Old Town Bridge (Görlitz)
Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 28 " N , 14 ° 59 ′ 38" E
| Old Town Bridge | ||
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| use | Pedestrians, cyclists | |
| Subjugated | Lusatian Neisse | |
| place | Goerlitz | |
| construction | Arch bridge | |
| width | 8.50 m (in the middle of the bridge) | |
| Longest span | 79.984 m | |
| building-costs | € 2,659,100 | |
| start of building | April 28, 2003 | |
| opening | October 20, 2004 | |
| construction time | 18 months | |
| planner | Engineering office Geudner & Partner GbR | |
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The old town bridge was the first fortified Neisse crossing in the Görlitz city area . Until 1945 it connected the Görlitz old town with the eastern suburb in various forms . After the bridge was blown up in May 1945 and the city was subsequently separated into a German and a Polish part, only the stone abutments on both banks were reminiscent of the bridge. In 2004, a new building was opened as a pedestrian bridge between Görlitz on the German side and Zgorzelec on the Polish side over the Lusatian Neisse . The arched bridge has a span of around 80 meters and is intended to be a symbol for a Europe that is growing together and districts that are growing together again.
location
The old town bridge connects the Görlitz old town with the Zgorzelec Neisse suburb. Coming from Görlitzer Neißstraße, cross Uferstraße or Hotherstraße below the parish church of St. Peter and Paul to get to the bridge. To the north of the bridge is the Vierradenmühle on the German side on Hotherstraße . On the Polish side, the bridge opens on Ulica Wrocławska (formerly Breslauer Straße) at Postplatz, which is being built according to the historical model. The three-wheel mill is located north of the bridge . A weir overflows the Neisse between the three and four-wheel mill.
history
A bridge at this location was first mentioned in 1298. It was made of wood and had to be renewed again and again, as not only the burden of the trade caravans paid its tribute, but also fires, floods and the effects of war.
To secure the only river crossing in the area, a defensive tower was built on the bridgehead on the east side around 1470 - the so-called Spittelturm or Spitalturm . In addition, city architect Wendel Roskopf recommended to the city in 1536 after the great city fire of June 12, 1525, in which the old town bridge was also destroyed, the replacement of the wooden bridge by building a new stone bridge, which, however, was not realized for reasons of cost. The bridge was only given a roof in 1566. The wooden bridge and its roofing as well as the Spittelturm can be seen very well in the center of the picture on the cityscape from 1575.
During the Thirty Years' War the city , which was occupied by Swedish troops, was again besieged in 1641 by imperial troops from the Electorate of Saxony. As a copper engraving from 1641 shows, the old town bridge was also set on fire during the fighting for the city. On May 23, 1813, retreating Prussian and Russian troops from the battle of Bautzen set fire to the bridge, but as early as June 3, it could be prepared again so that it was passable.
In the north of the city on Rothenburger Straße at the Vorwerk Tischbrücke , a flat emergency bridge over the Neisse was always opened when the old town bridge was inaccessible.
For the first time, further crossings across the Lusatian Neisse were built in the city in the 19th century. The first thing that was done in 1847 was a 475-meter-long railway bridge over the deep Neißetal south of the city center - the Neißeviadukt . To relieve the inner-city traffic, the Reichenberger Bridge (today: Pope-Johannes-Paul-II.-Stadtbrücke) followed in 1875 south of the city park . In 1897 the old town bridge was destroyed by a flood.
For the successor building, the house where Jakob Böhmes died and the Church of the Holy Spirit on the east bank as well as the Carl Samuel Geißler cloth factory at the location of the old Neißebadestube on the west bank had to give way to the new construction of the old town bridge and a new traffic route. In 1907 a modern steel arch bridge replaced the previous wooden structure. A bronze relief was attached to the southern pillar on the east bank, reminding of the broken bridge and the Church of the Holy Spirit. The bridge was blown up on May 7, 1945, like all other Neisse crossings in the city, by retreating Wehrmacht troops.
According to the division of Germany decided at the Yalta Conference in the spring of 1945, after the capitulation of the German Reich, the areas east of the Neisse and Oder rivers were assigned to the Polish state. The eastern suburb of Görlitz, which connected the old town bridge with the old town until the day before the surrender, fell under Polish administration. Initially, there was no need to rebuild the old town bridge, as border traffic between the two sub-towns was handled via the rebuilt town bridge. In 1950 the rubble of the blown old bridge was cleared away.
After the fall of the Wall, rebuilding the bridge was within reach. In 2003, construction work began on the new old town bridge. At the Görlitz Old Town Festival from August 26th to 28th, 2004, thousands of visitors and residents of the twin cities of Görlitz / Zgorzelec crowded across the not yet officially opened old town bridge. After a construction period, it was officially opened for pedestrian and bicycle traffic on October 20, 2004. Until Poland joined the Schengen Agreement , border controls were still carried out on the Polish side of the bridge by German and Polish border officials. For this purpose, a temporary container building was erected, which disappeared after Poland joined Schengen in 2007. During the annual Old Town Festival and the Jakuby Festival on the Zgorzelec side, which takes place at the same time , the bridge has since connected the two festival areas on both sides of the Neisse.
