Welfenschloss Münden

Model of the Welfenschloss Münden in the unfinished state around 1590; right, view from Tillyschanze

The Welfenschloss Münden is a former castle in Hann. Münden in southern Lower Saxony , which was included in the medieval city fortifications of Münden . The palace complex, which today consists of two wings, was built in 1501 by Duke Erich I of Lüneburg-Braunschweig as a residential palace with administrative headquarters in the Gothic style, with a predecessor complex being a medieval castle . When the Welfenschloss was destroyed by fire in 1560, Duke Erich II had it rebuilt as a four-wing complex from 1571 in the style of the Weser Renaissance or Dutch Renaissance. When he died in 1584, the building was unfinished and lost in importance as the Guelph sovereigns only occasionally used it as a place to stay. After being destroyed in the Thirty Years' War , the castle was used as a barracks and later as a granary . Today it is the seat of public institutions.

location

Welfenschloss then and now

View over the Werra and the Blümer Werder to the castle

About the same perspective around 1900

The castle is located in the northeast part of the old town of Hann. Münden near the southern bank of the Werra with the Blümer Werder . It was built on a slight elevation, which is well above the level of the old town and thus relatively flood-proof. The confluence of the Werra and Fulda to the Weser lies about 200 meters downstream .

Predecessor system

There is no reliable information about a predecessor of the castle, which was built in 1501. A previous fortification is to be assumed, since Welf sovereigns have stayed in Münden since 1247. It is believed that initially a fortified outpost was built, which secured a ford through the Werra, from which a castle complex developed over time. With the first written mention of Münden around 1180, a castle is also mentioned, but its appearance and location are not known. The legend of a possible predecessor building of the Welfenschloss exists that Otto von Northeim built a castle at this point in 1070, as a dated foundation stone was found in the foundation during the reconstruction from 1560.

Building description

Stair tower between the north and east wings, next to it the also whitewashed palace chapel

Day and night

North wing of the castle of the old Werrabrücke seen from

The illuminated castle at night

The Welfenschloss Münden is a largely new castle, originally designed as a four-wing complex in 1571, in place of an older complex. Today the complex has two wings, because the south wing burned down in 1849 and the west wing never got beyond the approach of the stairwell. The north wing, about 95 meters long and about 15 meters deep, which runs parallel to the Werra, is known as the Werra wing. With its west gable from the 1570s, it is the most ornate part of the castle. The gable has ornamental obelisks, spheres, figures and a heraldic symbol of Erich II. In the north wing, next to the stair tower of an older construction phase, there are two-storey rooms of the palace chapel . At the free end of the north wing, a short building with a staircase is attached like a stub, which is called the west wing. The north wing is at right angles to the approximately 55 meters long and approximately 12 meters deep east wing, which has a tower on the southeast corner. Between the wings there is a late Gothic stair tower at the intersection . From the 1570s onwards, the north and east wings were accessed over all floors through a wooden gallery. It no longer exists today.

The roofs of the buildings are provided with dwelling houses , which are not dominant, as in later buildings of the Weser Renaissance. The eaves height of the buildings is around 19 meters, the ridge height is around 28 meters. The former castle courtyard is now bordered to the south by a flat wall, which is the lower part of the outer wall of the south wing, which burned down in the 19th century.

The facades of the castle are now painted in a pink shade. The window borders stand out in gray. This color scheme is considered to be original, at least for the inner courtyard, as a restoration study in 1980 found a pink plastered area and a gray window frame from around 1540.

In the north-eastern area of the castle, on the second and third floors, one above the other, there are two Renaissance rooms with wall paintings that can be viewed on guided tours. In inventories of the 17th century they were referred to as Römergemach and as Gemach Zum Weißen Ross , the lower White Ross was originally the council chamber of the duke. The rooms were painted during the second phase of the reconstruction of the castle, as the year 1574 on the fireplace of the Roman chamber suggests. Motifs are biblical figures and ancient Roman heroes within a painted mock architecture . The paintings are among the few surviving representations in northern Germany from this period . The wall paintings, which had been whitewashed for a long time, were only rediscovered at the end of the 19th century. The restoration of the paintings in the Roman chamber, which had been preserved to varying degrees, lasted from 1968 to 1974. In other rooms remains of paintings from the same period are preserved. The restoration of both rooms with the restoration of the floor and ceiling areas began in 1960 and was completed in 1986.

