Philippsburg Castle

Philippsburg Palace

The electoral residence was a three-story palace built in the early Baroque style. The palace was 160 m long, divided into seven wings around three rectangular courtyards, the central one opening towards the Rhine, while the side courtyards faced the fortress hill of Ehrenbreitstein. At its four corners, towers with stepped domes rose, visible from afar. The palace was surrounded by its own bastioned fortifications with moats on the north and south sides. The electoral yacht harbor developed from the southern moat, which was expanded in 1819 as a protective harbor for the pontoon bridge, but was abandoned and filled in 1886.

Philippsburg Palace had an excellent interior, which continued to be perfected until the end of the 18th century. Renowned stucco artists, painters, gilders, and sculptors contributed to the high-quality interior decoration. This is evidenced, for example, by the stucco work of Nicolo Carcano and the ceiling painting by Lazarus Sanguinetti in the 400 m² ballroom on the third floor. Sanguinetti also painted frescoes in the antechamber and five other rooms. Carlo Maria Pozzi was also active as a stucco artist in the palace. Parts of this equipment, especially from the court church, were moved to churches in the surrounding area after the demolition of the palace after 1799.

Pagerie

The Pagerie stands south of the former Philippsburg Palace and was built as a fortress gatehouse on the path up to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. It is thus the only preserved building of the Baroque fortress from the Kurtrier period. The main building, placed transversely to the path and parallel to the slope, has an obtusely angled wing attached. A plaque above the gate in the parapet of the window above it reports on the construction of the path by Elector Karl Kaspar von der Leyen. The potern-like gate is located in a high and continuously rusticated plinth floor. The three-axis main floor above is richly fenestrated. Its central axis continues upwards as a dormer in front of the mansard roof, which was only created in 1801. The gable bears the coat of arms of Elector Johann VIII. Hugo von Orsbeck. The gray and yellow facade of the Baroque plastered building is adorned with pilasters. Inside, a stone spiral staircase, created by Master Lorenz Staudacher, with steps of black marble and a profiled handrail, has been preserved. For the straight staircase to the basement, old ashlar stones from the demolished palace were used for repair purposes.

The rooms were initially used as the New Chancellery, then served as accommodation for cavaliers, under Elector Clemens Wenzeslaus von Sachsen as a residence and schoolhouse for pages, and later as an orphanage.

With the construction of the Prussian Ehrenbreitstein Fortress at the beginning of the 19th century, the path was rebuilt flatter and has since run close to the back of the Pagerie. The path is cut into the northern corner of the building.

Dikasterialgebäude

The former government and administrative building of Kurtrier is a three-story building aligned parallel to the Rhine. The complex of 25:4 axes is equipped with flat central and corner risalits and a gabled roof with mansard roofs over the risalits. The segmental arched windows are grouped into columns. The seven-axis corner risalits are framed by building-high rusticated pilasters, each with a pilaster-framed entrance with a broken pediment in the middle. The central three axes have a balustrade row with vase finials in the roof zone. The three-axis central risalit with smooth pilasters accommodates the main entrance and has a gable with a broken curved contour, in which the coat of arms of Elector Franz Georg von Schönborn, held by crowned double-tailed lions, is affixed. The gable is crowned by three figures, representing the personifications of Science, Justice, and Agriculture (from left to right). Additionally, there are putti with corresponding attributes on the outside. Behind the larger round-arched windows in the middle, which have a preceding balcony with wrought-iron grilles, is the ballroom.

Inside, all rooms are vaulted, except for the rooms on the first and second floors at the back, which were destroyed by a bomb impact during the air raids on Koblenz. The staircases are built into the rear corners of the building and are provided with attached term pilasters. Nothing of the original interior decoration has been preserved.

Krummstall

The Krummstall, located behind the Dikasterialgebäude, is an unadorned three-story building with 41 axes, of which the central 15 axes swing outwards to the rear on a segmental plan. A lower floor was added in 1880. The segmental arched windows are framed in a different color. The edges of the building and the central axis are provided with pilaster strips. A cartouche with the electoral coat of arms is centrally placed. The ground floor is cross-vaulted, partly supported by cast-iron columns.

Marstall

South of the Krummstall is the Marstall. The two-story building with a mansard roof has two wings at an acute angle to each other, with the rear wing forming the northern boundary of the electoral yacht harbor. The wing facing the Rhine accommodates the main entrance, which is adorned with Ionic double pilasters. Above it, a high, emphasized entablature, freestanding in front of the roof, bears a fully sculpted group of a rearing horse with a stable boy, flanked by obelisks with flags, instruments, and an electoral hat. The articulation of the building, equipped with rusticated pilasters, reflects the design of the Dikasterialgebäude. The ground floor, which originally contained 69 horse stalls, is cross-vaulted, supported by strongly Tuscan columns made of basalt.