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07.10.2017

The Antiquities Collection of the Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim

[This content is not available in "Englisch" yet] Die Burg Blankenheim, Residenz der Grafen von Manderscheid-Blankenheim, Ansicht von Süden. Annähernd 50 römische und einige nicht-antike Steindenkmäler waren ehemals im Burghof an der Innenseite der Burgmauer in acht Pilastern übereinander aufgestellt. Weitere Römersteine standen in einer durch vier Terrassen gegliederten Gartenanlage im Norden der Burg. Diese Antikensammlung war von Graf Hermann von Manderscheid-Blankenheim (1535–1604) zusammengetragen worden und verblieb dort bis Ende des 18./Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts.
[This content is not available in "Englisch" yet] Grabstele des Albanius Vitalis aus der Stammesgemeinde der Treverer, Kavallerist der ala Indiana, aus der Schwadron des Barbus, verstorben mit 30 Jahren nach 10 Dienstjahren. Der Erbe hat laut Testament für die Errichtung des Grabmals gesorgt (Datierung: Ende 1. / Anfang 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr.). – Ursprünglich auf der linken Rheinseite aufgestellt, wurde der Grabstein wahrscheinlich zum Bau des konstantinischen Brückenkopfkastells Divitia in den Fundamenten eingelassen. Am Anfang des Truchsessischen (Kölner) Kriegs im Sommer 1583 nach der Zerstörung des Benediktinerklosters Deutz wiederentdeckt und anschließend in die Eifel zur Burg Blankenheim in die Sammlung des Grafen Hermann von Manderscheid-Blankenheim transportiert.

Collection of Antiquities has been helping build identities of virtus and sapientia of the aristocracy and bourgeois elites in central Europe of the 16th century, especially in the communes of Upper Italy and the Free Cities; the antiquitates are understood as worldly power, as a distinction of status and as an expression of knowledge of the owner on the past of the city or region. The antiquities can be considered as a proof for the old age of the aristocratic families and cities that could sometimes reach back until the Roman Empire. The Collection of Antiquities of the Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim in the residences Blankenheim and Jünkerath was the largest collection of Roman antiquitates of the end of the 16th as well as the 17th and 18th century in the Rhineland.
The collection that was established by the humanistically educated Count Hermann von Manderscheid (1535-1604) was made up of ground finding of the surroundings of Cologne and Bonn as well as monuments of Jülich and the Eifel. The collection had to be abandoned to a large part when Countess Augusta Leopoldine of Manderscheid-Blankenheim and her husband the Bohemian Count Philipp Christian of Sternberg (1732-1811) had to fleet from troops of the French Republic and eventually relocated to Prag. The stone monuments that remained in the Eifel partly became property of the Cologne collector and intellectual Franz Ferdinand Wallraff (1750-1819) by a transfer document signed by their oldest son Franz Joseph Sternberg-Manderscheid; another part could be acquired by the Art Collection Bonn.  The aim of the interdisciplinary projects is to compile a comprehensive edition of the exceptional objects of the collection Blankenheim by using not only the still preserved antiquities of the Rhenish provinces but also handwritten sources and to create a translation and transcription of the Latin sources.

The concept of the collection and its presentation is to be presented in detail and to be considered in the context of other antiquity collections of the same time. Thus, important aspect of regional antiquity reception, which is often neglected by the Archaeology of the Roman Provinces, is investigated. The Open Access database of the project will be incorporated into the central object database Arachne of the German Archaeological Institute and the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne and will be made accessible to the LVR-Amt of Bodendenkmalpflege in Bonn. A large publication is in preparation.

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