Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen (Upper Lusatia) during the reign of Kings Matthias Corvinus, Vladislaus II and Louis Jagiellon (around 1483–1526)

Bogusław Czechowicz

doi:10.37190/arc230408

Abstract

The castle in Bautzen was built on the site of an older residence under the supervision of the royal mayor of Upper Lusatia, Georg von Stein, in the years 1483–1490. Its best-preserved element from those years is the gate tower, housing the chapel of St. George on the first floor. The façade of the tower turns towards the city with the collegiate church with a spectacular monument to King Matthias from 1486, shown not only as the ruler of Bohemia and Hungary, but also as an aspirant to the imperial throne. Emphasizing the majesty of the ruler was directed primarily towards the Bautzen chapter, which included clergy associated with the Meissen bishopric, whose center – Meissen – was closely associated with the Wettins. Their territorial ambitions in the Bohemian Crown were consistently limited by Matthias. The creation of such a unique monument to the ruler in public space, which in Central Europe has only precedents in the monuments of Emperor Frederick III in Wiener Neustadt and George in Prague, could also be related to the desire to demonstrate Matthias’s rights as the Bohemian king to the then virtually lost fief of the Bohemian Crown – Luxembourg. The last representative of this dynasty, Elizabeth of Zgorzelec, daughter of Jan Zgorzelecki, handed them over to the dukes of Burgundy, but after the death of the daughter of the last of them, Maria, in 1482, these rights were taken over by the Habsburgs, who were then in sharp conflict with Matthias. Ortenburg Castle glorified Matthias not only as a potential emperor, but also as a new David or Solomon. The castle tower was probably topped with a turret known from the “Tower of David” in Jerusalem. The architectural detail in the chapel also seems to be a discreet reference to oriental architecture. In the years 1520–1527, the top of the tower was changed and an attic with six pinnacle turrets was added. This number most likely referred to the union of six cities to which Bautzen belonged. The royal mayor of Upper Lusatia was then Prince Karol Minsterberski of Ziębice, who was expanding his castle in Ząbkowice Śląskie at that time. Its facades were also topped with an attic. In this castle, like in many others from that time, references to Jerusalem and Solomonic architecture were also found. The Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen should also be added to this list, despite the “redrafting”.

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1(77)

Bogusław Czechowicz*

An imperial sigh with oriental notes? Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen

(Upper Lusatia) during the reign of Kings Matthias Corvinus,

Vladislaus II and Louis Jagiellon (around 1483–1526)

Purpose of the study.

State and methods of research

The last quarter of a century has resulted in a signif-

icant revival in research on the late Gothic Ortenburg

Castle in Bautzen or just its important element, which is

the monument to King Matthias Corvinus on its façade.

The research brought many new observations and at-

tempts at comprehensive interpretation of this building,

which is closely related to the mobilization of research

on the history and culture of Upper Lusatia at the end of

DOI: 10.37190/arc240108

Published in open access. CC BY NC ND license

the Middle Ages and in the early modern era. There was

an interpretative polyphony in which researchers [1]–[11]

did not always pay due attention to the works of other

authors (I am also writing this pro domo sua). This makes

it worth trying to organize the results of these studies and

present new interpretation proposals for this building and

its interior. The building that – despite its still unsatisfac-

tory state of preservation and use – is becoming more and

more visible as a phenomenon of the artistic culture of the

late Middle Ages, and especially as a unique monument of

power, with its signicance perhaps going beyond the bor-

ders of Central Europe, just as the position and ambitions

of Matthias Corvinus were extraordinary, at the end of his

life as the king of Hungary, Bohemia and de facto prince

of (Lower) Austria.

* ORCID: 0000-0002-6454-8388. Faculty of Philosophy and

Science, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic, e-mail:

bohous@interia.pl

Abstract

The castle in Bautzen was built on the site of an older residence under the supervision of the royal mayor of Upper Lusatia, Georg von Stein, in the

years 1483–1490. Its best-preserved element from those years is the gate tower, housing the chapel of St. George on the first floor. The façade of the

tower turns towards the city with the collegiate church with a spectacular monument to King Matthias from 1486, shown not only as the ruler of Bohemia

and Hungary, but also as an aspirant to the imperial throne. Emphasizing the majesty of the ruler was directed primarily towards the Bautzen chapter,

which included clergy associated with the Meissen bishopric, whose center – Meissen – was closely associated with the Wettins. Their territorial ambi-

tions in the Bohemian Crown were consistently limited by Matthias. The creation of such a unique monument to the ruler in public space, which in

