A Text-Book of the History of Architecture / Seventh Edition, revised

by A. D. F. Hamlin

CASTLES. The Schloss or Burg of the German prince or duke retained throughout the Renaissance many mediæval characteristics in plan and aspect. A large proportion of these noble residences were built upon foundations of demolished feudal castles, reproducing in a new dress the ancient round towers and vaulted guard-rooms and halls, as in the Hartenfels at Torgau, the Heldburg (both in Saxony), and the castle of Trausnitz, in Bavaria, among many others. The Castle at Torgau (1540) is one of the most imposing of its class, with massive round and square towers showing externally, and court façades full of picturesque irregularities. In the great Castle at Dresden the plan is more symmetrical, and the Renaissance appears more distinctly in the details of the Georgenflügel (1530–50), though at that early date the classic orders were almost ignored. The portal of the Heldburg, however, built in 1562, is a composition quite in the contemporary French vein, with superposed orders and a crowning pediment over a massive basement.

Another important series of castles or palaces are of more regular design, in which the feudal traditions tend to disappear. The majority belong to the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. They are built around large rectangular courts with arcades in two or three stories on one or more sides, but rarely surrounding it entirely. In these the segmental arch is more common than the semicircular, and springs usually from short and stumpy Ionic or Corinthian columns. The rooms and halls are arranged en suite, without corridors, and a large and lofty banquet hall forms the dominant feature of the series. The earliest of these regularly planned palaces are of Italian design. Chief among them is the Residenz at Landshut (1536–43), with a thoroughly Roman plan, by pupils of Giulio Romano, and exterior and court façades of great dignity treated with the orders. More German in its details, but equally interesting, is the Fürstenhof

at Wismar, in brick and terra-cotta, by Valentino di Lira and Van Aken (1553); while in the Piastenschloss at Brieg (1547–72), by Italian architects, the treatment in parts suggests the richest works of the style of Francis I. In other castles the segmental arch and stumpy columns or piers show the German taste, as in the Plassenburg, by Kaspar Vischer (1554–64), the castle at Plagnitz, and the Old Castle at Stuttgart, all dating from about 1550–55. Heidelberg Castle, in spite of its mediæval aspect from the river and its irregular plan, ranks as the highest achievement of the German Renaissance in palace design. The most interesting parts among its various wings built at different dates—the earlier portions still Gothic in design—are the Otto Heinrichsbau (1554) and the Friedrichsbau (1601). The first of these appears somewhat simpler in its lines than the second, by reason of having lost its original dormer-gables. The orders, freely treated, are superposed in three stories, and twin windows, niches, statues, gaînes, medallions and profuse carving produce an effect of great gayety and richness. The Friedrichsbau (Fig. 192), less quiet in its lines, and with high scroll-gabled and stepped dormers, is on the other hand more soberly decorated and more characteristically German. The Schloss Hämelschenburg ([Fig. 191]) is designed in somewhat the same spirit, but with even greater simplicity of detail.

FIG. 192.—THE FRIEDRICHSBAU, HEIDELBERG.

TOWN HALLS. These constitute the most interesting class of Renaissance buildings in Germany, presenting a considerable variety of types, but nearly all built in solid blocks without courts, and adorned with towers or spires. A high roof crowns the building, broken by one or more high gables or many-storied dormers. The majority of these town halls present façades much diversified by projecting wings, as at Lemgo and Paderborn, or by oriels and turrets, as at Altenburg (1562–64); and the towers which dominate the whole terminate usually in bell-shaped cupolas, or in more capricious forms with successive swellings and contractions, as at Dantzic (1587). A few, however, are designed with monumental simplicity of mass; of these that at Bremen (1612) is perhaps the finest, with its beautiful exterior arcade on strong Doric columns. The town hall of Nuremberg is one of the few with a court, and presents a façade of almost Roman simplicity (1613–19); that at Augsburg (1615) is equally classic and more pleasing; while at Schweinfurt, Rothenburg (1572), Mülhausen, etc., are others worthy of mention.

CHURCHES. St. Michael’s, at Munich, is almost the only important church of the first period in Germany (1582), but it is worthy to rank with many of the most notable contemporary Italian churches. A wide nave covered by a majestic barrel vault, is flanked by side chapels, separated from each other by massive piers and forming a series of gallery bays above. There are short transepts and a choir, all in excellent proportion and treated with details which, if somewhat heavy, are appropriate and reasonably correct. The Marienkirche at Wolfenbüttel

(1608) is a fair sample of the parish churches of the second period. In the exterior of this church pointed arches and semi-Gothic tracery are curiously associated with heavy rococo carving. The simple rectangular mass, square tower, and portal with massive orders and carving are characteristic features. Many of the church-towers are well proportioned and graceful structures in spite of the fantastic outlines of their spires. One of the best and purest in style is that of the University Church at Würzburg (1587–1600).

HOUSES. Many of the German houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would merit extended notice in a larger work, as among the most interesting lesser monuments of the Renaissance. Nuremberg and Hildesheim are particularly rich in such houses, built either for private citizens or for guilds and corporations. Not a few of the half-timbered houses of the time are genuine works of art, though interest chiefly centres in the more monumental dwellings of stone. In this domestic architecture the picturesque quality of German design appears to better advantage than in more monumental edifices, and their broadly stepped gables, corbelled oriels, florid portals and want of formal symmetry imparting a peculiar and undeniable charm. The Kaiserhaus and Wedekindsches Haus at Hildesheim; Fürstenhaus at Leipzig; Peller, Hirschvogel, and Funk houses at Nuremberg; the Salt House at Frankfurt, and Ritter House at Heidelberg, are a few of the most noted among these examples of domestic architecture.