A good 520 years ago, the historian Angelus Rumpler recorded in his little notebook that Trausnitz Castle, visible from everywhere, gave the city of Landshut a lot of glamor. This judgment is final to this day. Strolling in the streets and alleys of Landshut and not visiting the castle towering above it borders on a sacrilege. There are few places where you feel more embraced by the splendor of the past than in the wide area around this castle. For a long time it was a center of power that radiated far into Europe. Princes and noble women resided here, heroes and scholars frequented here. But history is not only fed by pomp and pomp. It took a lot of people to keep the business going, and especially in Landshut the citizens never lacked self-confidence. It was not for nothing that people often and happily accused her of having built the tower of St. Martin’s Church so high that one could comfortably look into the soup bowl of the big-headed people up at the castle.
Of course, the aura of such a castle stimulates the imagination; one would love to experience how people once ruled and lived behind their walls. Landshut is in the fortunate position of being able to experience a festival every four years in which life in the 15th century is re-enacted with great authenticity. The memory of the great princely wedding of 1475 is ubiquitous and shapes the city to the core. Since the festival in 2021 was canceled due to corona and was postponed to 2023, many Landshut residents long for the three-week spectacle, which always attracts half a million visitors to the city.
In the Great Dürnitz knights are shown during combat training. The armor is extremely expensive armorer work.
(Photo: Sophie Linckersdorff)
An exhibition is currently on view at Trausnitz Castle, which at least sweetens the wait a little. It is the result of a cooperation between the city of Landshut, the Bavarian Palace Administration and the association “Die Förderer”, which organizes the festival. The rooms of the castle are presented with productions that reflect the life of the time around 1475. For this purpose, life-size dolls were equipped with robes from the fund of the sponsors, which in turn guarantees great authenticity. Because the sponsors who have hosted the festival since 1903 go to great lengths to get as close to the original as possible. In order to implement the costumes, the props, the music and the jousting games right down to the smallest detail, scientists and experts research archives, armories and museums all over Europe. There is also an excellent source of sources. The process of the princely wedding of 1475 is documented down to the smallest detail; there is nothing comparable from the Middle Ages.
The Baron’s misfortune
On this basis, the Landshut wedding provides intimate insights into almost all areas of life, whereby it becomes evident that the people of that time were not much different in their preferences, but also in their weaknesses and fallibility, than the enlightened people of these days.
Let us take just once the mishap of Johann Wernher Freiherr von Zimmer documented in a family chronicle. The good man was supposed to escort the Countess of Württemberg on the way to the church at the wedding in 1475 and then lead her to dance and table. The baron, however, had had a long drink the previous evening, then slept and missed his service. When Zimmer woke up, the crowd was already marching past their quarters. He got dressed hectically, pushed his way through the audience, but hanged himself on a beggar. He then pulled it behind him until they were both on the floor in front of the Duchess. In addition, the beggar poured the harbor full of soup and meat, which he had with him, over the baron’s robe. “It was a wonderful fidgeting and tearing between the two. You can well imagine that he was an object of laughter,” was the conclusion of the chronicler.
In the play of light and shadow: staging of a meeting between Duke Ludwig and the Chancellor.
(Photo: Sophie Linckersdorff)
The tainted robe of Freiherr von Zimmer is no longer there, but in the fund of the sponsors there are 2,500 valuable costumes from the festival, some of which have now been made available for the exhibition. It is not always easy to attract visitors to the castle, especially in quiet times. An average of 50,000 visitors come every year, only in the years of the festival does the rate rise significantly. You have to walk a few steps from the parking lot to the castle, which is attractive but takes time. A good 15 years ago the idea of building an inclined elevator from the old town to the castle was hatched in the town hall. But that would have had a serious impact on the late Gothic city topography and was rejected again.
The restored fool’s staircase in Trausnitz Castle. The frescoes are based on scenes from the Italian Commedia dell ‘arte.
(Photo: Sophie Linckersdorff)
The great fire in November 1961 badly affected the castle. When that conflagration ate its way through the rooms, irreplaceable historical values and objects fell to rubble, including the unique Renaissance wing. The floor that King Ludwig II had furnished for himself also fell victim to the flames. After all, some parts of the inventory stored in a depot give an impression of the splendidly furnished quarter.
The whimsical hair man
Another attraction is the Kunst- und Wunderkammer, opened in 2004, which is reminiscent of the Wittelsbach dukes, who at the time brought together marvels of nature and art that expressed the heterogeneity of the scientifically unexplored world. This includes, for example, a painting that shows one of these whimsical hair people, who were admired like a wonder of the world in the 16th century, even at the royal courts. The portrait shows a lady dressed with a delicate lace bonnet and lace collar, around whose mouth a mustache twines. Chambers of art and curiosities were the forerunners of today’s museums and express, in a fascinating way, the understanding of the world in the 16th century.
During a tour of the castle, you can immerse yourself in the very different and touching worlds of your ancestors. And comes out again with the consideration that it is not all bad to be able to live in the present time.
At the court of the rich dukes of Bavaria – stories about the Landshut wedding in 1475. Until July 31, daily 10 am-4pm, Trausnitz Castle, Landshut.