Castle of PhilmentsRue – Wikipedia

The Castle of Philippreuis Castle (in German Philippsruhe Castle ) is a castle in the city of Hanau, Assia, Germany.

The origins [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In 1594 Count Filippo Luigi II of Hanau-Münzenberg purchased the land of the area where the castle currently stands, with the intention of building a country house in the form of a fortified castle. In any case, this structure was heavily damaged during the thirty -year war and was demolished.

The construction of the castle [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

At the end of the seventeenth century, Count Filippo Reinardo of Hanau-Münzenberg decided to resume the father’s project and to build a new castle on the destroyed residence on the same site in the form of a Baroque palace with French gardens.

The construction of the main building began in 1701. The plant of the building refers to the project of the Castle of Clagnry, in France, designed under the reign of Louis XIV by Jules Hardouin-Mansard as a residence for the Marquise of Montespan, one of the lovers of the French sovereign.

From these projects, the architect for the Philippsruhe Castle, Julius Ludwig Rothweil, drew its main inspirations, as well as to take care of the first construction phases. Just a year after the start of the works, in any case, Count Filippo Reinardo entrusted the project to the French architect Jacques Girard who began the construction of the lateral wings of the building in 1706.

The last count of Hanau, Giovanni Reinardo III of Hanau, in 1720, entrusted the work to another French architect, Sir Bonde, who also made the Orangerie at the western end of the park, whose roof, however, had to be reconstructed in 1736 by the German architect Christian Ludwig Hermann due to infiltrations of rainwater.

The Castle as a residence of the House of Assia [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

After the death of the last count of Hanau, Philippsruhe castle became the property of the Languvi and then voters of Assia-Kassel by inheritance. These actively dealt with the structure starting from 1736, but a great impulse was given to the structure of the elector Guglielmo II of Assia who had one built around 1830 Coffee house in the southwestern part of the palace garden. Guglielmo II had completely redesigned the interiors of the rooms of the neoclassical style building according to the taste of the time, including the furniture, today largely lost.

The only environment remained intact of this period is the dance hall (the so -called “white salon”), characterized by the presence of eight Corinthian columns and white stuccoes in ancient style (acanthus leaves). This room was completely restored in 2016/2017.

Since the last voter Federico Guglielmo d’Assia did not have legitimate descendants, at his death all his possessions and titles passed to the branch of Assia-Rumpeheim in the person of Federico Guglielmo. These, particularly fond of the Philippsruhe Castle, actively dealt with the structure and started important renovations and expansion of the building between 1875 and 1880, giving it the current appearance. Federico Guglielmo entrusted the work to the Danish architect Ferdinand Meldahl, assisted by the colleague of Frankfurt, Richard Dielmann, who also took care of creating a heating system with ceramic stoves. Previously these stoves had never been implanted in the building as it was used exclusively as a summer residence and therefore did not need heating. In 1879 an artistic wrought iron gate designed and built in Paris at the request of the elector was added to the structure.

After the completion of the works, the electoral family lived at the Castle until 1918 when he was forced to abandon his domains after the fall of the German empire. The castle passed owned by the municipality of Hanau in 1919, who tried to sell the structure to auction, without however finding any buyer willing to buy it. Remained owned by the local community, in 1943, to protect them from the bombings, the furniture of the castle were largely transferred to the castle of Fasanenerie near Fulda; In hindsight this decision proved completely wrong because Philippsruhe remained unharmed by the attacks, while Fulda was hit several times.

After the end of the Second World War, since 1950 the city of Hanau used the castle to welcome the city town hall as the historic municipal headquarters located on the city market square had been destroyed by a heavy air bombing of 19 March 1945. In 1964 The municipal administration was able to move to the town hall reconstructed in the center of the city and in 1967 the castle was reopened as a museum.

