Freudenstein Castle, Freiberg Redevelopment and conversion into the Saxon Mining Archives and Mineralogical Collection, Freiberg, Saxony

First prizeGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2011

Jury verdict: In the old mining town of Freiberg in Saxony, Freudenstein Castle, which dates back to the Middle Ages and has been rebuilt several times, having served in the meantime as a hospital, prison and granary, has been renovated and converted into the Saxon Mining Archives and Mineral Museum. In designing the two courtyards and the moat in front of the castle, landscape architect Birgit Hammer has shown a keen sense for the idiosyncrasies of the stone architecture, for the content of the new museum and for the dimensions of the two courtyards. In the old castle courtyard, which now serves as a farmyard, the old enclosing walls, the defence tower and the historic staircases were restored in keeping with the style. The ground is so covered with used sandstone paving, but the edges along the restored wall with reused old wild paving, that a beautiful synthesis of old and new results.

The landscape architect has given the New Palace courtyard a highly strikingly patterned appearance with light granite slabs that replicate familiar crystal shapes over large areas and are set in reddish mastic asphalt, which communicates wonderfully with the façades of the framing buildings in terms of colour and structure and therefore fulfils the promise of being effective as a "horizontal" or "fifth" façade in the best possible way. In addition, the ground plans of the earlier buildings discovered during the archaeological excavations were traced in the floor with embedded brass plates.

Outside the two courtyards, in the area of the weirs separating the castle from the city centre, Birgit Hammer has restricted herself to the restoration of the walls and to a simple greening of the castle moat, which gives the architectural monument an effective appearance in the cityscape.