North Tower - Schloss Drachenburg

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Reception Room “The manorhouse would often have a room given over to receiving people on a short visit and for use as an entrance to the suite of assembly rooms during festive occasions – the Reception Room”: (Josef Durm: Handbook of Architecture, 1902) In compliance with the architectural how-to manuals of the time, the Reception Room at Schloss Drachenburg was a point of entrance to the suite of assembly rooms on the representative level. As customary at the time, it was located between the Dining Room and the Salon (the Nibelung Room). The spacious size of the Reception Room is a good indication that it was used for social purposes and this is why its amenities resemble those of a salon – i.e. seats were the most important items of furniture. In keeping with its function, the Reception Room was imposingly furnished. Castle brochures of the late 19th century and early 20th century describe vividly “the large Reception Room in which […] the wonderfully carved wooden ceiling, highlighted by two elegant chandeliers, initially captures the eye”. The designs for the magnifi cent ornamentation of the carving on the doors, wall panels and ceilings came from Franz Langenberg, the building supervisor of Schloss Drachenburg. Due to the damage infl icted during the Second World War, one of the most important décor elements within the Reception Room is no longer extant today – the stained glass that decorated nearly all the rooms of the castle with ornamental and fi gurative depictions. In the pointed-arch skylights of the balcony doors, for example, there used to be fi gures of night and day. And, on the skylights of the fi ve-part window wall to the west, there used to be female fi gures personifying the fi ve senses of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch. One of these, the personifi cation of taste survived the war: it was rescued from the rubble by a private individual. The designs for the stained glass of the Reception Room were provided by Fritz Birkmeyer while the actual glass-work was produced by the Munich-based Royal Court Stained Glass Manufactory of Franz Xavier Zettler in 1884. As a result of the subdued daylight, the dark wood and the coloured walls, the Reception Room came over as considerably darker than today. In those days, the Gründerzeit of the decades after 1871, it was considered very sophisticated to reside in dark rooms. Also echoing the taste of the late 19th century was the bust in the Reception Room – a copy of the head of Apollo of Belvedere. This marble bust was returned to the Schloss Drachenburg inventory in 1995. Its original central position in front of the west window wall was of course not without reason. Castle-owner Stephan von Sarter clearly wanted the attributes of Apollo – the god of youth, of the arts (especially music and poetry), of knowledge and of thought – to refl ect on him. Nearly every visitor would pass this room and register the implicit symbolism of the bust.
Reception Room, postcard 1905 (Archiv Schloss Drachenburg gGmbH) A view of the west window wall with stained-glass skylights. The bust of Apollo, in front of the windows, is discernible. Design sketches Day and Night for the pointedarch skylights (Archiv Mayer‘sche Hofkunstanstalt München, ehem. Zettler) The Sense of Taste, the one surviving stained-glass item from the series of the Allegories of the Five Senses in the skylights to the west window wall of the Reception Room, photo 2009 (Archiv Schloss Drachenburg gGmbH) 23
Page 1 and 2: Schloss Drachenburg Visitors’ Gui
Page 3 and 4: Intro Dear Visitor, It is a great p
Page 5 and 6: Architectural Decoration The design
Page 7 and 8: Venus Terrace The Venus Terrace pla
Page 9 and 10: „Save the Petersberg!“ The Pete
Page 11 and 12: The Icon of Rhine Romanticism: the
Page 13 and 14: Nordic Summer Houses The second own
Page 15 and 16: Wotan Summer House After Jacob Hube
Page 17 and 18: Sea of Rocks Geologically speaking,
Page 19 and 20: Roland‘s Arch, Rhine Romanticism
Page 21 and 22: Nature Conversationists and the Dra
Page 23 and 24: A view from the east into the Main
Page 25 and 26: Joseph Flüggen: Sleeping Beauty Po
Page 27 and 28: Looking into the Hunting Trophy and
Page 29: Lacunae in the Main Staircase paint
Page 33 and 34: For further information about the C
Page 35 and 36: Dining Room, postcard 1905 (Archiv
Page 37 and 38: Nibelung Room with a view through t
Page 39 and 40: West side of the Art Gallery with b
Page 41 and 42: Uhland window with lacunae Found 20
Page 43 and 44: Looking into the Tavern Room with t
Page 45 and 46: Hunt & Billiard Room, postcard 1905
Page 47 and 48: Library and Study Postcard 1903 (Ar
Page 49 and 50: Music Room, postcard 1905 - showing
Page 51 and 52: Layout of the Private Floor Porcela
Page 53 and 54: Preserved glass painting entitled Y
Page 55 and 56: Guest Bedroom, postcard 1905 (Archi
Page 57: Reconstructed stencils in the south

North Tower - Schloss Drachenburg

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