Landsberg Castle

Landsberg Castle is the remnant of a hilltop castle on a porphyry hill near the town of Landsberg in the Saalekreis district in Saxony-Anhalt. Only insignificant wall remains are left of the former hilltop castle, which is now part of the Romanesque Road. The art historically valuable Staufer-era double chapel is significant.

Archaeological excavations have proven that the prominent castle hill of Landsberg was already fortified in Slavic times. Minor remains of an embankment can still be found in the terrain. During the removal of earth layers in the 1990s, minor wall remains of the high medieval castle complex were uncovered, which showed plaster scratchings. Generally, the dimensions of the castle are difficult to determine due to the former quarrying operations on Kapellenberg (in the area of today's Felsenbad).

In the 12th century, Landsberg belonged to the Wettins. When Conrad the Great of Meissen retired to the monastery on Petersberg in 1156, he divided his possessions among his three sons. Dietrich received the Ostmark or the March of Lusatia, to which Landsberg belonged. In 1174, Dietrich was documented as "Comes de Landsberc". Thus, the castle must have been completed or at least under construction at this time. Dietrich belonged to the close circle of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He participated in the Italian campaign of 1176/77 and in the peace negotiations in Venice. The close ties to the emperor also explain the architectural form of the castle chapel. Double chapels were only built in the immediate vicinity of the Staufer imperial house. It is assumed that the castle was completed in 1184, the year of Dietrich's death. As an important follower of the emperor, Dietrich had, with high probability, buildings erected in his castle that corresponded to the high artistic level of the castle chapel.

The double chapel, whose architectural forms, according to Ernst Ullmann, are committed to a "Staufer imperial idea" in architecture, was built as a unified structure between 1156 and 1184. The attribution of a former basilica as a predecessor building of the castle chapel or a possible collegiate church, which was later (from 1180) rebuilt, must be rejected as incorrect based on both the building research by Reinhard Schmitt and the source and literature situation by Auert-Watzik/Mertens. The use of bricks on the apses of the first floor, i.e., the upper chapel, places Landsberg in a series of early brick buildings (Pouch, Eilenburg) and puts the double chapel in a context with buildings in the Lusatian, South Brandenburg, and Saxon regions. Why brick was used as an externally visible material precisely in the upper chapel, presumably reserved for the margrave/noble upper class, is currently still unclear. A blind arch above the tympanum above the north portal - unfortunately plastered today - is also made of brick.

Landsberg experienced a heyday when, under Margraves Dietrich the Wise and his son in the second half of the 13th century, it served as a residence of the Wettin territorial principality of Landsberg alongside Weißenfels. Margrave Henry III, the Illustrious, established the Margraviate of Landsberg for his second-born son Dietrich from 1258/61, which existed until 1291. With the transfer or sale of the northern part of the former Margraviate of Landsberg to the Ascanian Margraves of Brandenburg - more precisely to Otto IV of Brandenburg - in 1291, the gradual decay of the castle began, as there was no longer any interest in the residence, and furthermore, the Schenken von Landsberg, a formerly Wettin ministerial family, had settled there. The Schenken von Landsberg presumably carried out numerous alterations in the castle and to the double chapel, which received its second upper floor from 1300.

Shortly before the Thirty Years' War, the condition of the castle was described as "now completely desolate". Only the chapel was in good condition. Damage during the Thirty Years' War, repeated fires in the town - which also spread to the chapel and necessitated a renewal of the roof in 1674/75 - as well as wild treasure hunting for presumed grave goods in the lower chapel in the 18th/19th century led to extensive restoration work on the chapel from 1860 onwards, with the involvement of Ferdinand von Quast, August Stüler, and others, founders of Prussian monument preservation. The double chapel was to undergo a "stylistically correct restoration", which, in addition to numerous changes in the interior (including the installation of a blue and gold starry sky), would also have radically changed the external appearance (construction of a roof turret analogous to the Petersberg collegiate church and massive, acute-angled dormer windows). This planned "re-Romanization" could not be fully carried out due to financial difficulties. Only the seating still present today, the floor, and other elements were carried out, in addition to a less structurally invasive and costly renovation. Since 1990, a new comprehensive restoration and conservation (plastering of the chapel after the former visible stonework of the exterior) has taken place under monument preservation aspects.