Old Speyer Gate
| Old Speyer Gate | |
|---|---|
 Old Speyerer Tor (large complex, right, mid-17th century) |
|
| Data | |
| place | Worms |
| Builder | City of Worms |
| Architectural style | Double gate with two flanking round towers |
| demolition | after the 17th century |
| Coordinates | 49 ° 37 '22.4 " N , 8 ° 21' 14.6" E |
The old Speyerer Tor (also: Alte Speyerer Pforte ) in the medieval outer city fortifications of Worms was a passage for the road leading from Worms to the south and Speyer . At an unknown point in time, this function was taken over by the structurally smaller “New Speyer Gate”, immediately east of the old gate.
Geographical location
The old Speyerer Tor was in the area of today's intersection of Speyerer Straße with the Mainz – Mannheim railway line , west of the tracks.
history
Traditionally, the local historiography considers the Old Speyer Gate to be a complex that dates back to Roman times. The source for this assumption are two Latin inscriptions, which are lost today, but for which there are two written, historical sources. The inscriptions are dated to around AD 200.
Carolingian tradition
On the one hand, the inscriptions are handed down in a Carolingian manuscript that dates to the middle of the 9th century. It is not known whether the Carolingian scribe documented an original building report or copied it from another source. He reports that the inscription was on the outside of a gate and - slightly different in content - again on the inside. The handwriting reproduces the wording of the outer inscription, while the inner one only shows the difference to the outer one. The entry in the manuscript reads:
“IN PORTA VVORMACENSI FORINSECUS. C. Lucius uitor deuitatis. uang omnib. honerib [!]. functius et uictori. florentinus et victorinus fili obamorem patrie. et ciuium. Portam omni suptu suo exstructa donauerunt "
This is followed immediately by the second, inner inscription:
"INTRINSECUS AV ITA. C. Lisius uictor. ser. c. uang. ceter. utsup. IN HDO "
In the manuscript, these transcriptions are completely disconnected between two other texts that have nothing to do with the content. This is probably the only known case in which a Carolingian manuscript reproduces a Roman building inscription. This prompted Theodor Mommsen , among others , to deal with her.
Schannat: Historia Episcopatus Wormatiensis
The second source is a publication by Johann Friedrich Schannat in 1734 and corresponds to that which the Carolingian inscription refers to as the “inner one”. Schannat does not give its source for the inscription. Since he does not mention the outer inscription, he used a different source than the Carolingian scribe as a template, a secondary source, not the original building inscription. Schannat also states for the first time that the inscription was on the “Speyerer Tor”. The inscription was lost in the first third of the 18th century.
According to Schannat, the inscription read:
"C: LUCIUS: VICTOR: SER: C: VANG: OMNIBUS: HONERIBUS: FUNCTUS: FLORENT: ET: VICTORINUS: F: F: OB: AMOREM: PATRIAE: ET: CIVIUM: PORTAM: OMNI: SUMPTU: SVO: EXTRUCTAM: D : D
Gaius Lucius Victor, civil servant of the municipality of Vangionum, who has completed the entire official career, [donates] with his sons Florentinus and Victorinus out of love for the hometown and its citizens the gate built entirely at their own expense. In honor of the deified imperial family. (Translation from: Grünewald: Neue Thesen , p. 15.) "
Roman city gate?
The inscriptions testify that C. Lucius Victor and his sons Florentinus and Victorinus donated a gate.
The fact that a Roman city gate is attested here is indicated by the fact that two building inscriptions were embedded in a meaningful context. If a Roman arch of honor had been erected here, the appropriate term in Latin would have been "arcus". However, it cannot be ruled out that the inscriptions came from another place, but were inserted here, because that (also) made sense afterwards.
Against the assumption of a city gate from Roman times speaks that on the one hand it is not certain on which “Speyer Gate” the inscriptions were located. At least three gates in Worms were assigned this designation for the period in which written sources were available. Which gate bore this name in Carolingian times is completely unknown.
