Weilburg Castle
The Weilburg Castle is one of the most important baroque palaces in Hessen . Over a length of 400 meters, it rises on the eastern flank of a mountain spur belonging to the Taunus above the Lahn and covers almost half of the area of Weilburg's old town. The high castle , built between 1545 and 1590, is one of the best preserved Renaissance castles in Hesse. The baroque extension was adapted to this high palace, so that today the image of a uniform building complex emerges. The main phase of the baroque expansion took place from 1701 to 1721 under Count Johann Ernst von Nassau-Weilburg and his state master builder Julius Ludwig Rothweil . Today the palace is owned by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse and can be visited as a museum palace on guided tours.
Political importance
The decisive factor for Weilburg's location was its favorable location on a mountain, three quarters of which is surrounded by the Lahn. The mountain consists of massive scarf stone ( tuff ), diabase and trachyte and is located near the confluence of the Weil and Lahn. The mountain rises up to 40 m above the Lahn level.
When the city of Weilburg was first mentioned in 906 under the name “Wilineburch”, the Konradines maintained a “Castellum” here. This served as a seat of the counts of the Niederlahngau . Konrad the Elder was buried here in 906. His son, King Konrad I , founded the Walpurgis Abbey in 913 . He died on December 23, 918 in Weilburg. The childless regent Heinrich I is said to have chosen his successor on the death bed ("Weilburger Testament").
After the Conradines died out, the place and the Castellum Weilburg came to the diocese of Worms through several donations .
Since the 12th century, Weilburg was in the hands of the Nassau counts , who initially acted as bailiffs of the Worms diocese. King Adolf von Nassau bought the place and the lordship of Weilburg in 1294 and granted it city rights. Weilburg then repeatedly served as the residence of a line of the Walram House of Nassau.
Extensive construction work was carried out on Weilburg Castle under Johann-Ernst von Nassau-Weilburg. The county of Nassau-Weilburg covered approximately 57 square miles at that time. In 1741, Karl August von Nassau-Weilburg moved his residence to Kirchheimbolanden , although Weilburg Castle remained the seat of government.
With the loss of Nassau on the left bank of the Rhine in 1801, Weilburg became a residential city again for a short time. Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Nassau-Weilburg resided here until his death in 1816. His son Wilhelm zu Nassau resided as Duke of Nassau from 1817 in Schloss Biebrich , Wiesbaden .
With the appointment of Duke Adolf von Nassau as Grand Duke of Luxembourg , Weilburg Castle passed into Luxembourg ownership in 1890.
In 1935 the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg sold the castle to the Prussian state . As his legal successor, the state of Hesse has been the owner since 1945.
Building development
There are no more traces of construction of the “Castellum” of the Konradines.
Under Count Johann I von Nassau , a new castle was built on the mountain spur around 1355-1359. Around 1359 to 1369, a city wall was also built around the emerging city, of which a round defense tower in the castle garden has been preserved.
Under Philip III. von Nassau-Weilburg , construction work on the high castle began around 1545. Originally, the east wing was built as a single residential building above the palace's hall. Later the west, south and north wings were added and the castle was constantly rebuilt. Simultaneously with the construction of the castle, a water pipe was laid from the Westerwald side to the castle.
The most important expansion of the palace took place under Count Johann-Ernst. The necessary basis for this was created in 1699 with the first building regulations for the city of Weilburg. From 1703 Julius Ludwig Rothweil was entrusted with the construction management. The construction work expanded the castle in all directions. To the north the cattle yard was added, in which the castle administration was housed. In the west, the state administration was combined in the castle courtyard with the Rentkammer and the new law firm. In the south, the town hall and the church were rebuilt and integrated into the castle, and the extensive garden terraces were laid out. More than 720 workers and 41 soldiers are said to have worked on the construction site.
Simultaneously with the expansion of the castle, the development of the market square was renewed, the suburb was laid out and an extensive water supply was built. In addition, the Windhof and Wehrholz farmhouses were renewed under Johann-Ernst and the avenues Limburgerstrasse and Frankfurter Strasse were laid out.
The construction of the palace led to such massive logging in the Weilburg forests that Prince Karl August severely restricted the use of timber in the building regulations of March 1734. Through this measure, Weilburg developed into a center of rammed earth construction .
After the expansion under Johann-Ernst, only minor extensions were made. The hay barn was built north of the Marstall from 1743 to 1746. Between 1759 and 1763, the Landtor was built below the palace garden as a representative entrance to the city from Frankfurter Straße.
Two expansion concepts for the castle from the mid-18th and early 19th centuries were not implemented, so that the baroque castle is still preserved today.
