Jagdschloss Aschenbrennermarter: A Thurn und Taxis Hunting Lodge in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.9
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- German
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page14 sections
History
Jagdschloss Aschenbrennermarter is a Landhaus-style hunting-house colony in Germany, located in the municipality of Altenthann in Bavaria. The Princes of Thurn und Taxis built the complex between 1893 and 1899 as part of their hunting estate, following plans by Max Schultze for Prince Albert I. Its buildings were designed to resemble rural country houses, using timber, wooden shingles, and natural stone.
Forestry origins and princely expansion
The name Aschenbrennermarter was in use before 1840. At that time, the place consisted of a forestry settlement, although it was not recorded when the municipality was established in 1818. The settlement later became part of the princely hunting lodge complex.
The wider hunting forest had been established by the Princes of Thurn und Taxis in 1813. The complex stands within the completely fenced, 2,800-hectare Princely Thiergarten game park, an extensive estate associated with the family’s forests and hunting grounds. The park contains deer, wild boar, lynx, beavers, otters, black storks, and other animals.
Construction of the hunting-house colony took place in several stages. The principal hut and kitchen building date from 1893, while the chapel and bowling-alley building were built in 1894–95. The dining hall followed in 1897, the chapel was linked to the hunting lodge by an elevated enclosed passage that same year, and the princes’ building completed the principal sequence in 1899. Other structures were added or altered around the same period, creating a settlement rather than a single isolated lodge.
The 1988 hunting incident
Jagdschloss Aschenbrennermarter entered modern Bavarian political history on 1 October 1988. Franz Josef Strauß, then Bavarian minister-president, collapsed there during a deer hunt in the company of Johannes von Thurn und Taxis. Strauß died several days later, on 3 October, at the Barmherzige Brüder Hospital in Regensburg.
Protection as a historic complex
The entire complex is protected as a historic monument. The hunting-house colony and the former forestry settlement are separately listed in the Bavarian monument register under entries D-3-75-114-10 and D-3-75-114-20. Together, the surviving buildings preserve the development of the estate from its earlier forestry function to its late nineteenth-century use as a princely hunting centre.
Remains
Hunting-house colony
Main hunting lodge
The main hunting lodge, also called the hut, is a raised two-storey building dating from 1893. It has a gabled roof, a broad roof overhang, stairways, a natural-stone base, log construction, and shingle cladding. Its materials and form give the central building the appearance of a substantial rural lodge.
Chapel
The chapel is a hall building constructed in 1894–95. Its half-hipped gabled roof has part of the gable replaced by a sloping section, and its walls are shingle-clad above a natural-stone base. A metal-covered roof turret rises above the building and is topped by an onion dome. In 1897, an elevated enclosed passage connected the chapel with the hunting lodge.
Residential and entertaining buildings
The gentlemen’s building is a single-storey structure with a gabled roof, a projecting cross-gable, timber boarding in the upper wall section, shingle cladding, and a corner veranda. Its construction date is uncertain. The bowling-alley building dates from 1894–95 and is divided into one- and two-storey sections. It has a natural-stone base, corner pavilions, projecting cross-gables, a bay window, and a shingle-clad upper storey.
Built in 1897, the dining-hall building is a single-storey, shingle-clad structure with corner pavilions and projecting cross-gables. The princes’ building dates from 1899. It is a two-storey angular building with a shingle-clad gabled roof, timber boarding in the upper wall section, a shallow bay window, and a balcony.
Service and estate structures
The kitchen building was built in 1893 and extended in 1898. It is a single-storey, timber-boarded and shingle-clad building with a gabled roof, a projecting cross-wing, and an upper wall section beneath the roof. A wooden carriage shed, dating from 1890, has a single storey, timber-boarded post-and-beam construction, and a gabled roof. The ice house was built in 1902 as a single-storey timber-boarded post-and-beam structure with a lean-to extension. Beneath it lies a former ice cellar from 1895, an insulated chamber formerly used to store ice.
A single-storey transformer station from 1900 has a shingle-clad gabled roof. The herb garden dates from around 1900, as does the hunting stone, a relief stone set on a natural-stone base. These features belong to the wider arrangement of the hunting-house colony and its supporting facilities.
Former forestry settlement
Forestry house and early service buildings
The forestry house predates 1861. It is a single-storey building with a half-hipped roof and a roof overhang along the eaves. The washhouse and bakehouse is a gabled-roof building with a narrower extension and dates from 1886. The wood shed, built in 1885, is a timber-boarded post-and-beam structure with a gabled roof.
Residential and agricultural buildings
The former stable building with apartments dates from 1896. It has a single-storey gabled-roof form, two-storey projecting cross-gable sections, roof overhangs, shingle cladding, and a moulded wooden cornice. In 1961, it was converted into a garage hall. A residential building with a cowshed dates from around 1896 and uses timber-boarded post-and-beam construction beneath a gabled roof. Part of its cowshed is built of solid masonry.
The former old stable building, later used as a residence, is a single-storey gabled-roof structure dating from before 1900. A wooden shed was attached to it in 1903. The former wagon shed was also built in 1903. It is a single-storey building with a gabled roof, shingle roofing, timber-boarded post-and-beam construction, and a stone base. In 1922, it was converted into a garage.
Canteen
The canteen predates 1898. It is a single-storey timber-boarded post-and-beam structure on a natural-stone base, with a gabled roof, an upper wall section beneath the roof, and a lean-to extension. Alongside the forestry house and the other domestic and agricultural buildings, it preserves the earlier settlement’s role within the estate before and during the development of the hunting lodge.
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