Imperial Palace of Goslar

Last updated
The Kaiserhaus of the Imperial Palace Goslar kaiserpfalz.jpg
The Kaiserhaus of the Imperial Palace
St. Ulrich chapel at the Kaiserpfalz Goslar18.JPG
St. Ulrich chapel at the Kaiserpfalz

The Imperial Palace of Goslar (German: Kaiserpfalz Goslar) is a historical building complex at the foot of the Rammelsberg hill in the south of the town of Goslar north of the Harz mountains, central Germany. It covers an area of about 340 by 180 metres. The palace grounds originally included the Kaiserhaus, the old collegiate church of St. Simon and St. Jude, the palace chapel of St. Ulrich and the Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche). The Kaiserhaus, which has been extensively restored in the late 19th century, [1] was a favourite imperial residence, especially for the Salian emperors. As early as the 11th century, the buildings of the imperial palace had already so impressed the chronicler Lambert of Hersfeld that he described it as the "most famous residence in the empire". Since 1992, the palace site, together with the Goslar's Old Town and the Rammelsberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its millennium-long association with mining and testimony to the exchange and advancement of mining technology throughout history. [2]

Contents

Location

Rear of the Kaiserhaus GoslarKaiserpfalzRueck2.jpg
Rear of the Kaiserhaus

The palace district is located in the southern part of the town of Goslar. The area is dominated on the west by the north–south oriented Kaiserhaus, the central building of the whole complex. To the north, it was once joined at right angles by the Church of Our Lady, separated by a small courtyard, but there is nothing left of the church today. Its foundations are under the path leading up to the Kaiserhaus. To the south, now connected by a 19th-century arcade to the Kaiserhaus, is the Chapel of St. Ulrich. To the east, opposite the Kaiserhaus stood the east–west aligned collegiate church of St. Simon and St. Jude, of which only the north porch remains. The plan of the church is, however, incorporated into the surface of the present-day car park. To the palace grounds belonged also the residential and working buildings of the canons, the houses of the ministeriales and the imperial entourage, the stables and storehouses. In addition, the whole area was surrounded by a wall.

Individual buildings in the palace district

The earliest origins of the imperial palace are probably in a royal hunting lodge, as Adam of Bremen mentioned for the Ottonian period. In 1005 Henry II erected a first imperial mansion in Goslar, which, due to the rich ore deposits under the nearby Rammelsberg, soon outstripped the nearby palace of Werla. In the 1030s Conrad II began to expand the site by laying the foundation stone for the Church of Our Lady. The district was completed and enjoyed its heyday under his son, Henry III. In 1048 Henry summoned to Goslar one of the foremost architects of his day, a man who later became Bishop of Osnabrück, Benno II. Under Benno's expert guidance the buildings that had been worked on since the 1040s were completed in the first half of the 1050s: a new Kaiserhaus, the one that we know today, and the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude. Uncertain, however, is the date of the chapel dedicated to Saint Ulrich. It is believed to have been built either during the time of Henry III, Henry V or even Lothar III (from Süpplingenburg).

The Kaiserhaus

The Kaiserhaus at night Kaiserpfalz nacht.JPG
The Kaiserhaus at night
The imperial hall (Kaisersaal) KaisersaalGoslar.jpg
The imperial hall (Kaisersaal)

The Kaiserhaus is 54 metres long and 18 metres wide and is the largest secular building of its time. The centre of the building is its two-storey hall. This contains two rooms on each floor of 47 metres long and 15 metres wide. Both had a beam ceiling, which was supported in the middle by a row of columns. The upper of the two rooms was reserved for the emperor and his immediate entourage, the lower room for courtiers of lesser rank.

The imperial throne was set in the seven-metre high upper storey in the middle of the closed, rear, west wall. The east wall was pierced by a row of windows and gave a view of almost the entire palace district and the cathedral opposite. The central window of the upper floor also led to a columned balcony, either side of which were three arched windows. Incidentally, none of the window was glazed, as they were on the generally leeward side of the building.

To the north, the hall building was adjoined by another, two-storey residential building. Again, the upper floor was probably reserved for the imperial family. There was direct access from the upper room to the neighbouring Church of Our Lady. The church was probably accessible through a gallery as well.

Under Henry V more structural changes were made to the Kaiserhaus at the beginning of the 12th century. He added the older, almost identical, second living quarters at the southern end of the building. In 1132 the hall collapsed, but was immediately rebuilt. At the same time a cross-section (Quertrakt) was added centrally over the entire height of building, and a porch was built in front of the centre door on the ground floor that served as the first floor balcony. A gable now protruded from the hitherto slate-covered, steeply pitched roof. In addition, some windows were made closable and made a type of floor heating was installed. The window arches of the basement were replaced with rectangular windows.

At the foot of the southern staircase, there are the remains of foundations, that probably belong to the first imperial mansion (Pfalzbau) built by Henry II.

Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude

Plan of the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude Dehio 47 Goslar Dom.jpg
Plan of the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude

The canons used to celebrate their services in a three-nave basilica with a transept, three east apses and westwork with two octagonal towers with a bell chamber between them, and a simple narthex. Under the choir was a crypt, and over the intersection was another tower. The church was consecrated on 2 July 1051, by Archbishop Hermann of Cologne and dedicated to Simon the Zealot and Jude the Apostle, whose saint's day coincided with Henry III's birthday. At this time, the basilica was the largest Romanesque church east of the Rhine and became the model for many similar buildings in northern Germany, for example, the Brunswick Cathedral. A number of important religious dignitaries of the empire went out from this church. In 1819, the church, often called Goslar Cathedral, was sold for demolition.

Cathedral Porch

Cathedral Porch Domvorhalle Goslar 161-vtmd.jpg
Cathedral Porch

Around 1150 a porch was added in front of the north portal of the church, which remains the only part of the church preserved to this day. The former north door of the cathedral is now the back wall of the porch. The front of the lobby is decorated with two rows of niches with plaster sculptures that were originally coloured. The top row portrays Madonna with child in the middle, surrounded on both sides by chandeliers and angels, the original figures of angels having been lost and replaced by paintings. The bottom row shows, from left to right, Emperor Henry III, the patron saint of the cathedral, Simon, Matthew and Jude, as well as another, not clearly identifiable, imperial figure.

In this hall today is a replica of the imperial throne (Kaiserstuhl), which was originally in the church. The original is in the vaults of the palace. The bronze side arms and backrest, which are ornamented with tendrils, date to the second half of the 11th century, whilst the sandstone plinths surrounding the actual seat are somewhat more recent. They are decorated by Romanesque animal figures and legendary creatures. The imperial throne was probably used by Henry IV. Apart from the throne of Charlemagne in Aachen, it is the only surviving throne of a Holy Roman emperor from the Middle Ages. It was purchased in the 1840s by Prince Charles of Prussia and placed in the medieval-style monastery (Klosterhof) of Glienicke Palace in Potsdam. It subsequently came into the possession of the Hohenzollerns and was used as the imperial chair for Emperor William I at the opening of the first meeting of the new German Reichstag on 21 March 1871.

Palace Chapel of St. Ulrich

Chapel of St. Ulrich UlrichPfalzkapelle Goslar.jpg
Chapel of St. Ulrich
Rear of the chapel GoslarKaiserpfalzRueck1.jpg
Rear of the chapel

The plan of the double chapel of St. Ulrich forms a so-called Greek cross, with equal arms and three east apses in the lower chapel. The upper chapel, however, is octagonal with only one eastern apse. Such a design is unique in Germany. A square opening above the cross connects the lower chapel with the upper one that was originally reserved for the imperial family. The two chapels are also connected by a stair tower that is nearly in between the north and the west arm of the cross. From this tower was the chapel Ulrich also by a walkway to the southern, younger, connected living room of the imperial family.

Today a sarcophagus stands right in the centre of the cross in the lower chapel, whose cover slab has a sculpture dating to about the middle of the 13th century. This is a life-size, horizontal figure of Henry III, his head on a pillow, a dog lying at his feet, in his right hand the sceptre, in his left, the model of a church. The sarcophagus contains (in an octagonal gold capsule) the heart of Henry III, which was interred in Goslar at his own request, and has been kept since 1884 in the Chapel of St. Ulrich.

Church of Our Lady

The Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche), actually the Palace Chapel of "Sanctae Mariae Virginis", or just St. Mary's Chapel (Marienkapelle) consisted of a central square building of about 10 metres length, onto which were joined the three eastern apses and, on the opposite side, of a westwork with two round towers. The building was two storeys high. The ground floor, with access on the south side, was for the "ordinary staff". The upper storey, probably designed with marble floor, was reserved, once again, for the imperial family and had a direct connection to the Kaiserhaus from the westwork.

Curia buildings

Curia buildings also belonged to the palace district. They were like, for example, the Vicariate Curia in the "Domburg," the closer collegiate church grounds that were surrounded by a wall. Other curia buildings, such as the "von Steinberg" and "Herlinberg" bordered the square known as the Kaiserbleek to the north and south of between the collegiate church and the Kaiserhaus.

Parish church of St. Thomas

In the northeastern corner of the Domburg was St. Thomas' Church, built in the 11th century. It was the parish church of the palace district.