Since 1998 the square around the Landtor has been called “König-Konrad-Platz”. It was enlarged significantly in the course of the Weilburg suburb bypass , traffic approval 2004.
Building description
The external shape of the palace complex is determined by its location on the Weilburger Bergsporn. Unlike other Renaissance castles, it does not show the orientation on uniform axes.
The palace complex in its present form is essentially based on Julius Ludwig Rothweil. From 1702 to 1721 he redesigned the castle into a baroque style residence on behalf of Count Johann Ernst. The construction work began before this well-known master builder was appointed. The old high castle was essentially preserved, and the new buildings were built around it.
The entire castle has a uniform, simple facade. All parts of the building, including the castle church, have simple sand-colored plastered outer walls and sandstone-red facade elements . With these, the new buildings should be designed to match the old high castle. This exterior design corresponds to that of the 16th century.
High castle
The center of the complex is the irregular four-wing complex of the high castle. This was built in several construction phases. Due to its special acoustics, the square inner courtyard of the Hochschloss is the venue for the Weilburg Palace Concerts in summer . The lion fountain was moved here in 1935. The fountain, built in 1704, was previously at the stables in the cattle yard.
East wing
The east wing, also known as the Lahn wing, is the oldest part of today's castle. From 1533 to 1539 the hall of the old castle was replaced by a residential building with a stair tower in front. Initially, a simple two-story residential building was built by master builder Nikolaus Schickedanz from Frankfurt. In the years 1661/1662 the east wing was raised by one floor and the stair tower was brought to its present height.
The representative living rooms on the upper floor can be reached through the higher portal on the stairwell . On the portal is the alliance coat of arms of Philip III. from Nassau-Weilburg and the Amalie from Isenburg-Büdingen attached.
South and west wings
The south and west wings were built in the years 1540–1545 and complemented the east wing to form a three-wing complex open to the north. Baumeister this extension was from Heilbronn coming Balthasar Wolff .
The south wing contained utility rooms on the ground floor and representative function rooms on the upper floor. In the west wing, the gate passage, the guard and the stables were housed on the ground floor. The upper floor houses further living rooms.
In the years 1567–1572 the Stadtpfeiferturm was built as a stair tower for the west wing . The alliance coat of arms of Albrecht von Nassau-Weilburg and Anna von Nassau-Dillenburg can be seen on its portal . In the tower chamber was the apartment of the town piper, who was responsible for the music in the town and at the same time had to perform the task of a tower keeper .
North wing
The north wing of the high castle was built in 1570–1572. Count Albrecht von Nassau-Weilburg commissioned the builder Ludwig Kempf for this . The north wing is the only wing of the high castle with a regular façade structure made up of dormitories , bay towers and window strips.
The inside of the north wing was given an arcade of Ionic marble columns on the ground floor in 1572/1573 . The corridor above on the upper floor was closed in 1590 and the facade was provided with the Corinthian columns.
Between 1580 and 1590 the facility was closed with the “Green Building”. This is located between the north and east wings. In the late 18th century it was expanded into a kitchen parlor and received its current form.
Interior
Despite several renovations inside the palace, some paintings from the Baroque period have been preserved. A large part of these paintings comes from Georg Friedrich Christian Seekatz . The stucco work is by Andrea Gallasini .
After the castle was transferred to the State of Prussia in 1935, a museum concept for the high castle was developed. One problem arose from the fact that the castle was handed over with almost no facility. Furniture had to be brought to Weilburg from other castles and partly reconstructed according to historical descriptions.
In the rooms that can be visited as part of the castle tour, the black marble bathtub built in 1709 in the bathroom cabinet on the ground floor is particularly noteworthy, as it has hot and cold running water. In addition, the lavishly furnished China Cabinet with the portraits of Count Johann-Ernst and Maria Polyxena as well as the Elector's Room can be visited. This is a baroque bedroom for important guests. It has a sumptuous red bed, star-shaped parquet flooring and a black marble fireplace.
Palace Square
To the west of the Hochschloss is the Schlossplatz. The administration buildings were housed here. It is framed by the high castle, the north wall of the upper orangery , the office and the rent chamber . On the north side, the castle square is separated from the lower lying cattle yard by a wall.
The office was built in 1700–1704, the Rentkammer 1703–1704. Both buildings were later rebuilt several times. Today the office houses the mining and city museum of the city of Weilburg, while the rent chamber houses a restaurant. Originally the castle courtyard was surrounded by an arcade. However, this was canceled in 1754.
