Thürnthal Castle
Thürnthal Castle is a baroque-classical building in the Lower Austrian municipality of Fels am Wagram . Its architecture is a mixture of high baroque forms and classic-antique style elements, which is reminiscent of the classicism that was widespread around fifty years later .
architecture
The four-storey building is surrounded by a dry moat. You enter the courtyard through the three-aisled foyer, the corners of which are semicircular in front. Opposite is the palace chapel with marble fittings and a copy of the portrait of the Annunciation by Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724–1796). The original is in the Austrian Gallery of the Baroque Museum in Belvedere Palace in Vienna .
Above the former stately apartment in the mezzanine are the state rooms of the Bel Etage , whose rich stucco work comes from Santino Bussi . The ballroom has been preserved as an original Baroque construction site, the cantilevered walls still give an idea of the opulence of the planned marble furnishings.
The top floor was reserved for guests. In the basement there are still remains of the burnt down moated castle from the Renaissance period . The castle has many different columns, staircases and decorative elements made of high quality sandstone from Kaisersteinbruch . A large stone basin, formerly with a fountain, is located in front of the east-facing main front of the palace, to which a quadruple linden tree avenue leads.
The extensive gardens are only left in remnants. The large southern part of the park, the “game park” laid out in the English style, was partially used as an enclosure, while to the west there were extensive orchards and vegetable gardens. For Wagram back surround farm buildings the plant.
history
The first documentary mention of the place Thürnthal took place in 1288 with Conrad von Turrenthal . From the castle-like dwelling at the foot of the Wagram, the "Veste Thürrenthal", which was initially made of wood and later of stone, only a few parts of the wall still exist today. The name itself refers to the dry loess valleys on the Wagram ("arid valleys").
Hartmann von Trautmannsdorf began to build a moated castle next to this castle in 1575, which was completed under the court chamber president Reichard Streun von Schwarzenau (1538–1600) from the Lower Austrian noble family von Strein (Streun). The castle (engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer , 1672) changed hands several times until it fell victim to the flames in 1696.
Adrian Wenzel Graf Enckevoirt (1660–1738), imperial chamberlain and secret councilor, bought the burned out Renaissance castle in 1698. The Italian master builder Domenico Martinelli (1650–1718) began construction of the four-winged complex around 1700, in a second construction phase from 1720 Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach (1693–1742) took over the building management and the palace was given a Baroque style. The work on the ceiling stucco was carried out by the court plasterer Santino Bussi (1664–1736); his mythological and allegorical stucco motifs are surrounded by fine tendrils. The sculptor Lorenzo Mattielli (1687–1748) is engaged for the sculptural decoration . The late baroque, classicist design remains unfinished and Count Enckevoirt dies in 1738 without heirs.
Although the building history of the palace has only been insufficiently investigated and there are hardly any archives, Hellmut Lorenz ( University of Vienna ) and Georg Rizzi (President of the Federal Monuments Office ) see a first thorough renovation around 1700, whereby the strict, unadorned design language and the strongly accentuated window frames are not necessarily visible the planning by Domenico Martinelli points, but at least to the small group of builders who received significant suggestions from Martinelli's work.
Unfortunately, archival material is only preserved for the period from 1719 to 1722; they report considerable material deliveries, which are apparently related to a recent large-scale construction phase. As early as 1721, wood was being prepared for the roof truss and the landlord's apartment was being prepared, so that the work was evidently well advanced at this point.
Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach's intervention seems to have taken place "on the fly" in the final phase of this second construction phase. Mainly due to the correspondence between the Thürnthal entrance plan and the Michaelerfront of the Vienna Hofburg (planning from 1726), a connection to Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach is seen as essential. There are some indications that planning on the Michaeler facade only began after the completion of Thürnthal. It would be tempting to think of a postponed construction site by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723), where Joseph Emanuel was able to follow his father's intentions in many ways.
