Weikersheim Castle

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Weikersheim Castle
Weikersheim Palace and Park

Weikersheim Palace and Park

Creation time : 12th Century
Castle type : former moated castle
Conservation status: receive
Place: Weikersheim
Geographical location 49 ° 28 '50 "  N , 9 ° 53' 45"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 28 '50 "  N , 9 ° 53' 45"  E
Height: 231  m above sea level NHN
Weikersheim Castle (Baden-Württemberg)
Weikersheim Castle

The weikersheim castle is the ancestral home of the Lords of Hohenlohe in Weikersheim . The original moated castle in the stau der Tauber was extensively expanded as a castle in the Renaissance style from 1595. The three-axis baroque garden from the early 18th century in front of the south wing opens the complex to the wide landscape of the Taubertal.

history

High and late Middle Ages

Around 1153, Konrad and Heinrich von "Wighartesheim" were first mentioned as lords of a moated castle. However, the castle was probably built a few decades earlier. Konrad later called himself "von Weikersheim", Heinrich, however, "von Hohenloch" after the Hohlach castle near Uffenheim . The name Weikersheim disappeared as a family name and Hohenloch became Hohenlohe. The old castle was a ring walled castle with a wide moat and the keep next to the entrance from the place.

Renaissance

Knight's hall with the furnishings completed around 1605

Up until 1586 there were repeated additions and modifications, but nothing decisive changed about the castle (which has since been pledged several times). But in that year Count Wolfgang II von Hohenlohe- Langenburg came into the possession of Weikersheim by dividing the inheritance and moved his residence there. After traveling through France , England and Austria, the educated and art-loving Renaissance prince began building activity in his Hohenlohe estates. Because of its location in the Taubertal, Weikersheim offered the ideal conditions for an extensive and representative castle. With the inclusion of older buildings such as the Staufer keep, which was given a baroque dome, an expanded palace complex was built from 1595, in which a new hall wing with a chapel and dining room set new spatial and iconographic standards. In 1605 the construction was largely completed. The centerpiece and gem of the palace is the knight's hall with its cantilevered roof construction created by Elias Gunzenhäuser with a coffered ceiling , which was painted by Balthasar Katzenberger from Würzburg . The large fireplace was made by the sculptor Michael Juncker . The count also had an alchemical laboratory in the castle , which had its own extension on the north side, of which small remains can still be seen. However, Count Wolfgang II, who was the mainspring of the construction work, never moved with his court to the new building. The old castle was not demolished either. The count died in 1610 at the age of 64.

Baroque

The baroque entrance to Weikersheim Castle with the medieval keep

Construction work came to a standstill during the Thirty Years' War . In 1634 the castle was completely looted by the troops of General Johann von Werth , and if "... the Turk had been there with his people, it couldn't have looked worse."

Count Wolfgang's grandson, Count Siegfried, continued building work from 1679. The extent of the renovations has not yet been clarified in detail, as they were closely based on the forms of the Renaissance.

When Count Carl Ludwig took over the residence in 1709 and worked there for over 50 years, the palace and the garden with its associated buildings were given almost the shape in which they are still preserved today. Between around 1709 and 1720, numerous apartments on the first and second floors of the Renaissance building were furnished for the count's family. The wing on the east side has only now received its current interior. Including both the garden and the city, two large-scale topographical axes typical of the Baroque era were created, at the intersection of which the castle rises as the center of the count's rule.

19th century

Painting from Weikersheim Castle around 1710
View of Weikersheim Castle and the baroque garden on the south side

Since Carl Ludwig died without descendants, the castle fell to other Hohenlohe lines. They only used the castle temporarily (especially in the summer months) as they had their own residences in Langenburg , Neuenstein and Öhringen .

20th century

The Sleeping Beauty ended after the Second World War , when Constantin zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg came to Weikersheim from Bohemia and filled the castle with life again. The art-loving Hohenlohe-Langenburg (himself a visual artist) set up a painting school in the castle and began to renovate the neglected rooms and the park. He became a skillful patron of the palace and introduced "International Summer Courses" for chamber music . After his death, the state of Baden-Württemberg acquired the castle for 5.5 million DM in 1967 and has provided the enormous financial means to maintain the castle ever since.

Weikersheim Castle today

and display information about the image
Weikersheim Palace and Park with orangery
Hercules fountain in the castle park

Weikersheim Palace is one of the state's own monuments and is looked after by the State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg . It is open for sightseeing. The originally furnished baroque living quarters are accessible as a castle museum .

View of the orangery and the stone bars of the Taubertal

In the rooms of the former castle kitchen there is a permanent exhibition on the subject of alchemy . In March 2007 the permanent exhibition "All kinds of decorations - Baroque treasures in Weikersheim Castle" was opened, presenting valuable and unique pieces of equipment from the baroque castle rooms.

