Saarbrücken Castle

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The Saarbrücken Castle
Saarbrücken Castle, city model

The Saarbrücken Castle , also called "Saarbrücken Castle", is a Baroque castle in the Saarland state capital Saarbruecken . It is located in the Alt-Saarbrücken district on the left bank of the Saar . Previous buildings on the site were a medieval castle and a renaissance palace.

Today the castle serves as the administrative seat of the Saarbrücken regional association . The exhibition rooms of the Saar History Museum are located in the vaulted cellar and an extension . Parts of the castle complex with the casemates were exposed under the palace square . After extensive excavations between 2003 and 2007, the casemates are accessible to visitors from the Historical Museum.

history

Middle Ages to 17th century

Historical sources from 999 tell of the imperial Castell Sarabruca , which in 1009 was called Veste Sarebrugka . According to a document from 1065, Duke Friedrich of Lower Lorraine had received the castle from the king as a fief . King Henry IV gave the Castel Salentburca to Friedrich's brother, Count Adalbero III. of Luxembourg  , who was Bishop of Metz . In 1168 the castle was the Count Symon order of the Emperor Frederick I destroyed. In 1277 archives mention Castel and Bourg on July 2nd  . A document dated January 11, 1485 reports that Count Johann IV of Nassau-Saarbrücken had started "... in 1459 to fortify and guard the two cities due to wartime"  . In 1563, Johann IV also began building bulwarks around the castle and building a drawbridge over the moat between town and castle. The historiographer of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken, Johann Andreae, reported that Count Philipp IV had built the summer house in Saarbrücken in 1575 , and for the first time gives an idea of ​​the appearance of the castle in a floor plan. The trapezoidal square was surrounded by buildings of unequal width. The defense tower was on the west side of the four-wing complex. The outer bailey on the Saar side was closed off to the northwest and southeast by buildings. The summer house , built by the builder Christmann Stromeyer from the Electoral Palatinate , stood on the southeastern promontory of the Saarfelsen. The castle complex was enclosed in the northeast by the Saarfelsen and the Saar, in the east by a ditch and in the south and southwest by a bulwark and ditch. The castle was accessed from the city side via the drawbridge opposite the large tower. In the south corner of the garden was the “rothe Thurn” , and opposite in the north corner was the “round Thurnlein” .

17th century

View of the castle towards Merian

Henrich Höer's hand drawings reproduce the palace complex of the 17th century in an authentic and topographically reliable manner. It shows a four-wing system within a ring with bastions of various shapes . The protective devices of the castle complex, such as towers, walls, gate structures and moats, followed the topography of the Saar rock. The bulwark was reinforced by triangular corner bastions. In October 1983, during excavation work for a technical auxiliary building on Talstrasse, part of these extensive fortifications was excavated in different layers. This bastion and the south-western defensive wall were included in the new construction of the technical auxiliary building and can be viewed today.

Four wings, three joined together at right angles, surrounded the trapezoidal main courtyard. The square was enclosed with buildings of equal width. The three-storey building was accessed through four stair towers with spiral staircases placed in the corners of the inner courtyard. To the south, the square was closed off by four arcades one above the other . The forecourt on the Saar side was formed to the northwest by the Botzheim building - named after the head forester who lived there around 1728 - to the northeast by a small single-storey transverse tract and to the north by the castle wall. The summer house on the southeastern Saarfelsen was in front of the garden house.

Transition to the 18th century

Historical news reports on the destruction of the castle by imperial troops on May 18th jul. / May 28, 1677 greg. . The castle was restored around 1696 by the architect Josef C. Motte, known as la Bonté , on behalf of the widow of Gustav Adolfs von Nassau-Saarbrücken, Countess Eleonore Clara von Hohenlohe-Gleichen, and her son Ludwig Kraft. The castle wing along the path from St. Arnual Rauschen Thal , today's Talstrasse, was built "à la mode" according to the existing renovation plans. The castle courtyard was open to the south towards the garden and was surrounded by a single-storey arcade. The garden terrain was extended beyond the Bering by a terraced baroque garden far into the valley. A sepia drawing attributed to Anton Köhl and made after 1710 shows the castle with the market square. It shows the floor plan at that time. Instead of the former east wing, a low arcade wing is drawn on it. The west wing was characterized by the keep , which was built during the Hohenstaufen era and which remained until this castle was demolished. During sewer work in August 1977, a three-meter-thick wall was discovered that belonged to the main tower of the Renaissance castle. In March 1989, when the outside staircase was removed and the palace square was redesigned, the entire tower foundation was exposed. This rectangular, five-storey clock tower - its top floor was added in 1613 - towered over the roof ridge of the four wings and was closed off with a tail hood with dormers and a lantern . The octagonal stair towers in the four corners of the courtyard were also covered with tail hoods.

