Administration department
CastleLübeck
Rantzau Castle
Rantzau Castle is a Neo-Gothic city palace in the Lübeck Cathedral district, which at its core contains a medieval canon's curia. The palace, popularly also called a castle, is located on Kapitelstraße at the corner of Parade, not far from Lübeck Cathedral, on the former parade ground of the Lübeck city military.
The origin of the canon's curia dates back to the 13th century, when houses for the members of the cathedral chapter were built in the immunity area of Lübeck Cathedral. Only here, in the Middle Ages, in contrast to the otherwise applicable city law which prescribed block development, could free-standing buildings be erected. After the first mention of the property in 1290, it was first built upon by Canon Mohr.
The core of the 13th-century building probably had the form of a residential tower. From the 15th century, the exposed brick rear facade and the Gothic vault in the cellar have been preserved. In the bay window room, there are remnants of wood paneling with coats of arms and the year 1586. Painted ceiling beams and Baroque door frames on the ground floor date from the early 17th century. In 1760, the previously long-rectangular three-story building was extended by two side annexes to an almost square floor plan, thus achieving approximately its current size. Part of this renovation was a hall on the upper floor, which was stuccoed in 1762 by Johann Nepomuk Metz from the Metz family of stucco artists in Attendorn and is considered the most magnificent Rococo hall in Lübeck.
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It is the last remaining of formerly 13 medieval cathedral curiae in Lübeck. The others were demolished after the secularization of the Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. On one of the chapter properties today stands the Propsteikirche Herz Jesu, on another, immediately next to the palace, is the Marienkrankenhaus.
When the cathedral chapter dissolved in 1803, this cathedral curia passed into the possession of the city. The last owner of this curia until 1804 was the canon and Prussian chamberlain Baron Franz Ludwig von Höveln. In 1805, the curia was sold for 34,000 Marks to the notary Nicolaus Heinrich von Evers, who later bequeathed it to his son, the Lübeck mayor Christian Nicolaus von Evers. During Mayor Evers' time, Queen Desideria of Sweden stayed as his guest in this former curia during her visits to Lübeck.
After the death of his wife Amalasuntha, née Bothmer (1810-1856), the heiress of Bothmer Castle near Klütz, Count Kuno zu Rantzau-Breitenburg acquired the property in 1858 and, incorporating the existing rooms, had a unique noble city palace in Lübeck built in romantic, Neo-Gothic forms, with architectural elements such as the use of semi-octagonal turrets, a bay window on the northwest corner, battlements, stepped gables, and tracery characterizing its castle-like nature.
In 1870/71, during the Franco-Prussian War, the house served as a military hospital, before it was sold again in 1875 and in 1900 returned to the possession of the Hanseatic city for 115,000 Marks. It was then used, among other things, by the 81st Infantry Brigade as its headquarters until 1912 before they moved to the Buddenbrookhaus. After temporary use as a women's vocational school, it housed the official residence of the Lübeck Office for Monument Preservation from the late 1950s until the late 1990s. The Rococo hall served as a meeting and lecture hall.
In 2002, the house was taken over by the German Foundation for Monument Protection, which restored it until 2005. Today it is the administrative seat of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: http://schloesserrundschau.de/schleswig/schloesser/luebeck01.html
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
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