Central Europe has only precedents in the monuments of Emperor Frederick III in Wiener Neustadt and George in Prague, could also be related to the

desire to demonstrate Matthias’s rights as the Bohemian king to the then virtually lost fief of the Bohemian Crown – Luxembourg. The last representa-

tive of this dynasty, Elizabeth of Zgorzelec, daughter of Jan Zgorzelecki, handed them over to the dukes of Burgundy, but after the death of the daugh-

ter of the last of them, Maria, in 1482, these rights were taken over by the Habsburgs, who were then in sharp conflict with Matthias.

Ortenburg Castle glorified Matthias not only as a potential emperor, but also as a new David or Solomon. The castle tower was probably topped with

a turret known from the “Tower of David” in Jerusalem. The architectural detail in the chapel also seems to be a discreet reference to oriental architec-

ture. In the years 1520–1527, the top of the tower was changed and an attic with six pinnacle turrets was added. This number most likely referred to the

union of six cities to which Bautzen belonged. The royal mayor of Upper Lusatia was then Prince Karol Minsterberski of Ziębice, who was expanding

his castle in Ząbkowice Śląskie at that time. Its facades were also topped with an attic. In this castle, like in many others from that time, references to

Jerusalem and Solomonic architecture were also found. The Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen should also be added to this list, despite the “redrafting”.

Key words: Bautzen, Mathias Corvinus, Charles of Minsterberg, late Gothic, early Renaissance, castles, representation of power, biblicisms

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Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen 65

Reinterpretation of the ideological content

of Ortenburg Castle

Bautzen (castrum Budissin in 1158) is a very old center

that gained importance again at the end of the Middle

Ages. At that time, it was one of the Six Cities – a union

formed in 1346 and being an important political entity in

the structure of the late medieval Bohemian monarchy.

Bautzen had already been politically inclined towards

Prague as a political center (a Czech ef since 1158), and

in 1348 it became – together with the lands (terrae) or

marchiae (marchiae) of Bautzen and Zgorzelec – part of

the then established Crown of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Its creator, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Czech and

Burgundian king Charles IV, at the end of his life created

a new political structure – the Duchy of Zgorzelec, which

was the endowment of his youngest son, Jan Zgorzelecki.

It did not disappear with his premature death in 1396.

Over the next decades of the 15

and 16

centuries, it

appeared in the titles of Czech kings. During the rst half

of the 15

century, the previously Czech Zittau was inte-

grated with the area of this principality (while retaining

its aliation to the Archdiocese of Prague), and in 1469,

for the rst time in the oce of Matthias Corvinus as

the Bohemian king, the term “Upper Lusatia” appeared

(over time, the former Lusatia began to be called Low-

er Lusatia). Bautzen became the administrative center of

this newly dened area on the upper Lusatian Neisse and

Spree, even though Zgorzelec was an economically more

important center. Both centers cooperated and competed

at the same time. Nevertheless, the royal provincial may-

ors of Upper Lusatia resided in the castle in Bautzen. It

was there that they exercised judicial power. The estate

assemblies of the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia also met

there. The importance of the city on the Spree was also de-

termined by the existence of the only collegiate chapter in

both parts of Lusatia at the local parish church of St. Paul.

The city was subject to the diocese of Meissen, which also

held patronage over the castle chapel [2], [12].

Already in 1467, Matthias Corvinus was created (by

Wrocław) as the main oppositionist to King George

of Bohemia, as an alternative to the monarch who was

cursed and dethroned by the Pope. In the spring of 1469,

an election took place in Olomouc, where representatives

of almost all the estates of the Bohemian Crown realm

proclaimed Matthias, the ruler of Hungary, as the King

of Bohemia. From then on, for the next twenty-one years,

the country had two rulers. After George’s death in 1471,

Vladislav Jagiellon was elected as his successor in Prague,

which meant further rivalry until, in 1479, Matthias and

Vladislav recognized each other, dividing their territorial

powers. Matthias, as the Bohemian king, ruled in Silesia,

Moravia and both Lusatian margraves. Monuments to his

reign were built almost everywhere: quite modest ones in

Moravia, the most impressive one in Silesia (the town hall

in Wrocław) and very spectacular ones in Upper Lusatia,

i.e., in Zgorzelec (the coat of arms on the town hall) and

in Bautzen. Here, under the supervision of national mayor,

Georg von Stein, who was also periodically the Starost

(Mayor) of Lower Silesia, the Ortenburg Castle was thor-

oughly rebuilt, or rather built almost anew. This occurred

in the years 1483–1490.

