Old town (Dettelbach)
The medieval old town of the Lower Franconian Dettelbach is a historical settlement core of the city. Today it is synonymous with the old town Dettelbach ensemble , which was placed under protection as a building and ground monument in the 15th century walling with the former trenches . For many centuries the city was restricted to this area and only grew out of the wall in the 19th century.
Geographical location
Dettelbach is located in the Kitzinger Main Valley , which is characterized by steep western slopes along the river. The old town itself is to be found in a hollow formed by the smaller side valleys of the Main. Further north, the climb to the Gäuhochflächen begins in the Maindreieck with the so-called Bibergau mountains. Today, the old town is surrounded on almost all sides by new building areas from the 20th century, in the west the area around Breslauer Straße is to be found, in the east there are building areas around the pilgrimage church Maria im Sand. Only a few, newer buildings have been erected in the north. The historic suburb on Kühngasse was originally located here.
The town is divided by the course of the Dettelbach (also Altbach). The eastern, older half of the city is grouped around the central castle hill, which protrudes to the south and west as a terrace and is supported by a lining wall. Due to the hillside location, the roads in the eastern half of the city are mostly irregular and incline. The western half of the city, an extension of the 15th century, on the other hand, spreads out on flatter terrain and also has a more regular floor plan. The ensemble is bounded by the remains of the city fortifications , including the moat .
history
Thetilabach village
The history of Dettelbach's old town is closely linked to the geographic features of the area. The "Fiscus dominicus Thetilabach" (lat. Royal Meierhof Thetilabach) was first mentioned in a document in 741. The place was one of the administrative centers of the Franconian Empire , because the old military road between Würzburg and Bamberg ran here. The courtyard, which marks the origin of today's settlement, can be located on a mountain spur that is now occupied by the parish church.
The manorial court soon attracted people who worked as unfree people for the Frankish kings. At the transition to the High Middle Ages , the kings lost their influence over the smaller courts and gave them away to deserving nobles and clergy. In the centuries that followed, the Lords of Hohenlohe and the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg tried to keep the court and the surrounding settlement. During the 14th century the knights of Tetilabach managed to seize control of the place for a short time .
The knights used the stately area, now occupied by a church, and built their own castle further north. Until the 15th century the place remained economically insignificant and only the area in the east of the Dettelbach was inhabited. It was not until the rule of the Würzburg bishop Rudolf II von Scherenberg that Dettelbach's position changed permanently. The prelate regained the manorial power over the place and promoted Dettelbach as best he could.
City elevation and expansion
In 1484 Dettelbach was raised to the status of town, received market rights and became the official seat of several villages. The town elevation also led to the construction of a fortification, which has largely been preserved today. The area of the city doubled and for the first time reached beyond the Dettelbach, which from then on was to form the geographical center of the settlement. The western part of the city was grouped around the so-called Horn'sche Spital , which was built in 1481.
A small market was created below the parish church because the trunk road ran along here . However, the development of a town was not completed until the town hall was built. It was completed in 1512 and from then on formed the center of Dettelbach connecting both parts of the settlement. The town hall was built above the Dettelbach and was immediately a kind of bridge over the creek. The area in front of the town hall with the Dettelbach valley remained largely undeveloped and still gives the impression of being a village today.
The city continued to grow at the beginning of the 17th century. The resulting pilgrimage to a miraculous Pietà drew many pilgrims to a wayside shrine in the undeveloped east of the Dettelbacher district. A house of worship was quickly built . Thanks to the support of Prince-Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn , the pilgrimage continued to grow and is still one of the most important Marian pilgrimages in the Diocese of Würzburg. The pilgrimage led to a concentration of catering establishments in the city that still exist today.
The city fortifications separated the medieval old town with its 52 towers from the surrounding area. Only the four, later five, gates led into the city from all directions. However, the facilities lost their military function in the Thirty Years' War because the walls and towers no longer had anything to oppose the newer guns . The city was occupied by the Swedes without a fight in 1631. In the following years the fortification slowly deteriorated.
Viticulture , which is particularly important for Dettelbach, flourished in the 18th century . This is one of the reasons why magnificent baroque courtyards were built on the arteries (Würzburger and Bamberger Straße), which were equipped with large gates so that large quantities of wine could be delivered. A short time later, the city became more densely populated, which explains the smaller residential buildings of the 19th century in the far north-west of the city. The area was only loosely built up on the original cadastre from 1832.