On the other hand, it is not certain that the inscriptions were in their original position when their content was reproduced or whether they were inserted as spoilage in a medieval gate. If a Roman city wall had led to the medieval Old Speyerer Tor, the walled area of the Roman city would have been around a third larger than the area that was surrounded by the inner medieval inner city wall after the last expansion - too large for a Roman country town. A “porta” does not necessarily have to mean “city gate” in Latin. A Roman city wall could never be archaeologically proven south of the Roman wall section in the western inner city wall .
The dedication to the imperial family is also at the end of the text instead of at the beginning as usual. This opens up the possibility that several inscriptions or fragments of an inscription were subsequently put together to form a meaningful text.
Medieval plant
The old Speyerer Tor was a double gate with two flanking round towers. Before that - probably since the 17th century - there was still a bastion.
For unknown reasons and at an unknown point in time, the Old Speyerer Gate was abandoned, walled up and replaced by the New Speyerer Gate located immediately to the east.
literature
in alphabetical order by authors / editors
- Karl Heinz Armknecht: The Worms city walls . In: Der Wormsgau 9 (1970/1971), pp. 54-65.
- Mathilde Grünewald: New theses on the Worms city walls . In: Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter NF 8 (2001), pp. 11–44.
- Karl-Heinz Mistele: On the transmission of the Roman inscriptions from the Speyertor in Worms . In: Der Wormsgau 6 (1963/64), p. 67f.
- Monika Porsche: City Wall and City Development. Investigations into the early city fortifications in the medieval German Empire . Wesselkamp, Hertingen 2000. ISBN 3-930327-07-4
- Johann Friedrich Schannat: Historia Episcopatus Wormatiensis , vol. 1. Franz Varrentrap , Frankfurt am Main 1734.
- C. Zangemeister: Inscriptiones Germaniae superioris = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum Bd. 13, 2. Berlin 1905. ND 1966. ISBN 3-11-001407-6 , No. 6244.
Remarks
- ↑ In the past, the manuscript was thought to be younger. The dating to the 9th century was based on paleographic features (Mistele, p. 67).
- ↑ The fact that the gate mentioned is said to have been a "Speyerer Tor" or even the Old Speyerer Tor is not mentioned in the manuscript. This is a conclusion from a statement in Schannat, p. 4, from the 18th century.
- ↑ [...] "quae Portam Spirensem olim condecorabat Inscriptio" (Schannat: Historia Episcopatus Wormatiensis , p. 4).
- ↑ See: here .
- ↑ But that assumes z. B .: Armknecht: Die Wormser Stadtmauern , p. 56, advance without discussion.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Armknecht: Die Wormser Stadtmauern , p. 63.
- ↑ So z. B .: Armknecht: The Worms City Walls , p. 56.
- ↑ Grünewald: New Theses , p. 15.
- ^ Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart : Cod. Hist. Fol. 400, fol 15v.
- ↑ Mistele, p. 67.
- ↑ After Mistele, p. 67.
- ↑ After Mistele, p. 67.
- ↑ Mistele, p. 68.
- ^ Theodor Mommsen: Worms inscriptions . In: Correspondence sheet of the West German journal for history and art 11 (1892), Sp. 79ff.
- ↑ Schannat, p. 4.
- ↑ Mistele, p. 67; Porsche, p. 58.
- ↑ Schannat: Historia Episcopatus Wormatiensis , p. 4: "quae Portam Spirensem olim condecorabat" (emphasis added by the editor).
- ↑ Schannat, p. 4.
- ↑ Porsche, p. 58.
- ↑ Grünewald: New Theses , p. 15.
- ↑ Grünewald: New Theses , p. 15.
- ↑ Grünewald: New Theses , p. 12.
- ↑ Grünewald: New Theses , p. 15.
- ^ Walter Hotz: Wehrhaftes Worms. Art history of the city fortifications. 2) Late Gothic and Renaissance towers and gates . In: Wormser monthly mirror from June 1982, pp. 5-11 (7).
- ↑ Armknecht: Die Wormser Stadtmauern , p. 63.