The dolphin fountain is built onto the wall of the upper orangery. It is made of red marble and shows a putti riding a dolphin . The fountain was made in 1710 by the Frankfurt sculptor Johann Bernhard Schwarzeburger based on a design by Julius Ludwig Rothweil . A linden rosette was laid out in the northern half of the palace square .
stockyard
To the north of the high castle is the trapezoidal cattle yard on a lower ground level. Originally the cattle collection point of the city of Weilburg was located here. Under Count Friedrich von Nassau Weilburg (1655–1675), after the Thirty Years' War , the castle was established here.
Under the master builder Julius Ludwig Rothweil, the courtyard was redesigned from around 1692 to 1706 to its present form. The cattle yard is connected to the palace square by stairs. After the building at the cattle yard was completed, the entire business operations of the castle could be relocated here.
To the east of the courtyard is the Long Wing, which was built between 1704 and 1705. This is connected to the high castle via an intermediate building. Initially it contained the castle's utility rooms and living quarters for the servants. Around 1787 it was redesigned into stately living quarters. The name Prinzessinnenbau comes from this era. Today the castle hotel is housed there.
To the north of the courtyard is the Marstall, which was built between 1703 and 1704. The alliance coat of arms of Johann Ernst von Nassau-Weilburg and Maria Polyxena von Leiningen-Hartenberg is attached to its portal .
To the west of the courtyard is the short wing, also known as the cabinet building (built 1704–1706), and the riding hall (built 1705–1708). The riding arena is connected to the stables by a corridor .
The three-winged hay barn was added in 1743–1746 under Prince Karl August . It is located north of the stables.
Today most of the wings of the cattle yard are used by the castle hotel. The former riding arena is now used by the city of Weilburg as a town hall.
Upper orangery
The Upper Orangery is located south of the High Castle and connects the High Castle with the Castle Church and the Castle Park. It was built in the years 1703–1705 according to plans by Julius Ludwig Rothweil. It consists of a central ballroom and two flanking galleries. The Upper Orangery has large French windows facing the palace garden. The alliance coat of arms Johann-Ernst von Nassau-Weilburg and Maria Polyxena von Leiningen-Hartenberg is affixed to a triangular gable above the central projection.
She performed several tasks. On the one hand, like its predecessor, it served as a church corridor , through which the high castle is directly connected to the church, and on the other hand as a large ballroom of the castle. Furthermore, exotic plants were housed here for the winter. When the lower orangery was built, it was used almost exclusively as a ballroom. Rothweil wanted Delft tiles for the wall cladding . Since these were too expensive for the client Johann Ludwig, he had Georg Friedrich Christian Seekatz paint imitation tiles in the upper orangery in 1548.
Castle church, town hall, tower
South of the Upper Orangery is the castle church , the town hall and the church tower, which temporarily housed the elevated tank for supplying the water features in the castle garden with pressurized water.
The first church building at this point was the Walpurgis Chapel, built in 912. In 1397 here was St. Andrew - Collegiate completed. From 1508 work began on St. Martin's Church. This was to become a citizen church next to the collegiate church. Her tower was not completed until 1555. With the introduction of the Reformation , the monastery was dissolved in the same year and the St. Andreas Collegiate Church and St. Martin's Church were merged.
In the course of the redesign of the palace, today's palace church and town hall were built on the site of the collegiate church between 1707 and 1713. For this purpose, the dilapidated previous church had to be demolished except for the tower.
From then on, the castle church served as a regional, city and court church. On the side facing the market square, the Weilburg town hall was integrated into the church building, which today houses a café and conference rooms. In bad weather, the palace concerts take place inside the palace church.
Below the altar is the princely crypt of the Nassau rulers. A total of 30 Nassau and Luxembourg rulers were buried in the princely crypt. The coffins of those buried here in front of the new church were torn down. These rulers include:
- 1559 Philip III. to Nassau-Weilburg
- 1719 Johann Ernst von Nassau-Weilburg
- 1912 Grand Duke Wilhelm of Luxembourg , Duke of Nassau
- 1953 Grand Duke Adolf of Luxembourg , formerly ruling Duke of Nassau (died 1905)
In 1708 new bells were hung in the church tower. It was increased and rebuilt in baroque style from 1707–1710. In order to be able to operate the water features in the palace gardens, two elevated tanks for nine m³ of water were set up in the tower. In 1776, however, they were shut down in the course of the dismantling of the water supply.
Lower orangery
The Lower Orangery was built in 1711–1713. It separates the upper and lower palace gardens. As the only building of the extension under Johann Ernst, it has a facade order. This consists of 15 axes and is modeled on the orangery of Versailles Palace . This break in the facade design was possible because the upper orangery cannot be seen from the lower orangery and therefore the facade did not have to be adapted to the high castle. The lower orangery faces south. It is used to overwinter potted plants.
