Dettelbach city fortifications
The former Dettelbach city fortifications surround the old town of Dettelbach in Lower Franconia as a ring wall with towers, gates and remains of moats. Large parts of the complex, which dates from the time of the town elevation at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, have been preserved to this day.
story
City elevation and fortification (until 1631)
The emergence of the city fortifications of Dettelbach is closely linked to the development of the core city. For a long time Dettelbach had no urban character, but presented itself as a village settlement. Since Carolingian times there was a royal farm on the highest elevation in today's urban area, the church battlement. In the course of the High and Late Middle Ages, the knights of Dettelbach fortified the mountain and built a castle, their ancestral seat, in place of the former rent office . At that time the village was perhaps surrounded by a hedge and a ditch ( Dorfhag ).
This first fortification was not replaced until the second half of the 15th century. The Würzburg bishop Rudolf II von Scherenberg promoted the village of Dettelbach during his reign and let him in 1484 by Emperor Friedrich III. the city and market rights lend. A short time later the construction of the city wall began, which also externally distinguished the settlement that had become a city from the surrounding area. The older literature, however, indicates that an imperfect fortification existed earlier. The Mainstockheim tower on the southwest corner is said to date back to 1453.
The maintenance of the city fortifications was largely in the hands of the city population after they had received market rights . This is why the fortification appears for the first time in a mayor's invoice for the young city. In 1532 there is talk of the five “gate closers” who were to receive an annual wage of 5 guilders . Even then, the original five gates were the only passages. The walling was largely completed in 1532. The Faltertor was probably renovated for the first time in 1550.
The gate closers mentioned in the document played an important role in maintaining the solidity of the fortification. They opened the gates at dawn and closed them again at sunset. They were also responsible for monitoring the traffic reaching the city, which particularly affected the east-west axis from Würzburg and Bamberg . The gatekeepers were sentenced to heavy fines for failure to perform their duty. In 1641 the gate closer of the bridge gate was even locked in the Herrenturm.
The fortifications probably experienced their first armed conflict as early as the German Peasants' War in 1525, when Stadtschwarzacher farmers allied themselves with the Dettelbacher arable citizens and moved together against Würzburg. In the Thirty Years' War , about 100 years later, the fortification of the city had largely lost its defensive function. The medieval fortifications could not oppose the modern artillery of the warring parties. In 1631 the population opened their city to the Protestant Swedes without a fight.
Dissolution of the fortification (until today)
In the period that followed, those responsible no longer invested anything in the outdated systems. The gates served solely as a customs post , where the movement of goods for the local market was taxed. The result was a decline in the less representative parts of the fortification. In 1777 the ditch, which was filled with water in many places, was parceled out and vegetable gardens were laid out here . At the same time, many of the smaller wall attachments and towers, of which 52 should originally have existed, disappeared.
In 1857 a chronicler complained that the walls "are largely in ruins". However, those responsible tried to save the characteristic towers by selling them to private individuals. In the middle of the 19th century, the distinctive square wooden structures were built above the medieval tower stumps. The poor and day laborers could live here. The growing city extended close to the fortification; the walls were partly built over with barns and sheds.
From the middle of the 19th century, increasing traffic also became a problem for the remains of the fortification. In particular, the Neutor and the Steigtor on the road between Würzburg and Bamberg obstructed the carts . There were first lawsuits in 1844. Between 1872 and 1873 three of the five medieval gates were torn down as a result. The bridge gate probably survived because it had already been sold to private individuals in 1833 and a house fire had opened another breach in the fortifications. The young monument protection authorities only became aware of the fortification in 1903 and saved the Faltertor from being demolished.
In 1887 the city converted the southern parts of the moat to the so-called facility, a circular park for the local population. At that time, large parts of the still-preserved trench were filled. At the same time, the handling of the city fortifications as a monument changed at the beginning of the 20th century. Although individual towers are still threatened with demolition, the ensemble has been preserved in its entirety. The growing tourism after the Second World War also contributed to this.
From the 1970s onwards, the city repeatedly invested money in the renovation and maintenance of particularly representative sections of the wall. The locations of the former gates were marked with works of art by local sculptors. Today the Dettelbach city fortifications form the boundary of the Dettelbach old town ensemble . Most of the preserved gates, towers and remains of the wall were placed under protection as architectural monuments by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation. Underground remains of previous buildings are noted as ground monuments .
Gates
Dettelbach had a total of five gates - a sixth in the suburb of Kühngasse could have been destroyed as early as 1631 - which were the only entrances to the old town between the 15th and 19th centuries. The Steig- and Neutor, which pointed in the direction of Würzburg and Bamberg, were particularly important for economic development. All gates had defensive functions, so they could only be reached with a drawbridge over the moat in front and at the same time formed the city's customs borders. Most of the gates disappeared in the 1870s, today only the Falter and Brückertor have survived.
