Turned into a palace during the baroque period: Grünsberg Castle near Altdorf is being restored with a great deal of effort. In our series about castles and palaces in Franconia we today present Grünsberg Castle near Altdorf in the region of Nürnberger Land.
ALTDORF - In the southeast corner of Grünsberg Castle, where once the donjon used to tower into the height, the "Billard" building leans against the defense wall. It is called "Billard" building because centuries ago on Sundays the professors of the university of Altdorf came to seek distraction by playing billiard. Students from this country town were attracted by the green as well: the spring "Sophienquelle" (Sophie's Spring) belonging to the castle occasionally was an arena for duels.
There are various stories about the excessive life of the students of the Nuremberg universities. Many patrician families of the imperial city had their sons visit the high school of Altdorf. One of them, a scion of the Paumgartners, died 1718 at the age of just 20 years though a duel at "Sophienquelle".
This largest baroque spring tapping north of the Alpes had his father Johann Paul built in honour of his wife Sophie. Due to the last Paumgartner, at the beginning of the 18th century Grünsberg Castle obtained a completely different face: With the transformation of this Staufer castle into a palace and a new interior he coined the appearance as of today.
In those days the presentation rooms of the main building have been created as well as the baroque garden. Since a couple of years the latter is a privately operated pet cemetary. The defense system of the castle is almost completely preserved including the 5 meters high defense wall ring enclosing a romantic inner yard. In front of the castle's gate there is the access yard, in former days accomodating a village school and a castle chapel. Palas, parapet walks and turrets form an ensemble, resembling the ideal of a medieval castle. Since 1754 Grünsberg Castle is owned by the barons Stromer von Reichenbach.
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Almost ten years ago, the last lord of the castle, Prof. Wolfgang Stromer von Reichenbach, had paved the way for founding a trust which today is the owner of the castle as well as the valuable treasures and more than 80 hectares of estate.
Only through this step it has been possible to maintain this monument of European importance including interior and premises completely, says the administrator of the trust, Rotraut von Stromer-Baumbauer. Apart from that, the general restoration was pending. For the first construction phase already 1.4 Mio DM had been afforded. The second phase, yet to continue until the end of 2007, will devour another 2.2 Mio €.
There was plenty of aid money provided by "Entschädigungsfonds der Denkmalpflege", "Landesstiftung" and "Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz" contributing 125,000 € to the total cost. However, the remaining amount, still almost 1.2 Mio € has to be shouldered by the trust alone.
"Family silver" sold
This was accomplished for instance by selling "family silver" in the form of building area in Grünsberg. Hence some house builders in the village are contributing indirectly to the rescue of the castle.
This was required urgently. The list of restoration work reached from rotten roofs via the tempering of the manor to the modernisation of the drainage. And then there was the static protection issue: in the 12th century, the fortification had not really been built on a sandstone outcrop in this side gorge of the Schwarzach valley. Rather, it turned out to have been built on a hill of cemented sand. "The castle had been close to slipping down the slope", says the baroness pointing to cracks in the stonework.
HORST M. AUER
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