- Lower orangery
Lower orangery
The satyr
The lure blower
Castle garden
The forerunner of the palace gardens was laid out in 1523–1559. For this purpose, the cemetery had to be relocated to Frankfurter Strasse, which was previously located between the castle and the church.
As part of the palace expansion, the garden was redesigned as a French garden . It was laid out by the two gardeners Francois LeMarie from 1700 and Johann Michael Petri from 1708. It extends south from the Hochschloss over several artificial terraces downwards. Its total area is about 3.3 hectares . The terraces were laid out in 1706–1714.
The largest terrace is the upper terrace. It begins at the Hochschloss and ends in the open terrace on the Lower Orangery. It is separated from the city by the Upper Orangery, the Castle Church and the Castle Garden Wall. Towards the Lahn it is supported by a wall up to twelve meters high, so that from here there is a wide view over the river valley of the Lahn.
In front of the Upper Orangery, the new fountain made according to Baroque templates was installed in 1967. It shows Heracles fighting Antaeus . It is flanked by statues that represent the four elements of fire , water , air and earth . The southern half of the upper terrace is occupied by a lime tree rosette (also called the linden room). This was laid out under Prince Karl August and renewed between 1936 and 1944.
The lower castle garden, which is seven meters below, can be reached via two outside stairs made of local Schupbach marble on either side of the lower orangery. A flower garden is laid out here. The fountain in the lower palace garden is flanked by life-size gilded lead figures depicting a satyr with a clapper foot and a sound cymbal and a lure blower .
From here, a staircase leads to the five-meter-deep ground floor terrace . The flower garden is located between the ground floor terrace and the tower. From the ground floor terrace to the east, you can reach the pontoon and a staircase to König-Konrad-Platz.
Towards the Lahn, the bridge adjoins the palace garden . This was transformed into a cascade-like tree park by Prince Friedrich Wilhelm around 1800. Originally it was a hedge made of hornbeams, which should form an obstacle to the approach to the castle.
Prominent gardeners in the palace gardens were the Sckell brothers ( Johann Wilhelm Sckell 1749–1756 and Johann Friedrich Sckell 1756–1761).
Auxiliary systems
The Weilburg residence also included other buildings that were not directly part of the city palace, including the comedy building, the community center and the two farms of Windhof and Wehrholz. The Windhof was also a pleasure palace with an extensive park. Another park is the zoo .
The castle complex also included an elaborate water supply on the Westerwald side with several kilometers of pipeline, elevated tanks and its own Lahn bridge.
Windhof
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The country palace and farmyard "Windhof" is on the Taunus side. The Windhusen farm is documented as early as 1327. The farm was given to various tenants until Count Johann-Ernst had a country palace built here from 1713 to 1726.
The castle has three buildings, the central manor house and two longitudinal wings with pavilions at the ends . An extensive garden was laid out behind the manor house by the palace gardener Johann Michael Petri. The entire system is oriented towards the tower of the castle church. Due to the trees, however, the view from the castle to the Windhof is no longer possible.
Since 1963, the Windhof has served as a dormitory and event location for the State Technical Academy in Weilburg .
Weirwood
The construction date of the "Wehrholz" farm is unknown. When Nassau was divided in 1255, the farm and the weir wood were assigned to the Walram line to supply the town of Weilburg with wood. The court was integrated into the business operations of the castle.
As part of the palace expansion, the Wehrholz farm was expanded from 1710 to 1713. Five buildings were built around the courtyard. The courtyard faced the lap. After a fire in 1849 the farm was sold for demolition. Today only the retaining walls remain.
Water supply
In order to supply the water features, the castle and the city with water, an extensive water supply was built in the years 1710–1715 . The concept is based on the planning of Father Guardian, the head of the Wetzlar Franciscan monastery , and was implemented under the direction of the Koblenz hydraulic engineer Hans H. Judas.
In the Wehrholz forest, the water was collected from 20 different sources, separated according to water quality, and led to central reservoirs . In the first construction phase, around 11,230 pieces of wooden pipes were laid. In addition, around 6,000 pieces of clay pipes were laid. There are still clay pipes that, as the stamp shows, come from Höhr-Grenzhausen .
From the reservoirs, the water was led through the Lahn valley with the help of a culvert . The culvert overcomes a height difference of 93 meters over a distance of 910 meters. At its lowest point, the water reached a pressure of over eight bars . The culvert consisted of three iron / lead pipes. The water pipes initially crossed the Lahn on a wooden bridge. The highest quality water was fed directly into the castle, the medium quality water supplied the city's fountains, and the poor quality water entered the elevated tanks in the church tower and from there supplied the water features in the castle park. The pipes supplied the city with more than 120 liters of water per inhabitant per day.