On the four Corinthian columns there was originally a richly decorated stone gable triangle , which was replaced by a simple wooden structure in 1824; the original stone cornice breaks off shortly behind it. The triangular gable front is still evident in the construction of the roof structure and on the two figures above the gable.
The historian and topographer Franz Xaver Schweickhardt (1794–1858) describes the castle in 1834 as follows (abbreviated):
- “The castle, surrounded by a dry moat and gardens on three sides, rises in a grand old French style on four floors with a basement , quite massive, with a flat tile roof and with its four fronts enclosing a courtyard. The main front facing east, from which there is a stone basin with a fountain jutting up five fathoms on a very large forecourt , is adorned by a large entrance gate and a stone balcony above it, which is surrounded by an iron railing, of which as a masterpiece of Locksmith work the coat of arms of the builder of Count Enkevoirt and his wife, a born Countess Weissenwolf, are emblazoned.
- [...] Above the already mentioned basement, consisting of light vaults and kitchens, the windows of which go into the mentioned ditch, is the ground floor, where a splendid hall adorned with columns and stone figures spreads out from the entrance gate one arrives on the left to the offices, on the right to the staircase of the main staircase, which, had it been completed, would have consisted of nothing but marble steps. Opposite this is the chapel, which contains three altars, a small organ, columns with marble capitals and all the necessary paraments. The altars, of which the high altar is dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel and the other two to St. Jerome and John in the Desert, contain good portraits of their saints, painted by an Italian master.
- [...] The so-called mezzanine floor above the ground floor forms the owner's apartment and contains a number of comfortably furnished , parquet-floored rooms with Meißner heating , above which is the actual main floor, consisting of many very high rooms, with double doors and floors made of walnut wood, and with a ceiling on which very well-made stucco work is attached, but all of which, like the large hall between them, to which the balcony mentioned belongs, are not developed, but even in this condition they see the greatness with which this beautiful building would have been emblazoned if its interior had been completed. Finally, the top floor was intended for guest rooms.
- [...] The already mentioned gardens surrounding the castle exist partly in English grounds, where the officials' apartment is located at the western end. In addition, from the forecourt of the castle, a six hundred paces long four-fold avenue of lime trees leads to the road leading to Stockerau , which is a real ornament for the surroundings of the castle. "
After the revolutionary year of 1848 and the dissolution of the manor in 1849, the castle began to gradually decline: it was used for purposes other than intended. Around 1870 sugar was produced there, then it was part of the “Prager Maschinenbau-AG”, later Baron Eisler used it as a starch factory, then soap was produced again. The district curator Paul Hauser describes his impressions in 1906:
- “By adapting the lock to the factory, it was badly damaged. The right half of the facade is disfigured by an ugly engine house, and smoke and steam damage the masonry. In the upper rooms, which were built for noble Rococo cavaliers, workers now move around and whiz the drive belts of the machines. [...] The damp haze that prevails in the rooms has almost completely destroyed the beautiful stoves, despite their cladding. The stucco ceilings are either partially perforated for the passage of drive belts or wire lines or, where accessible, scribbled in pencil. "
In 1910 the industrialist Guido Bunzl bought it “for demolition”, but rejected this intention. Many of the valuable equipment details are sold to public or private interested parties by Bunzl. The baroque figures in the palace gardens are moved to other palaces and parks, for example some figures to Klessheim Palace in Salzburg, many vases and plinths to Leopoldskron Palace , a figure of Diana to the Salzburg Baroque Museum , the two sphinxes to Baumgarten Palace near Mautern, the one to Ceres Litzlberg Castle , two other figures in the Viennese palace.
