The history of Burgellern Castle

How the sofa came to Burgellern

In 1726, the nephew of the prince bishop of Bamberg, Marquard Wilhelm Graf von Schönborn, cathedral provost of Bamberg and Eichstätt, stayed in Burgellern for a longer period of time in order to advance the reconstruction of the old castle as a summer residence. The main building of the castle was completed in 1726-58, the bailiwick in 1772. In November 1802, as a result of secularization, the cathedral chapter property in Burgellern passed into electoral Bavarian ownership. In a deed dated May 24, 1819, the state administration sold the "Aerarialgut zu Burgellern" for 38,025 gulden to the court factor Seilmann Samuel Heßlein of Bamberg. Heßlein sold in the same year to the General-Lieutenant Leopold Freiherr von Buseck, a brother of the last Bamberg prince-bishop, who was deprived of his sovereignty in 1802. The castle was occupied by his sons Karl Theodor (lithographer and painter) and Fritz, who died unmarried in 1860 and 1866.

During this time of Buseck's possession the castle was considerably rebuilt. The baroque renaissance chateau was redesigned at the beginning of the 19th century. The high, baroque mansard roof had to give way to another upper floor. The Buseck brothers lived out their love of the Orient in the furnishings and had sumptuous Oriental ceiling and wall paintings added. They brought part of the furniture with them from their trip to the Orient with Duke Max in 1834. At the same time, they created a landscape park in the English style. In 1853 the Busecks were visited by King Maximilian II, who was a friend of their family. His son and future King Ludwig II played in the castle park at the age of 8.

Our dear, good sofa is actually an oriental sofa. Pile of pillows: "Suffa" is the original Arabic Name for this resting bearing, which is used instead of the rigid upholstered benches at the end of the 18th century made its way to Europe found. All of Europe?

No. In Burgellern it came to year 1838.

The lords of the castle at the time, Carl Theodor and Friedrich Carl von Buseck brought back from their joint trip with Duke Max all imaginable souvenirs from the Orient with.The refurbishment and painting of the castle in the years 1838-42 not only shows oriental motifs such as Arabesques and peacock feathers on the ceiling and walls, but also sumptuous oriental seating furniture: sofas and Ottomans. The latter are derived from Utman, the founder of of the "Ottoman" Empire and refer to the stately resting furniture. By the way, during this time The divan is also part of the furniture, which is actually literally a writing room, but an oriental one with a chaise longue and Seat cushion...

Carl Theodor von Buseck as a painter and lithographer passed on his impressions of the Orient in pictures and sketches. Many of them only worked out as oil paintings years later. One Watercolor shows the slave who was ransomed from Cairo was christened Maximilian, while fishing in the Castle park. The Busecks traveled further with the duke through the Danube countries and Greece to Constantinople, the are documented by pictures of Carl Theodor.

After the death of the Buseck brothers, the inheritance went to the son of their married sister Caroline von Thünefeld, née von Buseck. This Rudolf von Thünefeld, a Knäblein at the time of the inheritance, moved to Burgellern in the eighties of the 19th century, lived peacefully, built a water pipe and the "Wasserschloss", a romantically designed turbine house in the park. He died unmarried on 12.04.1906. The inheritance passed into a somewhat complicated succession to a related family von Bodeck, who could not hold the indebted property. It was offered for sale piece by piece by brokers. In 1908 the Austrian lieutenant Gottlieb Hertschik, who came from Altbunzlau in Bohemia and had served in Egyptian military service, acquired Hertschik for 100,000 gold marks. The disadvantage of this acquisition was probably that not enough agricultural land was bought, so that in times of monetary devaluation there was no longer sufficient livelihood. Soon after the inflation of 1923, the castle became the property of the Bavarian state.

In 1936, he set up a maternity home on behalf of the National Socialist People's Welfare Organization (NSV) and built a low extension to the castle. During the Second World War, a branch of the Bamberg State Women's Hospital was housed there. More than 1500 Bambergers saw the light of day here in 1944/45.

In 1948, the castle premises were rented by the lung specialist Dr. Schicht, who maintained a lung sanatorium, but was pestered by too many health authorities. After years of vacancy, the Morija Mission moved in in 1978 to set up a retirement home, but moved out again in the first few months of 1982. The Topf couple recently ran a Christian family and conference centre in the castle.

Since approx. 1994 the castle Burgellern stood again empty and decayed noticeably. In its original version, the park is only recognizable with a lot of imagination.

On June 29, 2005, a dream became reality: the former cathedral chapter castle awoke from its slumber and was transformed into a hotel with Restaurantballroom, conference rooms and beer garden.