18th century

Plan of the Saarbrücken Palace with palace gardens in front of the new baroque building from the 18th century, drawing by Friedrich Köllner (Saarbrücken State Archives)
Painting of the palace after the completion of the new building under Friedrich Joachim Stengel
View of the castle and city of Saarbrücken around 1770

After the death of Friedrich Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken in 1728, the possessions fell back to the usingic branch of the house of Nassau . In 1735, Princess Charlotte Amalie von Nassau-Usingen , b. von Nassau-Dillenburg, the hereditary lands under their sons. The elder Karl received the Nassau lands on the right bank of the Rhine, the younger Wilhelm Heinrich those on the left bank of the Rhine. When Charlotte Amalie's sons took over the government in 1741, the architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel from Zerbst was commissioned to draw up an appraisal of the structural condition of the Saarbrücken Castle. The archive documents provide further information on a plan on January 26, 1739 for a new building. The change in the princely way of life, the abandonment of defense construction functions, the more cosmopolitan attitude and the desire for a freer form of investment with outdoor courtyards and gardens as well as the will for a more comfortable, more magnificent design and a refined living culture justified the abandonment of the fortified castle. Stengel's appointment in 1733 as Nassau-Usingischer court architect and building inspector, who was trained at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1708 to 1712, led to extensive urban planning with spacious individual buildings and ensembles, such as the palace with palace square, town hall and Erbprinzenpalais and Ludwigsplatz with the Protestant Ludwigskirche , the Friedenskirche and a palace. The principles of geometry and symmetry with their rectangular plazas and the axis reference (“point de vue”) were included in the city plan of Saarbrücken. Instead of the previous building on the Saarfelsen, the new palace was integrated into the grown townscape as a residential and administrative center towering above the town houses. By backfilling the moats in the area of ​​today's Schlossplatz and Talstrasse, grinding the walls, relocating the Saar and building the new castle wall along the river, von Stengel created the topographical prerequisites for the construction of the new residence on the site of the former Renaissance castle. The creation of a generous baroque garden also required the expansion of the staggered terraces that were located on the slope towards the Saaraue. In 1748 this castle, a three-wing complex open to the city, was completed as the residence of the royal family and as a place of representation and administration. Numerous architects, engineers and construction workers were hired to carry out the construction project.

The palace complex was based on the ideal layout of the square, whereby the dominance of the Corps de Logis was created by its roof, which towered over the corner pavilions and reserves. The corps de logis with the central pavilion had two wings of equal length attached at right angles to its ends, which, like its predecessor, were grouped around a courtyard and thus created additional living space. This horseshoe-shaped wing structure was emphasized at its corners by four pavilions , which were reminiscent of the defense towers of the city castle. The main courtyard had the central pavilion in the axis of symmetry as the center of the palace complex. While the courtyard of the previous building was closed off from the city by a wing with a mighty donjon , the fourth side now opened to the city and was closed off by a hermen balustrade from the forecourt in such a way that the access was in the axis of the castle. On the opposite side was the garden, which was axially related to the castle floor plan, with symmetrically shaped stairs leading to the valley. The forecourt was closed off by two octagonal guard houses and wrought iron bars between supporting posts facing the city, the slope and the side of the Saar. The entrance was through a gate that was on the same axis as the main entrance of the Corps de Logis.

The basic scheme of the three-wing system formed a rectangle measuring 65.45 × 61.34 meters. The corps de logis had a length of 65.45 meters with 15 window axes, three of which were for the central pavilion and three each for the reserves and the corner pavilions. Its depth of 18.26 meters was divided by four windows.

