The (Little Holzhausen palace) is a moated former country house built by the patrician Holzhausen family on their farm, then just north of

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and now in the city's

Nordend Nordend (meaning ''north end'' in German) is a northern peak of the Monte Rosa Massif. Nordend is the fourth highest peak of the massif, after the Dufourspitze (4,634 m), the Dunantspitze (4,632 m) and the Grenzgipfel (4,618 m). See also *List o ...

. The present building was completed in 1729, built for Johann Hieronymus von Holzhausen on the foundations of a

moated castle A water castle is a castle whose site is largely defended by water. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle ...

from the Middle Ages after a design by

Louis Remy de la Fosse Louis Remy de la Fosse ( 1659–1726) was a French architect during the Baroque period, who worked primarily in Germany. Until 1705, he was draftsman in the studio of master builder in Berlin. From 1706 to 1709, Fosse was architect at the court o ...

. Today, it serves as a venue for cultural events.

History

The palace was built between 1727 and 1729 by Johann Hieronymus von Holzhausen (1674–1736) on the foundations of a moated castle from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. The Holzhausen family, from 1245 one of the most respected families of the

free imperial city In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

Frankfurt, owned the property called since 1470. The term "" (desolation) refers to the heath, then far outside the fortified city of Frankfurt. The family used the area first for farming. A moated castle was set in the then much larger (Castle pond). The castle was expanded in 1540 but destroyed in 1552 in the siege of Frankfurt by Maurice, Elector of Saxony. In 1727 the present building was begun, commissioned by Johann Hieronymus von Holzhausen as a summer residence for his family after plans by

. It was completed in 1729. Due to the growth of the city in the 19th century, the palace is now in Frankfurt's

, surrounded on three sides by the eponymous . The pond and the surrounding park were reduced and re-landscaped in 1910, when an

allée In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its La ...

of chestnut trees was planted. The vastness of the former park can be estimated by the position of an iron gate from the late 18th century, which remains as part of the former enclosure on the street Oederweg. The last male member of the Holzhausen family, Adolph von Holzhausen (1866–1923), gave the palace and the surrounding park to the city of Frankfurt. It then housed the Frankfurt office of the ( de). In 1944, the building suffered damage during air raids. The interior was restored in a simplified way. From 1953 to 1988, the palace was home to the Frankfurt Museum for Pre-and Early History. From 1989, it has been the seat of the community foundation ( de) which uses it for various cultural events. Major reconstruction began in 2012, focussed on building a larger hall for chamber music, planned to be finished in 2014.

Architecture

Holzhausenschloesschen Frankfurt 2016 01

Johann Hieronymus von Holzhausen wanted a summer residence for his family, similar to those of the nobility. Holzhausen chose as his architect

from

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, who died before the building's completion. The architecture is a loose

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

style seen throughout Scandinavia and the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

, but less common in the western German states. The design is rectangular, with five bays on the longer façade and three on the narrow; the tall, narrow build, probably influenced by the constraints of the small, moated plot, shows a Dutch influence. At this time north and western German domestic architecture was influenced far more by that of the Low countries than by the ornate Baroque seen found further south, which tended to be reserved for churches and ecclesiastical buildings.Trewin, p284. The palace's hipped roof is in the Nordic style known as säteritak, and has dormer windows on the lower of its two levels and a

belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa *Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...

structure on the upper; this is in contrast to the crow stepped gables more commonly employed in this form of design and gives the house an uneasy northern Baroque appearance. The principal entrance, a segmental arch, is reached by a stone bridge of three spans. It probably replaced a

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

leading to the former building, and until World War II it was roofed. This entrance is possibly a remnant of a previous

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

building. It leads to the entrance floor, above which are the

bel étage The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...

and another full floor. An additional floor is below the entrance floor, just above the water level. A memorial stone at the entrance, created in 1940 by Egon Schiffers, commemorates Friedrich Fröbel, a private teacher of the Holzhausen family from 1806 to 1808.

Literature

* *

References

Notes Citations

External links

frankfurt-nordend.de
Website der Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Holzhausenschlosschen Houses completed in 1729 Castles in Hesse Buildings and structures in Frankfurt 1729 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire

History

Architecture

Literature

References

Further reading

External links