Old Port (Würzburg)

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The Old Harbor (left), the Main (right)

The old port in Würzburg was laid out in the 19th century. It is the oldest part of the Würzburg port and is still used today for passenger shipping and as a location for a variety of cultural institutions.

history

The first cargo ships docked on the banks of the Main not far from the city center . There the Würzburg harbor crane with a quay was completed in 1773 . To the north of it, a winter harbor was built for wintering ships when there was ice.

In 1846 the stone tower crane was replaced by an iron crane on the crane quay. The winter harbor became swampy in the second half of the 19th century due to straightening measures on the Main, and after it was filled in, a slaughterhouse was built there in 1881.

From 1875 to 1877 the Bavarian State Harbor , today the Old Harbor , was built as a wooden raft and new winter harbor. In 1882 he got a siding. In 1903/04 the facility was expanded to become a trading port. At the same time, the then 128-meter-long warehouse of the state port, today's culture store , was built and the construction of the main customs office with its own warehouses began. The warehouse with grain store, built between 1902 and 1904 for 450,000 marks, was operated by the port and warehouse operations of the city of Würzburg , which had taken over port operations in 1904, and was later extended to 160 m. From 1905 to 1913 further investments were made in the port.

With the canalization of the Main and the construction of the 87 hectare area of ​​the New Port of Würzburg from 1934 to 1940, the port operations shifted to the west of the city. By 1955, the subsequent 18-hectare river port facility was also put into operation.

Thermal power station

The old harbor at night

When the combined heat and power plant was built by 1954, the old harbor basin was reduced in size. In 1957, the city acquired the old port area from the state of Bavaria. Originally the power plant had a 105 m high chimney, which was thus at the same height as the Marienberg Fortress.

Nowadays, three silver exhaust pipes from the WVV's thermal power station can be found in the old harbor. Between 2005 and 2006 it was transformed into a modern, functional building. The power plant has a state-of-the-art gas turbine weighing 150 tons with a total output of 70 megawatts. The times of coal combustion are a thing of the past. However, the old coal boilers were left in the power plant as an emergency reserve.

Culture store

The culture store with a harbor crane

The culture store is a former granary . The building, originally erected in 1904 for the Bavarian state ports, was converted into a cultural center and since then has housed the museum in the Kulturspeicher with two permanent collections, the tanzSpeicher theater and a dance workshop. The Bockshorn cabaret, which was formerly based in Sommerhausen , also moved into the basement of the Kulturspeicher.

The plans for the renovation of the storage building, which had been idle until the 1990s, go back to 1993 when an art donation - the Peter C. Ruppert Collection - Concrete Art in Europe had to be appropriately housed after 1945 . The architects Peter and Christian Brückner from Tirschenreuth emerged as the winners of the architects' competition in April 1996 . The renovation, which cost around € 22 million, was completed in 2002.

Todays use

The Viking Europe in the old harbor

The old port now offers three landing stages for river cruise ships and further landing stages for pleasure craft. The art ship Arte Noah and a floating disco are also located there .

The facilities have been renovated since the 1990s and the granary was converted into a culture store by 2001 . A sculpture bank has been laid out since 2009 . There is also a large cinema, discos, gastronomic and accommodation facilities on the former port area.

The old customs office, which was the main customs office from 1907 to 2007, was purchased by the city and since then has been partially used as a technical town hall with civil engineering office; the municipal drainage company is also housed in it.

The Würzburger Hafen-GmbH, which today belongs to the Würzburger Versorgungs- und Verkehrs-GmbH (WVV) , emerged from the port and warehouse operations of the city of Würzburg .

investment

Weinlage Stein behind the old port

The harbor basin is still 550 meters long and 50 m wide. Two of the four harbor cranes have been preserved as technical monuments.

literature

  • Port and warehouse operations of the city of Würzburg: The port of Würzburg . Wuerzburg 1962
  • Port and warehouse operations of the city of Würzburg: Port of Würzburg on the Rhine-Main-Danube major shipping route . Wuerzburg 1968
  • Würzburger Hafen-GmbH: 75 years of the Würzburg port . Wuerzburg 1979

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Wagner: Dr. Georg von Zürn - First Mayor 1865–1884. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. Volume III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, pp. 166-172 and 1267 f .; here: p. 171.
  2. ^ Harm-Hinrich Brandt : Würzburg municipal policy 1869-1918. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 ), pp. 64-166 and 1254-1267; here: pp. 128 and 139.
  3. ↑ http://www.wuerzburg-fotos.de/alter_hafen.php accessed on February 22, 2017

Web links

Commons : Alter Hafen Würzburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 9.1 ″  N , 9 ° 55 ′ 11.8 ″  E