Faltertor
The Faltertor is considered to be the more important of the two preserved gates. It borders the old town in the northeast on the Falterstraße named after him and was previously responsible for the traffic coming from Volkach and Sommerach . After the gate was probably completed in 1532, it was renovated as early as 1550. At that time, the coat of arms of the Würzburg prince-bishop Melchior Zobel von Giebelstadt was attached to the building. The customs function of the gate was underlined with the construction of a small customs house, which was demolished in 1888.
After the more important gates for traffic were demolished in 1872 and 1873, the city council advised in 1899 to remove the Faltertor as well. The preservation of the gate is only owed to the intervention of the then General Conservatory of the Kingdom of Bavaria, the predecessor of today's State Office for Monument Preservation . In the period that followed, the ensemble of the Faltertor and the neighboring men's tower became a popular postcard motif. The Kolping and Crafts Museum Dettelbach has existed in the gate tower since the 1960s .
The Falterturm presents itself as a three-storey rectangular building with a hipped roof . It ends with a metal spire, which, however, was surrounded with bricks and gives the tower its striking appearance. A round arched passage dominates the ground floor. On the city side, a small stair tower was added to the actual gate tower; he opens up the museum on the upper floor. The original window layout was changed because it was used as a house and museum. 49 ° 48 '11.5 " N , 10 ° 9' 49.4" E
Bridge gate
The Brückertor (also Brücker Tor, Brückenturm) is located in the north of Dettelbach's old town in Eichgasse on Dettelbach . This gate led to today's district of Brück , from which it takes its name, and from here traffic from the direction of Prosselsheim reached the Dettelbacher Markt. The Brückertor was also mentioned indirectly in 1532. In 1833 it was sold to private individuals. However, the city reserved the use of the gate passage.
The location of the gate on a purely regional connection and the early sale contributed to the fact that the building was preserved. A fire in 1897 was also decisive for this: the disaster made a breach in the wall further to the west , so that the gate was in an offside position. The gate is still inhabited today, and extensive renovations took place at the beginning of the 21st century. It presents itself as a two-story saddle roof building with a half-timbered upper floor . 49 ° 48 '11.8 " N , 10 ° 9' 38.1" E
Rising gate
The missing climbing gate was probably the architecturally most outstanding of all gate buildings in the city of Dettelbach. It was on today's Würzburger Strasse. Here the traffic from the diocese metropolis Würzburg was cleared. Since the Steigtor is also mentioned in the sources for the first time in 1532, it was probably renovated at the time of the Würzburg bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn at the turn of the 17th century. The Dettelbacher chronicler Julius Göbel reported that a coat of arms of the prince-bishop was attached to the side facing away from the city.
The Steigtor occupies a prominent place in an engraving from 1840 by the artist Anton Schleich. It presents itself in the style of the Renaissance and ends with a deep-drawn stepped gable. It is reminiscent of the Sommeracher Tor in Volkach or the gate buildings of the Frickenhausen community further down the Main. The ascending gate was the first construction of the old fortification to be demolished in March 1872. Today a stele reminds of the old gate. A bollard embedded in the street refers to the former customs post. 49 ° 48 ′ 7.8 " N , 10 ° 9 ′ 29" E
Neutor
The Neutor, which, according to its name, was built a little later than the other four gates, connected the south-eastern area, the monastery of Münsterschwarzach and Stadtschwarzach, with the city. It was on today's Bamberger Straße and, together with the climbing gate, formed the most important passage for long-distance traffic that ran through Dettelbach. Only one drawing of the Neutor from 1796 has survived, but it does not seem to correspond to reality. It was demolished in 1873. Today two stone pillars remind of the location of the former gate. 49 ° 48 '5.9 " N , 10 ° 9' 49.9" E
Maintor
The Dettelbacher Maintor led from the Dettelbacher Rathaus to the south in the direction of the navigable river Main and the ferry located there in the direction of Mainsondheim . The oldest depiction of the main gate from 1577 has been preserved, but only a few details can be seen. In 1844 the gate appeared in a font that identified it as the reason for the traffic obstruction in Dettelbach. In 1857 the wooden gates at the main gate were removed so that the city was symbolically open at night. Finally, the main gate was torn down in 1873. 49 ° 48 '3.1 " N , 10 ° 9' 39.6" E
Wall towers
In contrast to many other city walls in the area, many of the former wall towers in Dettelbach have been preserved, even if their existence has shrunk. Originally, the complex is said to have consisted of 52 towers, possibly including the additions on the walls. By the middle of the 19th century, the number had shrunk to around 40. A low of around 30 towers was reached at the beginning of the 20th century. The towers are still threatened, especially at the somewhat remote points of the wall. In order to secure the preservation, they are handed over to individual residents today on a long lease .
