Old Town Market (Braunschweig)

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The Braunschweig old town market
Braunschweig's old town (shown in red) around 1400 with the old town market in the center
Map of the old town market

The Old Town Square is the central square of the Braunschweiger precincts of Old Town . With its urban ensemble of great historical and cultural importance, it is one of the five so-called “ traditional islands ” of the city.

It can be reached via An der Martinikirche , Breite Strasse , Gördelingerstrasse and Brabandtstrasse .

Name origin

The old town market, planned as a western extension of the Kohlmarkt at the beginning of the 12th century , was first mentioned in a document in 1158 as "scampnum forense" . Later sources refer to it as "forum Brunswicense" (1206), "de market in der oldenstat" (1268) or simply as "de markt" in the following . From 1758 the current name "Old Town Market" prevailed.

history

The old town market was probably designed as a rectangle in the early 12th century . At that time, a wide moat still ran over the area. Immigrant merchants who came from Westphalia , among others , ensured increasing prosperity in the Weichbild, which in the Middle Ages became the most powerful part of Braunschweig. The urban ensemble of Martinikirche and the old town hall opposite can be seen as the bourgeois counterpart to the ducal castle district consisting of cathedral and Dankwarderode Castle . In the course of history, the old town market was market place and exhibition center, place of execution until around 1750, meeting place during inner-city unrest (“ shifts ”), venue for equestrian games, parades and processions. Here the Guelf sovereigns and city lords received the homage to the self-confident, almost independent city until 1671.

Market and trade fair area

The old town market has been an important trading center since the early 12th century. To check the dealer was located at the nearby coal market , the balance of the old town , while the " Braunschweiger Elle " is attached to the Old Town Hall. The weekly market is still held here every Wednesday and Saturday.

Buildings

Spatial arrangement of the buildings on and around the old town market

Excerpt from the city map by Friedrich Wilhelm Culemann from 1798. To be seen: In the center below the old town market and above from right to left the Breite Straße , Gördelingerstraße and Schützenstraße .
Stechinelli house
Old Town Hall House of the Seven Towers
Wind rose small.svg
Martinikirche
Former Rüninger customs house
Gewandhaus

The old town market fountain from 1408 is located directly on the market square.

Old Town Hall

Main article: Old Town Hall

Old Town Hall, Old Town Market Fountain, behind it the Stechinelli House

The Gothic old town hall, which was preserved despite the extensive destruction of the Second World War , was the largest of the Braunschweig town halls. It consists of two wings that meet at right angles. A previous building existed before 1253, the west wing existed in 1302. The north wing was built between 1393 and 1396. The arcades of the northern extension were built between 1447 and 1468. Between 1455 and 1468, the sculptor Hans Hesse d. J. made of limestone, the 17 larger-than-life ruler figures that can be seen on the east and south side of the arcade since then. These are supposed to be statues of Ottonian and Guelph emperors, kings and dukes. The peculiarity of the statues is that, with the exception of the emperor Lothar von Süpplingenburg standing alone on a corner pillar , they were each depicted with their wives. The details are: King Heinrich I and Mathilde the Holy , Emperor Otto I and Adelheid of Burgundy , Emperor Otto II and Theophanu , Emperor Otto III. with his fiancée Zoe, Lothar von Süpplingenburg , Emperor Otto IV and Beatrix von Schwaben , Duke Heinrich the Lion and Mathilde of England , Wilhelm von Lüneburg and his wife Helena of Denmark , Duke Otto the Child and Mathilde of Brandenburg .

Restorations took place in the 19th century and after severe war damage after the end of the Second World War . Today the building is used for representation and exhibition purposes.

St. Martini

Main article: Martini Church

Martini Church seen from the market

The founding construction of the old town parish church of St. Martini began around 1190–1195 based on the construction plan of the cathedral . The initially three-aisled Romanesque pillar basilica was rebuilt as a Gothic hall church between around 1250 and 1400. Around 1400 it was expanded with a choir polygon, and in 1434 the Annenkapelle attached to the south side was consecrated. After being destroyed during the Second World War, the Martini church was consecrated again in 1956, but initially only received small, "blunt" spikes for its two 60 m high towers. The exterior facade, which had been blackened due to the war, was restored between 1979 and 1987. The original pointed spiers were finally restored to the church on October 15, 1980.

Gewandhaus

Main article: Gewandhaus

The north side of the Gewandhaus facing the old town market, on the right the customs house, in the center the old town market fountain

The Gewandhaus on the south side of the old town market, first mentioned in 1303, was originally a warehouse, sales and guild house of the old town's dressmakers . A renovation took place between 1588 and 1592, with the east and south sides receiving a richly decorated façade in the Renaissance style . The building, which was restored in 1858, served in the 19th century as a warehouse, wine shop and shop during trade fairs . After being severely damaged in 1944, the Gewandhaus was rebuilt from 1948 to 1950, and the facade was renovated in 1976.

The quarry stone north side of the Gewandhaus has only shaped the south side of the old town market since the end of 1944. Until it was completely destroyed by numerous bombing raids during the Second World War , the stone wall had been covered for centuries by a series of half-timbered houses attached to the Gewandhaus, the “Krambuden”.

