The Imperial Pfalz of Gelnhausen

The second volume of the series kulturschätze kompakt is dedicated to the ruins of the medieval imperial palace of Gelnhausen and its architectural features. Find out what significance this palace of the Staufer Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa once had.

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Among the German Staufen castles, the architecture and architectural sculpture of the Gelnhausen pfalz, with its Upper Rhine-Alsatian and Southern French forms, is the most artistically noble. However, with the end of the Staufen dynasty and the system of pfalzen in the 13th century, the complex lost its importance. A period of decay set in. What is now only in ruins was once a seat of administration and hosted a farmyard, a place of adjudication, receptions, festivities and imperial diets. Thomas Biller explains the significance of the building, which was used as a seat of government, on the basis of individual building elements and ornaments and sheds light on various reconstruction attempts.