On August 7, 1984, the castle was hit by a fire that seriously damaged the upper part of the dome that was destroyed. After heated discussions, he decided in the reconstruction campaign that followed to create the dome according to the original style of the project, without baroque swabs. With the help of historical photographs, internal architecture was reconstructed as at the time of Federico Guglielmo d’Assia-Rumpeheim, but some works of art of the museum went hopelessly lost.

The Orangerie in the garden was reopened as an exhibition of the carriages of the palace. It was completely restored in 2002, bringing it back to the original project. In it and in the neighbor Coffee house Events such as the annual fairy tale festival of the Grimm brothers or music concerts are held today.

The Baroque park [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Corte gardener Marx Doßmann began the castle of the Castle gardens on behalf of the last count, Giovanni Reinardo III of Hanau-Lichtenberg, already creating a scheme for the gardens that should have arisen before the construction of the castle itself to provide for 1696 to provide to provide to plants the time needed to grow. Head of the planting was the gardener Schneider. Since the summer of 1721, he was replaced by Johann David Fülck, former gardener of the court of Prince Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn, from which he had been fired for an altercation.

The garden of the park extended along the course of the Fiume Meno, in the east-west direction, from which the waters drew for the functioning of its fountains. The flower beds were framed by bosso hedges, avenues flanked by lime trees, oaks, cherries and an area grown as a vegetable garden for the sustenance of the court, located near the orangery.

The English garden [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Between 1840 and 1880, the voters of the Assia-Kassel first and the members of the Assia-Rumpeheim then, they completely redesigned the Baroque garden originally from the castle, replacing it with an English garden thanks to the Swedish gardener Jens person Lindahl ( which later also designed the Ringpark by Würzburg). However, some elements of the Baroque garden, such as the hatches of linden, the historic oaks and the flower beds on the terraces of the building, were preserved and integrated into the project. The garden area was also further expanded, leading it to the current intention of 8.6 hectares.

From the mid -twentieth century, the park began to suffer from adequate maintenance: the dead lime trees and other valuable trees were not replaced and the meadows were mostly left uncultivated. The central lake of the structure also ended up draining almost completely to the point that the water inside was so low that in winter it froze completely, going to constitute a real ice rink for the inhabitants of the city.

In 1986, in 1988 and 1990, the complete redevelopment of the park began with three races for the construction of a series of sculptures to be installed in the park, made by internationally renowned artists such as Alf Lechner. Thus went to constitute the sculpture park of the Philippsruhe Castle.

On the occasion of the event State Garden Show Hanau of 2002, the gardens were brought back to their ancient splendor following the patterns desired by Lindahl with the planting of new trees (among them lime trees, ash, maples, chestnuts and red beech trees) as well as restoring the functioning of the central fountain of the perspective axis of the Castle garden.

• Katharina Bechler, Notes on the spatial decoration of Philippsruhe Castle from the modernization phase 1875-1880 in Landgrave Anna von Hessen 1836-1918. Life stages of a Hessian Princess. Catalog for the exhibition. Museum Schloss Fasanerie June 16 – October 14, 2018 . Imhof, Petersberg 2018. ISBN 978-3-7319-0750-3 E ISBN 978-3-9816021-5-9, p. 198–219.
• Claus honey, The castle and parks of Philippsruhe in the 19th century. Hanau history leaves. 32, 1994.
• Claus honey, Philippsruhe Castle. From the baroque castle to the Historical Museum. CONON, HOW MY 2001.
• Anton Brand, Philippsruhe Castle. Hanau 1979 (leaflet)
• Richard Schaffer-Hartmann, Philippsruhe Castle. In: City . History magazine on the occasion of the anniversary 150 years of revolution and gymnastics movement Hanau 1848–1998. 1998, p. 242–247.
• Dagmar Söder E Christine Kenner, The recovered garden room In monument preservation and cultural history 1/2016, p. 16 e Seguenti.
• Ernst Julius Zimmermann, Hanau Stadt and Land. Varia. 4:3, ND 1978. I.