The motif
This is a painter’s view from above, well worth the climb, even though the castle hill is now covered with forest and only here and there allows a glimpse through. We enjoy the peace and quiet while, below us, the traffic on the federal road B4 makes noise. Today’s busy north–south connection through the Harz once was the lifeline of Ilfeld. For the Counts of Ilfeld in the 12th century, for the monastery they established, and for the school that was later set up there after the monastery’s dissolution, which was well regarded far beyond the region. And also for Goethe, who spent the night here in 1777 at the inn Zur Krone and, through a knot hole, observed something astonishing that inspired the scene in Auerbach’s Cellar.
For the draughtsman and etcher Johann Ludwig Meil, it was just a walking path up to the castle ruins, since as a teacher he lived on the school grounds in the old monastery right next to Ilfeld’s church. In the view, the church appears like a gate to the Harz in the middle of the road, but a little more than 100 years ago it received a new building beside the road. Of the old half-timbered houses in Meil’s etching, the slightly elevated building on the right-hand side of the street shows the former inn Zur Krone, which is still preserved – as is, by the way, the knot hole.
