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The Gothic House (''Gotisches Haus'') is a
It was built in the castle's grounds in 1823 by Landgräfin Elisabeth, daughter of
In 1860 it became part of the Forstverwaltung of the landgraviate, though that body only used eight of its rooms, with the others left available for visitors and renting. Hesse-Homburg was annexed by the
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-n004.jpg, Model of Homburg in 1786
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-n001.jpg, Documents on 18th century stockings
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-n002.jpg, Objects
Gotisches-Haus-Romantik-Zimmer-970.jpg, View
Gotisches-Haus-Romantik-Zimmer-967-Tafelklavier-1799.jpg, 1799 table-piano
Gotisches-Haus-Romantik-Zimmer-965-Prinzessin-Marianne-von-Preussen.jpg, Princess Marianne of Prussia (1830)
Gotisches-Haus-Romantik-Zimmer-962-Wiege+Stuhl.jpg, Cradle and stool
Gotisches-Haus-Romantik-Zimmer-968-Schreibsekretaer-1780.jpg, 1780 writing desk
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-994.jpg, The Möckel hat factory
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-995.jpg, Development of the 'Homburg'
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-993.jpg, Tools, half-finished items and stages in hat production
Gotisches-Haus-2014-Museum-982.jpg, Display area
The Gothic House (''Gotisches Haus'') is a jagdschloss
A ''Jagdschloss'' is a hunting lodge in German-speaking countries. It is a ''schloss'' set in a wildlife park or a hunting area (such as a forest, field or by a lake) that served primarily as accommodation for a ruler or aristocrat and his entou ...
(hunting lodge) in the Dornholzhausen district of Bad Homburg
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe () is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's offic ...
, just within the town boundary and at the end of the Tannenwaldallee, which forms a direct link between Bad Homburg Castle
Bad Homburg Castle (''Schloss Bad Homburg'') is a castle and palace in the German city of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe. Originally the residence of the Landgraves of Hesse-Homburg, it was first built in the 12th century. All but the keep was demolish ...
and the Gothic House.
History
Origins
It was built in the castle's grounds in 1823 by Landgräfin Elisabeth, daughter of George III of the United Kingdom
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until Acts of Union 1800, the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was ...
, for her husband Frederick VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
Frederick VI (30 July 1769 – 2 April 1829) reigned as Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg from 1820 until his death in 1829.
Biography
Born in Homburg, Hesse, on 30 July 1769, Friedrich Joseph Ludwig Carl August was the eldest son of the incumbent La ...
, with the foundation stone laid on 17 April that year. She funded it using her dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...
and sited it in an ideal location for Frederick to host festivities and excursions. It was also sited about 100 metres south of the grave of Frederick's horse Madjar - the Landgrave had esteemed Madjar so much that he had him formally buried in 1773 and wrote a poem for the bronze plaque marking the site, which translates:
Also nearby was the 'Landgrafensäule' or 'Landgraf column', erected in 1816 on what later became the visual axis from the Gothic House to the Elisabethenschneise, which in turn leads to the Hirschgarten. The original column was moved to the castle in 1835, but a replica was built near its site in 2011. The replica and original both bear an inscription, which translates as:
In the early Strawberry Hill variant of Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
, the Gothic House's designer is unknown, but Friedrich Lotz argues it was Jeffry Wyatville
Sir Jeffry Wyatville (3 August 1766 – 18 February 1840) was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatville ...
, who had designed the remodelling of Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original cast ...
for Elizabeth's elder brother George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
- Jeffry's uncle James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
had also worked in the Gothic Revival style at Windsor and at the Castellated Palace at Kew for George and Elizabeth's father George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
. Construction was overseen by Georg Moller
Georg Moller (21 January 1784 – 13 March 1852) was an architect and a town planner who worked in the South of Germany, mostly in the region today known as Hessen.
Life and family background
Moller was born in Diepholz, a descendant of an old ...
, but was stopped permanently after scaffolding collapsed on 9 November 1823, burying and injuring eight workers, one of whom later died of his injuries.
1860-1945
In 1860 it became part of the Forstverwaltung of the landgraviate, though that body only used eight of its rooms, with the others left available for visitors and renting. Hesse-Homburg was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
in 1866 after the Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...
, but for a while the Gothic House's use remained the same as before, though some rooms were taken on for use by the Prussia court. Wilhelm II of Prussia
Wilhelm may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm"
* Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
Other uses
* Moun ...
sold it to a restaurant owner but still wanted it "secure as a monument", for reasons that remain unclear. In 1929 the new owner turned it into a hotel, restaurant and café - it became a popular attraction and from 1899 to 1923 was a stop on the town's tram network.
1945 onwards
After World War Two the house went through several changes of owner, sending it into a slow decline and at one point housed the "Ponderosa Saloon" disco. The site was sold in 1968 by the Obertaunuskreis district of Hesse to Jan Lipinski, a property speculator from Frankfurt. Two seven-storey tower blocks were built near the Haus to house the staff for a planned hotel that never came to fruition. The Gothic House was listed as a historic monument in 1977 "at the last minute" and in 1980 the building passed to a property management company in Frankfurt after the Lipinskis went bankrupt. The Gothic House suffered a fire on 9 December 1980 and was completely restored from 1981 onwards. Since 1985 it has housed the town's archive and its cultural history museum. (The museum was founded in 1916 but was previously sited elsewhere.)Gallery
The museum houses many temporary exhibitions and permanent displays on the history, art, fashion, coinage and hat-industry of the town, its spa and the landgraviate as a whole, including the "Hutmuseum", centred on theHomburg hat
A homburg is a semi-formal hat of fur felt, characterized by a single dent running down the centre of the crown (called a "gutter crown"), a wide silk grosgrain hatband ribbon, a flat brim shaped in a "pencil curl", and a ribbon-bound trim abo ...
. The Gothic House now also houses the museum café.
Main museum
Romantic-period room
The 'Romantik-Zimmer' was set up as aperiod room A period room is a display that represents the interior design and decorative art of a particular historical social setting usually in a museum. Though it may incorporate elements of an individual real room that once existed somewhere, it is usuall ...
to display furniture, decorative pieces and paintings from the period in 2012.
"Hutmuseum"
The display on millinery tells of the town's importance to the hat industry and its worldwide fame as the originatory of the 'Homburg', made popular by the Prince of Wales (the futureEdward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...
) and made in the Möckel factory in the town from the 1880s onwards. http://www.badhomburg.de/microsite/museum-gotisches-haus/museum_ausstellungen/Hutmuseum.php
Sculpture garden
Bibliography (in German)
* Friedrich Lotz: ''Geschichte der Stadt Bad Homburg vor der Höhe.'' Band 2: ''Die Landgrafenzeit.'' Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1972, , S. 246–247. * Gerta Walsh: ''Das Gotische Haus entstand neu wie Phoenix aus der Asche.'' In: ''Taunus-Kurier.'' 2. März 1985, S. 15. * Beate Datzkow: ''Das Gotische Haus im Großen Tannenwald zu Bad Homburg vor der Höhe.'' (Aus dem Stadtarchiv. Vorträge zur Bad Homburger Geschichte, Sonderband). Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe 2005, .References