The castled crag of Drachenfels
Frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine,
Whose breast of waters
broadly swells
Between the banks which bear the vine.
And hills
all ruch with blossomed trees,
And fields which promise corn and
wine,
And scattered cities crowning these,
Whose far white walls
along them shine,
Have strewed a scene which I should see
With
double joy wert thou with me!
Lord Byron.
Location: Rhineland
Drachenfels Castle stands on top of the 321 meters (1053 feet) high mountain that is volcanic in its origin. It is located on the eastern side of the Rhine river. Its name is translated as "Dragon’s Rock" after a popular legend of a dragon who lived in the cave at the base of the mountain. Legendary hero Siegfried killed the evil dragon and bathed in his blood that made him invulnerable. The former owner of these lands, the count of Drachenfels put a winged, fire- spitting dragon on his coat of arm paying tribute to this popular legend. The fortress on the mountain was build in 1117 by Archbishop Frederick I of Cologne. During Thirty Years War it was captured by the Swedes (1632) and the Spaniards (1633). In the early twentieth century industrial stone quarries in the area endangered the ruins of the castle, but the government intervened and protected the area from further damage. Today you can get to the summit of the mountain by railway (active since July 13, 1883) from Königswinter below.
At the transition from the Middle and Lower Rhine, the castle is located on a small plateau on the north-west slope of the Drachenfels, facing the Rhine Valley, at a good 200 m above sea level. NHN and thus 150 meters above the river. To the east, the ascent to the Drachenfels, known as the Eselsweg, and the Drachenfelsbahn, which has its middle station at Drachenburg Castle, lead along it.
Gründerzeit private villa
Drachenburg Castle was built between
1882 and 1884 as a private villa for Stephan von Sarter, a Parisian
financial expert who was born in Bonn. Coming from a lower middle-class
background, Sarter had had a meteoric career as a punter on the Paris
Stock Exchange and had become wealthy as a shareholder in the Suez Canal
and Panama Canal. In 1881 he was able to raise himself to the rank of
baron thanks to a generous donation. From then on, as Baron Stephan von
Sarter, he belonged to high society. For the construction of a befitting
villa, Sarter did not choose his adopted home of Paris, but rather the
much-visited Drachenfels within sight of his native city of Bonn. The
young Düsseldorf architect duo Bernhard Tüshaus and Leo von Abbema were
hired as architects. The actual designer of the core building (without
art gallery and north tower) is Leo von Abbema, since his architectural
handwriting on the design of views for a reconstruction of a castle for
Miklós Esterházy de Galántha shows clear parallels to the plan drawings
of the Drachenburg. At an unknown point in time during the construction
phase, Wilhelm Hoffmann, a former Cologne cathedral student who was
living in Paris, was commissioned to revise the plans and add the art
gallery and the north tower. The art historian Angelika Schyma also
attributes the sculptural design of the core building to Hoffmann, so
that she ascribes the greater part to the overall appearance of the
Drachenburg to him, while Tüshaus & von Abbema only credit the basic
conception of the core building and the outer bailey. Gerhard Franz
Langenberg acted as site manager and was also significantly involved in
the design of the interior.
With the construction of Drachenburg
Castle, Sarter created a very self-confident demonstration of his
reputation and wealth that could be seen from afar, as well as a
national monument that referred to the founding of the German Empire in
1871. He lived in Paris until his death in 1902 and rarely lived in the
palace. He paid a total of 1.8 million gold marks for the building. His
baron's coat of arms with his motto: "Weigh and dare!" (based on the
motto of the Sal. Oppenheim bank "Weigh and dare" where he had completed
his training) can still be found in the castle.
In 1885 the
Drachenburg residential area in the city of Königswinter had 16
residents in two buildings.
The magnificent ensemble was built in
the style of so-called historicism, an architectural style of the 19th
century that was based on the architectural styles of bygone eras. With
its wealth of turrets, oriels and battlements, the castle primarily
refers to medieval constructions. It follows the building type of the
castle and is culturally and historically embedded in the castle
renaissance of the Rhine Romantic period. The richly decorated
architecture reflects the imperial world view, art and culture. In
complete contrast to the visible, medieval historicizing architecture,
the interior of the building contains modern technology from the 19th
century. Gas lamps provided good lighting, and central warm-air heating
kept temperatures even. Spiral staircases made of standardized cast iron
parts, a roof truss made of riveted steel beams, cast iron columns, etc.
were cleverly integrated into the building without impairing the desired
overall impression of medieval craftsmanship. The modern construction
ensured the astonishingly short construction time of just three years.
Three architects, 20 specialist companies and 20 different artists,
together with three site managers and countless workers, ensured rapid
construction progress. Carts and a caravan of donkeys transported the
building material up the mountain - a real large-scale construction site
was created in the Siebengebirge.