House of Brussels
The House Brussels is under monument protection standing building at the corner of Pontstraße / Market Square no. 43 in Aachen over the other corner house Lowenstein . It was built around 1785 by Jakob Couven on the foundations of a much older building, which was mentioned as "domus brusele" in the interest register of the Aachen Marienstift as early as 1320 . According to the city accounts of 1338/1339, the peace agreement and the peace meal between the city of Aachen and the field captain Hartrad von Schönecken († 1351) took place in the House of Brussels after bitter fighting, which is still remembered today by an oil painting.
history
The house got its name either as part of a general designation of individual houses according to important locations or because it had been acquired by an owner who came from Brussels. Until the beginning of the 15th century, it served the lay judges of the royal aldermen's chair as a conference venue and festival venue, before they were given a corresponding meeting room of the same name in the Aachen town hall opposite . This then obviously led to the new name " zen alden Brussels " (for old Brussels), under which it was first mentioned from 1421 onwards. The name “ Bruxellesstein ” kept appearing because, in contrast to the buildings that were mostly made of wood and clay at that time, the house was made of solid rubble . From the year 1556 - for unknown reasons - the name " zum wild man " became common, but since the 20th century at the latest, the old name " House of Brussels " has been used again for reasons of tradition .
In 1615, but possibly even earlier, the pharmacist Peter Gersthoven set up a pharmacy in the Brussels house, which is considered to be the oldest pharmacy in Aachen before the Hirsch pharmacy founded by Agidius Heusch around 1660. This pharmacy remained in the possession of the Gersthoven family for five generations before it was sold to the pharmacist Matthias Theodor Degraa in 1763. Three years later he also took over the House of Brussels, had it laid down to its foundations in 1785 and a new building built on the same spot by Jakob Couven. This new building survived several wars, was restored, refurbished and modernized several times, and only slightly changed in the process.
At the moment, the House of Brussels still houses a pharmacy and a doctor's office.
Building description
Today's House of Brussels was built on the foundations of a previous building in the Gothic style, which must have been a few square meters smaller. The visible and massive cellar vaults from this period were made of the same stone and in the same style as in the Löwenstein house directly opposite, which was completed in 1344. Further parts of the vault that can be dated back to the post-Carolingian period were found under the cellar vault. The former “stone path” running behind the property was also built and the quarry stone wall still preserved there today, on which the stairs to the upper floor now lead, marks this property boundary.
The four-storey, three-axle new building with an extended mansard roof was built as a three-window house by Jakob Couven in his characteristic transition style from rococo to plait style . The windows on the two upper floors were framed with Aachen bluestone frames both towards the market square and towards Pontstrasse . The main entrance, which is framed with bluestones like the two adjacent large shop windows and the side entrance, was initially on the eastern edge, directly leaning against the neighboring house No. 45, and was continued during a later restoration in the middle of the 19th century on the market side, but moved to the corner of Pontstrasse.
Except for a few details, today's Brussels House still corresponds to the building designed by Couven.
literature
- Richard Pick : The Schöffenhaus Brussels in Aachen. In: From Aachen's past. Contributions to the history of the old imperial city. Creutzer, Aachen 1895, pp. 352-359 ( digitalized ).
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 36.1 ″ N , 6 ° 5 ′ 1.3 ″ E