Saarbrücken Castle is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. No ...

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is ...

, the capital of

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, a ...

. It is located in the district of Alt-Saarbrücken on the left bank of the

Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name * Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist * Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), E ...

. Earlier, a medieval

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

and a

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 ide ...

castle stood on the same site.

History

Middle ages

Historical sources from the year 999 report the existence of an imperial ''Castell Sarabruca''.Hermann Jungk: ''Regesten zur Geschichte der ehemaligen nassau-saarbrückischen Lande bis 1381'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für die Saargegend'', vol. 13, Saarbrücken, 1914, documents 35, 37, 40, 10 and 561/562 In 1009, it is named as ''Veste Sarebrugka''. A document from 1065 mentions that Duke Frederick of Lower Lorraine received the castle as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

from the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

. Later, Emperor Henry IV gave the castle to Frederick's brother, Count Adalbero III of Luxembourg, who was Bishop of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

. In 1168, the castle was destroyed by Count Symon, on the orders of Emperor

Frederick I Frederick I may refer to: * Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht. * Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978) * Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105) * Frederick I, Count of Zoll ...

. Later archives mention a ''Castel and Bourg'' on 2 July 1277. A deed from 1485 reports that Count John II ''.... in 1459, because of the war, began to fortify and guard the two cities.Albert Ruppersberg: ''Geschichte der Grafschaft Saarbrücken'', vol. 2, 1903, p. 31 In 1463, John added a

bulwark Bulwark primarily refers to: * Bulwark (nautical), a nautical term for the extension of a ship's side above the level of a weather deck * Bastion, a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification The Bulwark primarily refer ...

and 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 movea ...

across the

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

that separated the castle from the city.Main State Archive of Hesse in Wiesbaden, document 1002,4, p. 414.

16th century

Johann Andreae, the

chronicler A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken, reports that Count Philip IV built a summer residence in Saarbrücken and provides a sketch of appearance of the medieval castle. It had a trapezoid-shaped inner court, surrounded by buildings of different widths. There was a

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

on the western side. The bailey on the Saar side was enclosed on the northwest and southeast by buildings.Main State Archive of Hesse in Wiesbaden, document 1002,5, leaf 266 The summer house had been designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Christmann Stromeyer from the

Electorate of the Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine o ...

and stood on the southeastern edge of the cliff . The castle was surrounded in the north-east by the Saar Rocks and the river Saar, on the east by a ditch and on the south and southwest by the

and a moat. The entrance was the drawbridge opposite the large tower. At the southern end of the garden was a red tower and at the northern corner a small round tower.

17th century

Drawings by Hienrich Höers provide a reliable and authentic image of the topography of the palace complex in the 17th century.Central Hessian State Archive in Wiesbaden: dept. 3011, Nr. 3715, 35 Bll: ''Abrisse derer Nassauischen Residentz Schlösser'' by Henrich Höer'', 1617 It shows a four-winged structure inside a curtain wall with differently shaped

bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

s. Defensive structures including towers, walls, gatehouses and trenches followed the topography of the Saar rock. The rampart was strengthened with triangular corner bastions. In October 1983, excavations next to the road in the valley, performed while preparing the foundations of a technical annex, unearthed a part of these extensive fortifications in several different layers. A bastion and parts of the southwestern

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from " The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...

were included in the design of the new annex, and can be visited today. The trapezoidal main courtyard was surrounded by four wings. Three of these were joined at right angles. The main square was surrounded by buildings of equal width. The three-storey building could be accessed from spiral staircases in the stair towers at the corners of the inner courtyard. The framework was completed at the south side by four superimposed

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

s. The forecourt on the Saar side was bounded on the northwest by the ''Botzheim'' building, named after the chief forester who resided there in 1728.K. Lohmeyer: ''Friedrich Joachim Stengel 1694-1787'', in: ''Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für die Saargegend'', issue 11, Düsseldorf, 1911, p. 30, note 3 To the northeast, it was bounded by a small single-storey cross-wing, and to then north by the castle wall. In front of the summer house on the southeastern rock was a garden house.

