Connewitz Cross

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The Connewitz Cross (2008)

The Connewitz Cross is a former soft image sign of Leipzig in the Connewitz district in the form of a sandstone attachment on a column made of Rochlitz porphyry tuff . It is a listed building . The same name has become natural for the area around the monument. The nearby tram and bus stop is also named after the Connewitzer Kreuz.

Location and description

North side of the panel

The Connewitzer Kreuz is located on a semicircular piece of lawn at the southern end of today's Karl-Liebknecht-Straße at the fork in the Bornaische and Wolfgang-Heinze-Straße.

On an octagonal porphyry column, which is surrounded by curbstones made of the same material, rests a 139 × 76 cm sandstone panel, which is bordered at the top by a flat triangle. On the north side facing the city, under the year MDXXXVI, a crucifixion scene is shown in relief , the Leipzig city coat of arms at the bottom left and a skull at the bottom right. The south side shows a lying cross ( St. Andrew's Cross ) and above it the year 1536. The total height is about five meters.

history

The Weichbild (from Latin vicus = city and Middle High German bill = law) denoted both city ​​law and its area of ​​validity in the Middle Ages and early modern times and was first mentioned in the Leipzig city letter of 1165 as "wicbilede". It was initially marked by wooden crosses on the four main arterial roads far from the city gates. They were later replaced by stones, their number increased and so did their distance from the city.

The cross in front of a nursery in 1890

In 1536, the city council had the council stonemason Hans Pfretzschner erect the Connewitz cross and others. An identical copy was on Hallische Strasse, as a picture from 1704 shows. The Connewitz Cross is the only one that has survived.

After more than four and a half centuries it was badly weathered and was replaced in 1994 by a copy made by the Leipzig sculptor Markus Gläser , which was financed by the Sparkasse Leipzig . The original is in the City History Museum . Because of the advanced weathering, the north side had to be freely supplemented on the basis of the heavily weathered original findings.

Since the area around the cross is one of the few large squares in Südvorstadt and Connewitz, it is used for demos or spontaneous gatherings such as fireworks on New Year's Eve.

Surroundings

Commercial building (right) in 1916 instead of the nursery

Although there is no actual square, the area around the Connewitz Cross is given a square-like character due to the convergence of seven streets (Karl-Liebknecht-, Wolfgang-Heinze-, Arno-Nitzsche-, Selnecker-, Koch-, Biedermann- and Bornaische Straße). At the beginning of the 20th century, the entire area was built on, in particular the square south of the cross with a four-storey residential and commercial building as the visual end of Südstraße (Karl-Liebknecht-Straße).

In World War II, substantial parts of the buildings were destroyed. Among other things, the southern shower , which is now used as a café , the socio-cultural center at Plant 2 and some residential buildings have been preserved from the old substance . Despite a Rewe shopping mall from 2013 that replaced one of the HO from 1969 and some new buildings built after 1990, gaps remain, especially the road closure behind the cross. In 2016 the idea of ​​a high-rise was born at this point. The city rejects a high-rise building, but is in principle open to development in the long term.

literature

  • Wolfgang Hocquél : Leipzig - Architecture from the Romanesque to the present . 1st edition. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-932900-54-5 , p. 188 .
  • Horst Riedel, Thomas Nabert (ed.): Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . 1st edition. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , pp. 95 .
  • Peter Schwarz: Millennial Leipzig. From the beginning to the end of the 18th century . 1st edition. tape 1 . Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-945027-04-2 , pp. 191 .
  • Wolfgang Grundmann: From the Connewitz Cross to the Großzschocher Holze. In: Leipziger Blätter Heft 16 (1990), pp. 51-53

Web links

Commons : Connewitzer Kreuz  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of cultural monuments in Connewitz, L – Z , ID number 09296321
  2. ↑ LVB timetable. Retrieved April 28, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Enno Bünz in the object database of the City History Museum Leipzig
  4. ^ Christian Heckel: Leipzig in front of the Hallisches Thore. In: Kupferstichkabinett Dresden. Retrieved September 10, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Wolfgang U. Schütte: From the cross in Connewitz, with which it is by no means a cross . In: Leipziger Blätter, Heft 25 (1994), pp. 106/107
  6. ↑ Connewitz Cross - photo of the original. In: City History Museum Leipzig. Retrieved September 10, 2019 .
  7. ^ Mathias Orbeck: Leipzig-Connewitz: Colorful, shrill and alternative to the left. In: LVZ, July 15, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 82 meter high skyscraper is to be built at Connewitzer Kreuz. In: LVZ, January 8, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2019 .
  9. ↑ City says no to high-rise at Connewitzer Kreuz. In: Sachsen Fernsehen, January 11, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 36 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 24 ″  E