Dissolution of the fortification
In the 19th century, the town of Dettelbach experienced a similar development to the other, small towns in the Main Valley. The moat was petrified in 1777 and leased to the residents as gardens . A building in front of the city was built for the first time in 1844. The medieval city center remained untouched by this. The gates formed bottlenecks through which the growing traffic had to get to Dettelbach. The trade that crossed the city between Würzburg and Bamberg suffered from this.
That is why the Steig- and the Neutor were primarily available. In 1857 the wooden crates at the Brückertor and the Maintor were removed so that the city was now open at night. In 1872 the rising gate was torn down, and in 1873 the new gate and the main gate were also removed. At the same time, the number of towers decreased drastically due to decay and demolition. The demolition of the butterfly gate was discussed in 1905, but it was decided to keep the monument .
In 1927 the so-called "Rinnenbach" disappeared in Eichgasse. The bypass road was built between 1956 and 1958 so that the old town was relieved of through traffic. Although cultural tourism in the medieval old town also increased in Dettelbach in the 20th century , parts of the old town have so far not been converted into a pedestrian zone. The reason for this is the important traffic position of the street Am Bach, which leads to the districts in the hinterland.
Streets and squares
The Dettelbach old town is divided into two parts by the Dettelbach river. While the older eastern part is grouped around the Kirchberg, the streets in the western part have been laid out more systematically. In the east, Bamberger Strasse, Falterstrasse and the market have a supraregional character, in the west only representative buildings could develop on Würzburger Strasse. Today's street names mostly come from the 20th century, originally only the more important streets were named. They were:
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(West)
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At the brook / Schweinfurter Strasse
Today's State Road 2270 runs right through the center of Dettelbach and divides it into two halves. The square-like extension in front of the town hall originally formed a rural ensemble that was shaped by the Dettel brook. The stream drove several mills inside the city . Dettelbach's smithy could also be found near the brook . The transition to the city was marked until 1873 by the Maintor, which mediated between the city and the river bank of the Main.
The center of the area around the street on the brook is still today the renaissance town hall , completed in 1512 , which was built as a bracket between both parts of the city over the water. In the second half of the 17th century at the latest, inns and bakeries began to settle at the “Partie am Bach”. On the left side of the stream at the so-called Häfnermarkt, an area was created that was almost exclusively inhabited by Jews . The synagogue , which was destroyed during the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, was located here.
east
One of the oldest streets is in the far north-east and extends up to the church. The Falterstraße was originally a connecting road between the Franconian royal courts on the Vogelsburg and its counterpart in Dettelbach. Today the street is dominated by representative buildings. You will enter via the last preserved city gate, the Faltertor. The former district court has also been preserved here. In addition, the street is dominated by several baroque buildings. Originally the community baking house and the upper bath room were located in Falterstrasse .
Buildings similar to those in Falterstraße can also be found in Huter- and Hirtengasse. The two alleys were probably built before 1600 and were increasingly densified in the following centuries. Small additions can be found here as well as the addition of storeys to individual buildings. The Neugasse (Bamberger Straße), which adjoins it in the south, is more recent and was built according to plan on the trunk road running through here. Hooked courtyards or three-sided courtyards can often be found here . The area was rebuilt after a fire in 1780.
The focal point of the city is still the market further to the northwest with the church battlement. He can be considered the original cell of the settlement. The stately palace was located above the bourgeois market settlement; the bailiff of the Würzburg prince-bishop moved here in 1484 . Later the police station, a school and a Franciscan convent were housed here. The so-called church battlement was used in the Middle Ages and early modern times to read out ordinances.
The market was the economic center of medieval Dettelbach. In 1484 the young town was granted market rights and was allowed to hold three large markets in February, July and December in addition to the weekly markets. In the 19th century, the market quickly lost its importance because the narrowness of the Dettelbacher Markt could not offer the diverse goods of the surrounding towns. Nevertheless, the market forms an architectural island of tradition with tall half-timbered houses . The city's oldest secular building from 1478 can also be found here; today the Dettelbach “Pilgrims & Pilgrims” museum is housed here.
west
The younger part of the city in the west is dominated by Steiggasse (Würzburger Straße). This is where the new part of the city condensed first, because this is where the Würzburg-Bamberg trunk road first reached the city. At the end of the street, what was once the most powerful gate in the Dettelbach city fortifications, the Steigtor, was built. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the post office was built near the gate at the confluence with the former Spital-Gasse .
