Wittelsbach Tower (Bad Kissingen)
The Wittelsbach Jubilee Tower is a lookout tower at 400 m above sea level. NHN high Scheinberg in Arnshausen , a district of the Lower Franconian spa town of Bad Kissingen . It belongs to the Bad Kissingen architectural monuments and is registered under the number D-6-72-114-168 in the Bavarian monument list .
history
In 1903 the doctor Dr. Wendelin Dietz proposed the construction of a lookout tower, as the Ludwigsturm that had previously been used did not offer a satisfactory view over the spa town of Bad Kissingen. He presided over the Wittelsbacher Association, which he founded for this purpose and which regarded Bavaria as a sovereign kingdom even after the founding of the empire ; thus the Wittelsbacher-Verein was in certain competition with the Bismarck-Verein, which favored Otto von Bismarck and the empire and began building the Bismarck tower on the Sinnberg in 1914 .
The city council Carl Krampf provided the plans for the tower ; the lion was designed by the sculptor Valentin Weidner . The cost totaled 27,000 gold marks .
Since 1906 was the centenary of the Kingdom of Bavaria and 1880 was the 700th anniversary of the Wittelsbach family, it was decided to name the planned tower the Wittelsbach Anniversary Tower . The foundation stone was laid on January 1, 1906. On September 15, 1907, the inauguration ceremony took place, at which, among others, Prince Regent Luitpold and the District President of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg, Dr. von Müller, were present.
In 1924, a memorial was to be laid out around the tower for those who fell in the First World War who came from Lower Franconia. The laying of the foundation stone was celebrated on August 15, 1925 in the presence of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria , but the global economic crisis prevented the generous plans from being carried out.
Dr. Wendelin Dietz bought the property on which the tower stood, was initially in family ownership, but then passed to the state.
In the 1970s, the tower was closed to visitors because it was in disrepair, but the Free State of Bavaria carried out a restoration for the 800th anniversary of the Wittelsbach family .
The tower is now intended to be the center of the planned Saale Valley adventure world .
Building
The Wittelsbach anniversary tower is 33 m high, the viewing platform is 25 m high and thus around 245 m above the Saale valley, which can be overlooked from the tower. At the top of the tower is a lion wearing a crown. The tower is made of shell limestone , but the lion as well as the portal, the parapet and the dome are made of green sandstone.
From 1930 there was also a restaurant next to the tower. However, the first inn, built in log construction, burned down in 1933 - probably after an arson attack. It was replaced by a solid structure in the same year. Extensive renovations and extensions followed, including a house brewery and a hall.
view
From the Wittelsbach anniversary tower you can see Bad Kissingen and the Saale valley as well as the Sodenberg near Hammelburg .
Web links
- Wittelsbach Tower . In: BadKissingen.de
- Wittelsbach Tower . In: KissingerHimmel.de
- Website of the Wittelsbacher Turm pub brewery
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
- ↑ a b Bismarckstrasse - Bismarck Tower in Bad Kissingen. In: Werner Eberth: Bismarck and Bad Kissingen. Theresienbrunnen-Verlag, Bad Kissingen 1998, pp. 340-344.
Coordinates: 50 ° 9 ′ 45 ″ N , 10 ° 4 ′ 35 ″ E