Waldenbuch Castle

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Waldenbuch Castle

Waldenbuch Castle was a hunting lodge of the Dukes of Württemberg in Waldenbuch in the Boeblingen district in Baden-Württemberg and now houses the cultural history museum of everyday culture , a branch of the Württemberg State Museum .

History of the castle

The original castle was not mentioned until 1381. At the site of today's castle, however, a previous building from the 12th century is suspected. Both the Counts of Hohenberg and the Lords of Bernhausen , to whom the place was given as a fief , come into consideration as builders . In 1363 the town of Waldenbuch was sold to Count Eberhard II of Württemberg .

Duke Ulrich appointed Waldenbuch as the seat of the forest vogt over Schönbuch , which significantly increased the importance of the place. The forest bailiff's main task was to monitor the use of forest rights in Schönbuch. The forest bailiff corresponded to a present-day Oberforstamt and existed between 1534 and 1807. Between 1562 and 1566, Duke Christoph had his master builder Aberlin Tretsch convert the old castle into a hunting lodge. He erected a rectangular two-story building in the east of the complex, at the north-western corner of which was the stair tower with a stone spiral staircase .

Duke Frederick I no longer met this building for his increased needs. The Renaissance building was almost doubled to the north around 1607. In order to create the necessary space, the nave of the neighboring parish church of St. Veit was demolished and replaced by a new building on the other side of the medieval church tower. The Gothic tracery windows were reinstalled in the new Renaissance church. The builder of both construction measures is not known. However, it is certain that Heinrich Schickardt was also active in Waldenbuch at this time. In 1650 the castle fountain was built.

Duke Friedrich Carl von Württemberg carried out the next major construction work . From 1687 to 1690 the west wing was built, which served as a kitchen building. At first it had no connection to the east wing. This was raised by one floor, which is reminiscent of a Latin inscription above the castle portal: “ In 1687 on June 4, Friedrich Karl, Duke of Württemberg, administrator and guardian of the young prince Eberhard Ludwig, took over the ducal seat in this first Württemberg hunting lodge closest to all, to increase the spaciousness and to expand, a higher one with seventeen rooms was vaulted above one floor, making it higher and more convenient for annual relaxation, the work also happily completed at the end of the year. "

In 1717, Duke Eberhard Ludwig commissioned the construction of the three-story south wing between the east building and the two-story kitchen building. The architect Donato Giuseppe Frisoni inserted it harmoniously between the rather unadorned functional buildings of the Renaissance. Only the interior was designed according to the baroque taste of the time. The remains of the old castle and the forest bailiwick were demolished.

In this form, it also served the next Württemberg dukes as hunting lodge until the reign of King Frederick I of the monastery Bebenhausen was replaced. During the last hunt on November 6, 1812, 233 wild boars, 297 deer and 211 roe deer were shot.

Historic shop interior

After that, the castle served temporarily as a military hospital and also as a prison. At the end of the 19th century the forestry department moved in again and some classes from the Waldenbuch school. After the Second World War , refugees and displaced persons were housed there. a. also Walter Romberg . From 1989 the building was converted into a museum. On an exhibition area of ​​2500 m², the Museum of Everyday Culture - Waldenbuch Castle shows the rural and petty bourgeois life up to the end of the last century. You can see apartments, workshops, pictures, clothes, advertising and household items that provide insight into the culture, way of life, mentalities and world views of broad sections of the population.

Building description

The renaissance castle consists of an irregular three-wing complex with relatively little decoration. The stair tower in the east wing does not stand in front of the facade, as is usual, but is completely integrated into the building. The access from the castle courtyard to the stair tower is decorated with stone carvings. On the first floor of the east wing there is a large vaulted hall like a Dürnitz . The actual main entrance with a double flight of stairs is in the south wing on the corner of the kitchen. Due to the different uses in the 19th and 20th centuries, the interior of the hunting lodge has disappeared. In the east wing, the historical rooms are still visible on the first floor and the old wall design has been preserved. It is only partially visible on the second floor.

The functional uses for the museum exhibition are now in the foreground.

literature

  • Martin Lang: "Waldenbuch on the Fildern" with 12 woodcuts by Joachim Lutz . Gengenbach & Hahn-Druckerei, Mannheim 1926, in Volume 1 "Books of the Homeland".
  • Katharina and Nikola Hild: "Waldenbuch Castle - Hunting Residence in Schönbuch". In: Castles in the Stuttgart Region. S. 151 - 156.Silberburg-Verlag, Tübingen-Bebenhausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-87407-818-4 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Waldenbuch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 38 '14.4 "  N , 9 ° 7' 51.8"  E