Schloss Rosenau, called in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
The Rosenau or Rosenau Palace, is a former
castle, converted into a ducal country house, near the town of
Rödental
Rödental () is a town in the district of Coburg, northern Bavaria, Germany, 7 km northeast of Coburg.
Rödental was the name given to a group of municipalities that united 1971, including Mönchröden, Oeslau, Einberg, Oberwohlsbach and U ...
, formerly in
Saxe-Coburg
Saxe-Coburg (german: Sachsen-Coburg) was a duchy held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in today's Bavaria, Germany.
History
Ernestine Line
When Henry IV, Count of Henneberg – Schleusingen, died in 1347, the possessions of th ...
, now lying in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Schloss Rosenau was the birthplace and boyhood home of
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861.
Albert was born in the Saxon duch ...
, who, in 1840, became the husband and consort of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...
.
It should not be confused with another house of the same name at
Waldviertel
The (Forest Quarter; Central Bavarian: ) is the northwestern region of the northeast Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is bounded to the south by the Danube, to the southwest by Upper Austria, to the northwest and the north by the Czech Rep ...
in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
History
Early history
The main fabric of the Rosenau is a medieval structure which was first built at some time before 1439, when it is recorded as a possession of the lords of 'Rosenawe'. For three centuries the estate was owned by a family which took its name from Rosenau, but Silvester von Rosenau, a friend of
Luther
Luther may refer to:
People
* Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement
* Luther (give ...
and
Melanchthon, bequeathed his properties to his son weighed down by debts.
![Ergründung der Vögel Eigenschafft (detail)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Ergr%C3%BCndung_der_V%C3%B6gel_Eigenschafft_%28detail%29.jpg)
In 1704, the Rosenau family finally lost the property when it was sold as a summer residence to the Austrian ''
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...
''
Ferdinand Johann Adam von Pernau (1660-1731), who had been a member of the
Privy Council of
Albert V, Duke of Saxe-Coburg. Pernau was a pioneering student of bird behaviour. As a
long-term experiment
A long-term experiment is an experimental procedure that runs through a long period of time, in order to test a hypothesis or observe a phenomenon that takes place at an extremely slow rate.
What duration is considered "long" depends on the academ ...
, he released a large number of young
common chaffinch
The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch (''Fringilla coelebs'') is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family. The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts. The female is more subdued in ...
es in and around Rosenau between 1704 and 1720, after first teaching them to sing like
tree pipit
The tree pipit (''Anthus trivialis'') is a small passerine bird which breeds across most of Europe and the Palearctic as far East as the East Siberian Mountains. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa and southern Asia. The s ...
s.
[Eckhard Mönnig, 'Prinz Albert von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha und die Naturkunde' in Franz Bosbach & John R. Davis, ''Windsor - Coburg: geteilter Nachlass - gemeinsames Erbe']
pp. 115-116
online (in German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
) He was known as the ''Freiherr von Pernau zu Rosenau'', and his most important publication, printed at Coburg in 1707, was titled ''Lessons, as to what one can do with the lovely Creatures, the Birds, either by Capture, by Probing of their Characteristics and Taming, or by other forms of Instruction, for Pleasure and Profit''.
House of Saxe-Gotha
In 1731, after Pernau's death, the estate was bought by
Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (28 July 1676 – 23 March 1732), was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.
He was born in Gotha, the fifth child and first son of Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalena Sibylle of Saxe-W ...
. Due to the debts of a successor, the Rosenau passed out of the family, but in 1805
Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld en, Francis Frederick Anthony
, house =
, father = Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
, mother = Princess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Coburg, ...
, bought it back as a summer residence for his own son and heir,
Ernest
Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include:
People
* Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
* Ernest, ...
, who later became Duke of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present- ...
. Between 1808 and 1817 the main house was fully renovated and reconstructed in the
Gothic Revival style under the supervision of the
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n architect
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassic ...
. Its Marble Hall (''Marmorsaal''), with three
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
s, takes up half of the
ground floor
A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US).
T ...
and is so called from its decoration with grey
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
. At the same time as the reconstruction of the house, the
park was redesigned in the style of an
English garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...
.
Rosenau Palace
' at schloesser.bayern.de[Gordon McLachlan, ''The rough guide to Germany'' (200]
p. 187-188
online
In the park are an
orangery
An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...
, a '
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
Column'
sun-dial, the ruins of a
hermitage, and waters called the Swan Lake and the Prince's Pond.
[
At each end of the Rosenau, Schinkel added ]crow-stepped gable
A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...
s of an early Gothic style. The windows took on a later Gothic form, while small balconies
A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor.
Types
The traditional Maltese balcony is ...
and coats of arms in stone were added to decorate the main front. The principal tower, which in 1700 had been topped by a domed ''Welsche Haube'', similar to an onion dome
An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point.
It is a typ ...
, was crenellated
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
, while a ruined tower was left in romantic ruins.
On 26 August 1819, Ernest's first wife, Princess Louise, gave birth in the house to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819 – 1861). On 19 September 1819, Albert was baptized in the Marble Hall into the Lutheran Evangelical Church with water from the local river, the Itz
The Itz is a river of Thuringia and Bavaria, Germany.
The Itz is long and a right tributary of the Main.
The Itz begins in Sachsenbrunn (Stelzen), Thuringia and flows southward through Bachfeld and Schalkau. It crosses into Bavaria and feeds ...