Transition to the 18th century

The castle was destroyed by imperial troops on 16 May 1677.Adolph Köllner: ''Geschichte der Städte Saarbrücken und St. Johann'', vol. 1, Saarbrücken, 1865, p. 315 It was restored around 1696 by architect Josef C. Motte, nicknamed , on the orders of Countess Eleonore Clara of Hohenlohe-Gleichen, the widow of Count Gustav Adolph and her son Louis Crato. The wing adjacent to the road to ''St. Arnual Rauschen Thal'' (today's ''Talstraße'') was, according to reconstruction plans that have been preserved, carried out ''à la mode''. The courtyard was opened to the garden on the south side and bordered by a single-storey arcade hallway. The garden was extended beyond the castle wall and far into the valley as a terraced

French formal garden The French formal garden, also called the (), is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the ...

. A sepia drawing, made after 1710, probably by Anton Kohl, shows the castle and the market square. It shows the ground plan of the restored castle. A low arcade tract replaces the earlier east wing. The west wing was a ''

Bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...

'', which had been built during the reign of the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynas ...

s. During sewer repairs in August 1977, a three-metre thick wall was discovered that had been part of the main tower of the Renaissance castle. In March 1989, during the redevelopment of the Palace Square, the staircase was removed and the foundations of the tower were fully excavated. This rectangular, five-storey clock tower — the fifth storey had been added in 1613 — towered over the castle's four wings and was topped with a dome with dormer windows and a

roof lantern A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure. A lantern roof wil ...

. The octagonal stair towers at the four corners of the courtyard were also covered with domes.

18th century

After Frederick Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken died without issue in 1728, Nassau-Saarbrücken fell back to the Nassau-Usingen branch of the

House of Nassau The House of Nassau is a diversified aristocratic dynasty in Europe. It is named after the lordship associated with Nassau Castle, located in present-day Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The lords of Nassau were originally titled "Count ...

. In 1735, Princess Charlotte Amalie, née Countess of Nassau-Dillenburg, the widow of Prince William Henry divided the possessions of the Walram line of Nassau among her sons.

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, the elder son, was given the territories on the right bank of the Rhine; his younger brother William Henry received the territories on the left bank. When William Henry came of age in 1741, he commissionedKarl Lohmeyer: ''Der eigenhändige Lebenslauf des Barockarchitekten Friedrich Joachim Stengel, 1694-1787'', in: ''Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Karl Koetschau'', Düsseldorf, 1928, p. 93–104 the architect

Friedrich Joachim Stengel Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

from Zerbst to write a report on the structural condition of the Saarbrücken Castle. Stengel had studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1708 to 1712 and had been appointed court architect in Usingen in 1733. On 26 January 1739, he proposed a design for the reconstruction of the castle. The new design did away with any defensive functions and reflected recent changes in the accepted princely lifestyle and provided a more open attitude, free access to outer courtyards and garden and a more comfortable, more splendid and refined interior. He expanded this to a comprehensive plan for central Saarbrücken, with individual buildings and groups of buildings, including a spacious square in front of the castle, a city hall, a palace for the hereditary prince Louis and the ("Louis square"), a square connecting the Protestant ''

Ludwigskirche Ludwigskirche in Old Saarbrücken, Germany, is a Lutheran baroque-style church. It is the symbol of the city and is considered to be one of the most important Protestant churches in Germany, along with the Dresden Frauenkirche and the St. Micha ...

'' ("Louis Church"), the Peace Church, and yet another palace. The city plan followed the principles of geometry and symmetry from a references axis (). The new princely palace was planned on the site of the old castle on the Saar, with residential and administrative buildings dominating the cityscape. Space for the new palace was created by

slighting Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...

the old castle walls, filling in the moat and diverting the river Saar. The staggered terraces on the slope towards the Saar were expanded to create space for the new, larger

garden. The new palace, a three-wing structure open to the city, with residential, representative and administrative functions, was completed in 1748. Many architects, engineers and construction workers had been hired for this project. The palace complex was based on a square floor plan. The

corps de logis In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal block of a large, (usually classical), mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture ...

dominated the complex by its roof, which towered above the other buildings. Two equally long wings were attached to the corps de logis and the central pavillon, surrounding the

cour d'honneur A ''cour d'honneur'' (; ; german: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block ('' corps de logis''), sometimes w ...

and thereby creating an additional living space. The four corners of this horseshoe shape were emphasized with

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s reminiscent of the defensive towers of the earlier castle. The main courtyard and the central pavilion sat on the axis of symmetry of the complex. In the earlier castle, the main courtyard had been separated from the city by a mighty

donjon A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in ...

