Bad Iburg

Bad Iburg
Town
Coat of arms
Location of Bad Iburg
Country	Germany
State	Lower Saxony
District	Osnabrück
Subdivisions	4 districts
Government
• Mayor	Drago Jurak
Area
• Total	36.44 km2 (14.07 sq mi)
Elevation	104 m (341 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)
• Total	10,559
• Density	290/km2 (750/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	49186
Dialling codes	05403
Vehicle registration	OS
Website	www.badiburg.de

Castle and monastery Iburg before 1752, painting of Renier Roidkin

Castle and Bennoturm

Bad Iburg is a town in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teutoburg Forest, 16 km south of Osnabrück.

Bad Iburg is also the name of a municipality which includes the town and four outlying centres: Glane, Ostenfelde, Sentrup and Visbeck.

The most important building is Schloss Iburg above the city. It is a complex of a castle which was the residence of the bishops of Osnabrück for six hundred years and a former monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict.

History

File:Sophia Charlotte of Hanover.jpg

Sophia Charlotte, first Queen of Prussia, was born in Iburg castle

Bad Iburg was first mentioned in 753 in a Frankish document. In 772 the Frankish King Charlemagne captured the “Royal castle Iburg”, from his chief antagonist, the Saxon leader Widukind. In a lasting period of struggles the ownership changed between Franks and Saxons. Frankish troops finally regained the castle in 783.

Bad Iburg became of more than local importance in the eleventh century when Bishop Benno I (1052-1067) built a new castle on the ruins of the first fortification. This castle was also ruined so Benno I. successor Bishop Benno II of Osnabrück (1068-1088) built another castle. He also founded a Benedictine monastery, the first twelve monks came from Mainz. An interesting feature of the Roman Catholic church of St. Clemens is the hagioscope, which allowed lepers to view the service from outside. Bishop Benno II was buried in St. Clemens, the monastery's church.

About 1100, after a large fire in Osnabrück, the castle became the residence of Osnabrück’s bishops. This period ended when Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Protestant Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück built a baroque castle in Osnabrück to which he and his family moved in 1673. He added the small Protestant church Evangelisch-lutherische Schlosskirche to the Iburg castle, thus the complex of castle and monastery has had two churches, Protestant and Catholic, since the 17th century. In 1668 Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the only daughter of Ernest Augustus and his wife Sophia of the Palatinate, was born in Schloss Iburg. She became the first Queen of Prussia. Of special importance is the castle's Rittersaal (hall of knights). The ceiling in pseudo-arcitecture was painted by Andrea Alovisii.

The monastery site has a baroque building designed by Johann Conrad Schlaun in Abbot Adolph Hane’s (1706-1768) time. The monastery was active until 1803 when it was secularisated by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.

In 1534 Bad Iburg was involved in the Münster Rebellion when six Anabaptists were captured on their way from Münster to Osnabrück and imprisoned in the octagonal tower of the castle called the Bennoturm (Benno's Tower). Five of them died during torture or were executed, the sixth was set free after betraying the plans of Johann Bockelson, the leader of the Anabaptists.

In 1910 the crash of the zeppelin LZ7 Deutschland near Bad Iburg, brought international attention. The airship had had its maiden voyage on June 19th 1910, and nine days later was on a pleasure trip to popularize the zeppelin. On board were 19 journalists, among them two reporters of well known British newspapers. In bad weather, the crew decided to go to Osnabrück, passing over the Teutoburg Forest. The airship crashed into Mount Limberg on June 28th 1910, just after 5 p.m. Nobody was injured. A monument with a portrait of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was erected on Mount Limberg after the crash, the inscription reads, Trotzdem vorwärts (Ahead nevertheless).

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  The castle's Rittersaal (hall of knights), paintings by Andrea Alovisii
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  Baroque monastery designed by Johann Conrad Schlaun
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  Bennoturm at the castle where anabaptists were imprisoned
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  Monument on Mount Limberg commemorating the crash of LZ7

Museums

Bad Iburg has three museums, Schlossmuseum mit Münzkabinett, the castle museum, which includes a numismatic department, the Uhrenmuseum (a clock museum), and Averbecks Speicher, a museum of local history in a former farm’s storehouse in Glane.

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  Museum Averbecks Speicher
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  Uhrenmuseum

Buildings

Jagdschlösschen

The Jagdschlösschen (hunting château), also known as Altes Forsthaus Freudenthal, was erected in 1595 by prince bishop Philipp Sigismund von Wolfenbüttel. The Schlossmühle, the castle's mill, was also erected by Philipp Sigismund. The Gografenhaus, a classicism building, is used as the town hall since 1967. The kurhaus was opened in 1967.

Sculptures

Bad Iburg has a number of sculptures made by Hans Gerd Ruwe from Osnabrück. These are the sculpture of Bishop Benno II, founder of the monastery, near the town hall, the Handwerkerbrunnen (craftsmen's fountain) in Große Straße, and the Trommlerbrunnen (drummer boy's fountain) in Glane. The Trommlerbrunnen reminds of the conferment of becoming a market town in 1764.

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  Bishop Benno II
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  Handwerkerbrunnen
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  Trommlerbrunnen