granary
(salle Jemmy Koltz)
This room came was build as part of the construction of the high gabled roofs at the end of the 15th century.
To get the roof of the "small palace" to the same level than the one of the "large palace", they had to insert a supplemtary storey between the summer hall (gallery) and the roof's timber construction.
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With the growing population after the epedemics of the 14th century, technological innovations and the developpment of trade inside and outside Europe, productivity in agriculture rose. Crop became more important even in the Ardennes region, and there was need for new grain storages. So the construction of the high gabled roofs not only had an esthetic reason, but also a very practical one: Dry and quite secure from rodents grain could be stored under the roofs. Inside the roof construction of both palaces in Vianden there was space for 4 storeys of granaries.
Inside the "small palace" there was one more granary due to the "inserted" storey to gain height of the building. This had originally 12 windows in the outside walls and was used by the baillifs for their share of the harvest. Over this storey were the granaries for wheat belonging to the count. The "large palace" contained oats granaries.
Jemmy Koltz
The luxembourgish engineer and historian invested very much in the research and documentation of luxembourgish fortifications and castles. He led works to open parts of Luxembourg city's casemates to the public and part of the reconstruction of Vianden castle.
As chairman of the luxembourgish commission for heritage (Commission des Sites et Monuments), he also invested much into the friends of the castle of Vianden assiociation, of which he was the vice-chairman. His "nouvelle monographie du château de Vianden" is one of the most important works about Vianden castle.
reconstruction of the castle
After the castle was ruined in 1820, it didn't last long until the first ideas appeared to reconstruct the monument. First attempts were made from the middle of the century to consolidate and renovate the chapel, and at the beginning of the 20th century, Bodo Ebhardt was commissioned with reconstruction plans.
His works stopped before WW2 and were restarted in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, but it lasted until 1978 before the real reconstruction began. Along the walls of this room photographs show these labours.