Spangenberg Castle (Hesse)

The advent of firearms made extensive new construction measures necessary. The mighty earth rampart with its casemates on the main attack axis on the northeastern side was probably built under Landgrave Philip. A large battery tower, 22 metres in diameter, formed the corner point of this new fortification. The system of underground passages laid out at this time to serve the defence of the new fortress works has largely survived to this day, but is not however open to the public.

In 1584 Landgrave William IV appointed Hans Wilhelm Kirchhof as the burgrave of Spangenberg Castle. His second marriage was to Margarethe Stuckenrad and they had nine children. In addition to his work as the burgrave, he also wrote about the castle. From 1584 to 1605 he wrote his Wendunmuhth, a collection of farces, anecdotes and stories. He died at the age of around 80 in 1602 or 1603.

Around 1580 Landgrave William IV had a hall built together with its attached "commandant's quarters" (Kommandantenbau) on the northeast side. The court was thus completely remodelled. At the start of the Thirty Years' War the fortifications had to be strengthen again. In 1636 a bastion system was built on the west side. To replace the outbuildings that were demolished to make way for this the building that, today, house the hunting museum, was built on the rampart. Because the fortifications had been strengthened, the castle remained in Hessian hands in the Thirty Years' War during the reign of Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth (1637–1650). The town, by contrast, was half-destroyed in 1637. After 1648, the castle largely lost its importance as a landgrave seat and fortress and only maintenance work was carried out on it. Nevertheless, Spangenberg was still a secondary fortress of the state of Hesse-Cassel. The old castle was no longer valued in the Baroque era as a royal residence, but was still maintained as a fortress and used to accommodate invalids (war wounded).

During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the fortress, which was only manned by invalids, was captured by the French for the first time in a surprise attack in 1758.[1] The French captured 18 cannon, 307 firearms, ammunition and 44 kegs of powder. From 1763 the fortress was used as a state prison (for the internment of officers). To that end, several large rooms were divided into cells. In 1840 a new guardroom was built outside the moat. During the constitutional struggles in the Electorate of Hesse at the time of electors William II (1821–1847) and Frederick William I (1847–1866), a large number of political prisoners were detained at Spangenberg.

Following the annexation of Electoral Hesse by Prussia in 1866, the prison was closed and only the most urgent repairs were carried out. The empty buildings were managed by a castellan. The fortifications began to become overgrown. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), French prisoners were incarcerated there.[1]

It was not until 1907–1908 that a new use was found for the castle when it became a Prussian school of forestry. Although this entailed major reconstruction work, an effort was made to preserve the original character of the building. The advent of the forestry school recalled the old tradition of Otto the hunter and its former importance as a hunting lodge. On 15 June 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the forestry school in Spangenberg. In its 32 years, around 1,200 young forest officers qualified for their profession at Spangenberg Castle. In 1932, the counts of Giech sold the castle into private ownership.[1]

In the Second World War the castle was used again as a prisoner-of-war camp (Oflag IX-A/H), this time for British officers. Shortly after their departure at the end of March 1945, the building was completely razed to the ground by an American air raid.[1] Only the ruined curtain walls survived.

The commitment of Spangenberg's townsfolk to the castle finally led to its reconstruction by the State of Hesse in the 1950s under the direction of the Commissioner of Town Planning, Dr. Textor. Although the interior of the palace had been completely destroyed in the war, the outer shape of the building hints at the importance of the fortress had in earlier times. The access is guarded by strong bastions. The main castle is protected by a deep, wide moat. The narrow courtyard is accessed over two approaches. The western gate, which was originally protected by a drawbridge, is dominated by a tall tower with a steep, hipped roof. Before the fire, the castle roof had a variety of dormers and roof ornaments which were abandoned in the reconstruction. The simple multi-storey building of the 15th to 17th centuries had small two-piece gothic windows upstairs and facing the courtyard; otherwise it had high rectangular windows dating to the 17th century. Inside, none of the great wall paintings survived the ravages of war. They showed, inter alia, the return home of Otto the Hunter. In the former audience hall, a putti frieze was to be seen; in addition Gothic fireplaces and grand stoves were located in the other rooms, of which only fragments remain. Of the original 13th-century Treffurt fortress, all that is left is a round-arched vaulted cellar above a once 126-metre-deep well today.

Following the previous use of the castle as a hunting lodge, a royal country residence, a prison and a forestry school was added another role. Today the castle is home to a gourmet hotel and restaurant with conference rooms. A hunting museum is based in the old armoury, which dates to 1625.

In the early 1960s, out of the large number of the state-owned castles and palaces, all those able to be managed as a restaurant and/or hotel were identified. The former managing director of the "Castles and Palaces of Hesse", Johannes Lill, explained the purpose of this measure "You did not want to restore the monuments of the past and then leave them to die in beauty again. Instead, the intention was to fill them with new life, because the monuments are now in our midst again. This is especially true of Spangenberg Castle..."