Historical events

A number of significant historical events have taken place in the palace district including:

Ruin and restoration

Replicas of the Brunswick Lions in front of the Imperial Palace Goslar Kaiserpfalz mit Braunschweiger Loewen (2006).JPG
Replicas of the Brunswick Lions in front of the Imperial Palace
One of the replicas Goslar Braunschweiger Loewe (2006).JPG
One of the replicas

1253 was the last time a German king, William of Holland, resided at the palace. Thereafter it fell into decline. In 1289 a fire razed many of the buildings to the ground. The newest residential building was then demolished to its foundations. The following year the palaced district went into the possession of the town of Goslar. The hall was used for a long time as a court, partly by Goslar's sheriff (Stadtvogt) and partly as a Saxon district court, but was increasingly "abused" as a warehouse or store. For example, both the halls of the Kaiserhaus and the older living quarters were used in the mid-16th century as a granary. The Chapel of St. Ulrich was used as a prison from 1575, something which at least helped to preserve it. The towers of the Church of Our Lady collapsed in 1672, and the rest of the church in 1722. Its stones were used as building material. The walls of the cathedral were already reported in 1331 as collapsing and, in 1530, a tower fell down. In 1802 only a ruin was left, which was sold on 19 July 1819 for 1504 talers for demolition. Only the north portal remains and still gives an impression of the former grandeur of the cathedral.

In 1865 walls in the Kaiserhaus again fell down and the possibility of demolition was on the agenda of Goslar's Town Council. This was averted and, instead, a state commission recommended that the building be restored. Construction work began on 14 August 1868. On 15 August 1875 Emperor William I paid a visit to the site and gave the project in effect a "national blessing". In 1879 the restoration of the building was completed.

In the years 1913/14 and again in 1922 archaeological investigations in the palace district were carried out by Professor Uvo Hölscher, thanks to which the foundations of the Church of Our Lady were re-discovered.

The palace today

The Imperial Palace is one of the most outstanding tourist attractions in the town of Goslar and the Harz region. The Kaiserhaus may be visited daily and guided tours are available, whilst, the old quarters are used for administrative purposes and exhibitions. In addition, in the Goslar Museum (town museum), there are exhibits from the palace district, especially from the Monastery of St. Simon and St. Jude, for example, the Krodo Altar and a number of stained glass windows.

Since 1992, the palace district, together with Goslar's Old Town and the Rammelsberg Mine have been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Henry Moore's sculpture, Goslar Warrior 1973–1974 has stood in the palace gardens since 1975. It was named for the town after Moore received Goslar's Goslarer Kaiserring art prize in 1975. [4] On warmer summer evenings the large meadow around the two statues in front of the Imperial Palace used to be a popular meeting place for all kinds of people. Today there is a ban on alcohol and assembly anywhere in the palace grounds.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goslar</span> Place in Lower Saxony, Germany

Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites for their millenium-long testimony to the history of ore mining and their political importance for the Holy Roman Empire and Hanseatic League. Each year Goslar awards the Kaiserring to an international artist, called the "Nobel Prize" of the art world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aachen Cathedral</span> Roman Catholic cathedral in Aachen, Germany

Aachen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Aachen, Germany and the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rammelsberg</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Rammelsberg is a mountain, 635 metres (2,083 ft) high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony. The mountain is the location of an important silver, copper, and lead mine. When it closed in 1988, it had been the only mine still working continuously for over 1,000 years. Because of its long history of mining and testimony to the advancement and exchange of technology over many centuries, the visitor mine of Rammelsberg was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palatine Chapel, Aachen</span>

The Palatine Chapel in Aachen is an early medieval chapel and remaining component of Charlemagne's Palace of Aachen in what is now Germany. Although the palace itself no longer exists, the chapel was preserved and now forms the central part of Aachen Cathedral. It is Aachen's major landmark and a central monument of the Carolingian Renaissance. The chapel held the remains of Charlemagne. Later it was appropriated by the Ottonians and coronations were held there from 936 to 1531.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harzburg</span> Imperial castle in Lower Saxony, Germany

The Harzburg, also called Große Harzburg, is a former imperial castle, situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range overlooking the spa resort of Bad Harzburg in Goslar District in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It was erected from 1065 to 1068 at the behest of King Henry IV of Germany, slighted during the Saxon Rebellion in 1073-75, and a century later rebuilt under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his Welf successor Otto IV, who died here in 1218.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speyer Cathedral</span> Church in Speyer, Germany

Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St. Mary, patron saint of Speyer and St. Stephen is generally known as the Kaiserdom zu Speyer. Pope Pius XI raised Speyer Cathedral to the rank of a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in 1925.

Goslar is a World Heritage Site in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trier Cathedral</span> Church in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The High Cathedral of Saint Peter in Trier, or Trier Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the oldest church in Germany and the largest religious structure in Trier, notable for its long life span and grand design. The central part of the nave was built of Roman brick in the early fourth century, resulting in a cathedral that was added onto gradually in different eras. The imposing Romanesque westwork, with four towers and an additional apse, has been copied repeatedly. The Trier Cathedral Treasury contains an important collection of Christian art. In 1986 the church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier.