The castle area occupies a promontory in the western

part of the foundation city (Fig. 1), sloping steeply on

three sides towards the Spree meander, and has an area of

10,000 square meters. It rises nearly 40 m above the riv-

erbed. This gives it a dominant position in the view of the

city from the south, west and north. The buildings from

Matthias’ times are concentrated in the eastern part of the

complex, on the city side. The castle faces the city with

Fig. 1. Schematic plan of the

foundation Bautzen within the

city walls with a reconstruction

of late medieval fortifications

(according to: [30])

Il. 1. Schematyczny plan

lokacyjnego Budziszyna

w granicach murów miejskich

z rekonstrukcją

późnośredniowiecznych

obwarowań (według: [30])

66 Bogusław Czechowicz

a magnicent tower on a trapezoidal plan, with an addi-

tion containing stairs. It houses a gate with a passage lead-

ing to the courtyard, and on the rst oor there is a chapel

of St. George (Fig. 2). Its interior was covered with a stel-

lar vault (now collapsed), and an important element is the

balcony gallery for the ruler or his representative (Fig. 3).

It has an elaborate tracery balustrade (Fig. 4). The re-

maining architectural detail is also formally rened – two

portals with signs of virtuosity and even a certain formal

extravagance: the portal is framed by a “tear-shaped” arch

and framed with curtain-shaped tracery (Fig. 5). The walls

were also articulated in the form of slender columns sus-

pended on consoles. They have spirally twisted shafts and,

together with the vault, created the illusion of a canopy

stretched over this slender interior. Lighting was provid-

ed by two high, pointed windows in the eastern (façade).

There was probably an altar between them (according to

the principle of orientation).

The tower is not an element that dominates the cas-

tle body with its height or massiveness. What stands out

or attracts attention is its nial, which in its current form

is later than the tower itself and dates from 1520–1527.

It has the form of an attic with four turrets, like pinna-

cles at the corners. The attic from the south and north

has the form of a semicircle, and from the east (facade

side) and west – a wall with small rectangular windows,

above which protrude battlements topped with triangular

gables. The façade of the tower (Fig. 6) emphasizes its

division into three oors (the remaining façades are vir-

tually devoid of any articulation). On the ground oor

there is a pointed arched gate arcade and next to it there

is a smaller rectangular portal for pedestrians – both el-

ements are framed with stone. Above it, on the axis of

the gate portal, there is a sculptural image of King Mat-

thias enthroned in a niche (Fig. 7). Its nial ts between

the two slender pointed windows of the chapel, but is not

adapted to them. The windows respect a dierent axis of

symmetry – the one created by both openings, in the lower

zone accentuated by a common frame. So we have some

dissonance here. The third oor is “signaled” only by two

small rectangular windows above the mentioned chapel

windows. It follows from the above that the architectural

concept of the façade of the tower segment of Ortenburg

Castle was corrected by the not entirely symmetrical lo-

cation of the monument in relation to it. It was adapted to

the gate portal and – what is worth emphasizing – to the

axis of the street (Schloßstraße) leading from the market

square to the castle.

The sculptural image of the monarch is enclosed in

an aedicule with two slender columns and resting on

a cornice with an inscription under the frieze ANNO

+ MCCCCLXXXVI + SALV. (I will return to the issue

of its importance later). The columns are supported

by a richly decorated pediment with the inscription

MATHIAS REX on the entablature. The pediment eld

is lled with squared shields referring to the Hungarian

rule of Matthias and the Holy Roman Empire. They are

topped with a closed crown. This is also the crown held

by angels over the head of the king sitting in a niche,

holding a scepter and an apple. The throne is placed

on a lion. This work is enriched by coats of arms in

rectangular elds under the pediment halves, arranged

on the sides of the columns and placed on a common

cornice (the current ones are a reconstruction). There

are shields with coats of arms (left from top): Croatian,

Dalmatian, Austrian and Silesian and (right from top):

Styrian, Moravian and (Lower) Lusatian.

