Osthoffen Castle
The Castle Osthoffen is a castle in the Alsatian community Osthoffen in the Bas-Rhin 15 kilometers west of Strasbourg . Since September 11, 1963 it has been partially registered as a Monument historique .
history
The origin of the castle goes back to the time of the Roman conquest in 50 BC. It was part of the defense system of the Roman camp on the Scharrach hill, five kilometers west of the castle at the foot of the Vosges . The watchtower , which later became Osthoffen Palace, was located east of the Scharrach Roman camp . Its Germanized name is derived from this (OST → Osten - HOFFEN → Hof or Lager in German). Its counterpart to the west of the main camp Scharrach is the village of Westhoffen , which is built on the remains of a fortification and is located at the same distance from the main camp.
Originally, the castle and village of Osthoffen were not together. The village was two kilometers east of the castle area in a small valley near a spring (pottery shards were found at this point). After wars and destruction, the village population sought protection in the vicinity of the castle walls over the course of the first millennium. In the 12th century a castle was built on the outline and foundation walls of the former Roman camp. Its trenches were never filled with water, it was never a moated castle . From the 12th to the 15th century it served as a fortification. Early 15th century was the castle after a ten days-long attack by the Bishop of Strasbourg as a ruin left. This condition lasted a full century until it was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by the master builder Jost von Seebach .
Now the purpose of the complex changed: its military importance declined, it became above all an agricultural and religious center. Eventually Osthoffen Castle was incorporated into the territory of the great Marmoutier Abbey , which extended as far as Lorraine . The castle was with two Renaissance gables of Rhenish type equipped, but kept the defense walls around the courtyard and the tower staircase tower at. In some places it was also opened wider. During the Thirty Years' War , the castle was once again of military importance when some troops and their military leader Turenne were quartered there on the day before the battle of Enzheim . It was not until the beginning of the 18th century that the palace was embellished by the family of Baron von Zuckmantel (ambassador of Louis XV in Venice ): the walls that border the courtyard were torn down and French windows in the style of the 18th century were let into the facade . In her memoirs , the Baroness von Oberkirch mentions both the castle and its owner family.
During the French Revolution the issued Revolution authorities an edict break down, which obliged the owners of lying near the Rhine frontier castles, military and fortification towers, which was done in Lorraine and Alsace. The fortified tower from the 12th century and its connected stair tower were torn down, as were the two spiers from the 13th and 15th centuries. Horrified by the revolutionary riots, the owners, the two Zuckmantel sisters, leased the castle to one of their cousins Vietinghoff and withdrew. H. von Vietinghoff lived there for a few years, eventually selling it to a merchant, who in 1817 sold it on to General and Viscount François Grouvel , who had married an Alsatian, Marie Nebel, daughter of the mayor of Hagenau . During the Restoration , the Viscount Grouvel became the military governor of the city of Strasbourg. His son Jules Grouvel undertook extensive renovation work on the castle: he rebuilt the round tower , built a stone bridge instead of the wooden bridge of the past centuries, renewed all door frames and woodwork in the interior and refurbished the castle. Since Jules Grouvel refused German citizenship , he lived partly in Paris and partly in Osthoffen. Because of this, Osthoffen Palace never became entirely German between 1872 and 1918. During the First World War it was almost sold by the German administrator. With the return of Alsace to France between the two world wars, technical innovations such as running water and telephone also came into the castle. The Second World War brought extremely serious damage such as looting by the Germans or the loss of the family archive due to fire. Since the owner François Grouvel, as a German prisoner of war, refused to sign the recognition of German rights in Alsace, his possessions were confiscated, sold to Germany or destroyed.
The recovery of Alsace brought new damage from the liberation forces. François Grouvel and his wife had to clean the interior of the castle with a fire hose.
In 1953 the wedding of the Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli and Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto took place at Osthoffen Castle .
architecture
The grounds of Osthoffen Palace were surrounded by three walls. The first followed today's D118 road, which formed the northern boundary of the palace area. It encompassed a large area, because the course followed the area of the Roman camp, which was designed spacious and open for better defense. This enclosure continues under the fields east of the castle and reappears in the south. The second enclosure followed the walls of the moat and thus also formed an effective defensive wall. The third enclosure wall delimited the castle to the east and south. It was torn down during the revolution.
The wide moats of the castle were always dry when you fill them with water, so it seeps away. To reinforce the castle walls, numerous supporting pillars were added every century , which find their support in the dry moats.
The castle itself consists of two building wings standing at right angles to each other with a polygonal stair tower from the 15th century and a round corner tower. The latter is the oldest part of the castle. It served to defend the two main entrances to the north of the former castle, which were destroyed during the fighting in the 14th century. Originally the building had three floors, the third disappeared during the first reconstruction during the Renaissance. Overlying the basement the high basement, above a floor and above instead of the former third floor which with mansard provided attic, in turn, from the gables is surmounted.
The castle tower, which had been torn down during the French Revolution, was rebuilt in 1866 based on a drawing by Jules Grouvel, a polytechnic who preferred architecture to weapons. The original castle tower was very peculiar: it consisted of two connected towers, one of which contained a spiral staircase , while the other contained several rooms one above the other. This ensemble looked very massive and was replaced by the current tower. At the top of the east pediment is a statue from the 15th century depicting Saint Quirin as a Roman general. It is proof that the castle belongs to the Marmoutier Abbey .
literature
- Yvonne-M. Ehrismann: Osthoffen Castle invites you to visit. Its creation, its owners . In: Almanach des Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace . Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, Strasbourg 1964, ISSN 0988-2936 .
- Roland Recht (Ed.): Le Guide des Châteaux de France . Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-024-7 , pp. 116-117.
- Charles Laurent Salch: Les plus beaux château d'Alsace . Publitotal, Strasbourg 1978, pp. 46-47.
- Charles Laurent Salch: Nouveau Dictionnaire des Châteaux Forts d'Alsace . Alsatia, Strasbourg 1991, ISBN 2-7032-0193-1 , p. 237.
Web links
- Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Castle website (French)
- Photos from Base Mémoire
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ Vito Avantario: The Agnellis: The secret rulers of Italy . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 2002, ISBN 978-3-593-36906-8 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 35 ′ 3 ″ N , 7 ° 33 ′ 12 ″ E