Old Werra Bridge

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The bridge today and around 1910
View from the old town of the bridge and the Questenberg with the historic suburb of Blume
View around 1910

The Alte Werra Bridge is a 105 meter long stone arch bridge over the Werra in Hann. Münden . The building, first mentioned in 1329 as a stone bridge, connects the city with the historic suburb of Blume in the Questenberg district . The bridge is one of the oldest preserved stone bridges in the Upper Weser and Werra regions.

description

The bridge, made of stone blocks, has five pillars and six arches with clear widths between 10 and 12 meters. Five original yoke arches of the former stone bridge are still preserved, while two arches of the bridge were renewed in the 19th century. The five original bridge piers have acute-angled stone icebreakers . The width of the bridge is between 6.5 and 7 meters. A bridge pillar is based on the Doktorwerder river island , to which there is access from the bridge.

history

Historical bridge views
Old Werra bridge on an engraving by Frans Hogenberg , 1584 (detail), on the left the Blumer Werder , on the right the Doktorwerder
The still covered bridge on a Merian copper engraving from 1654

The forerunner of the stone bridge was a wooden structure in the same place. It was built when the city was founded in the 2nd half of the 12th century. Remnants of the wooden bridge were found during excavation work at the beginning of the 20th century and in 1965. The first mention of the stone bridge can be found in a document from the Hilwartshausen monastery from 1329, which concerns a property in the area of ​​the suburb of Blume.

In the years around 1401 the bridge was given a wooden roof. It is proven by a combing invoice from that year, which also mentions a date stone that was found in a building in Hannoversch Münden in 1925. It is known from pictorial representations that the bridge had two gate structures or gate towers at the ends . They were demolished in 1776, as was the roof of the bridge. This was due to the expansion of the highway from Hanover to Kassel so that larger freight wagons could pass the bridge.

Floods and ice have damaged the bridge over the centuries. This affected the wooden icebreakers on the bridge piers and the bridge arches. For a long time, the city of Münden levied bridge fees to maintain the bridge . Duke Otto the One-Eyed had granted the city the right to do so in 1442. The cashier of the bridge money lived in a house on a bridge pillar, where the gatekeeper house was also located. It was not until 1849 that the city stopped taking bridge payments on the instructions of the government in Hanover. In 1861 two bridge piers damaged by ice drift on the river side of the suburb of Blume were completely renewed.

20th century

Road surface of the bridge

Motor vehicle traffic, which emerged in the 20th century, burdened the bridge so much that in 1933 there were considerations to build a new bridge over the Werra. Widening the old bridge was not possible because it had to be preserved as a monument. In the 1930s there were plans for a new bridge at the height of the Welfenschloss . In addition, the old bridge was to be raised in order to increase the clearance for ships in the course of a planned canalization of the Werra. The Second World War put an end to the Werra's expansion plans. During the war, the Alte Werra Bridge was the only bridge in a wide area that was not blown up. In the post-war period , Allied military traffic was concentrated over the bridge, which caused considerable damage. In the 1950s, the soaring motor vehicle traffic burdened the structure with around 10,000 vehicles and around 1,000 trucks per day. The structural condition of the bridge deteriorated to such an extent that in 1953 the district of Münden considered it necessary to block vehicles over 12 tons and demanded the construction of a bypass road. From 1958 to 1960 this led to the construction of the Weser Bridge , which also served to relieve traffic in the old town. While the supraregional through traffic accepted the new bridge, the local traffic continued to prefer the Alte Werra Bridge, as the route through the old town seemed shorter. A reduction in traffic did not occur until 1969, when the bridge became a one-way street. An extensive bridge restoration took place in 1986. The old Werra bridge became a pedestrian bridge with occasional vehicle traffic in 1995 after the new Werra bridge was opened.

See also

literature

  • Hans Reuther : The Werra Bridge to Hann. Münden. In: Low German Contributions to Art History, Volume 12, 1973, pp. 179–203, with 24 illus.
  • Werra Bridge Münden. History and renovation 1986-1988 , published by the city of Münden, Gandersheim road construction office, 1988
  • Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Architectural monuments in Lower Saxony, Göttingen district, part 1, volume 5.2, 1993, edited by Urs Boeck , Peter F. Lufen and Walter Wulf, CW Niemeyer book publishers , Hameln, p. 127, ISBN 3-87585-251-6 .
  • Johann Dietrich von Pezold: The old Werra bridge in: History on the three rivers. A glimpse into the past of the city of Hann. Münden on Werra, Fulda and Weser , Hann. Münden, 2001, pp. 14-15
  • Johann Dietrich von Pezold: Construction of the Weser Bridge 1959 in: History on the three rivers. A glimpse into the past of the city of Hann. Münden on Werra, Fulda and Weser , Hann. Münden, 2008, pp. 95-96

Web links

Commons : Alte Werra Bridge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the dating of the bridge to the early 14th century, see the research report on this question in Reuther, p. 180.
  2. ^ Klaus Grote : City tour of Münden . In: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (Hrsg.): Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments. Göttingen and the Göttingen Basin . tape 16 . von Zabern, Mainz 1970, ISBN 3-8053-0131-6 , p. 190 .
  3. ^ Bernhard Uhl, in: Mündensche Nachrichten of September 8, 1901

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 8.8 ″  N , 9 ° 39 ′ 10.3 ″  E