Fig. 2. Schematic plan of the development of Ortenburg Castle

in Bautzen as of 1908 and a horizontal section of the gate tower

at the height of the chapel of St. George, with a drawing of the ribs

of its currently unpreserved vault (according to: [30])

Il. 2. Schematyczny plan zabudowy zamku Ortenburg w Budziszynie

według stanu z 1908 roku oraz przekrój poziomy wieży bramnej

na wysokości kaplicy św. Jerzego, z rysunkiem żeber jej

niezachowanego obecnie sklepienia (według: [30])

Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen 67

Most often, the façade of St. George’s (!) castle

chapel in Wiener Neustatdt, where the sitting Emperor

Frederick III is presented in the context of a huge and

largely ctitious genealogical argument, was indicated

as a model or rather a challenge for the monument in

Bautzen. The Austrian monument of the emperor with

whom Matthias was in a dispute over the rights to the

throne of Saint Stephen I, became a particularly current

challenge after Corvinus drove the Habsburgs out of

Lower Austria in 1486 and declared himself its prince

as well as openly made claims to the imperial crown.

The imperial theme is very clearly articulated both in

the Bautzen monument (closed crown, i.e., the imperial

one) as well as in its interiors, where the traces of cof-

fered polychrome were discovered. There is no reason

to date it back to the beginning of the 16

century – the

correction which was made in recent years in dating the

coered ceiling of the central bay window of the great

hall of the town hall in Wrocław back to the times of

Corvinus fully validates the simultaneous appearance of

such a motif in the Upper Lusatian city, especially since

the activity of the same sculptor and painter Brikcius

Gauske is involved here [6], [19].

In Bautzen the ideological inspiration by the imperial

monument in the Austrian city may encounter one coun-

terargument, i.e., the favorite seat of Frederick III was

conquered by Corvinus only in 1487 [13]. However, this

does not rule out being inspired by it earlier. The emper-

or’s monument was certainly seen by the Hungarian king’s

envoys in 1463, when they concluded an agreement with

Habsburg in Wiener Neustadt. Nevertheless, it is worth

keeping in mind another possible source of inspiration or

perhaps a challenge to the Upper Lusatian achievement.

It could have been the statue which was placed on the

façade of the Church of Our Lady before Týn in Prague

in 1462. It showed King George seated with a sword and

a chalice in his hands. In fact, it was created four years

after Matthias left Prague, but the work had a wide impact

both in Wrocław and Rome. Undoubtedly, Corvinus also

knew about it [14].

The Wrocław source – the chronicle of the city writer

of the Silesian metropolis, Peter Eschenloer – provides

a formulation which, in my opinion, also quite accurately

reects the ideological meaning of the Bautzen tower: tur-

ris fortitudinis christianae religionis ac munita sedebis,

i.e., “the tower of the power of the Christian religion and

a fortied seat” [15]. In Eschenloer’s work it is an allegory

about Wrocław which did not want to accept the Hussite

king George of Bohemia. However, it carries a more gen-

eral message – it recognizes the tower as a symbol of sa-

cralized power. In Upper Lusatia, Matthias – the Catholic

alternative to the “heretic” George, and then Vladislaus II

of Hungary who was long unrecognized by Rome – never

appeared, so the monument was supposed to be a perma-

nent representation of the physically absent monarch. It

was a reference to the principle which was formulated in

the rst half of the 13

century by the Roman Emperor

Frederick II, stating that the image of the ruler is identical

with him and has the same causative as well as apotropaic

power

At the time when the monument of Matthias was cre-

ated, King George had been dead for several years and

Corvinus with his successor from Prague, Vladislaus,

were already in good relations after concluding the Trea-

ty of Olomouc in 1479 (and in 1486 they even tightened

in an act of dissatisfaction of both of them towards the

Habsburg policy). The question of who was the main

addressee of the monument on the façade of Ortenburg

Castle has already been answered or at least suggested

several times. One of them talked about the states of the

Margraviate of Upper Lusatia, which had the longest de-

lay in the Bohemian Crown in recognizing the Olomouc

Agreement sanctioning two Bohemian kings and the sub-

ordination of Upper Lusatia to Matthias [18]. Another

suggestion spoke of the Bautzen chapter as an institution

associating the inuential clergy of the Meissen diocese

He believed that merely invoking the ruler’s name protected ev-

eryone from the enemy. The aggressor, attacking in the face of the em-

peror’s call, was acting against his majesty. Emperor Frederick II often

repeated that he could not be present everywhere at the same time to

protect his lieges, but his symbolic presence is no less important and

eective.