A particularly large number of wall towers have been preserved along the eastern city wall, between the former Neutor and the Faltertor. Above all, the so-called Rössnerturm with the address Ostliche Stadtmauer 3 symbolizes the typical development of the wall towers. Initially built as a pure defense tower, the tower had no half-timbered upper storey in the first centuries of its existence. Weapons may have been stored here to defend the city. Only in the 19th century did the tower receive the half-timbered tower. The increase made it possible to use it as a residential building . ( 49 ° 48 ′ 10.1 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 49.7 ″ E )
The essays, some of which were placed on top of the round towers as rectangular buildings, are typical of the eastern and southern parts of the Dettelbach fortifications and give the Dettelbach city fortifications their striking appearance. Rectangular structures can be found at the Ostliche Stadtmauer tower / Hirtengasse 12, at Südring 4 and 6. There were interventions on a smaller scale on the Stadtgraben 2 and 4 towers. The protruding hip roofs , which can be found at Langgasse 24, for example , also probably date from the 19th century . ( 49 ° 48 ′ 4.2 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 44.3 ″ E )
In addition to the smaller towers used today as residential towers, two important points for the city's history have been preserved. The so-called Mainstockheimer Turm with the address Stadtgraben 6 is considered the oldest surviving remnant of the city fortifications and is said to date to the middle of the 15th century. ( 49 ° 48 '0.8 " N , 10 ° 9' 33.6" O ) Men tower in the Falterstraße together with the Faltertor a popular photo; until the 19th century it was a city prison . ( 49 ° 48 ′ 11.5 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 48.7 ″ E )
Other preserved remains
Remains of the former city fortifications in the form of walls and ditches have been preserved at least in part almost everywhere around the old town of Dettelbach. An original section of the wall still exists along the eastern city wall / street Am Felsenkeller. The topography at this point with its steep slope towards the Main did not make it possible to fill the ditch in the 19th century. The deep trench between Neu- and Faltertor was never filled with water, instead a dry trench existed. In 1887 the so-called complex was created as a city park in the eastern and southern parts of the former moat. ( 49 ° 48 ′ 4.5 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 47.7 ″ E )
The moat was also filled on the north side, where fortifications with the former castle fortifications can be proven as early as the 15th century. Here there are still partly high wall portions tower density is however substantially less ( 49 ° 48 '10.8 " N , 10 ° 9' 45.1" O ) last remains of a circumferential, covered battlements are detectable between Faltertor and Lord Tower. The ensemble of wall, towers and moat has been completely and originally preserved in the west along the street Am Stadtgraben. The so-called moat gardens are also herethat were allowed to be built in the former moat areas since 1777. In particular, the cramped topography around the city meant that such gardens have only survived in a few places. ( 49 ° 48 ′ 5.6 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 29.4 ″ E )
See also
see also: List of monuments Dettelbach
literature
- Hans Bauer: Dettelbach. History of a romantic city on the Main and its districts . Dettelbach 1983.
- Hans Bauer: The cultural landscape development of the old Dettelbach office since the 16th century (= Mainfränkische Studien Bd. 17 / I) . Wuerzburg 1977.
- Hans Bauer: A present for Dettelbach: the restored half-timbered tower at the Faltertor (= Dettelbacher Geschichtsblätter 05/2003, no. 232, 29th century) . Dettelbach 2003. 2 pages.
- Hans Bauer: Discoveries on the doorstep. Episode 1: A tour around the Dettelbach city wall . In: Falter. City magazine Kitzingen with announcements from the city of Kitzingen May 2020 . Kitzingen 2020. pp. 14–15.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Bauer: The cultural landscape development of the old Dettelbach office since the 16th century (= Mainfränkische Studien Bd. 17 / I) . Würzburg 1977. p. 32 u. 34.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: A present for Dettelbach: The restored half-timbered tower at the Faltertor (= Dettelbacher Geschichtsblätter 05/2003, No. 232, 29th century) . Dettelbach 2003. 2 pages.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: A present for Dettelbach: The restored half-timbered tower at the Faltertor (= Dettelbacher Geschichtsblätter 05/2003, No. 232, 29th century) . Dettelbach 2003. 2 pages.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Dettelbach. History of a romantic city on the Main and its districts . Dettelbach 1983. p. 84.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Discoveries on the doorstep. Episode 1: A tour around the Dettelbach city wall . In: Falter. City magazine Kitzingen with announcements from the city of Kitzingen May 2020 . Kitzingen 2020. p. 14.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Dettelbach. History of a romantic city on the Main and its districts . Dettelbach 1983. p. 88.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Discoveries on the doorstep. Episode 1: A tour around the Dettelbach city wall . In: Falter. City magazine Kitzingen with announcements from the city of Kitzingen May 2020 . Kitzingen 2020. p. 15.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Dettelbach. History of a romantic city on the Main and its districts . Dettelbach 1983. p. 88.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: A present for Dettelbach: The restored half-timbered tower at the Faltertor (= Dettelbacher Geschichtsblätter 05/2003, No. 232, 29th century) . Dettelbach 2003. 2 pages.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Dettelbach. History of a romantic city on the Main and its districts . Dettelbach 1983. p. 84.
- ↑ Hans Bauer: Discoveries on the doorstep. Episode 1: A tour around the Dettelbach city wall . In: Falter. City magazine Kitzingen with announcements from the city of Kitzingen May 2020 . Kitzingen 2020. p. 14 f.
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