The length of the side wings was 43.08 meters. Of the ten axes, seven were allocated to the reserves. In accordance with the language used in the 18th century, the side wings were named with a view from the castle: the wing facing the Saar was referred to as the right wing, the wing facing the Talstrasse as the left wing. The four corner pavilions were named after their location according to the compass direction northwest, southwest, southeast and northeast pavilion. The north-west and south-west pavilions each had three windows on their 14.98 meter long side. Their broad side, 15.84 meters long, had four windows each. This geometric order of the floor plan was supported by the symmetrical arrangement of the two main stairwells on the inner walls of the three-axis backs of the Corps de Logis. The side wings were also accessed through two side staircases, each located on the inner wall between the rear facing and the northwest or southwest pavilion.

The interior of the palace was accessed from the courtyard via three main portals in the central pavilion. Another four entrances were each in the first window axis of the backs of the side wings. In the Corps de Logis there were two representative main staircases on the courtyard side to the left and right of the central pavilion. These were in the reserves and were designed symmetrically. The grand vestibule was entered from the main courtyard via a three-step flight of stairs . The Sala terrena faced the garden . The ceremonial route led from the portal across the courtyard into the corps de logis. From the vestibule it led over the staircase of honor (French: Escalier d'honneur ) to the audience rooms of the royal family on the bel étage and from there to the mezzanine to the magnificently furnished Grand Salon . The room suite of the prince was on the piano nobile of the right wing of the palace, that of the princess in the left.

The rez-de-chausée of the right wing housed the administration and government archives. The military administration of the regiment maintained by Wilhelm Heinrich and subordinated to the King of France resided in the left wing. In the basement below were the utility and storage rooms, which were accessible via a door from the courtyard in front of the stables via a side staircase.

For almost 50 years, Saarbrücken Castle was the administrative and cultural center of the principality.

19th and 20th centuries

Saarbrücken Castle as seen from the old town hall
Back of the castle, taken by the Saarland state parliament

After the baroque palace was partially destroyed by fire in the turmoil of the French Revolution in 1793 , the ruin was rebuilt around 1810 as a residential complex for eight Saarbrücken bourgeois families. Master builder Johann Adam Knipper had the badly damaged north wing rebuilt over the preserved baroque vaulted cellar and demolished the central pavilion in the Corps de Logis and the mezzanine floor. A lithograph from 1812 shows the open passage instead of the former central pavilion. The ground and upper floors of the castle were divided into three floors and given a new roof structure. In 1872 the owner of the adjoining parts of the castle, the ironworks owner Karl Ferdinand Stumm , commissioned the architect Hugo Dihm to close the vacant lot with a hall. The new building remained far behind the dimensions of the baroque central building.

Between 1908 and 1920 the district of Saarbrücken gradually acquired the residential buildings in order to then use them as the seat of the district administration. In 1938, the central building on the courtyard side was given a facade in the neo-baroque style , and an open staircase was built in front of the courtyard . During the National Socialist era, the Gestapo control center was located in the castle . The place of the invisible memorial on the forecourt is a reminder of them . During the Second World War , the western Saar wing was partially destroyed and was rebuilt in 1947/48.

With the construction of the city ​​motorway , which was completed in 1963 , the area of ​​the palace gardens was reduced by around 1200 square meters. The upper office building in front of the castle wall also had to give way. The castle wall was also moved by 17 meters, which meant that the sculpture of the miserly baker had to be moved to another part of the wall. A steel footbridge was built to the old bridge , which reached up to the wall before it was set back.

By 1969 the structural condition of the palace complex deteriorated massively. The south wing had to be closed by the building authorities. A renovation of the castle was inevitable, concepts for implementation were developed. The ideas ranged from the reconstruction of the plant built under Stengel to its complete demolition. In 1981, the then Saarbrücken city association made the decision to renovate the existing building stock and to add a new, modern central pavilion. The remodeling and renovation work under the direction of the architects' association Böhm, Rosiny , Krüger and Rieger lasted from 1982 to 1989. In the course of this, Dihm's central building was built over with a steel frame building to the dimensions of the former baroque central pavilion based on a design by Gottfried Böhm .