Fig. 3. Vertical cross-section of the chapel of St. George in the gate

tower of Ortenburg Castle with a view of the western wall and vaults

(according to: [30])

Il. 3. Przekrój pionowy poprzeczny kaplicy św. Jerzego

w wieży bramnej zamku Ortenburg z widokiem ściany zachodniej

oraz sklepień (według: [30])

68 Bogusław Czechowicz

[16], [17], close to the Saxon (Meissen) princes who tried

to expand not only to the area of both Lusatia, but also

to Silesia (the purchase of the Duchy of Żagań in 1472

and an attempt at purchasing the Duchy of Oleśnica), as

well as to the Bohemia itself (an attempt at purchasing the

town of Loket with its district in 1471). These attempts

were quite consistently torpedoed by Matthias as the Bo-

hemian King – the guardian of the integrity of the Crown

of the Kingdom of Bohemia, who was underestimated in

the Bohemian historiography [9].

Looking at the spatial layout of Ortenburg Castle and

the location of the king’s monument, it is dicult not to

notice that the message it conveys is directed towards the

city – towards the market square. Its dominant feature

was and still is the great parish-collegiate church being

built at the same time. This dominant and the castle con-

stitute two key points of the urban topography and the

new royal tower of the castle is counterbalanced by the

old church tower from the 13

century (a hall body in-

tegrated with the presbytery was added to it in the 2

half of the 15

century). Without underestimating the

political potential that the Bautzen canons could have

represented, it is necessary to ask whether that part of

the message of the monument, or rather of the entire cas-

tle, which showed Matthias as an aspirant to the imperial

crown, was also addressed to them. This is important in

the light of the fact that in 1477 Matthias concluded an

agreement with the Saxon princes, i.e., the brothers Al-

brecht and Ernest, under which they were, among other

things, to support his claims as the king of Bohemia in or-

der to obtain an electoral vote in the Reich. At that time,

apart from the “Prague” Bohemian King Vladislaus II of

Hungary, the last Duke of Burgundy, Charles I the Bold,

was also seeking this vote, but he died in the Battle of

Nancy in 1477. However, the Burgundian trail is worth

considering for another reason.

A year before the construction of Ortenburg Castle

began, Mary, the only daughter of the last Duke of

Burgundy and also the wife of the son and successor

of Emperor Frederick III, Maximilian I, died. In 1486,

electors of the Reich, without inviting either of the two

Bohemian kings, elected the latter as Roman King in

Frankfurt am Main, which meant that after the death

of his father, Maximilian would become the emperor.

Since Luxembourg times, the rulers of Bohemia, and

such was Matthias from 1469, used the title of Dukes

of Luxembourg. This was the former ancestral domain

of John, Charles IV, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia and

Sigismund, which during the reign of the latter two became

the inheritance of Elisabeth (died in 1451), daughter of

their youngest brother John, the aforementioned Duke

of Zgorzelec. She ceded her rights to Luxembourg to the

rulers of Burgundy, so de facto this territory ceased to

be part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the

mid-15

century. De facto, but not de iure. The rights to

Luxembourg continued to be manifested in the titles of

the Bohemian rulers George, Matthias, and Vladislaus.

The death of Charles I the Bold in 1477 and then of Mary

in 1482 meant that this former ef of the kings and the

Crown of Bohemia became the hereditary estate of the

Fig. 4. Balcony of the royal gallery in the chapel of Ortenburg Castle

(photo by Ivana Herglová)

Il. 4. Balkon empory królewskiej w kaplicy zamku Ortenburg

(fot. Ivana Herglová)

Fig. 5. Portal in the western wall of the chapel of Ortenburg Castle

(photo by Ivana Herglová)

Il. 5. Portal w ścianie zachodniej kaplicy zamku Ortenburg

(fot. Ivana Herglová)

Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen 69

Habsburgs – at that time Matthias’s main enemies. So,

in my opinion, this could have been another or maybe

the main reason for demonstrating Matthias’s imperial

ambitions by means of the monument in Bautzen and

to such an extent, i.e., very explicitly. After all, we

do not encounter similar manifestations of the ruler’s

representation in the case of the town hall in Wrocław,

where there are more references to Matthias than

anywhere else, however, they lack the ostentation known

from the Lusatian castle. Apparently, in the city by the

Oder, this message was not that necessary.