In 1934 the article “Eine Gartenelegie” appeared in the “Gartenzeitung”. In it Rudolf Khoss-Sternegg wrote about the castle:
- “ The sight that now presented itself, however, had to be extremely surprising! Almost covered by old plane trees, a gigantic palace facade grew up, divided by pillars striving towards the sky above the gates decorated with rich wrought grids. The architecture of a size and splendor that we would otherwise encounter in princely city palaces - and yet something didn't seem quite right here either. The windows of the main floor enclosed dark, boarded-up caves and in place of the flower-wreathed gables they carried unfinished, roughly overbossed workpieces. But what a rich, happy life must have ruled here once! Groups of delightful putti played their loose game on the parapet of the moat and two festively dressed sphinxes kept watch at the gate bridge. There, however, where a balustrade closed the forecourt from the garden, huge splendid vases stood hidden in the thicket and inside in the park, whose picturesque trees no longer gave any inkling of the regularity of the original layout, rose, almost suffocated by the tangle of wildly sprouting saplings, two kidnapping groups of elemental violence. At the exit my eyes fell on two fencing figures on the side of the gate, who crossed their arms in a brave duel here at the end of an old chestnut avenue. "
The Jewish owner Guido Bunzl was expropriated by the National Socialists in 1938 and murdered in Poland . The castle was handed over to the Chief Finance President of Vienna and Lower Danube for administration, in 1939 it was placed under monument protection and from 1943, in order to save it from the demolition planned by the Chief Finance President, it was proposed as an “air raid shelter and art depot” on the grounds that “that castle Thürnthal naturally appears well camouflaged between the tall park trees with its gray-green roofs and is not easily recognized by airmen. ”From 1943, stolen art treasures from France were housed in the castle , including a. Parts of the Rothschild collection , parts of the Lanckoronski collection or the Beethoven frieze by Gustav Klimt . Likewise, works of art that had been stolen from Kremsmünster Abbey and Kogl Castle (Attergau) by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg operational staff in the course of the “Berta Action” and stored there were relocated here. The makeshift raw brick walling of the high arched windows of the Bel Etage served as protection against fragments of bombs. During the Second World War , French and Belgian prisoners of war were quartered in the castle. In 1950 the castle was returned to the descendants of the legal owner expropriated by the National Socialists.
Finally, the company Franck und Kathreiner from Linz , which processed chicory into Kathreiner malt coffee or Caro coffee in Thürnthal , acquired the castle, which now, functionless and badly damaged, became an appendage of the agricultural business. After the Franck and Kathreiner company was sold to Nestlé , the palace was sold to the Viennese large farmers Helmut Schick and Johann Trunner in 1975. In 1984 the large farmer Erwin Stauber took over the manorial property. Gerhard Zehethofer bought the castle in 1998 and around 9,000 m² around the castle.
literature
- Theodor Brückler: Thürntal Castle as an art recovery place during the Second World War. In: Yearbook for regional studies of Lower Austria. Episode 63/64, St. Pölten 1998 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- Dehio-Handbuch: Lower Austria north of the Danube 1990 , Thürnthal, community Fels am Wagram, Schloss, pages 1178 f.
- Hellmut Lorenz : Domenico Martinelli and the Austrian baroque architecture. Vienna 1991.
- Wilhelm Georg Rizzi: On the status of research on Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach. In: Friedrich Polleroß : Fischer von Erlach and the Viennese baroque tradition. Vienna 1995.
- Susanne Wagner: 50 years of the market town of Fels 1927–1977. Festschrift, Fels 1977.
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz Xaver Schweickhardt: Representation of the Archduchy of Austria under the Ens: Through a comprehensive description of all castles, palaces, lordships, cities, markets, villages, Rotten . Volume VII: St. Valentin to Zwölfaxing. Printed by the PP. Mechitarists, 1835, p. 101 ff . ( archive.org [accessed December 8, 2018]).
- ↑ Paul Hauser: Castle Thürntal bei Wels am Wagram . Ed .: Communications from the KK Central Commission for Research and Conservation of Art and Historical Monuments. Vienna: KUK Court and KK University Booksellers, 1903, p. 108–112 ( archive.org [accessed December 8, 2018]).
- ↑ Salvage and art theft from Klimt to Markart ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Operator's website (schlossthuernthal.at)
- Entry via Thürnthal Castle to Burgen-Austria
Coordinates: 48 ° 26 ′ 11 " N , 15 ° 50 ′ 48.6" E