Since it was extensively restored in the 1990s, the palace garden has returned to its baroque splendor . Opposite the castle, the two-winged orangery was restored. As the architectural highlight of the garden, it now serves as a popular setting for weddings and other large celebrations and concerts. Across the central axis of the park there is a view of the typical stone bar slopes of the Taubertal.

Statue in the castle garden

The palace garden, which is framed by avenues of chestnut trees , is populated by a program of around 100 stone statues. Including several rows of dwarf sculptures valued at the time. Most of the Künzelsau family of sculptors worked here . The garden is supposed to represent an allegory of the count's rule, well-ordered and strictly structured in keeping with the times. There are images of the winds, elements, continents, seasons, planets, ancient gods and heroes. With the dwarf gallery, there is the only completely preserved ensemble of a baroque dwarf garden.

The Jeunesses Musicales Germany has in the palace incorporated and operates in Prinzessinnenbau since 1963, the International Academy of Music Weikersheim . In addition, she organizes concerts all year round and opera performances every two years in the castle courtyard (in July and August). Flanking the castle, the rifle house and the gardener's house were expanded as event and concert rooms (for classical , jazz and new music ).

Every year at Christmas time, a Christmas market takes place in the inner courtyard and on the terrace with a view over the park, which is now a popular attraction for visitors from the Hohenlohe region.

Since 1979 the castle has also been used for meetings of the controversial Weikersheim Study Center , which is based in Leinfelden-Echterdingen.

Awards

On August 11, 2013, the palace gardens received the Garden of the Year 2013 award from the State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg .

See also

literature

  • Weikersheim Castle. New research . Edited by State palaces and gardens of Baden-Württemberg. Oppenheim am Rhein 2019, ISBN 978-3-96176-080-0 .
  • Barbara Arens: Weikersheim Castle - The key to the garden or: A walk through the universe , Dettelbach 2013, ISBN 978-3-89754-429-1 .
  • Frank Thomas Lang (Red.): Weikersheim Palace in Renaissance and Baroque: History and Stories of a Residence in Hohenlohe . Staatsanzeiger-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-929981-58-0 .
  • Carlheinz Gräter and Jörg Lusin: Castles in Hohenlohe. History and stories. Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-87407-685-2 .
  • Georg Friedrich Kempter: To the reconstruction of the baroque garden of Weikersheim . In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg 24 (1995), 2, pp. 64–72, doi : 10.11588 / nbdpfbw.1995.2.13944
  • Wilhelm Gradmann: Castles and palaces in Hohenlohe . DRW-Verlag, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-87181-209-9 .
  • Klaus Merten: Weikersheim Castle . Edited by the State. Castles and gardens of Baden-Württemberg in connection with the State Gazette for Baden-Württemberg GmbH. (Gray row of castle guides). Heidelberg: Brausdruck, undated [= after 1996] ISBN 3-932489-05-5
  • Jost Weyer: Count Wolfgang II. Von Hohenlohe and alchemy: alchemical studies in Weikersheim Castle; 1587-1610 . Research from Württembergisch Franconia, Volume 39. Thorbecke [u. a.], Sigmaringen 1992. ISBN 3-7995-7639-8 .
  • Alfons Elfgang, Rosemarie Münzenmayer: Weikersheim Palace Gardens . Edited by the State. Castles and gardens of Baden-Württemberg in connection with the State Gazette for Baden-Württemberg GmbH. (Gray row of castle guides). Revised by Brausdruck, Heidelberg 1999. ISBN 3-932489-10-1 .
  • Jost Weyer : Count Wolfgang II of Hohenlohen and alchemy. A permanent exhibition in Weikersheim Castle. In: Würzburger medical history reports 22, 2003, pp. 529-531.
  • Walter-Gerd Fleck: Weikersheim Castle and the Hohenlohe castles of the Renaissance . Tübingen 1954 (Partly at the same time; Tübingen, Univ.-Diss., 1952 with the title: Das Schloss Weikersheim. Its building history and its position within the palace architecture of the 16th and early 17th centuries.)

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The thesis of Walter-Gerd Fleck 1952/54 of a previous ideal draft in the form of an equilateral triangle can be considered obsolete according to the latest research. See the anthology of the State Palaces and Gardens of 2019 and especially the article by Ziegler.
  2. ^ Hasso von Poser: The ceiling pictures in the ballroom of Weikersheim Castle. A disaster ; in: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Wuerttemberg - newsletter of the state preservation of monuments, issue 4/1980, Stuttgart 1980, pp. 160–164
  3. ↑ www.schloss-weikersheim.de
  4. ↑ Garden of the year 2013