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Wartburg Castle*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Wartburg in Eisenach
State Party	The template is . Please use instead. This usage is deprecated. Please replace it with {{tdeprecated|Wartburg Castle|Country}}. '''The template is deprecated. Please use instead.
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iii, vi
Reference	897
Region	Europe and North America
Inscription History
Inscription	1999  (23rd Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

For other uses of Wartburg, see Wartburg (disambiguation)

The Wartburg is a castle situated on a 1230-foot (410 m) precipitous hill to the southwest of Eisenach, overlooking the town in Thuringia, Germany. 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".

History

The castle was founded in 1067 by the landgrave Ludwig der Springer. According to 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, Berg -- du sollst mir eine Burg werden!" ("Wait, mountain -- thou shalt become a castle for me!")^[1] In addition, he is said to have had clay from his lands transported to the top of the hill, which was not quite within his lands, to be able to swear that the castle is built on his ground.

Wartburg was the seat of the Thuringian landgraves until 1440, and as a place of courtly culture it became around 1207 the venue of the Sängerkrieg, the Minstrels' Contest, 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 opera Tannhäuser.

At age four, St. Elisabeth of Hungary was sent by her mother to the Wartburg to grow up and become consort of Ludwig IV of Thuringia. From 1211 to 1228], she lived here and is said to have made charitable miracles happen. Three years after moving to Marburg following the death of her husband, she died age 24 and was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

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.

On October 18, 1817 about 450 students, members of the newly founded German Burschenschaften ("fraternities"), came together at the castle to celebrate the German victory over Napoleon two years before and condemn conservatism and call for German unity. Heinrich Hermann Riemann, a veteran of the Lützow Free Corps, philosophy student Ludwig Rödiger, Hans Ferdinand Massmann, a follower of the "father of gymnastics" Ludwig Jahn were some of the leading speakers at the event, which included an autodafé in which symbols of reaction and scraps of parchment with conservative book titles were burned. This event has become known as the Wartburg festival and is considered a seminal moment in the grass roots movement advocating German unity.

The buildings

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 the Luther Room (right) with its original floor and paneled 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 Act II of 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 taken 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.

Legacy

For centuries, Wartburg has been a place of pilgrimage to many people from within and without Germany, for its significance to German history and to the development of Christianity. Several places and a local brand of automobile have been named after the Wartburg.

Notes

External links

• History, architecture and tour of the Wartburg
• History and present

•  • [ e] World Heritage Sites in Germany

Aachen Cathedral Abbey and Altenmnster of Lorsch Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brhl Town of Bamberg Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin Classical Weimar Cologne Cathedral Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wrlitz Dresden Elbe Valley Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of Goslar Lbeck Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg Maulbronn Monastery Complex Messel Pit Fossil Site Monastic Island of Reichenau Muskauer Park (with Poland) Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin Pilgrimage Church of Wies Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim Speyer Cathedral Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen Upper German Raetian Limes (with UK) Upper Middle Rhine Valley Vlklingen Ironworks Wartburg Castle Wrzburg Residence with the Count Gardens and Residence Square Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen

Coordinates:

1067 1632 series Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Eisenach Heinrich von Ofterdingen

Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia Johann Heinrich Merck Krayenburg Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Thuringia Martin Luther

Moritz von Schwind Prison literature Tannhäuser (opera) Thuringian Forest Wartburg (disambiguation)

Wartburg festival Wartburg Theological Seminary Wartburgkreis Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary More results