Only small remains of the originally rich paintings of the castle have survived, including a restored portrait of the naval battle of Lepanto from 1571 in the “Lepanto Hall” .

history

First palace building around 1560 in Gothic style

Second palace built around 1653 in the style of the early Weser Renaissance , Merian engraving

The castle in 1787, still with the low south wing that burned down in 1849

The oldest reference to the building can be found as an inscription on the stair tower of the palace complex. Thereafter, Duke Erich I is said to have rebuilt and rebuilt the northeastern castle area in 1501. Presumably, however, the main construction period was between 1517 and 1524, as can be seen from the preserved beams and an account book. In 1525 he married Elisabeth von Brandenburg , who spent half her life in the castle. After Erich's death in 1540, she took over the reign of the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen for five years as a guardian for her underage son Erich II. Elisabeth used this time to implement the Reformation in the Principality. In 1553 after Duke Heinrich the Younger's victory in the Battle of Sievershausen , she had to leave the castle. After her departure, her son Duke Erich II took over the castle, who had spent his youth and childhood there.

During the absence of Duke Eric II in Spain, most of the castle burned down on April 1, 1560. The Duke had the castle rebuilt. After the first work to restore the most important rooms in the east wing in 1561, a large construction phase on the north side of the courtyard did not begin until 1571, which gave the complex its current appearance and was not yet completed when the duke died in 1584.

With Erich's death his family died out and his indebted principality fell to the Wolfenbüttel line of the Guelphs. In 1584, Münden lost its residence city status , which it had held since 1498 as the residence of the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen. After the residence period, the castle remained furnished as a princely house. There is only sparse information about the occupancy of the castle without residence status, which suggests ongoing maintenance. The subsequent rulers of the Wolfenbüttel line did not reside from Münden Castle, but stayed there on certain occasions, such as to pay homage to them by the citizens of Münden. Erich's direct successor was his nephew, Duke Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , who received the homage in the palace in 1585. After his death in 1589, the castle passed to his son Heinrich Julius , who held the state parliament there in 1599 . As sovereign he did not live in the castle permanently; only hunting stays in the years 1591 and 1592 are recorded. The son and successor of Heinrich Julius, Friedrich Ulrich , also received homage from the citizens of Münd.

Side view of the palace, 1776

Today's view from the same perspective

When Mündens was captured in the Thirty Years' War in 1626 , the troops led by Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly devastated the castle so badly that it was no longer possible to hold court.

When King George II of England , who was also Elector of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , was staying in his home country in 1729, he visited Münden. He ordered the conversion of the castle into barracks . After several years of renovation work, a regiment of soldiers was stationed in the castle in 1741. During the Seven Years' War , French troops who had captured Münden in 1757 damaged the castle, so that it could no longer be used as a barracks. From around 1776 the castle, which had been vacant for many years, was used as a granary . In 1849 the south wing of the palace burned down. It was a half-timbered building that was not rebuilt.

In 1861 the Münden District Court and in 1868 parts of the newly founded Royal Prussian Forest Academy in Hannoversch Münden moved into the palace. Further administrative institutions followed, including the land registry, the building construction management, the tax office and, in 1898, the local history museum. After the Second World War , the state of Lower Saxony took over the castle as legal successor.

Recent past

The knight's hall on the 3rd floor of the palace

From 1973, the state of Lower Saxony withdrew the state institutions housed in the castle due to centralization as a result of the Lower Saxony regional reform . After that, the palace was largely empty and it was threatened with decay. Since the city of Hann. Münden there was a need for space for cultural facilities, the state of Lower Saxony left the castle to the city in 1980 with a long-term lease with a property-like function. Between 1981 and 1987, extensive construction work for several million DM was carried out for the new use of the castle, taking into account the monument protection . For structural reasons, the wooden ceilings were often replaced by reinforced concrete ceilings. Since then, the palace has housed the district court of Hann in the east wing . Münden , in the eastern part of the north wing the municipal museum and in the western north wing the city library (1st floor), the city archive with the Lepanto hall (2nd floor) and the knight's hall (3rd floor). The Knight and Lepanto Hall can also be used for public events.

literature

Welfenschloß Münden. History - restoration - remodeling. Documentation on the occasion of the inauguration of the knight's hall on February 19, 1987. ed. City of Münden, 1987.

Manfred Lausmann: The restoration of the Renaissance paintings in the Mündener Schloß. In: Hans-Herbert Möller (Ed.): Restoration of cultural monuments. Examples from the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony (= reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony . Supplement 2), Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation , Niemeyer, Hameln 1989, pp. 219–224.

Michael Streetz: The renaissance castle Hannoversch Münden in the inventories of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A case study on the evaluation of written sources and their connection with the results of building research. two volumes, Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3631518110 ( dissertation at the University of Göttingen 1996).