, with his godparent
In infant baptism and denominations of Christianity, a godparent (also known as a sponsor, or '' gossiprede'') is someone who bears witness to a child's christening and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelon ...
s being Francis II of Austria, the last Holy Roman Emperor, the Duke of Teschen
The Duchy of Teschen (german: Herzogtum Teschen), also Duchy of Cieszyn ( pl, Księstwo Cieszyńskie) or Duchy of Těšín ( cs, Těšínské knížectví), was one of the Duchies of Silesia centered on Cieszyn () in Upper Silesia. It was split ...
, the Duke of Gotha, and his grandmother, Augusta of Saxe-Coburg. Albert spent his boyhood years at the Rosenau. In 1840, he became the husband of Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Elizabeth Longford
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, (''née'' Harman; 30 August 1906 – 23 October 2002), better known as Elizabeth Longford, was a British historian. She was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees ...
later wrote of the weeks before Albert's departure to woo Victoria:
During Victoria's first visit to Coburg, she and Albert slept in the room of his birth at the Rosenau. "How happy, how joyful we were!" Victoria later recalled. Victoria also wrote into her diary that if she were not Queen of the United Kingdom, she would have liked to live at the Rosenau.
The Tsarevich of Russia and his future wife Alix of Hesse and by Rhine visited the house in April 1894, on the day after their own engagement.
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 184430 July 1900) was the sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from ...
, the second son of Victoria and Albert, previously known as Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who had been second-in-line to the British throne between his birth in 1844 and that of Prince Albert Victor in 1864, owned the Rosenau and died there on 30 July 1900. His wife was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, who continued to live at the Rosenau and who died in 1920.
On 15 July 1909, Duke Alfred's daughter Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (Beatrice Elizabeth Mary; born 8 August 1988) is a member of the British royal family. She is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is a niece of Charle ...
(1884–1966) married Alfonso, Duke of Galliera, in a civil ceremony at the house, followed by a Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
religious ceremony at St. Augustin, Coburg, and a Lutheran one in Schloss Callenberg.
Post World War I
The last reigning Duke, Charles Edward Charles Edward may refer to:
*Charles Edward (horse), a racehorse
*Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie
*Charles E. Stuart, Charles Edward Stuart, American politician
*Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
*Charles Edward Callwe ...
, whose father had been Victoria and Albert's youngest son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, abdicated on 14 November 1918, a few days after the end of the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. On 7 June 1919, he concluded with the new Free State of Coburg a termination agreement on his assets in Coburg, receiving some 1,500,000 Marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...
for about 4,500 hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...
s of land and for various art treasures and buildings, including Rosenau. However, until 1938 the house was leased to the daughters of Duke Alfred, Marie, Queen of Romania, Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia, Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Princess Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera. Victoria, titular Empress consort of Russia, was the mother of Vladimir Kirillovich
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (russian: Владимир Кириллович Романов; 21 April 1992) was the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia, a position which he claimed from 1938 to his death.
Early life
Vladimir was bo ...
(1917-1992), head of the Romanov family and claimant to the Russian throne. She stayed at the house with her son in the 1920s. Victoria died in 1936 and was buried at the Rosenau, where she had maintained a Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
, established for her mother, Maria Alexandrovna. Her remains were transferred to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum
The Grand Ducal Burial Vault (Russian: Великокняжеская усыпальница) is the purpose-built mausoleum of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses of Russia in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The Neo-Baroque domed structure is frequently ...
of the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
on 7 March 1995.
From 1941, during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the house was used as accommodation for the ''Reichsarbeitsdienst
The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ...
'' (National Labour Service). In 1945, it became a convalescent home of the Commission for Refugees, and from 1948 was a nursing home
A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...
for more than twenty years. The house was then empty for a few years, before in 1972 the Free State of Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
bought it, by now in a poor condition, with the aim of restoring it.
This restoration work took place in 1985–90. It aimed at returning the house, both in external appearance and in the division of the rooms, to the condition it was in when Victoria and Albert stayed here. To that purpose, watercolours of the Rosenau at Windsor Castle were used.
Present day
The Rosenau is now in the care of the '''' (Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens, and Lakes), a department of the state government of Bavaria. Since 1990, the house and its landscape park have been open to the public.
Museums
All rooms on the lower two floors of the house are open to visitors. A small eleven-sided library is decorated with paintings of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (); (12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style.
Biography
He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in ...
's ''The Travels of Thiodolf the Icelander''. During the Grand Duchess Maria's era it was used as the Russian Orthodox chapel. Each summer, there is a program of concerts in the Marble Hall.
Upstairs, the other principal rooms have brightly decorated walls and Biedermeier furniture. Among the remaining family heirlooms is a cradle that is said to have been Prince Albert's.
The orangery
An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...
building used to house the Museum Of Modern Glass (''Europäisches Museum für modernes Glas''), a museum of modern art glass.[ Since 2008 it has been in a new building nearby.
]
Heirs
The heirs of the ducal family, now headed by Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, still live nearby, at Schloss Callenberg.[Official web site of Schloss Callenberg (English version)]
/ref>
References
External links
*
Website of the European Museum for Modern Glass
{{Authority control
Coburg (district)
Rosenau, Coburg
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Gothic Revival architecture in Germany
Museums in Bavaria
Historic house museums in Germany
Gardens in Bavaria
Palaces in Bavaria