In the following centuries the water supply was expanded and supplemented. The first renewal of the water supply took place around 1730, when the wooden pipes were exchanged for clay pipes. From 1760 the reservoir was expanded to a capacity of three million liters. Before the water supply was abandoned in 1888, more than 50 kilometers of pipeline had been laid.
The bridge was on the site of today's "Ernst-Dienstbach-Steg". During a flood on February 27, 1784 , the wooden bridge over the Lahn was destroyed by floods. The city's water supply was cut. The building inspector Johann Ludwig Leidner therefore had an iron rod chain stretched over the Lahn on March 24, 1784, from which a pipe was hung. In the course of 1784 seven more chains were tightened and the remaining pipes reconnected. This is how the oldest chain bridge on the European continent was built in Weilburg . When the water supply was shut down in 1888, the bridge lost its function. In 1934 the chains were detached and replaced with a steel structure. It has been a pedestrian bridge ever since.
Todays use
After the Luxembourg Grand Duchess Charlotte sold the building to the State of Prussia in 1935, a museum was set up in the building by the Administration of the State Palaces and Gardens . Since 1946, the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse has acted as legal successor to the Prussian Palace Administration and offers tours through the historic palace rooms and is responsible for maintaining the historic gardens. In 1948, the city museum of the city of Weilburg was set up in the adjoining office building and the historical archive was housed.
In the renaissance courtyard of the palace, the old court room and the upper orangery, performances of the Weilburg palace concerts take place - a series of concerts with mostly classical music that is performed every summer. The castle hotel is housed in the former cattle yard, the riding hall is used by the city of Weilburg as a town hall.
In addition to being protected as a historical monument, the castle has received war protection status under the Hague Convention .
literature
- Mathias Döring u. a .: Weilburg and its water, Siegburg and Weilburg, Deutsche Wasserhistorische Gesellschaft e. V. and the city of Weilburg . 2005.
- Ludwig Baron Döry: From menagerie to billiards - the interior design of the orangery of Weilburg ad Lahn Castle . In: Nassau Annals . tape 117 . Verlag des Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung Verlag, 2006, ISSN 0077-2887 .
- Käthe Grauer: The Weilburg painter Seekatz . Tourismus-Marketing-GmbH Verlag, Weilburg (no year).
- Georg Ulrich Großmann : Central and South Hesse: Lahntal, Taunus, Rheingau, Wetterau, Frankfurt and Maintal, Kinzig, Vogelsberg, Rhön, Bergstrasse and Odenwald (= DuMont art travel guide ) DuMont, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-7701-2957-1 , Pp. 57-63.
- Rudolph Müller: Shipping tunnels and water reservoirs - historic hydraulic structures in Weilburg. In: Hessian homeland. 61, 2011, pp. 45-52.
- Bernd Modrow, Claudia Gröschel: Princely pleasure. 400 years of garden culture in Hessen . Schnell & Steiner Verlag, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7954-1487-3 .
- Eckhard Olschewski: Weilburg / Lahn Palace and Gardens, Bad Homburg, Administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse . 2001, ISBN 3-7954-1286-2 .
- Eckhard Olschewski: The Weilburg residence architecture Julius Ludwig Rothweils . In: Nassau Annals . tape 116 . Verlag des Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung Verlag, 2005, ISSN 0077-2887 .
- Christian Spielmann : History of the city and rule Weilburg . 1896 (new edition 2005).
- Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Jens Friedhoff: Decided with strong iron chains and bolts ... Castles on the Lahn . Schnell & Steiner Verlag, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2000-0 , p. 170-177 .
Web links
- Administration website with opening times and events
- Website of the Weilburg Palace Concerts
- Website of the Mining and City Museum in the former office building
- Private website about the history and furnishings of the castle
- Weilburg Castle, Limburg-Weilburg district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- Picture overview Weilburg Castle . Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- Renaissance castles in Hesse. (Project at the Germanic National Museum by Georg Ulrich Großmann )
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Hrsg.): Weilburg - Castle and Gardens In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
- Drawings of the Weilburg Castle
Individual evidence
- ^ Mining and City Museum Weilburg. Bergbau- und Stadtmuseum Weilburg an der Lahn, accessed on April 10, 2014 .
- ^ Weilburg Castle / Hessen in the Scientific Image Archive for Architecture.
- ^ Käthe Grauer: The Weilburg painter Seekatz. P. 4
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Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 7.5 ″ N , 8 ° 15 ′ 40.3 ″ E