. In the 18th-century castle, however, the fourth side of the square was open to the city. A balustrade with busts delineated this side of the courtyard and provided an entrance on the axis of symmetry. On the other side of the main building, the axis of symmetry formed the axis of symmetrical garden, with symmetrical stairs descending to the valley. The forecourt was separated from the city by a wrought-iron fence with two octagonal guard houses. The entrance to the forecourt was through a gate that stood on the same axis as the main entrance of the corps de logis. The basic plan of the three wings was a rectangle of 65.45 × 61.34 metres. The Corps de Logis had a length of 65.45 metres with 15 window bays: three in the central pavilion and three in each of the reserves and the corner pavilions. It was 18.26 metres deep and in this direction, it was divided by four windows. The length of the wings was 43.08 metres. Each had ten axes: seven in the reserves and three in the pavilions at the end. In accordance with 18th-century customs, the wings were named from the point of view of the corps de logis: the wing nearest the Saar was called the right wing; the wing next to the was called the left wing. The four pavilions were named after their compass points: northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast pavilion. The northwest and southwest pavilion each had three windows on their 14.98 metre long sides, and four windows on the 15.84 metre long sides. This geometric arrangement was supported by the symmetrical arrangement of the two main stairwells on the inner walls of the reserves in the corps de logis. The wings could also be accessed from two auxiliary staircases on the inner wall between the reserves in the wings and the northwest and southwest pavilions. Access to the interior of the castle was from the courtyard through three main portals on the central pavilion. Another four entrances were located in the first window axis of the reserves of the wings. The corps de logis were accessed via two representative main stairs on the left and right of the central courtyard pavilion. These were in the reserves and were designed symmetrically. From the courtyard one entered the ''Grand Vestibule'' via a three-level stairs. Between the stairs and the garden was the ''Sala terrena''. A ceremonial path led from the portal across the courtyard to the Corps de Logis. From the entrance hall, the main staircase (french: Escalier d'Honneur) led to the audience chambers of the princely family in the ''

piano nobile 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 ho ...

'', and from there to the

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

to the sumptuously furnished ''Grand Salon''. The suite of the prince was in the ''piano nobile'' of the right wing of the palace, the princess's suite was of the left. The civil administration and government archives were housed in the ''Rez-de-Chaussee'' of the right wing; the left wing housed the administration of the regiment William Henry maintained on behalf of the King of France. The storage rooms were in the

basement A basement or cellar is one or more Storey, floors of a building that are completely or partly below the storey, ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, ...

and could be accessed from the courtyard via a door in front of the stables and a side staircase. The palace remained the cultural and administrative centre of the principality for almost 50 years.

19th century

After the baroque palace was partially destroyed by fire in 1793 in the turmoil of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. In 1810, the palace was reconstructed to house eight middle-class families. Architect Johann Adam Knipper rebuilt the heavily damaged north wing on top of the preserved baroque vaults. He demolished the central pavilion in the Corps de Logis and the mezzanine floor. A lithograph of 1812 shows the free passage where the central pavilion had been. The ground and first floors of the castle were divided into three floors and equipped with a new roof. In 1872, the owner of the adjacent part of the castle, the iron works magnate Karl Ferdinand Stumm, commissioned architect Hugo Dihm to build a new hall to fill the gap left by the demolition of the central pavilion. The new hall, however, was rather smaller than the baroque central pavilion.

