort (residential buildings A and B) are very likely to have leaned against these walls in the older outer bailey. Another two- to three-story, rectangular residential building C was next to the gate to the castle. Leaning against the south-eastern curtain wall was a three-storey, square residential tower I (16).
The most endangered side of the castle in the east was secured by an approximately ten-meter-long curved older wall and an equally deep moat that had broken out of the limestone rock. Right behind the eastern wall moat fortification stood the Round Tower I, an early stone tower with a large inner diameter, which probably combined the functions of living and defending , until the castle chapel was built .
Also around 1100 or in the first half of the 12th century, the east side of the inner castle was also significantly reinforced. An eastern inner curtain wall was built with an octagonal tower each in the north and south. The two octagonal towers probably served both for defense and as a representative element. The apex of the eastern wall was apparently flattened and an outer curtain wall was built on it. Overall, the result is an extremely elaborately designed east side, for which there are very few comparative examples from the pre-Staufer period (Sachsenstein near Walkenried in the Harz region around 1070, Alteburg near Mallendorf and Wiprechtsburg Groitzsch around 1080).
Within a few years after 1090 a castle was created for Count Ludwig den Springer († 1123) and Landgrave Ludwig I (1123–1140, since 1131 Landgrave) on the eastern border of their domain. The size and quality of the building expressed the high political demands of the Ludowingers. The elaborate fortifications on the east side of the main castle were probably completed under Landgrave Ludwig I in the early 12th century.
Construction phase around 1150 / third quarter of the 12th century
The modernization of residential building B west of the gate can only be demonstrated on the basis of a new toilet tower. The residential tower I was probably extended to the south around 1150. Together with the older residential tower, a building the size of today's Fürstensaal of approx. 20 × 10 meters was created. For a long time this was referred to as the Palas , but this turned out to be wrong. However, it may be a hall house , that is, a building with a hall on the first or second floor. Probably in the middle of the century or the second half of the 12th century, the round tower I was laid down again and the first, still single-storey castle church was built right next to it.
These buildings are part of a modernization of the castle in several stages under Landgrave Ludwig II (1140–1172).
Construction phase from 1170/75 to the 1190s
From 1170/75 ( dendrochronologically determined) the construction of the first reliably verifiable four-storey hall with a representative hall on the third, free-standing and six-meter-high upper storey between residential tower I and chapel, for which residential building C (10) was significantly enlarged. At the same time, the construction of the double chapel took place in the 1170s / 1190s, the upper room of which could be reached directly from the second floor of the palas - possibly with another hall.
As early as the middle of the 12th century, the construction of a very large outer bailey (total size of the castle 31,500 square meters) with circular walls had begun. The outer bailey was possibly divided by a pointed moat and the two keepes II and III were built in it relatively at the same time . Tower III, which has only been called Fat Wilhelm since the 20th century , stands on a clearly recognizable natural hill. Its diameter is 14 meters, in the Romanesque it was at least 23 meters high. Due to the interior, it is more of a residential tower than a pure keep. It is very likely that the tower was built in the middle or the second half of the 12th century and served in the 13th century as the seat of the Burgraves of Neuchâtel from the house of the Meinheringers , who from 1215 to 1297 as Praefectus de Nuenburg, Burggravius de novo castro are proven.
The keep II was demolished down to a stump after a fire in 1662 and served as a water basin from 1871. Remarkable and apparently unique in this period are four almost diagonally arranged spurs at the base of the tower. Their function is unknown, but it is very likely to be found in the representative area, as they make little sense in terms of fastening technology. This resulted in a further, noticeably higher quality expansion of the castle with an enormously large outer bailey. It served as a fortification and as a castle man's seat, but its other tasks are unknown. In the main castle, extensive modernizations of the living and sacral areas were carried out under Landgrave Ludwig III. (1172–1190) and Pfalzgraf or Landgrave Hermann I (1181 / 1190–1217).
Construction phase around 1215/1225
Around 1225 ( dendrochronology ) the late Romanesque, four-storey residential tower II was built outside the southern curtain wall. Obviously, it primarily served upscale living standards, probably those of the landgrave's family, because it had a fireplace on the first and second floors and access to a lavatory that was attached to the wall to the south in 1226 or shortly thereafter. The third, unheatable upper floor of the tower, which opened to the outside with four windows, can be described as a summer arbor , which allowed a beautiful view of the Unstrut valley. At the same time, around 1220/30, the double chapel with the final vaulting and the jagged arches were expanded.
The last major Romanesque building activity took place under Landgrave Ludwig IV (1217–1227) and his wife Elisabeth , presumably in view of the high rank of the Thuringian Landgraves and the political intentions of the Meissen region from around 1221. With the death of Ludwig in 1227 and the concentration of the Ludowingers on the Hessian areas ended the construction work. After the death of the last Landgrave Heinrich Raspe , the castle fell to the Wettin Margraves of Meissen in 1247 . The facility became meaningless in both strategic and representative terms.
