Probstei Castle (Fulda-Johannesberg)

The Provostry Johannesberg, a former Benedictine provostry, is located in the district of the same name in Fulda, Hesse, and is today the Roman Catholic parish church of the district. Although the church was significantly redesigned in the Baroque period, its Romanesque basic forms are still clearly recognizable.

A first church at this site was built in 811 by the third abbot of Fulda Monastery, Abbot Ratgar, and consecrated by Archbishop Richulf of Mainz. In 836, the Fulda abbot Rabanus Maurus (* 780; † 856) founded a Benedictine monastery here. Around 1000, a Romanesque basilica was erected on the site of the old church, which burned down or was plundered several times over the following centuries. The monastery was later converted into a provostry, and the church dedicated to John the Baptist became its center.

Surrounding the church is the former provost's castle, whose building stock predominantly dates from the 18th century, when the residence was newly laid out under Provost Conrad von Mengersen by Andrea Gallasini. Work began in 1726 but was only partially completed and ceased after 1747. According to the original plan, the castle was to symmetrically enclose the church. While the wings south of the church were largely completed, the structures north of the church remained rudimentary. Here, instead of the northern residential building, a portal was erected in 1742. The "Red Building," a three-story, stately manor house with a mansard roof and a coat of arms portal, belongs to the southern wing. The upper floor is almost entirely occupied by a large ballroom; its restoration was awarded the Europa Nostra Medal.

The baroque garden complex extending east of the provostry originally occupied three superimposed terraces, aligned with the landscape panorama towards Fulda and the Rhön, of which only the upper terrace has been redesigned as a baroque garden.

After the dissolution of the provostry at the beginning of the 19th century, the buildings served agricultural purposes for more than 150 years. In the 1980s, the "German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation - Provostry Johannesberg" took up residence here. Under its aegis, the complex was gradually restored. After the center's insolvency, its work is now continued by the "Propstei Johannesberg GmbH." It maintains its workshops mainly in the northern wing of the complex.