20th century

Between 1908 and 1920, the district of Saarbrücken gradually acquired the apartments, in order to use the building as the seat of district government. In 1938, a Neo-Baroque façade and a grand open-air staircase to the

Cour d'honneur A ''cour d'honneur'' (; ; german: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block ('' corps de logis''), sometimes w ...

were added to the central building. The western wing was partially destroyed during

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and rebuilt in 1947 and 1948. By 1969, the structural condition of the castle had deteriorated massively. Safety regulations mandated that the south wing be locked up immediately. Several plans were proposed for the reconstruction of the castle. Ideas ranged from reconstructing Stengel's baroque palace to completely demolishing the building. In 1981, the district of

decided to renovate the building and replace the central pavilion. Construction lasted from 1982 to 1989. The hall built by Dihm was torn down and replaced by a steel skeleton pavilion designed by the architect

Gottfried Böhm Gottfried Böhm (; 23 January 1920 – 9 June 2021) was a German architect and sculptor. His reputation is based on creating highly sculptural buildings made of concrete, steel, and glass. Böhm's first independent building was the Cologne ...

, of the same size as the former baroque pavilion.of architects G. Böhm, N. Rosiny, K. Krüger, L. Rieger, E. Fissabre with A. W. Maurer, Builder magazine of Architecture in May 1997, ISSN 0005-674X Dihm's neo-baroque façade was retained, and the space between this façade and the new building was converted into a grand entrance hall. The

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus ...

s of the corner pavilions were replaced by

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ...

s, similar to those on the baroque palace. Erich Fissabre and

Alfred Werner Maurer Alfred Werner Maurer (born 3 October 1945) is an international German architect, urban planner, architectural historian, archaeologists and art historian. Life Alfred Werner Maurer studied from 1964 to 1968 at the College of Engineering and S ...

had previously made the reconstruction drawings and the inventory of the baroque castle. In the course of this, the Dihm's central building was built over with a steel frame structure in the dimensions of the former baroque central.

Current use

The Saarbrücken castle now serves as the administrative headquarters of the District of

. The exhibition rooms of the Historical Museum Saar are housed in the vaulted cellar and a new annex.

Casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...

were uncovered during extensive excavations between 2003 and 2007. These can now be visited as part of the museum.

Footnotes

References

* Erich Fissabre and Alfred Maurer: ''Gestaltbild Barockschloss Saarbrücken 1739-1748. Methoden, Arbeitsweisen, Quellen der Rekonstruktion'', self-published, 1980 * Alfred Maurer: ''Die Baugeschichte des Saarbrücker Schlosses und deren Erforschung'', in: Jürgen Karbach and Paul Thomes (eds.): ''Beiträge zum Stengel-Symposion anläßlich des 300. Geburtstages von Friedrich Joachim Stengel am 29./30.9.1994 im Saarbrücker Schloß'' = ''Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Saargegend'', vol. 43, Historischer Verein für die Saargegend, Saarbrücken, 1995, , p. 177–217 * Reinhard Schneider: ''Das Saarbrücker Schloss.'' In: ''Rheinische Heimatpflege.'' Jg. 22, Nr. 2, 1996, , p. 81–90. * Alfred Maurer: ''Nachholbedarf an Tradition'', in: ''Baumeister - Zeitschrift für Architektur, Planung, Umwelt '', vol. 77, issue 2, 1980, , p. 124–125 * ''Architekturführer Saarbrücken'' in: ''Baumeister'', vol. 94, 1997 * Alfred Werner Maurer: Der künstlerische u. stilgeschichtliche Einfluss der architekturtheoretischen Schriften von

Nicolaus Goldmann Nicolaus is a masculine given name. It is a Latin, Greek and German form of Nicholas. Nicolaus may refer to: In science: * Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer who provided the first modern formulation of a heliocentric theory of the solar syste ...

und Leonhard Christoph Sturm auf die Bauwerke F.J. Stengel, Philologus Verlag, 2006 * Alfred Werner Maurer: Friedrich Joachim Stengel, seine Bauwerke und das Verhältnis zur Architekturtheorie, Philologus-Dokumente Basel (CH) 2009.

External links

Literature about Saarbrücken Castle
in the Saarlandic Bibliographies
Alfred Werner Maurer: ''Die Baugeschichte des Saarbrücker Schlosses und deren Erforschung''
* Saar Historical Museum
Casemates below Saarbrücken Castle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saarbrucken Castle Buildings and structures in Saarbrücken Baroque architecture in Germany