Old Elberfeld town hall

The former town hall of Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ), which today houses the Von der Heydt Museum .

The new town hall, detail from Henry Abbott, Elberfeld in plan and with its most excellent buildings (1828)

The Old Elberfeld Town Hall is the former town hall building of the town of Elberfeld , which was independent until 1929 , and is now a district of Wuppertal .

Already in 1815 there were considerations to expand or rebuild the older, too small town hall. The mayor at the time, Johann Rütger Brüning , commissioned various architects to make designs for this in 1816. With the construction of the Laurentiuskirche and the demolition of the old church, a suitable area for a new building was finally created in the tower courtyard . Originally there was the medieval Elberfeld Castle , which gave its name to today's streets such as Burgstrasse , Wall or Turmhof . The castle was destroyed in a fire in 1537.

The foundation stone was laid on May 21, 1828 for the three-storey building by Johann Peter Cremer, which borrows heavily from Italian Renaissance architecture . On November 1, 1831, the part that was built at that time was already available from the city administration. The construction was then completed in a second construction phase until 1842. These include, for example, the rows of arched windows , the profiled window reveals and a row of arcades . The building is also considered to be an outstanding example of classical architecture across the region.

Originally the building housed the city council, the mayor and the city administration. Since 1902, after the construction of the new town hall , the Municipal Museum has been located here, which has been called the Von der Heydt Museum since 1961 .

Between 1986 and 1990 the building underwent a major renovation. The inner courtyard was built over, the exhibition area could be enlarged significantly.

The building was recognized as a monument on November 29, 1984 and entered in the list of monuments of the city of Wuppertal.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Coutelle : Elberfeld, topographical-statistical representation, 1852

literature

• Ernst Zinn, The architecture in Elberfeld during the first half of the 19th century, Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1968
• Hermann J. Mahlberg , Hella Nussbaum [Hrsg.], The departure around 1900 and the modern age in the architecture of the Wuppertal: afterglow of an epoch . Müller + Busmann, Wuppertal 2008, ISBN 978-3-928766-87-6 , p. 12 ff.

Web links

Commons : Altes Elberfelder Rathaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Wuppertal monument list

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 26 "  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 48"  E