The impact of the Bautzen monument could have been

even greater because Matthias presents himself here not

only as a Hungarian and Bohemian ruler and an aspirant

to the imperial crown, but also as a monarch legitimizing

his position by referring to the authority of the biblical

kings David and Solomon. This interpretation is indicat-

ed by two columns – particularly exposed and doubling

slightly smaller columns supporting the canopy over the

king inside the niche. These are therefore the biblical Ja-

chim and Boaz standing in front of the Templum Salo-

monis inside which a ruler seems to be sitting and above

whom the folded drapery brings to mind an unambiguous

association with sanctum sanctorum

. This is how – one

could say – the new Solomon and the “future” emperor is

shown here. It is worth noticing that an inscription with

a date ending with the word SALV may be intentional-

ly ambiguous. It can be read, for example, as a greeting

(SALVTIS) or an assurance of safety (SALVUS). The last

variant is particularly close to the basic function of a cas-

tle building, i.e., defence.

The cuboidal tower itself, in the context of the glorica-

tion of power and the ruler, could convey associations with

the Tower of David in Jerusalem. Its characteristic element

were coats of arms, which unfortunately are missing at Or-

tenburg Castle. However, it is worth paying attention to

the south-west corner of the tower in its upper zone. Here

we have a slanted corner cut and just above it there are

three-step stone berms as if a plinth for some unpreserved

element (Fig. 8). The thought comes to mind that there

Jiří Kuthan [7], who was close to understand these contents, wro-

te: “Odkrytý závěs otevírá pohled na jeden a půl metru vysokou posta-

vu trůnícího krále, jehož nohy spočívají na guře lva. Analogie tohoto

motivu s ikonograckým typem Madon na lvu je nápadná. Je tak patrně

vyjádřen sakrálni ráz vladařovy pozemské mocí.”

Fig. 6. Gate tower of Ortenburg Castle from the east

(from Schloßstraße, photo by B. Czechowicz)

Il. 6. Wieża bramna zamku Ortenburg od wschodu

(od Schloßstraße, fot. B. Czechowicz)

Fig. 7. Monument to the king of Hungary and Bohemia,

Mathias Corvinus, on the facade of the gate tower of Ortenburg Castle

(photo by B. Czechowicz)

Il. 7. Pomnik króla Węgier i Czech Macieja Korwina na fasadzie

wieży bramnej zamku Ortenburg (fot. B. Czechowicz)

70 Bogusław Czechowicz

could have been a turret here like the one known from the

Tower of David in Jerusalem [18] (Fig. 9). It is worth quot-

ing here the opinion about the end of Matthias’ life, which

was formulated in Prague more than three decades after

his death and was full of references to Old Testament rul-

ers, i.e., “Ale bůch všemohúcí jenž všecky věci od počát-

ku předzvěděl, to jeho [Matthias’] předsevetí lstivé zrušti

ráčíl: že jakož onoho krále Nabuchodonozora a Oloferna,

hejtmana jeho, zkazil a jeho úmysl zlý a lstivý proti Židóm

předsevzatý v nic obrátil a jeho vojsko rozpýtlil, že též to-

hoto krále Matiáše s hejtmany jeho zkazíl […]” [19].

These words were written in 1524, when the remod-

elling of the tower of Ortenburg Castle had been in pro-

gress for four years or had already been completed. It then

gained the attic crowning. The city‘s veduta from 1620

shows ve turrets crowning the tower – at present there

are only four of them, but Kai Wenzel [4] and then Marius

Winzeler [10] expressed the belief that there were origi-

nally six of them. This number corresponds to six cities

(Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Löbau, Lubań and Zittau),

which formed a political and economic union since 1346.