The Dihms courtyard front was integrated into the new structure. The space between the facades of the two buildings now serves as the entrance hall. The corner pavilions were given mansard roofs instead of the hipped roofs, following the example of the baroque complex .

See also

literature

  • Architectural guide Saarbrücken in: Baumeister 94th year 1997.
  • Erich Fissabre, Alfred Maurer: Gestaltbild Baroque Palace Saarbrücken 1739-1748. Methods, working methods, sources of the reconstruction . Self published in 1980.
  • Simon Matzerath, Guido von Büren: Stone power - castles, fortresses, palaces in Lorraine, Luxembourg and Saarland, Regensburg 2019.
  • Alfred Maurer : The building history of the Saarbrücken castle and its research . In: Jürgen Karbach, Paul Thomes (Ed.): Contributions to the Stengel Symposium on the occasion of the 300th birthday of Friedrich Joachim Stengel on September 29/30, 1994 in the Saarbrücken Castle . (= Magazine for the history of the Saar area. 43,1995). Historical association for the Saar region, Saarbrücken 1995, ISSN  0513-9058 , pp. 177-217.
  • Alfred Maurer: The need to catch up on tradition In: Baumeister - magazine for architecture, planning, environment. Vol. 77, No. 2, 1980, ISSN  0005-674X , pp. 124-125.
  • Alfred Werner Maurer: The artistic u. The historical influence of the architectural theory writings of Nicolaus Goldmann and Leonhard Christoph Sturm on the structures of FJ Stengel, Philologus Verlag, 2006
  • Alfred Werner Maurer: Friedrich Joachim Stengel, his buildings and the relationship to architectural theory, Philologus-Documents Basel (CH) 2009.
  • Reinhard Schneider : The Saarbrücken Castle. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Vol. 22, No. 2, 1996, ISSN  0342-1805 , pp. 81-90.

Web links

Commons : Saarbrücken Castle  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of the Saarland in the Google book search
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hermann Jungk: Regesten on the history of the former Nassau-Saarbrückischen lands up to 1381 . In: Messages of the historical association for the Saar area . 13, Saarbrücken 1914. Reg. 35, 37, 40, 10, 561/562
  3. ^ Albert Ruppersberg : History of the County of Saarbrücken . Vol. 2, 1903, p. 31
  4. ↑ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden: 1002, 4, p. 414.
  5. ↑ a b Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden: 1002, 5, fol. 266
  6. ↑ Saarbrücken district planning office: plans of the excavations from 1938 and 1962
  7. ↑ Friedrich Role: Curiosa Rolleiana . no year
  8. ↑ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden: Dept. 3011, No. 3715, 35 ll. Demolitions of their Nassau resident locks by Henrich Höer . 1617
  9. ^ K. Lohmeyer: Friedrich Joachim Stengel 1694-1787 . In: Messages of the historical association for the Saar area . 11, Düsseldorf 1911, p. 30, note 3
  10. ^ Adolph Köllner: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann . Vol. 1. Saarbrücken 1865, p. 315 f.
  11. ↑ Landesarchiv Saarbrücken, holdings Nassau-Saarbrücken 11, No. 2855, p. 388 and holdings plans No. 2, 47
  12. ↑ History and Landscape on the Saar , No. 20. Saarbrücken 1962.
  13. ^ Karl Lohmeyer: The personal biography of the baroque architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel, 1694-1787 . In: Festschrift for Karl Koetschau's 60th birthday . Düsseldorf 1928, pp. 93-104.
  14. ↑ Charly Lehnert : The Saarland Geheichnis, Volume 1: Stories and glosses . Lehnert Verlag, Bübingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-939286-18-9 , “Look mool - it works!”, P. 165-166 .
  15. ↑ Information about the reconstruction of the Saarbrücken Castle. (PDF; 29 kB) Accessed August 20, 2012.
  16. ^ Architects' group G. Böhm, N. Rosiny, K. Krüger, L. Rieger, E. Fissabre with AW Maurer, master builder May 1997 Journal of Architecture, ISSN  0005-674X

Coordinates: 49 ° 13 ′ 48.5 ″  N , 6 ° 59 ′ 33 ″  E