Schloss Salzdahlum

The Salzdahlum castle was a former pleasure palace with a vast baroque garden, which lay in Salzdahlum between Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony today. Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel was the Versailles -like palace complex 1688-1694 after plans by the architect Johann Balthasar country Lauterbach built under execution by Hermann basket. For cost reasons, the buildings were almost exclusively in wood construction in which panels the impression of a sandstone building awakened. 1813, the castle was demolished because of dilapidation; Today, almost no building remains are present.

Purpose

The castle was designed to meet Herzog Anton Ulrich's absolutist need for baroque splendor. Anton Ulrich envisioned a pleasure palace, Versailles should outstrip. Castle Salzdahlum was not intended as a permanent residence of the Duke, who resided in nearby Wolfenbüttel, but as the summer residence of the ducal family.

Concrete was the intention of the Wolfenbüttel line of the Guelphs to demonstrate the magnificence of the palace and the baroque garden their superior rank over the Hanoverian line of Guelph total house. The dispute for supremacy in 1692 - even during the construction period - decided by the awarding of the Elector of Duke Ernst August of Calenberg.

Furthermore, should the ducal art collections, especially the picture gallery to get a prestigious ambience with the lock. As the site of the village Salzdahlum was chosen because it was between Braunschweig and the former residence of Wolfenbüttel and so from both directions was reached in a short time.

Formation

1672 bought by the Duke Salzdahlum the domain that should be used to manage the later castle. As Vorläuferbau the castle was built between the land acquisition and construction began in 1689, the summer-house salt Thalen, of which no representation is preserved. In the summer house the wedding of Duke Anton Ulrich's daughter Dorothea Auguste was celebrated in 1684 with the Prince Günther of Schwarzburg.

1687 Anton Ulrich returned back from a trip to Italy and wanted to create a summer residence in accordance with French and Italian models. 1689 continued the construction work to the castle project southwest of the village, where today the Gutsgarten, meadows and cultivated fields. First, a drainage was laid to dry out the moist soil. It soon became apparent that only the material cost of the construction would exceed the assets of the duke and his wife by far. So Anton Ulrich and his architect Hermann basket agreed to build the palace in half-timbered style of wood; only individual elements such as columns, stairs and foundations were made of stone. The facades, however, were disguised so cleverly that the overall impression of a solid sandstone building was built. The costs incurred during the six-year construction period amounted to about 55,000 thalers. In later years, costs for equipment were added. In Salzdahlum so was probably the largest timber in German lands, mockingly called it: The biggest " Holzungeheuerlichkeit " in the world. On May 30, 1694 - the 60th anniversary of Duchess Elisabeth Juliane (wife of Anton Ulrich ) - the castle was inaugurated ( Mäyen closing Salzthalischer ) in a four-day ceremony. The inauguration cantata composed by Georg Caspar Schürmann. Soon after completion of the castle main building extensions were required for the ducal collections. Several additions were made until the end of the 18th century.

Specifications

The first building specifications, which also contained the view and floor plan drawings of the plant, published in 1710 the royal court painter Tobias cross- ford. The defunct castle was surrounded on two sides by a moat and delimited on one side by a brick wall. Access was by a guardhouse. Today there are floor plans of the layout in the castle, the exact dimensions but which are unknown. The central rooms of the castle were - unlike the Bel-Etage other locks on the first floor - here on the ground floor. The castle had numerous reception rooms, multiple courtyards, Kavaliershaus, riding hall, opera house, an orangery and chapel. The staircase is based on plans by Andrea Palladio in the 16th century and are aesthetic expression of the competition for the same time built castle in Lord Hausen of the Hanoverian Guelph Line. The Great Gallery of the palace was the first major erected for this purpose in Germany construction. She took on about 800 m² on the collection of paintings. In other rooms, art collections were kept with Venetian glass, crockery and emails.

Excerpt from the list of castle rooms:

• Audience Room
• Porcelain Kitten
• Bet Cabinet
• Antichambre
• Triumph hall

• Corner Cabinet
• Japanese Cabinet
• Green Cabinet
• Dammast Green Room
• Dutch Kitchen

Garden

Behind the castle is a park covered in style of a baroque garden with paths, the geometrically divided districts created. Was equipped with the Garden Hermitage, pagoda, water art with fountains, Parnassus, around 160 sculptures, hedge theater, maze and several ponds. In historical sources, a park size of about 14 acres is specified with a maximum length of about 400 m. Recent enhancements to the garden were completed in 1713. During the reign of Charles I, the garden was redesigned in 1750 as the Rococo garden. Castle and gardens were later exemplary in the development of Hundisburg Castle in Saxony -Anhalt and castle garden in animal Schrattenhofen in the Principality of Oettingen, which also gradually fell into disuse after a brief heyday and is now completely gone.

Magnificent courtly life

The castle was the representation object where the event was a glamorous courtly life with lavish court festivities. In retrospect, it was referred to as the " Versailles of the Guelph " or as the " German Versailles ". Many operas of the Baroque period had their world premiere here. At times, lived here Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel, his mother Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. At the opening ceremony in 1694, not the aristocracy was present, but prominent guests such as Countess Aurora of Königsmarck and the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. 1713 was looking for a state visit Tsar Peter I the Wolfenbütteler Herzogshof also the pleasure palace on. The Prussian Crown Prince Frederick (later King Frederick the Great ) married here on June 12, 1733 Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel - Bevern. 1784 visited the poet Goethe Castle to visit the picture gallery.

Decline and end

The light wood construction of the lock held on a permanent basis was not the weather. The wet ground made ​​the walls rot and maintenance was costly. During the reign of Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand late 18th century the ducal checkout was no longer enough for entertaining. The court life was extinguished, and the buildings fell into disrepair. Also, the gardens overgrown, sculptures were overturned, and the Orangerie was in 1797 collapsed. 1810, when the area was part of the department of Oker, gave King Jerome of Westphalia, the city of Brunswick, the unused palace buildings. The city could not bear the upkeep of the summer-house, especially since she was consuming expand the Braunschweig palace. Including 800 paintings - - On November 24, 1810, the inventory and the last of art treasures were auctioned Salzdahlumer castle; previously had been requisitioned by Napoleon I and spent in the Louvre already 250. The pictures came after the liberation from the French rule back partially and arrived in the Herzog Anton Ulrich- Museum in Braunschweig later. 1811 was the city of Brunswick to sell the castle to abort to save the running maintenance costs. However, they found no buyers for the estimated value of 30,000 thalers. She then had the castle tear itself and auctioned the building materials. 1813, the demolition work was completed.

Presence

Today, the castle no longer exists except the "Old Guard ", once the gatehouse, as well as the adjacent and once the storage shed dilapidated hippodrome. End of the 20th century, this monumental architectural remains were transferred to private ownership in half-timbered style. The acquirer restored the gatehouse exemplary, with even the existing mud walls were repaired. Still exist vault and single rooms with about 6 m long and 8 m wide in the hippodrome. Here in 1988, the original structure of the castle design were reconstructed and uncovered well-preserved stucco vault. Numerous remains of the castle ( capitals, columns, furniture, paintings, sculptures, gateposts ) can still be found in parks, yards, homes and museums in the surrounding area. A baroque doorway is at the monastery courtyard in Mönchevahlberg, the Cavalier's House was built on the estate of the family of Munchausen in the United Vahlberg again.

A humorous depiction of palace and builders are Hans Pleschinski in his published 1986 story " The Wood volcano ". 2007, a digital reconstruction of the castle was created in an animated film, which is sold on DVD under the title "Where Rome / PARISS and Hague appears in eim term" and enables a virtual tour through the former summer palace.