It was the strongest entity in the state structure of Upper

Lusatia. The reference to it was a clear change in the ide-

ological message of the castle. This type of demonstration

of the power of the Union of Six Cities would have been

unthinkable in the times of King Matthias because Bautzen

was in a erce dispute with the monarch. The townspeople

did not want a castle built there, which resulted in the dis-

missal of the mayor [8]. From 1519, the royal provincial

mayor of Upper Lusatia was Karol Minsterberski, Prince

of Ziębice and Oleśnica. In the long-term dispute between

the royal towns and the nobility, which shook the Bohemi-

an Crown in the rst decades of the 16

century and took

its most severe form – almost a civil war – in the years

1500–1517 in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Prince Charles

I was on the side of the towns [24]. The nial of the tower

of the royal castle in Bautzen appears as an architectural

monument to their advancement in the status hierarchy.

The Silesian prince left one more trace in the castle.

The painted coat of arms of Charles I was previously seen

inside the residence [2]. This would not have been the rst

demonstration by a top ocial of the Margraviate – a doz-

en years earlier, a carved coat of arms held by angels of

one of his predecessors in oce, i.e., the Prince of Po-

land, Duke of Glogow and Opava Sigismund I the Old,

was placed in the passage hallway. The interference from

the reign of Charles I, however, was more serious and was

made almost at the same time as the prince undertook

a major extension of his residence in Ząbkowice Śląskie

(Fig. 10). Its walls were also crowned with an attic crest

in the part which has survived to this day. I would not like

to multiply speculations about the fact that the author of

the Bautzen attic could have been royal architect Benedikt

Ried employed by the prince in Ząbkowice. However,

such an eventuality should be within the scope of studies

of future researchers.

However, it is necessary to note the semantic coinci-

dence of the Silesian building, which was interpreted as

a reference to the ideas of Jerusalem, biblical, and Solo-

monic architecture [20]–[22] with the Jerusalem associa-

tions of the Bautzen castle from the times of King Matthi-

as suggested above. It would not be the only one – such

connections could be seen in other works by Benedikt

Ried, i.e., from the Prague Castle [23], [24] to the Blatná

Castle of the political rival of Charles I, the all-powerful

Bohemian magnate Zdeňek Lev of Rožmitál [25] as well

as in the seats of other important “players” on the politi-

cal scene of the Bohemian Crown of those years, namely

Casimir II of Cieszyn in Cieszyn (with the motif of the

“Tower of David”) [22], Vojtěch of Pernštejn in Pardu-

bice (biblical associations of the castle church) [26], and

Prince Frederick II of Legnica and Brzeg (mainly the gate

of the castle in Legnica) [20].

Summary and suggestions for further research

Thus, the list of castle references to the biblical descrip-

tions of the Old Testament residence of Solomon in the

area of the former Bohemian Crown, which, by the way, is

not exhausted here [26], can be supplemented by the Or-

tenburg castle in Bautzen, with the important addition that

its Jerusalem code is older than the 16

century and most

likely dates back to the times of King Matthias, an aspir-

ant to the imperial crown, who – in the face of parvenuism

“reproached” to him in the public space of Prague by the

program of the Powder Tower [27] – towards the end of

his life propagated the theory that his ancestors descend-

ed from... Turkish sultans [13]. Let us remember that the

Ottomans, as the lords of New Rome, i.e., Constantinople,

from 1453, considered themselves Roman emperors and

there were many in Europe at that time who had no major

problem with recognizing this dignity [28]. It was later

Fig. 8. The upper part of the gate tower of Ortenburg Castle from the south

(photo by author)

Il. 8. Górna część wieży bramnej zamku Ortenburg od południa

(fot. autor)

Ortenburg Castle in Bautzen 71

historiography with its subsequent layers and models of

historical interpretation that clouded or even obscured this

image. When trying to understand it, not only the verbal

language is helpful, but also the abstract – which does not

mean mute – language of architectural forms. A modern

researcher must be sensitive to that language, as the au-

thors of the monograph Solomon’s temple. Myth and his-

tory aptly wrote sixteen years ago: “For three thousand

years, the idea and image of the Temple have represented

a principal religious paradigm for the Near Eastern and

European monotheistic traditions. In countless permuta-

tions, the ideal of the temple has manifested itself in ritual,

music, art, architecture, literature, poetry, mysticism, and

politics” [29].