Werlaburgdorf is a village and a former municipality in the district of Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2013, it is part of the municipality Schladen-Werla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaiser Way</span>

The Kaiser Way, literally "Emperor Way", is a thematic long distance footpath in the Harz mountains of Germany, which is about 110 km long and crosses both the Harz and the Kyffhäuser hills. From Goslar and Bad Harzburg on the northern edge of the Harz it runs across the Harz to Walkenried in the south; and then via Nordhausen to Tilleda on the Kyffhäuser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial Throne of Goslar</span>

The imperial throne at Goslar was made in the second half of the 11th century and was the throne of Holy Roman Emperors and kings in the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude, which stood in the grounds of the Imperial Palace of Goslar. Along with the Krodo Altar it is one of the most important, surviving artefacts from the demolished cathedral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goslar Cathedral</span>

The church known as Goslar Cathedral was a collegiate church dedicated to St. Simon and St. Jude in the town of Goslar, Germany. It was built between 1040 and 1050 as part of the Imperial Palace district. The church building was demolished in 1819–1822; today, only the porch of the north portal is preserved. It was a church of Benedictine canons. The term Dom, a German synecdoche used for collegiate churches and cathedrals alike, is often uniformly translated as 'cathedral' into English, even though this collegiate church was never the seat of a bishop.

<i>Brunswick Lion</i> Medieval statue of a lion

The Brunswick Lion is a medieval sculpture, created in bronze between 1164 and 1176, and the best-known landmark in the German city of Brunswick. The Brunswick Lion was originally located on the Burgplatz square in front of the Brunswick Cathedral. The monument was moved to Dankwarderode Castle in 1980, and later replaced at the original location by a replica. Within Brunswick, it is commonly known as the "Castle Lion" (Burglöwe).

Hezilo of Hildesheim, also known as Hezelo, Hettilo or Ethilo, was Bishop of Hildesheim from 1054 to 1079.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krodo Altar</span>

The Krodo Altar in Goslar, Germany, is an altar made entirely of bronze and is the only surviving metal church altar from the Romanesque period. It was probably made in the late 11th century. About 1600 it was popularly named after a deity Krodo which is known only from the description and drawing by Cord Bote in his Sassenchronik. It was originally in the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude, which was part of the Imperial Palace of Goslar. The altar had been removed by the time the church was demolished (1819–1822) and is now on exhibition in Goslar's Town Museum (Stadtmuseum).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chur Cathedral</span> Church in Chur, Switzerland

Chur Cathedral, otherwise known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, is the Catholic cathedral of the diocese of Chur in Switzerland. The episcopal palace of the bishop of Chur is beside the church. The cathedral claims the relics of St Lucius of Britain, said to have been martyred nearby in the late 2nd century. During the Swiss Reformation, the Catholic population of the city were confined to a ghetto enclosed around the bishop's court beside the cathedral. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal palace of Werla</span>

The Royal Palace of Werla is located near Werlaburgdorf in Lower Saxony. The grounds of the royal palace cover about 20 hectares rising atop Kreuzberg hill, a 17 m high natural plateau overlooking the Oker river. In the Early Middle Ages the palace was an important place in the Holy Roman Empire, serving as an important base for the Ottonians in the 10th century in particular. Although it subsequently lost its political significance to the newly established Imperial Palace of Goslar at Rammelsberg, it developed into an independent settlement with a busy industrial quarter. In the 14th century it fell into ruin and was completely unknown until its rediscovery in the 18th century. The core fortress in particular was thoroughly excavated in the 20th century. Excavations carried out since 2007 have brought new understanding to the hitherto largely unexplored outworks. Since 2010 the palace complex with foundation and enceinte, as well as earthworks, has been partially reconstructed and is now open to the public as the Archäologie- und Landschaftspark Kaiserpfalz Werla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double chapel</span>

The double chapel, sometimes double church, is a chapel or church building with two storeys that either have a central aperture enabling their simultaneous use for services or are completely separate, just connected by a staircase, and used for different liturgical functions. In the latter type, there is often a crypt on the lower level and a celebratory space on the upper floor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forchheim Castle</span>

The castle in Forchheim, also referred to as a royal palace or Kaiserpfalz, was an important urban castle under the bishops of Bamberg in the town of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. The castle was built in the late 14th century. After comprehensive archaeological and architectural-historical investigation it has become one of the best researched castles of this period in Central Europe. Today it houses the Archaeological Museum of Upper Franconia.

References

  1. "Kaiserpfalz - GOSLAR am Harz, UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe".
  2. "Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 25 Jun 2022.
  3. From: Dehio/von Bezold: Kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes). Stuttgart, 1887–1901
  4. Henry Moore Foundation, LH 641, Goslar

Sources

51°54′10″N10°25′33″E / 51.90278°N 10.42583°E / 51.90278; 10.42583