Residenz of Strelzen

The principal palace of the House of Elphberg was its Residenz in the Nuevemesten (Neustadt) of Strelzen (Strelsau). This was hinted at in the Hopeverse version of Strelsau, which had its Old and New Cities, with the royal palace in the latter. In the Arramverse, the Residenz was to be found at the northern end of the Rodolferplaz (Rudolfsplatz) the great square in the centre of the sixteenth-century New City. The Elphbergs previously must have lived in the old ducal castle that stood to the west of the cathedral on the Domhorja of the Staramesten (Altstadt), of which the Osten Tor was once a transpontine barbican. The earliest Residenz was remarkable for including a lavish Baroque Hofkapelle housing a collegiate chapter under a dean. The inspiration might well have been the monastic church at the heart of the Escorial in Madrid. The Residenz has to have been rebuilt around it in Classical style in the reign of Henry I of Ruritania, no doubt influenced like many other contemporary monarchs, by Louis XIV's Versailles. The Arramverse descriptions talk of a long many-windowed front facing the Rodolferplaz, as well as side arches through to the east and west wings and Hofgarten at the rear. The Hofkapelle formed a central core over an undercroft. There were ancillary yards, offices, stables and an eighteenth-century Reitschule to the NW of the palace. The overall appearance of the building's frontage was described as resembling the Neues Schloss of Stuttgart in The Fall. The Elphbergs had other palaces in Strelzen, notably the White Palace (Bila Palacz) in its great park to the west of the city, burned down in the rising of 1848, but until the death of Flavia it remained the principal home of the monarch. The Thuringians however moved to Zenda, and King Maxim I preferred the Osraeum palace to the west along Gartengasse. The Residenz was appropriated by the President of the Republic, and it houses his apartments and several government departments till the Restoration of 2001, when King Rudolf VI readopted it as his family's home.