Basin place
| Basin place | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 View of part of the square |
|
| Basic data | |
| place | Potsdam |
| Created | 18th century |
| Newly designed | 20th century |
| Confluent streets | Gutenbergstrasse (north), Hebbelstrasse (east), Charlottenstrasse (south), Am Bassin (west) |
| Buildings | Peter and Paul Church |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrians , cyclists |
| Space design | after 1876, when the pool that gave it its name was filled in |
| Technical specifications | |
| Square area | 58,800 m² (estimated) |
The Bassinplatz is the largest of the Potsdamer Platz . The name refers to a former water basin , which was used to drain the area from 1737 on the instructions of the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I. The Bassinplatz has been redesigned several times over the centuries, it is located on the edge of the Dutch Quarter and borders the Platz der Einheit in the southwest .
history
The area around the Bassinplatz was originally a swampy area. As part of the second city expansion, the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I arranged for the square to be used. The site was drained between 1737 and 1739, and a Dutch basin was excavated for this purpose. The outflow of the water was regulated via an elaborate canal system, which Heinrich Ludwig Manger reported in his building history of Potsdam: “This pond [the basin] was mediated by an open ditch with the Holy See , and by a covered narrow canal with the main canal of the City [Potsdamer Stadtkanal] connected. Since at the same time a ditch was dug out of the Havel into the Holy See, the water [got] ... a train back to the Havel. ”In the middle of this basin, a circular island was created at the intersection of the axes of the Brandenburg and Kreuzstrasse, which received a gloriette as an ornament in 1739 . The pavilion-like building was intended as a point de vue without serving a specific purpose. It showed Dutch shapes in numerous furnishing elements, whereas there is no example of the roof shape in contemporary Dutch architecture. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the pavilion was also known as the tobacco house and was a listed building . The latter name went back to the mistake that Frederick the Great's father held his tobacco college there. All that has been handed down is a feast for the king, including a report on the laborious delivery of the food.
The basin soon threatened to become swampy due to the gradual silting of the canals and in summer due to the low water of the Havel, so Frederick the Great had the basin bordered with masonry. After a further beautification plan by Peter Joseph Lenné , the pool was finally given a round shape that opened to the east. The basin was filled in between 1871 and 1876.
Two churches were built on the square. The French Church was built in 1752 according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff for the persecuted Huguenots from France. The inner shape of the church goes back to Karl Friedrich Schinkel . The Catholic St. Peter and Paul Church was built from 1867 to 1870 according to plans by August Stüler and Wilhelm Salzenburg.
The Gloriette, which remained undamaged in World War II , was torn down in the winter of 1945/46 to make room for a Soviet military cemetery with a memorial in the form of an obelisk . In 1972 a large-format bus station was built next to it , but it was dismantled in 2001. The square has been a weekly market since 1996 .
In 1789, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stayed in Potsdam - the exact location is not known, he probably lived in the Dutch brick house Am Bassin 10 . In a letter he wrote: “My dear little girl! Potsdam is an expensive place and I have to live here at my own expense. There's not much to be done with the academy ... So when I return you have to look forward to me more than the money ... ". A plaque above the door reminds of this. The baroque rows of houses were probably built under the supervision of Carl von Gontard .
Plaza
The Bassinplatz is the largest square in Potsdam with a rectangular basic shape of around 300 × 200 square meters, today's appearance is determined by contrasts. Since the 1960s, the square has mainly consisted of green areas with rows of trees and open spaces.
Two sacred buildings of different types shape the appearance of the square. On the west side is the Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul with a 60 meter high tower in the style of an Italian campanile , which acts as a point de vue on Brandenburger Strasse. On the south-eastern edge, but officially no longer on the square, stands the smaller baroque dome of the French Church , which is the oldest surviving church in the historic city of Potsdam.
In the west and north of the square, red, three-storey, gable-adorned baroque brick houses in the Dutch style complete the square across the traffic routes - the former are part of the Dutch Quarter , the latter part of a late 18th century addition. There are modern residential buildings on the south side. On the east side of Hebbelstraße, the Ernst von Bergmann Clinic dominates the image of the square, a multi-part high-rise in panel construction .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich Ludwig Manger: Building History of Potsdam , Vol. 1, Berlin 1789, p. 15.
- ↑ On the Gloriette see Friedrich Mielke : Potsdamer Baukunst. Classic Potsdam . Propylaen, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-549-06648-1 , p. 30, 396 with ill .; the former Kreuzstrasse is Benkertstrasse .
- ↑ Hans Berg: The lost center of Potsdam . Self-published by Hans Berg, Berlin 1999, p. 31.
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 4.7 ″ N , 13 ° 3 ′ 40 ″ E