Late Gothic renovation phase of the castle from 1400 and from around 1440
Under the Thuringian landgrave Duke Wilhelm III. Far-reaching renovations began from around 1440, which destroyed extensive parts of the Romanesque building fabric, especially in the area of the palace and the residential buildings. This included the construction of a new kitchen (1401 or mid-15th century), the renovation of the older residential buildings ( Grosse Kemenate , today Fürstenbau, from 1458) and the Romanesque residential tower (1462/63) as well as the renovation of the gatehouse ( Löwentor ). The roof landscape was greatly changed and provided with several turrets, and new half-timbered floors and bay windows were added. The walls in the east, north and south-west of the main castle and the east gate house and west gate house only date from this time .
However, so far there is no historical background for this complex construction activity, it can only be assumed that Landgrave Wilhelm III. (1445–1482) von Weimar granted Neuchâtel a larger task, perhaps a more important residence function, which in the end could not be realized.
Further modifications in modern times
A further expansion took place in the middle of the 16th century under Elector August von Sachsen . From 1656 to 1746 it served as a hunting lodge for the dukes of Saxony-Weißenfels , for which the castle church was rebuilt in 1666. Shortly after 1700, a zoo with a pleasure garden and the Palais Klein-Friedenthal were built in the Alte Göhle forest to the east . Subsequently, a renewed expansion took place under the Saxon Elector Friedrich August II. (1746–56), who also used Neuchâtel as a hunting lodge. After his death in 1763, the complex was no longer of any importance for the Electoral Saxon court. The castle lost its residence function and was handed over to the state administration in 1770. This was accompanied by numerous partial demolitions of buildings, some of which had only recently been erected. From about 1840 there were increased efforts to preserve monuments and in 1842–1853 / 1855 the double chapel was first restored under Ferdinand von Quast and Friedrich August Ritter .
The double chapel
Building I.
It is a single-storey hall building with a semicircular apse , which probably served as the successor to the Kilian's Church at the foot of the castle hill. The building is undated, but could date from the first half of the 12th century.
Building IIa
A three-aisled, two-bay upper floor was added, only half the size of the lower floor was used sacred. Actually, it is more of a "two-story chapel with room connection" (U. Stevens) with a small opening in the floor ( recess ). This allowed the liturgically necessary hearing and eye contact with the chapel in the basement. The upper floor probably served as the landgrave couple's private prayer room. The double chapel was built as a single building with the Palas in the last quarter of the 12th century.
Building IIb
Around 1220/30, a quadruple groin vault with a central bundle pillar was installed. Emanating from his so-called serrated arches (polylobe transverse arches) are exceptional and those in the west porch of the St. Andrew's Church in Cologne similar. They could go back to indirect influences from Moorish Spain.
literature
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- Reinhard Schmitt : The double chapel of the Neuchâtel near Freyburg / Unstrut. Considerations on typological aspects . In: Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): Castle and palace chapels. Publications of the Deutsche Burgenvereinigung eV series Bd. 3. (Stuttgart 1995) 71-78, ISBN 3-8062-1188-4 .
- Reinhard Schmitt: On the residential and palace buildings in Neuchâtel near Freyburg / Unstrut from the end of the 11th to the middle of the 13th century . In: Castles and early palaces in Thuringia and its neighboring countries. Research on castles and palaces 5 (Munich, Berlin 2000) 15–30, ISBN 3-422-06263-7 .
- Reinhard Schmitt: Early round castle towers in Central Germany in comparison with other castle landscapes . Castles and palaces in Saxony-Anhalt 9, 2000, 39–66.
- Reinhard Schmitt: Neuchâtel Castle near Freyburg / Unstrut. Notes on the building history of the outer bailey . Castles and palaces in Saxony-Anhalt 12, 2003.
- Reinhard Schmitt: Saxon and Electoral Saxon master builders at Neuchâtel Castle from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century . Castles and palaces in Saxony-Anhalt 12, 2003.
- Reinhard Schmitt: To the serrated arches of the Freyburg double chapel . Research on castles and palaces 1, Munich 1994.
- Numerous other articles, especially by Reinhard Schmitt, in the magazines Burgen und Schlösser in Sachsen-Anhalt , Castle Research from Saxony , Novum Castrum. Series of publications by the Association for the Rescue and Preservation of Neuchâtel e. V. and Our Neuchâtel
- Hermann Wäscher, Karl-Heinz Kukla: Castles on the lower course of the Unstrut: The Neuchâtel , State Museum Schloss Neuchâtel, 1963
- Hermann Wäscher: The building history of Neuchâtel near Freyburg on the Unstrut , Kreuz-Verlag 1955
- Albanus: The legends of Neuchâtel near Freyburg Unstrut and the neighboring castles , Heise Verlag 1932
- Gottlob Traugott Gabler : Freyburg, town and castle, together with their surroundings, vol. 1, published by Heinrich August Schmid, Querfurt , 1836/1838
- Gottlob Traugott Gabler: Freyburg, Church, School and Pious Foundations, Vol. 2, published by Heinrich August Schmid, Querfurt, 1840
- On the Romanesque Road - The official art travel guide through Saxony-Anhalt , Schmidt-Buch-Verlag, 11th edition 2015, ISBN 978-3-936185-94-2 . Pp. 226-232
- Steffen Raßloff , Lutz Gebhardt : The Thuringian Landgraves. History and legends . Rhino Verlag, Ilmenau 2017, ISBN 978-3-95560-055-6 .
Web links
- Neuchâtel Castle online (official website)
Coordinates: 51 ° 12 ′ 30.8 ″ N , 11 ° 46 ′ 31.7 ″ E