North Tower - Schloss Drachenburg

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Guest-of-Honour Suite The Guest-of-Honour Suite, a second private apartment, is situated next to the Private Apartment on the second fl oor of Schloss Drachenburg, to the north. Its living room is impressive for its wood-grained stucco ceiling with stencil paintings. The ceiling also features several unrestored sections through which one can see the original coat of paint as uncovered. The room is now furnished in accordance with historical descriptions. The brownish wallpaper, the large buffet cabinet made of light oakwood by the Cologne fi rm of Pallenberg, the richly ornamented walnut chairs and the dark-red materials lend the room a subdued atmosphere entirely attuned to Wilhelmine taste. Of all the original coloured-glass skylights, one was rescued from the rubble of the Second World War and recently returned to the castle. It shows a youth “with his fondness for music and song” and a lute. The adjacent windows depicted childhood (fruit and sweets), adulthood (with the tools and weapons of the active full-bodied male) and old age (the Bible). Next to the living room in the suite, the bedroom conveys a different impression, being painted in friendly, almost cheerful, bright colours. On the basis of the historical evidence available – the nailing system for the wall covering, the written records and a photo handed down from 1903 – the room has been refi tted with a fl oral wall covering and white lacquered furniture. Johannes Proelss, for example, writing in the Frankfurter Zeitung in 1884; spoke of “a guestroom with brightly patterned furniture and light textured wallpaper in a Marie Tudor style”. Today, the ceiling radiates once again in white with blue & apricot coloured stencilling. The through door to the living room has also been returned to its original colour. The oriel in the south-west originally served as a dressing room area – which invokes the charming notion of getting dressed or freshening up with such a wonderful view over the Rhine Valley! Like many of the rooms in the castle, the Guest-of-Honour Suite has had a turbulent history. From the 1930s onwards, it functioned as a classroom of various sorts. The last private owner of Schloss Drachenburg, Paul Spinat, set up a parrot aviary in the oriel with the guest-of-honour bedroom providing a fanciful brilliant ambience of baroque, rococo and Chippendale elements. In line with written records and inventory catalogues, the “small guest-of-honour room” situated to the east of the side corridor is also furnished as a bedroom for feminine requirements. Yet in the early 20th century the room was not reserved for guests of honour but for girls – i.e. for the maids in service to the guests. The corridor leads straight to the side staircase south which, like the staircase north, links all the fl oors together and through which the servants could directly access the house-keeping area in the basement.
Preserved glass painting entitled Youth from the guest-of-honour living room Guest-of-honour bedroom postcard from the photo c.1903 (Archiv Schloss Drachenburg gGmbH) Guest-of-honour bedroom with the rococoesque furnishings provided during the Paul Spinat era, postcard from the 1980s (Archiv Schloss Drachenburg gGmbH) Dressing-room oriel as quarters for Paul Spinat’s parrot, photo probably from the 1980s (Archiv Schloss Drachenburg gGmbH) Layout of the Guest-of-Honour Suite 34
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 and 30: Lacunae in the Main Staircase paint
Page 31 and 32: Reception Room, postcard 1905 (Arch
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: Layout of the Private Floor Porcela
Page 55 and 56: Guest Bedroom, postcard 1905 (Archi
Page 57: Reconstructed stencils in the south

North Tower - Schloss Drachenburg

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?