chef's room
(the audio guide text for this room states that the original purpose is unknown. This information is outdated, because meanwhile documents have revealed the information below. This shows the importance of old documents in research work as described further down)
This room, situated over the food stores, beside the main rainwater reservoir, herbs garden and main kitchen, has been part of the kitchen complex: It was the appartment for the chief cook of the count.
A window (right side wall beneath the tapestry), connecting the room to the main kitchen allowed surveillance of the kitchen. In the backward wall was a small door leading to the herbs garden.
In 1464, an iron stove was introduced, so the room could be heated without an open fire in the chimney.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the appartment was occupied by Eustache of Muenchhausen, bailiff of the county of Vianden. As the apartments for the bailiffs in the house of Jülich had become dilapidated, the senior civil servant moved to this place, which was not in use at that time. Since then, the place was called "Muenchhausen's quarter".
chef (chief cook)
In medieval times, cooks were very important and trusted people at the noble court. They didn't only have the difficult duty to organise plentyful and fancy meals for a changing number of court members and guests, they were also trusted with the good quality of the food (and had to prevent poisoning). In
medieval cuisine, food was supposed to have the effect of medecine, especially herbs and spices were added to meals. So the cook was not only responsible for the good taste and look of the meals, he was also in some way a doctor who prevented and cured illnesses.
All this leads to the fact that the cook was one of the most important people at the court, not employed to one place, but by a person of importance. The cook of the count of Vianden would be at the place where the count was living at that moment. As a consequence, the rich cook's appartment of Vianden castle was only occupied in times when the count stayed here.
administration of the castle
The castle was at the centre of a huge county. The administration of this political entity became more and more complex over the centuries. The absence of the counts needed permanent civil servants in place. By the 17th century, there were 3 main positions: The "Surintendant" or "Oberamtmann" (Bailiff), as main representative of the count, the captain of the guard as military commander, and the "Rentmeister" or "Receveur" (treasury responsible).
There was an office room ("Kanzlei") for the necessary paper work. Everything was written down by hand with goose feathers on paper. Important documents were nicely written down on parchement and "signed" with seals. Documents were stored, together with money and other valuables in especially secure chests ("Kriegskasse"), made of steel, some early form of safe.
While valuable parchement documents were drafted on inclined writing desks, most everyday writing was done on an ordinary table. Often more than one Clerk worked together at one table.
Specialized office furniture slowly developped, like the spanish "Bargueno".
the importance of historic documents
for history research
Historic documents from the former castle administration can help to find out many details of the former life inside the castle. So it is important to find them back, read and study them. Then compare with other finds. Reading is not always very easy, because everything had been written down by hand and the writing is not always easy readable.
The archivist and historian Jules Vannerus made very valuable preliminary work for later historians by digging out documents from several archives, transcribing and editing them.
clock closet
The 18th century furniture is a beautiful example from the climax of luxembourgish carpenter art. Under Mary-Theresia of Austria, Luxembourg was enriched with craftsmen from Austria who developped the typical style of the region.
The closet would suit well into a rich farmhouse or a bourgeois town house. While at first sight it might not fit into the setting of an important castle, it nevertheless could have been used inside the dwelling of a servant of some importance, like the chief cook.
This piece of furniture belongs to the "Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art" of Luxembourg and is lent as permanent Exhibit to Vianden castle.
library buffet
This unlikely combination also dates from the 18th century. Probably the lower and upper pieces once were parts of a more extensive room equipment and were later added together in this unfamiliar form.
Such kind of Recycling could have been made for some office use, like here in our interpretation for the cook's appartment.
​
The origin of this piece of furniture is the castle of Moestroff (L)
Jules Vannerus' Bargueno
The origin of these cabinets is in Spain; hence the Spanish name. The Spaniards brought the design to the Spanish Netherlands and the specimen on display is in the Flemish style of the 17th century.
While these cabinets were originally intended to store writing utensils, the drawers were later used to store other objects and valuables. They were richly decorated with exotic materials to impress visitors; this one features panels of tortoiseshell.
This piece of furniture comes from the bequest of Mr Jules Vannerus, managed by the "Archives Nationales de Luxembourg", and is on permanent loan at Vianden Castle.
Jules Vannerus was a Belgian-Luxembourgian archivist and historian who was born in Diekirch and devoted himself to the local history of his place of residence. He carried out numerous researches and published several books on the history of Vianden. He also dug up documents from various archives, transcribed and wrote them to help the historians who came after him. Among other things, he published an account of the boundaries of the county of Vianden in 1617, the first Vianden fief book and several accounts of work carried out at Vianden Castle in the 16th and 17th centuries.
These works have contributed significantly to tracing the history of the castle.
Kriegskasse
The german name "Kriegskasse" suggests these iron chests were designed to keep the money to pay soldiers. There are two of these at Vianden castle, one in the armory hall, one in the cook's appartment.
The latter one has inside a special compartment for money.
Actually, a "Kriegskasse" chest might have been used for moving valuables, but mostly they would have remained in the same place and be used as a safe. So they were to contain money, documents and other valuables.
Abacus
This is a recreation of a calculating board, as they were used from roman times until the 18th century. The coins used on them were not of monetary value, but they were tokens (Rechenpfennig, jeton), designed specifically for this. Such a token has been found in archeological digs on this site.
This is how the abacus is operated:
There are 4 lines: I = singles, X = tens, C = hundreds, M = thousands
In between the lines are the 5s, 50s and 500s
So 5 tokens on a line are equivalent to one token (of 5) in between the lines above (a)
2 tokens from between the lines are the same than one on the line above (b)
one can change the layout on the board after these rules as the calculating process necessitates it.
​
Addition:
To add two numbers, a first number is laid with tokens into the first column of the board. The second number comes into the second column.
Then, one draws all tokens on a same line or in between two lines to the last column, where they indicate the result.
Subtraction:
The minuend is laid in the first column, the subtrahend in the second. Then, one takes away one token from each column, from the same line / between lines, as long until no tokens are left in the second column.
Multiplication
1st factor to the first column, 2nd factor to the second column. Then, the number of tokens from the first column is put to the third column, while simoultanously taking away one token (singles) from the second column. Repeating this until there are no tokens left in the second column.
Division
1st column dividend, 2nd column divisor. Taking away as many tokens from the first column as there are in the second. Simoultanously placing one token (singles) to the third column. Repeating until no tokens are left in the first column.
The board can also be used for accountancy : The first column is for florins (Gulders), the second for shillings (Stüber / sols), the third for pennies (deniers). This is necessary, because there was no decimal system: Florins were worth 20 shillings, a shilling was 12 pennies. These represented the official currency.
While shillings (Stüber) and pennies were still much in everyday use in the 17th century, florins were not very common. There were many different coins, most common the "Reichstaler" (48 shilling) and the "patagon" (18 shilling).
cast iron furnace plate
his cast iron plate is the right side of a "crate furnace" from 1582. These furnaces were fired from the adjacent room. Here it serves as a "Takeplack" to store and reflect the heat of the open chimney fire into the room.
​
On the plate a crucification scene can be seen, with the followers of Christ to the left, roman soldiers to the right of the cross. The soldiers have typical 16th century Armour and weapons. Left and right of the year numbers 1582 (date of the cast of the plate) one can see the holy virgin with the child in a depiction which usually is attributed to the 17th century in Luxembourg, but here obviously earlier