Langgasse in the very north-west of the city is dominated by more recent buildings from the 19th century. South of Würzburger Strasse is the Horn'schen Spital, the center of the western part of the town. There are many quarry stone houses from the 19th and 20th centuries around the old people's home . A fire broke out here in 1889, which destroyed large parts of the area. Landgerichtsgasse runs parallel to Würzburger Strasse today . In the 19th century it was given a large administration building, and the adjacent men's tower was used as a prison.
Important architectural monuments
In the old town of Dettelbach, buildings from all centuries have been preserved since the Middle Ages . Many older buildings are now classified as historical monuments, but only a fraction of the buildings in the old town have been placed under protection. A particularly large number of monuments can be found in the eastern part of the city, here the buildings on the market stand out. Further traditional islands can be found along Bamberger Straße, Eichgasse and Falterstraße.
The parish church of St. Augustine can be regarded as an important architectural monument of the city . Although its large square tower dates back to before the town was raised, today's church was not built until after 1484. The building was consecrated in 1503 and the smaller tower was added in the 16th century. Both towers were connected by a wooden transition. The church received baroque furnishings in the 18th century , but these were removed in the 19th century. When the interior of the church was renovated in 2011, altar leaves by Michael Triegel were purchased. → see also: St. Augustinus (Dettelbach)
The center of the bourgeois settlement is the representative town hall above the brook. It was created in the early 16th century in the forms of the Renaissance. In front of the gable roof with volute gables , a double flight of stairs leads to an arbor, which is surmounted by a polygonal choir with tracery. The passage on the ground floor of the building also served to hold a market and connected the two parts of the city with one another. → see also: Town Hall (Dettelbach)
The area of the former castle is also located behind the church. The fortification is completely built over ( Burgstall Dettelbach ), today the former rent office can be found on the site . After several renovations and renovations, the courtyard presents itself as a simple solid construction with a gable roof. The Horn'sche Spital on the west side of the stream in Spitalgasse 10 was changed in a similar way. In 1785, a baroque hipped roof building with drilled window frames was built on the site of the previous building from 1481 . A coat of arms of the old foundation has been preserved.
The old town ensemble is bounded by the walling, which in addition to protecting it, had an important political function. The city wall also stood out visually from its legally less well-off surrounding area. The gates and towers are therefore particularly splendid. The last remaining gate is the Faltertor in the northeast of the city. It was built in the middle of the 16th century and presents itself as a wide rectangular building with a hipped roof on which a small spike was placed.
literature
- Hans Bauer: Dettelbach. History of a romantic city on the Main and its districts . Dettelbach 1983.
- Hans Bauer: The cultural landscape development of the old Dettelbach office since the 16th century (= Mainfränkische Studien Volume 17 / I). Diss . Wuerzburg 1977.
- Hans Bauer: From the Stone Age to the city anniversary - a brief look back at the history of Dettelbach . In: City of Dettelbach (Ed.): Dettelbach. 1484-1984. Festschrift and small characteristics of a 500 year old city . Dettelbach 1984. pp. 16-36.
- Hans-Eckhard Lindemann: Historic town centers in Main Franconia. History - structure - development . Munich 1989.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Bauer, Hans: From the Stone Age to the city anniversary . P. 20.
- ^ Lindemann, Hans-Eckhard: Historic town centers in Mainfranken . P. 55.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: Dettelbach and its districts . P. 84.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: Dettelbach and its districts . P. 22.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: Dettelbach and its districts . P. 186.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: Dettelbach and its districts . P. 170.
- ^ Lindemann, Hans-Eckhard: Historic town centers in Mainfranken . P. 55 f.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: Dettelbach and its districts . P. 176.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: Dettelbach and its districts . P. 192.
Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 6.7 ″ N , 10 ° 9 ′ 38 ″ E