In 1845, the town of Hauzenberg received a huge commission. The royal architect Friedrich von Gärtner was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I (read: “the Bavarian King, Ludwig the First”) to design the Kelheim Liberation Hall. His design included 18 large and 18 smaller granite columns. These were to be delivered to Passau by the year 1848 for shipment on the Danube.
The large columns had a diameter of one meter fifty and a height of around seven meters. This resulted in a weight of around 33 tons!
The columns were manufactured and stored in the quarry at Freudensee. From 1845 to 1848, 37,890 guilders flowed from the king’s cabinet treasury to Hauzenberg for this purpose. This was a huge sum. Converted into today’s currency, it would probably be more than 10 million euros. This could be certainly be seen as a kind of development aid for the poor, southern, Bavarian Forest region.
The transportation problem remained. An initial attempt to transport the goods on sledges in winter failed. King Ludwig I himself then intervened. He expressly ordered the fortification of roads and bridges for “the transportation of such ‘monoliths’”. [To emphasize this quote as such, read as follows: “He expressly ordered the fortification of roads and bridges for, in his words, the transportation of such, quote, monoliths.”]
The 18 smaller columns, each weighing 6.5 tons, were finally transported to Passau and, from there, by ship to Kelheim. An iron wagon and crane had been specially built to transport the larger ones and load them onto the ship.
However, Friedrich von Gärtner died in April 1847, and construction of the Liberation Hall was initially halted. The king commissioned the architect Leo von Klenze to continue construction, however, Klenze rejected the plans of his old adversary Gärtner. Also, he no longer wanted to use the stone columns from Hauzenberg, so they remained in the quarry as property of the king.
Later on, I’ll tell you what happened to the huge “monoliths.” First, let’s examine the major boom in stone construction that gripped our region. You’ll hear about this near the large picture of the stables to your left.
