The New Castle (German : Neues Schloss) on the Florentinerberg in Baden-Baden was the seat of the Margraves of Baden from the late 15th century to the end of the 17th century and of the Margraves of Baden-Baden from 1535. As a castle complex from the Late Middle Ages, it has been rebuilt and extended several times. Today, the listed building is owned by Kuwaiti investors who wanted to convert the castle into a luxury hotel.
The most important parts of the building are: the three-storey main castle, the carriage house, the kitchen building and the archive tower (all Renaissance buildings from the 16th century) as well as the cavalier house in the castle courtyard, which can be accessed through the western gatehouse that was built in the 15th century. A palace garden with rare plants and trees forms a border to the New Castle in the east. From its 130-metre-long terrace (laid out in 1670), visitors can access terraced gardens with a variety of exotic plants. The park covers around 5.5 hectares.
The construction of a castle complex on older walls above the market square of the town of Baden can be dated to between 1388 and 1399. [1] The town was granted Town privileges in the second half of the 13th century. Around 1479, Margrave Christopher I converted the complex into a residence, making it the successor to Hohenbaden Castle. From 1529, the New Palace housed the archive of the Margraves of Baden.
After the palace was destroyed by the troops of the French King Louis XIV in the Nine Years' War, Margrave Louis William moved the seat of government to Rastatt and built a new residence in the form of Schloss Rastatt. [2]
The New Castle in Baden-Baden was rebuilt in the early 18th century using the remaining outer walls. In the 19th century, it served as a summer residence for the Grand Dukes. Grand Duke Leopold had the palace restored by Friedrich Theodor Fischer in 1843–47. The state rooms were decorated in a new Renaissance style. Around 1900, the castellan showed paying visitors the banqueting halls and the grand ducal living quarters. The so-called Dagobert Tower, a pavilion with a spiral staircase from the period after 1575 that was destroyed in the Second World War, and the cellar vaults "with stone and iron doors, probably former dungeons" were also included. The castle garden was always open and free of charge. [3]
In 1919, the New Castle was granted to the House of Baden as private property following the separation of house and state assets after the November Revolution. It received the art treasures from the other palaces that had been left to the former ruling house, including the holdings of the older Zähringer Museum from the nationalized Karlsruhe Palace. [4]
In 1946, the (South) Baden Ministry of Culture in Freiburg, with the support of Berthold von Baden, established a Baden historical museum in the New Castle, which also bore the name Zähringer Museum (predecessor of the Wehrgeschichtliches Museum Rastatt). After the end of this joint project, the (new) Zähringermuseum was opened in 1960 and effectively existed until 1981. In 1995, Sotheby's auctioned off the family's collections and large parts of the inventory to great media interest (Margrave Auction). [5]
After being sold by the von Baden family in October 2003, the castle became the property of the Kuwaiti Al-Hassawi group of companies. Businesswoman Fawzia al-Hassawi, daughter of the company founder, developed plans for a new use - from a luxury hotel to a vacation home for her family. [6] [7]
In April 2010, the city of Baden-Baden granted permission for the conversion of the New Palace into a luxury hotel with 130 rooms, which was originally due to open in 2013. [8] The conversion work, which was estimated to cost around 90 million euros, began in summer 2010. Subsequently, there were repeated interruptions, partly due to the new operators' plans to build condominiums in a new wing in the castle garden and the relatively late presentation of an operator, which the city council had made a condition for planning permission for the additional building. At the end of 2012, it was announced that the American hotel group Hyatt would take on this role. In mid-2014, revised plans were once again made public: the opening date was moved to 2018 and the target number of rooms was increased to 146. The sale of the 16 condominiums was to be used to refinance the hotel conversion. [9] After several years of stalled construction and doubts about the financial viability of the project, Baden-Baden's municipal council decided to finally cancel the development plan on February 21, 2022. [10]
Baden-Baden is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres east of the Rhine, the border with France, and forty kilometres north-east of Strasbourg, France.
Rastatt is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, 6 km (3.7 mi) above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50,000 (2011). Rastatt was an important place of the War of the Spanish Succession and the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.
The Hochburg is a castle ruin situated between the city of Emmendingen and the village of Sexau in the region of Baden, located in the southwest of Germany. It was presumably built in the 11th century and was originally known as castle Hachberg. The line of nobles known as the Margraves of Baden-Hachberg most likely derive their name from this castle and before it was razed by the French it was the second largest fortification in Baden.
