Hot air fights pests at coburg fortress

A kind of gigantic hose is currently attracting attention in the castle courtyard of veste coburg. The noise of a coarse-dimensioned blower can be heard without interruption. Unmistakable: coburg fortress is once again a challenge for the bamberg state building authority.

Fight against nagekafer

A few weeks after the completion of the renovation work on the red tower, the building authority has this time set its sights on the so-called bulgarian tower. But this time it is not about masonry in need of renovation and work on the roof and windows. This time the problem is on the inside: pest infestation.

Nail beetles and some brown sapwood beetles have taken up residence in the wooden staircase, explains jurgen konig, head of the bamberg state building authority.

The uninvited guests are to be put out of business by means of an airlift system. The action is expected to be completed this week, konig said on request. At the same time, konig explains why the state building authority decided to use thermal treatment rather than chemical treatment.

A chemical intervention would alter the substance and also cause pollution. The thermal approach does, however, have one disadvantage: it has no prophylactic effect.

Measuring sensors in beams

The principle of pest control with heat is relatively simple. Hot air is blown into the tower through the trailer placed in front of the bulgar tower. "The entire tower will be heated and is expected to reach 55 degrees at its coldest point; this can be measured by sensors drilled into the beam," explained ziegler, explains konig.

The artillery exhibition, which is on display in the immediate vicinity of the bulgarian tower, is not directly affected by pest fighting. However, "we had to remove the air-conditioning units that were set up there so that they would not be damaged", explains sven hauschke as director of the coburg art collections.

The head of the state building authority puts the cost of the pest control at around 24,000 euros.

Around the veste coburg

History the veste coburg is first mentioned in documents in the year 1056. 1353 it fell to the house of wettin. Due to its strategic importance, it was expanded over the next 150 years to become one of germany's largest fortresses. After the transfer of the court to the city in 16. In the 19th century, the veste served only as a fortress.

Bible translation a famous guest in 1530 was the reformer luther, who worked on his bible translation here during the augsburg imperial diet.

Renovations more important building activities began with duke ernst I. (1806 to 1844). In the 19th. Century, karl alexander von heideloff renewed the architecture in the sense of an ornate neo-gothic style. From 1906, castle historian and architect bodo ebhardt further redesigned the complex.

Today the castle complex houses the art collections of veste coburg. They are among the most important collections of art and cultural history in germany and go back in large part to the art holdings of the coburg dukes. The museum includes a copperplate engraving cabinet, which is also very important by international standards, a collection of hunting weapons and glass, as well as a collection of carriages and sleighs. Among the works of art, paintings by lucas cranach and old german painting (durer, grunewald, holbein) as well as sculptures by tilman riemenschneider are particularly noteworthy. Bulgarenturm the so-called bulgarenturm (gate tower) above the main entrance of veste coburg was named after ferdinand of saxony-coburg-cohary. The latter arrived in bulgaria in 1887 as an elected regent, in 1908 he was crowned tsar. 1918 he had to abdicate after his defeat in the first world war, thereupon he moved to coburg.