North Tower - Schloss Drachenburg

Tavern Room
“A withdrawing room designed and furnished to exquisite and sophisticated artistic taste”.
Drachenfels and Schloss Drachenburg near Königswinter on the Rhine, undated, c. 1904
Although the Tavern Room served as a salon in general, “Gentlemen’s Lounge” would be a
better description. It was here in an intimate atmosphere that the men would meet after the
offi cial business of the day for confi dential chats and a few drinks.
The artist Hermann Schneider (1847-1918), a pupil of the Munich-born history painter Carl
Theodor von Piloty, created the large and vivid paintings. To the north, the wall arches depict
The Childhood of Bacchus; east and west The Love of Bacchus for Ariadne on Naxos; and
south The Triumph of Bacchus.
These scenes are augmented by allegorical depictions on the ceilings: south, Dreams of Love;
west, Dreams of Honour and Fame; east, Dreams of Riches; and north, Dreams of Blessed
Enjoyment.
Around 1931, the colourful canvases were banished under wallpaper once the Christian
School Brothers had deemed the mythological depictions as too libertine and inappropriate
for a Catholic boarding school. During the Second World War, the artillery shells destroyed
the “delightful glass paintings” of the oriel windows. In the 1970s, however, the Bacchus
artwork on the ceilings was uncovered and re-instated while the wall areas were re-imagined
in line with historical postcard templates.
Finally, in the course of the restoration work carried out in 2003, the paintings were gradually
cleaned up, later overpaintings were removed and lacunae retouched. Similarly, the wall
panelling that had been coated white-gold was returned to its former wood-like appearance.
The original movable furnishings have not survived. Today’s historical furniture is inspired
by images of the 19th century and thus, along with the paintings, exhorts you to “enjoy life’s
pleasures” and “take a rest from work and woes”.