The Castle of Heaven

A virtual reconstruction

The castle chapel in Weimar is a dream destination for Bach fans. Bach wrote his wonderful Weimar cantatas for this unconventional church space with its organ gallery high up. The so-called castle of heaven, which was destroyed by fire in 1774, will now be resurrected, at least virtually: in an ambitious project the Thuringia Bach Festival with a group of specialists have developed a virtual reality version of the castle of heaven. With glasses and headphones Bach fans can undertake an excursion into Bach’s time and with Cantata 182 also experience the unique acoustics of the castle chapel.

The Castle of Heaven will be ready to be discovered at the following festivals/places:

2023 tour
• 18.01. – 22.01.2023  —  Bach Academy Brugge 2023, Brugge (BE)
• 13.04. – 23.04.2023  —  Thüringer Bachwochen, Weimar (DE)
• 10.05. – 15.05.2023  —  MuseumsQuartier, Wien (AT)
• 20.06. – 02.07.2023  —  ION MUSIC Festival, Nürnberg (DE)

2022 tour

• Thüringer Bachwochen (DE)
• Bachfest Schaffhausen (CH) 
• Bachfest Leipzig (DE)
• Musikfest Stuttgart (DE)
• Appenzeller Bachtage (CH)
• Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht (NL)

realised by:

Rolf Kruse, Florian Scharfe, Luzius Koelling
visual reconstruction

Stefan Weinzierl, Christoph Böhm, Tobias Kirchner, Jörg Arnold, David Ackermann
acoustic reconstruction

Cantus Thuringia & Capella, Bernhard Klapprott
recording

in collaboration with Thüringer Tourismus GmbH