City Palace of Kassel
The City Palace of Kassel , also known as the Landgrave's Palace , in Kassel in North Hesse was the residence of the Landgraves of Hesse from 1556 to 1567 , the Landgraves and (from 1803) Electors of Hesse-Kassel from 1567 to 1806, and from 1807 until it was destroyed by a major fire in November 1811 by King Jérôme Bonaparte of Westphalia .
location
The castle stood at 156 m above sea level. NN , at the location of today's regional council , between Steinweg and Fulda , where the former Franconian royal court Chassalla from the year 913 probably had already stood.
Previous buildings
The Landgrave Castle of Heinrich I.
The first castle of the Hessian landgraves was located in the same place from 1277, which was laid out by Landgrave Heinrich I and expanded by his successors; The foundations and vaults of the old castle from the 14th and 15th centuries were uncovered in 1935. In a strategically favorable location above the high bank of the Fulda, the river crossing for the trunk roads could be secured. This first castle was probably mostly made of wood; only in 1386 was a stone fortification added.
The Ludwigsbau
Landgrave Ludwig II had a new building built on the site of this almost 200-year-old castle between 1462 and 1466. A two-story stone substructure with a one-story superstructure made of half-timbered construction was built on a rectangle directed from the southwest to the northeast . The castle consisted of a manor and a few individual buildings that enclosed an inner courtyard. This so-called Ludwigsbau stood on the northwest side of the site, parallel to the old stone path. It soon had to be replaced after a powder explosion and was constantly expanded and improved in the years that followed. Towards the end of the 15th century the fortifications of the castle were renewed. From 1502, Landgrave Wilhelm II had a larger extension built, a wing made of red sandstone on the side facing the Fulda, which was called the "Rothenstein wing " because of its red color.
construction
Landgrave Philipp I , who from 1523 had the city of Kassel converted into a modern fortress with bastions , finally ordered the partial demolition of the castle, which had been rebuilt and expanded several times, and had the fortress builder in its place from 1556 to 1562, taking into account the existing structure Antonius Riemenschneider build a castle in the Renaissance style. Construction work began in November 1556. The construction of the kitchen with the central entrance in the southwest was followed in 1560 by work on the adjoining bakery building on the city side, while the women's room building facing the Brethren Church was expanded in 1560-62. Philip's son Wilhelm IV , the first Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, finally had the Gothic “Rothenstein Wing” renovated in 1570–74. Wilhelm IV also had the first observatory in Central Europe set up in the palace ; it consisted of two balconies on the south front of the palace and was provided with a balustrade walkway. Landgrave Moritz, the son of Wilhelm IV, completed the redesign with the conversion of the chapel between the Rothenstein wing and the women's room. The palace was now a not entirely regular, three-story, four-wing complex with an almost square floor plan around a spacious inner courtyard and a high roof with numerous gables . Polygonal spiral staircases stood in the corners of the courtyard. This castle, largely unchanged, served as the residence of the Hesse-Kassel Princely House until the French invasion in December 1806.
The last sovereign of Hessen-Kassel to reside in the city palace was Wilhelm I , who was elected elector in 1803. He had to leave his country on November 1, 1806, shortly before it was occupied by France.
After the creation of the Kingdom of Westphalia by decree of Napoleon Bonaparte on August 18, 1807, the new King of Westphalia, Napoleon's brother Jérôme , moved into the Kassel City Palace on December 10, 1807.
destruction
On the night from Saturday to Sunday, November 24th, 1811, suddenly flames broke out of the castle. Jérôme's court builder , Auguste Grandjean de Montigny , had the stoves removed from a large part of the castle and instead had a heating system installed, in which copper heating pipes were laid under the floors like underfloor heating . The outside temperature that night was minus 20 degrees , and the heating was so intense that the heating tubes glowed. These set the wooden floors on fire, first in the wing on the Fulda. Jérôme is said to have brought himself to safety from his bedchamber wearing only makeshift clothes. The extinguishing work was very difficult because the fire engines froze. In the morning a third of the palace, including the palace chapel , was completely destroyed; the major fire completely destroyed the northwest wing. The disaster was at least partially blamed on Jérôme's Grand Marshal of the Palace (i.e., Oberhofmarschall ), Pierre Simon Meyronnet , who was made Count of Wellingerode by Jérôme. He had been warned of the smell of fire on several occasions, but he dismissed the suspicion of fire hazard as silly. Then the fire, which had been smoldering for days, broke out.
Jérôme, who was looking for pleasure and ruined his kingdom financially, moved to Bellevue Palace and showed no interest in rebuilding.
The End
Elector Wilhelm I returned to Kassel on November 21, 1813 after the French had been driven out of Hesse during the wars of liberation . Since he had not succeeded in being crowned “King of Chats ” at the Congress of Vienna , he wanted at least to build a castle that would be worthy of a king. In December 1816 he had the rubble of the destroyed wing removed and the three wings of the city palace, which were also damaged but still standing, were torn down in order to realize a huge new building plan. His master builder, Heinrich Christoph Jussow , planned the Chattenburg for him . The dimensions and the effort went far beyond the usual framework of a royal residence. The lengthy foundation work began in June 1817, but the foundation stone was only laid on June 27, 1820 . When Wilhelm I died on February 27, 1821, only the shell of the first floor was built. After that, work on the classicist building was stopped because his son and successor, Elector Wilhelm II , preferred his electoral palace on Friedrichsplatz and showed no interest in continuing the work. From 1840 to 1870 the red sandstones of the base were removed; they were used in the construction of the neighboring Neue Galerie from 1871 to 1874.
Production 2009
On September 13th, 2009, the day of the open monument, employees and students of the University of Kassel marked out the outlines of the castle and its most prominent rooms according to the historical plans. Then around 3,500 Kassel citizens stood with yellow gas-filled balloons on the markings and at the same time let the balloons into the air at a signal. With that, the ground plan of the old castle, though strongly swirled by the wind, floated up above the city.
literature
- Dorothea Heppe: The castle of the Landgraves of Hesse in Kassel from 1557 to 1811 (= materials on art and cultural history in northern and western Germany. Volume 17). Marburg 1995, ISBN 3-89445-183-1 .
Web links
- Regional Council Kassel: The history of our building
- University Library Kassel: Landgraf Moritz Online-Presentation :: Drawings :: Kassel :: Landgrafenschloss
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Evidence for the location of the royal court has not yet been found in excavations.
- ↑ ub.uni-kassel.de
- ↑ It was destroyed in the great fire of the castle in November 1811, but most of the instruments were saved and later brought to the orangery .
- ↑ Then the garrison church was used as the court chapel of Kurhessen .
- ↑ Only the roundabout on the Fulda is left of the old walls to this day.
- ↑ After the restitution of Electorate Hesse, the state estates gave him their palace on Friedrichsplatz / corner of Königsstraße, which later became known as the White Palace , and from 1815 he had it rebuilt by the architect Johann Conrad Bromeis and expanded with the addition of the Red Palace .
- ^ "Luftschloss Kassel": Student project of the University of Kassel makes a spectacular contribution to the city's history
- ↑ luftschloss-aktuell.myblog.de
Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 49 ″ N , 9 ° 30 ′ 11 ″ E