These words and this contribution should encourage

further research in this area, namely to attempt to read the

semantic codes contained in these buildings. The already

very outdated – even worn out – paradigm of style (Goth-

ic, Renaissance, Baroque) will probably not be of any help

here. However, it will certainly be helpful to delve into the

historical and cultural context and to remember something

as elementary as the fact that the contemporaries of the

construction and reconstruction of the castle in Bautzen in

the 15

century and the rst half of the 16

century had

heard nothing about Gothic and the Renaissance, but they

knew the Bible perfectly and were constantly looking for

new ways to understand it more deeply and seeking for

visual means to express these aspirations.

Fig. 9. “Tower of David” - a fragment of the Citadel of David

in Jerusalem (photo by Adriana, Wikipedia)

Il. 9. „Wieża Dawida” – fragment Cytadeli Dawida w Jerozolimie

(fot. Adriana, Wikipedia)

Fig. 10. The central part of the facade of the castle

in Ząbkowice Śląskie (photo by B. Czechowicz)

Il. 10. Centralna część fasady zamku w Ząbkowicach Śląskich

(fot. B. Czechowicz)

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Streszczenie

Imperialne westchnienia w orientalnej tonacji? Zamek Ortenburg w Budziszynie (Górne Łużyce) w dobie władzy królów Macieja Korwina

oraz Władysława II i Ludwika Jagiellończyków (około 1483–1526)

Zamek w Budziszynie został zbudowany w miejscu starszej siedziby pod okiem królewskiego wójta krajowego Górnych Łużyc Georga von Steina

w latach 1483–1490. Jego najlepiej zachowanym elementem z tych lat jest wieża bramna, mieszcząca na piętrze kaplicę św. Jerzego. Fasada wieży

zwraca się ku miastu z kolegiatą spektakularnym pomnikiem króla Macieja z 1486 roku, ukazanego nie tylko jako władca Czech i Węgier, ale także

jako aspirant do tronu cesarskiego. Podkreślanie majestatu władcy kierowane było przede wszystkim w stronę kapituły budziszyńskiej, w której

zasiadał kler związany z biskupstwem miśnieńskim. Jego główny ośrodek – Miśnia – był ściśle związany z Wettynami. Ich ambicje terytorialne na

terenie Korony Czeskiej Maciej konsekwentnie ograniczał. Powstanie tak wyjątkowego pomnika władcy w przestrzeni publicznej, które w środkowej

Europie ma tylko precedensy w pomnikach cesarza Fryderyka III w Wiener Neustadt i Jerzego w Pradze, mogło się również wiązać z chęcią

demonstrowania praw Macieja jako króla czeskiego do właściwie już wówczas utraconego lenna Korony Czeskiej – Luksemburga. Ostatnia

przedstawicielka tej dynastii, Elżbieta zgorzelecka, córka Jana Zgorzeleckiego, przekazała je książętom Burgundii, ale po śmierci w 1482 roku córki

ostatniego z nich, Marii, prawa te przejmowali Habsburgowie, wtedy będący w ostrym konflikcie z Maciejem.

Zamek Ortenburg gloryfikował Macieja nie tylko jako potencjalnego imperatora, ale także jako nowego Dawida lub Salomona. Wieżę zamku

prawdopodobnie wieńczyła wieżyczka znana z „Wieży Dawida” w Jerozolimie. Także detal architektoniczny w kaplicy zdaje się dyskretnym

nawiązaniem do architektury orientalnej. W latach 1520–1527 dokonano zmiany zwieńczenia wieży, dodając jej attykę z sześcioma wieżyczkami-

pinaklami. Liczba ta odnosiła się najpewniej do związku sześciu miast, do którego należał Budziszyn. Wójtem krajowym Górnych Łużyc był wtedy

książę ziębicki Karol Minsterberski, który rozbudowywał w tym czasie swój zamek w Ząbkowicach Śląskich. Jego elewacje także zwieńczyła

attyka. W zamku tym, jak w wielu innych z tego czasu, także doszukano się odwołań do architektury jerozolimskiej, Salomonowej. Do listy tej

należy także dopisać, mimo dokonanego „przeredagowania”, budziszyński zamek Ortenburg.

Słowa kluczowe: Budziszyn, Maciej Korwin, Karol ziębicki, późny gotyk, wczesny renesans, zamki, reprezentacja władzy, biblicyzmy