Wartburg Castle
Wartburg Castle is situated to the southwest of and overlooking the town of
Eisenach in
Thuringia,
Germany, on a 1230-foot (410 m) precipitous hill. In
1999, Wartburg Castle was selected to the
World Heritage List as an "Outstanding Monument of the Feudal Period in
Central Europe" and is linked to "Cultural Values of Universal Significance".
The castle was founded in
1067 by the
landgrave Ludwig the Springer. According to a humorous myth, the castle (
Burg) got its name when its founder first laid eyes on the hill upon which the Wartburg now sits; enamored with the site, he is supposed to have exclaimed,
"Warte, Bergthou shalt become a castle for me!"). The humor in the story hinges upon the fact that the German words for "castle" (Burg
) and "mountain" (Berg
) sound similar.
Wartburg was the seat of the Thuringian landgraves until 1440, and as a place of courtly culture it became the venue of the Sängerkrieg, the Minstrels' Contest, around 1207 with contestants such as Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Albrecht von Halberstadt, and many others, taking part. It was later to be treated with poetic licence in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser.
Elisabeth of Hungary (later of Thuringia), a saint of the Catholic Church, also spent part of her life [from 1211 to 1228] on the Wartburg as consort of Ludwig IV).
From May 1521 until March 1522, Martin Luther stayed at the castle, after he had been taken there for his safety at the request of Frederick the Wise, after his excommunication by Pope Leo X and his refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms. It was during this period that he, under the name of Junker Jörg (the Knight George), translated the New Testament into German.
The Castle has been renovated throughout its existence with many earlier parts being overbuilt by later constructions and additions. From 1952 to 1966, for example, the East German Government restored it to what it looked like in the 16th century, which included Luther's Room with its original floor and panelled walls.
The Romanesque Palace (the Palas
, Landgrafenhaus
, or Great Hall) is the oldest and architecturally most impressive of the buildings. Besides the chapel, it contains the Sängersaal (Hall of the Minstrels), which is in fact Wagner's
setting for Tannhäuser
and the Festsaal (the Feast or Festival Hall), both of which contain fine frescoes by Moritz von Schwind with the theme of the minstrels' contest in the Sängersaal
and frescoes of the triumphs of Christianity in the Festsaal''.Part of the Palace consists of the original castle as it was between
1157 and
1170, as an image of power and residence of the Thuringian landgraves.
The castle gate behind the
drawbridge is the only access to the Castle, and it has remained exactly as it was throughout the centuries.
The Knights' House on the western side of the drawbridge is
half-timbered, and dates back to the
15th century. It probably served as a hall of residence for the servants and guards. (The English word
knight derives from the same stem-word as the German word "Knecht" for servant or squire).
There are two
towers, the South Tower (the only tower preserved of the medieval castle, having been erected in
1318 and which has the
dungeon; and the
castle keep (finished in
1859, partially incorporating the foundations of its medieval predecessor, and which has the landmark four-meter
Latin cross at its top;the
Vogtei (the
Bailiff's Lodge) in which the
Luther Room is situated and to which a 15th century
oriel was attached in
1872;two
covered walks, the Elisabeth and the Margaret Hallways form part of the 15th-century defence ring and its projecting beams are supported by wooden
consoles;and finally the
New Bower (the
Kemenate or Women's Chamber) contain the Wartburg collection.
Mention should be made, however, of the
Rüstkammer (the
armoury) of the Wartburg, which used to contain a magnificent collection of about 800 pieces, from the splendid
armour of King
Henry II of France, to the items of
Frederick the Wise, Pope
Julius II and
Bernhard von Weimar. All these objects were confiscated by the
Soviet Occupation Army in
1946 and have disappeared in the
Soviet Union.Two
helmets, two
swords, a prince's and a boy's armour, however, were found in a temporary store at the time and a few pieces were given back by the
USSR in the
1960s. The new
Russian Government has been petitioned to help locate the missing
treasures.
Over the many years of its existence, the Wartburg has become a place of pilgrimage to many people from home and abroad and its overall significance in the history of Germany cannot be estimated highly enough.
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History, architecture and tour of the Wartburg*
History and present
