Wilhelmsturm (Dillenburg)
The Wilhelmsturm is an approximately 37 meter high tower and the current landmark of the city of Dillenburg in the Lahn-Dill district in Central Hesse . The tower named after Wilhelm I of Orange is visible from afar on the approximately 270 m high Schlossberg, which rises southwest of the old town of Dillenburg, and serves as a museum and observation tower .
history
Between 1872 and 1875, the Wilhelmsturm was built on the former upper courtyard according to plans by the builder Friedrich Albert Cremer with German-Dutch support. Of the total construction costs of 29,122 thalers, Princess Marianne von Oranien-Nassau alone carried the largest part with 18,000 thalers. With this tower they wanted to erect a permanent monument to Wilhelm I of Orange , who was born here in 1533. A modern critic described the tower as a “mixture of romantic purpose with a monumental architectural concept”.
description
The Wilhelmsturm is a tower built from irregularly made natural stone on a square floor plan, which has an edge length of about 15 meters at the bottom. The main entrance to the tower is on the northeast side and leads to the lower museum room. From here you get to a round, on the ground floor within the building structure standing stair tower , via its spiral staircase , the upper floors are accessible. The exhibition room on the first floor leads to an approximately 6.5 meter high viewing platform that covers the ground floor and surrounds the upper body of the tower, which here has an edge length of 7.6 meters. Above the platform, the stair tower stands on the side of the south-eastern outer wall of the core tower. On the south side of the platform there is a steel staircase that serves as an escape route in an emergency. The exhibition rooms of different heights on the first and second floors have a square floor plan, the third floor an octagonal floor plan. From this a small balcony is accessible, which offers a very good view of Dillenburg and the surrounding area. The rooms above with another platform on the fifth level are not open to the public.
A special feature of the Wilhelmsturm are the striking towers that decorate it. For example, four crenellated corner towers delimit the parapets on the lower platform , while four octagonal towers with pointed helmet roofs protrude from the corners of the upper platform . The overhanging, crenellated parapets of the platforms and the transition from the stair tower to its helmet roof are decorated with round arches. The steep tent roof of the core tower has several pointed dormer windows and a spherical top with a weather vane. The roofs of the dormers, the stair tower and the corner towers are also provided with spherical points at the top.
Todays use
Today the Orange-Nassau Museum is located inside the tower , which mainly presents objects relating to the history of the Nassau and Orange-Nassau houses : the life of William of Orange, famous Nassau people in European history, the connection between Nassau-Dillenburg and the Dutch royal family Fortress construction in the early modern period using the example of the "Dillenburg". The former underground defense system is located in the cellar vault. The casemates, which were uncovered in the 20th century, can be viewed during a guided tour. A virtual animation was created for the history of the castle, its destruction and the construction of the tower, which can be viewed on site.
The Wilhelmsturm serves the Dillenburg registry office as a space for marriages.
In 2008 the tower had to be closed to the public because it no longer complied with fire protection guidelines. After the city had an external staircase installed, it is accessible again and can be climbed as a lookout tower when visiting the museum .
On June 8, 2010 it was announced that the Wilhelmsturm - like the Villa Grün and the casemates - had been declared a cultural asset under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict . Military use, an impermissible military attack or any other willful damage could constitute a violation of this convention in the event of an armed conflict and could therefore also be punishable by law.
The Dillenburg Museum Association is committed to preservation, reconstruction and PR work.
Web links
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Wilhelmsturm In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
- The Wilhelmsturm on Dillenburg.de
- Dillenburger Museumsverein e. V.
- Unofficial site with information about the Wilhelmsturm
References and comments
- ↑ a b Information according to privately conducted measurements and explorations
- ^ Dillenburg Museum Association
- ↑ Excursion tip: Museum Wilhelmsturm and Villa Grün on the Schlossberg in Dillenburg ( Memento from June 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Getting married in Dillenburg on the website of the city of Dillenburg
- ^ Print edition of the Dill newspaper (June 8, 2011)
- ^ Dillenburg Museum Association
Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 16.91 " N , 8 ° 17 ′ 6.04" E