The Margraviate of Baden was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Spread along the east side of the Upper Rhine river in southwestern Germany, it was named a margraviate in 1112 and existed until 1535, when it was split into the two margraviates of Baden-Durlach and Baden-Baden. The two parts were reunited in 1771 under Margrave Charles Frederick, even if the three parts of the state maintained their distinct seats to the Reichstag. The restored Margraviate of Baden was elevated to the status of electorate in 1803. In 1806, the Electorate of Baden, receiving territorial additions, became the Grand Duchy of Baden. The rulers of Baden, known as the House of Baden, were a cadet line of the Swabian House of Zähringen.
Gaggenau is a town in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located some 8 km northeast of Baden-Baden.
Schloss Kirchheim is a castle and palace in the old town of Kirchheim unter Teck, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The palace was built in the 16th century by Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg as a castle and part of a greater system of defensive works. Over two centuries later, it became the dower house for the Duchy and later Kingdom of Württemberg. The palace's interior is currently arranged and furnished as it was during the residence of its final dowager, Henriette von Nassau-Weilburg.
Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg was Margravine of Baden-Baden. Born a Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg, she was the wife of Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, a famous Imperial general who was known as the Türkenlouis. She acted as consort of the ruler of Baden-Baden (1690–1707) and then regent of Baden-Baden (1707–1727) for her son Louis George.
Schloss Rastatt, also known as Residenzschloss Rastatt, is a Baroque schloss in Rastatt, Germany. The palace and the garden were built between 1700 and 1707 by the Italian architect Domenico Egidio Rossi for Margrave Louis William of Baden-Baden. Visitors can tour the restored Baroque interior and gardens.
Christopher I of Baden was the Margrave of Baden from 1475 to 1515.
Louis George, Margrave of Baden-Baden was the Margrave of Baden-Baden from 1707 until his death in 1761. From 1707 to 1727, his mother Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg was the regent of Baden-Baden. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Augustus George. Because of his passion for hunting, he was nicknamed Jägerlouis.
Augustus George, Margrave of Baden-Baden was the ruling Margrave of Baden-Baden from 1761 till his death in 1771. He succeeded his brother Louis George and was the brother of the Duchess of Orléans. He was the son-in-law of Duke Léopold Philippe d'Arenberg.
Domenico Egidio Rossi was an Italian architect and master builder, most notable for his design of the Schloss Rastatt.
The Margraviate of Baden-Baden was an early modern southwest German territory within the Holy Roman Empire. It was created in 1535 along with the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach as a result of the division of the Margraviate of Baden. Its territory consisted of a core area on the middle stretch of the Upper Rhine around the capital city of Baden, as well as lordships on the Moselle and Nahe.
Heiligenberg Castle is a princely castle in renaissance style, situated in Heiligenberg, Linzgau within the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is sited on a plateau 730 metres above sea level and with views down into the Bodensee and the Alps. It contains one of the most well preserved renaissance halls north of the Alps. The castle is owned and lived in by the Fürstenberg family, and cannot be visited.
Margrave Rudolf I of Hachberg-Sausenberg (d.1313) was the son of Margrave Henry II of Hachberg and Anne of Üsenberg. He married in 1298 or 1299 to Agnes, the heiress of Otto of Rötteln. In 1306 he founded the side-line Hachberg-Sausenberg at Sausenburg Castle, a castle which the Margraves of Hachberg had built in 1240 on top of Mount Sausenberg. His elder brother Henry III continued the main Baden-Hachberg line at Hochburg castle in Emmendingen.
Spa architecture is the name given to buildings that provide facilities for relaxation, recuperation and health treatment in spas. The architecture of these buildings is called "spa architecture" even though it is not a uniform architectural style, but a collective term for a genre of buildings with a spa function.
Windeck Castle, also Old Windeck Castle, is a ruined Black Forest spur castle which stands on a 378-metre-high spur in the Bühl district of Kappelwindeck, in the county of Rastatt in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
The Karlsruhe Schlossgarten, also called Schlosspark, is a landscape park situated north of the Karlsruhe Palace in the center of Karlsruhe. It represents an extension of the palace grounds to the north, serves the people as a local holiday spot and is regularly used for events.
Ostrov Castle is a castle in Ostrov in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It dates back to the 15th century, but has been reconstructed into baroque palace with gardens under the Saxe-Lauenburg and Baden-Baden families. In the 19th century, it belonged to the Tuscan branch of Habsburg family. Nowadays, it houses municipal offices, a library, a gallery and museum. Its gardens were once considered the most famous of Bohemia.
Schloss Ebnet is a baroque mansion in Ebnet, a district of Freiburg im Breisgau.
48°45′52″N8°14′30″E / 48.76444°N 8.24167°E
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