Brick renaissance

Altstadt Rathaus Salzwedel, construction started around 1510, currently used as a district court, decorated with Renaissance transepts (of course, while retaining the Gothic stepped gables) and a facade typical of the Renaissance

West side of the Friedrichstadt market with houses in the style of the Dutch Renaissance, beginning of the 17th century, but without bricks

The brick renaissance in Northern Europe is the continuation of building with bricks after the brick Romanesque and the brick Gothic . Compared to the “brick Gothic”, the “brick renaissance” is a less established term.

The brick Gothic, especially in the Hanseatic cities of the Baltic Sea region, was adapted to the forms of the Renaissance , albeit with a time lag that had to be taken into account for northern Germany .

Brick Renaissance buildings can be found in Germany today:

from north to south between Flensburg and the Altmark (e.g. Salzwedel)

from west to east between Husum and Stralsund.

One of the buildings that still exist today and is most clearly designed according to the features of the brick Renaissance is the old town hall of Salzwedel , which is now used as a district court.

The transition between brick Gothic and brick renaissance is fluid. The brick renaissance largely preserved the formal language of the brick Gothic , for example the facade of the Kerkhoffhaus in Rostock, designed in the 16th century, has the typical Gothic stepped gables . These stepped gables can be found on all buildings of the brick Renaissance. As the above illustration of the old town hall of Salzwedel (construction started in 1510) shows, the buildings of the brick renaissance have the Renaissance-typical transepts compared to the buildings of the brick Gothic and the façades are clearly structured in height.

A stronger deposition took place in the transition phase to the baroque . In Lübeck, for example, the transition from Gothic to Renaissance can be dated to around the 2nd quarter of the 16th century. Clearly the brick Renaissance, for example, to the buildings that of the Lübeck artist will Statius of Düren in Schwerin ( Schwerin Castle ) Gadebusch ( Castle ) and Wismar ( Fürstenhof ) with its terracotta - reliefs were equipped.

Brick buildings from the Dutch Renaissance that do not hide this influence, such as Reinbek Castle near Hamburg, the Zeughaus in Lübeck or Friedrichstadt in Schleswig-Holstein , are more clearly recognizable than Renaissance buildings .

See also

• for comparison: Weser Renaissance