Old Hospital (Bad Wimpfen)
The old hospital in Bad Wimpfen in the district of Heilbronn in northern Baden-Württemberg with components from the 13th century is one of the oldest structures in the former imperial city . It goes back to the Heilig-Geist-Spital, which was founded around 1230, and has been used as a citizens' hospital since 1471, most recently as a municipal poorhouse until the recent past. The Reichsstädtisches Museum and the municipal gallery have been housed there since 1992 .
history
The hospital goes back to the foundations of the royal mayor Wilhelm von Wimpfen around 1230. It was originally dedicated to John the Baptist and is located south at the foot of the Palatinate Wimpfen and the subsequent mountain town on a stream and an old trunk road, today's main road . In order to support it, the hospital received various rights and goods, including the patronage of St. Vitus's Church in Flein and its tithe remuneration, as well as ownership of the Hipfelhof near Frankenbach . The hospital was initially managed by the Order of St. John , before the Order of the Holy Spirit, confirmed by the Pope in 1198, was in charge of the hospital until 1250 at most. The oldest part of the complex, the Romanesque stone house with the arched windows characteristic of the construction period, today the westernmost wing north of the hospital courtyard, dates from this time . The building, which resembles a residential tower, is believed to have only served as a residence for the friars, as the small footprint of the stone building would have offered little space to accommodate the poor, the sick and travelers. In 1421 an elongated half-timbered building with a gateway to the courtyard was built on the east side of today's main street on a stone plinth .
In 1471, the same side was extended again with a south-facing transverse building up to Langgasse . In the same year, at the instigation of the city council of Wimpfen, the spiritual hospital was separated from the city hospital. In future, the Citizens Hospital used the existing hospital buildings, while the spiritual convent was left with the buildings that were only separated by a narrow lane to the west (with the former Johanneskirche and convent house). In 1543 a northern half-timbered extension was added to the stone house of the citizen hospital facing the main street. The mountain town had grown so much through late medieval city extensions that the building ensemble was in its center. To this day it has remained almost unchanged in the form it was then.
For a long time, the Magdalenenkapelle , halfway to the valley town on a foothill of the Altenberg, was part of the hospital and fell victim to the construction of the salt works around 1820.
The ecclesiastical hospital was secularized at the beginning of the 19th century , but the citizens' hospital continued into the 20th century as a municipal poor house in which simply furnished apartments were furnished. Because of the uninterrupted use up to the recent past and because of the often scarce resources of the city, there was no major renovation or modernization of the building complex until the late 20th century. As a result, the original structure, such as plank beam ceilings and Gothic doors, and the original spatial arrangement of the various building sections have been preserved.
Around 1990, the facility was extensively renovated in accordance with the listed building standards. In view of the quality of its structural fabric, the city decided to use the building for public use; since 1992 it has housed the Imperial City Museum and the city gallery.
literature
- Fritz Arens and Reinhold Bührlen: Wimpfen - history and art monuments , Bad Wimpfen 1991, pp. 68–70.
- Preservation and Use - Monument Programs in Baden-Württemberg , Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 138–140.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '46 " N , 9 ° 9' 44" E