Former Rüninger customs house

Former Rüninger customs house , seen from the north

Instead of the junk stalls from the late 15th century, which were completely destroyed in the war, the former Rüninger customs house from 1643 was built between 1948 and 1950 on the northwest corner of the Gewandhaus , after it had been demolished in Rüningen , where it has remained for over 300 years the medieval Reichsstrasse to Frankfurt am Main .

Stechinelli house

Main article: Stechinelli house

The Stechinelli house

The Baroque Stechinelli House, built in 1690 by Francesco Maria Capellini , known as "Stechinelli" , is located on the corner of the Altstadtmarkt and Breite Straße . Coming from the impoverished Italian nobility, Stechinelli became prosperous in the service of the Guelph dukes as general hereditary postmaster.

Until 1368 the "closet" or "Bliden schrank" was located here , whereby the word "closet" meant "locked room" and "Bliden" were small artillery pieces . The house therefore served as an armory in which the old town's weapons were kept. In 1368 the name “closet” was transferred to a successor building at the same location, which in turn gave way to the Stechinelli House in 1690 and lost its old name. During the Second World War, the building was destroyed except for the portal, but then rebuilt.

House of the Seven Towers

Main article: House of the Seven Towers

The "House of the 7 Towers"

The name "House of the Seven Towers" or "The Seven Towers" for the building at Altstadtmarkt 11 has been used since 1294. According to legend, a Brunswick citizen, who accompanied Duke Heinrich the Lion on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1172 , had it built after his return. As a reminder of his incarceration in the State Prison of the Seven Towers in Constantinople , the unknown citizen had seven decorative turrets attached to his house. In the middle of the 14th century, the building belonged to the von Damm patrician family from Braunschweig. In 1374, the “Great Shift”, a bloody guild revolt against the council of the old town , broke out in the neighboring Schuhhof . In the course of this shift, the then house owner and mayor of the old town Tile von Damm was executed on April 19, 1374 on the Hagenmarkt and his house was looted and set on fire. The front of today's house was built in 1708, the executive architect is said to have been Hermann Korb . The building was rebuilt after 1945 after severe war damage.

Altstadtmarktbrunnen

Main article: Altstadtmarktbrunnen

The old town market fountain

Almost in the middle of the old town market has been the late Gothic old town market fountain, cast from lead on November 24, 1408 (a copy since August 2, 1988). The original, consisting of three large water bowls and decorated with coats of arms and figures as well as inscriptions in Middle Low German , was very badly damaged or partly irreparably destroyed during the bombing of the Second World War, especially in 1944, because the lead of the bowls was despite previous protective measures against bomb damage had largely melted in the firestorm . This damage was extensively repaired from the end of July 1945 and the restored fountain was inaugurated on December 4, 1951. The appearance of new severe damage made it necessary to replace it with a replica and to restore it again in 1991. The remains of the original fountain, the lowest basin and a fragment of the central shell, can be viewed today in the branch of the Municipal Museum in the Old Town Hall.

More buildings

At the beginning of the Breiten Straße, right next to the north facade of the old town hall there is the Autorshof , a Renaissance building from 1697, named after the patron saint of Braunschweig the Holy Au (c) tor . It was built for trade fair purposes on the site of the former authors' band. Destroyed in the Second World War, the Autorshof was rebuilt after the end of the war.

The following historical buildings on the old town market are no longer preserved: the Kleidhof , called 1307, the Kürschnerhof from 1308 and the Schuhhof from 1350.

Others

Braunschweig Carnival

Main article: Braunschweig Carnival

Germany’s fourth largest and northern Germany’s largest carnival parade takes place every year on the Sunday before Rose Monday. The event will be broadcast live from the old town market on television by NDR .

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments, Bremen / Lower Saxony , Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1977
  • Jürgen Hodemacher : Braunschweig's streets - their names and their stories, Volume 1: Innenstadt , Cremlingen 1995
  • Günther Jahn: Altstadtmarkt in: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon, published on behalf of the city of Braunschweig by Luitgard Camerer, Manfred RW Garzmann and Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf with special assistance from Norman-Mathias Pingel, pp. 14-15, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701- 14-5
  • Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig - history and stories , in: City archive and public library Braunschweig. Kleine Schriften Nr. 18 , published on behalf of the city of Braunschweig by Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998
  • Richard Moderhack : Braunschweiger Stadtgeschichte , Braunschweig 1997
  • Karl Steinacker : The City of Braunschweig , edited original edition from 1924, Braunschweig 2006

Web links

Commons : Altstadtmarkt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig - history and stories , in: City archive and public library Braunschweig. Kleine Schriften Nr. 18 , published on behalf of the city of Braunschweig by Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998, p. 15
  2. ^ Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig - history and stories , in: City archive and public library Braunschweig. Kleine Schriften Nr. 18 , edited by Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf, on behalf of the city of Braunschweig, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998, p. 19
  3. Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8th to 18th centuries , Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, p. 297
  4. ^ Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig - history and stories , in: City archive and public library Braunschweig. Small writings No. 18 , edited by Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf, on behalf of the city of Braunschweig, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998, p. 13
  5. ^ Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig - history and stories , in: City archive and public library Braunschweig. Small writings No. 18 , edited by Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf, on behalf of the city of Braunschweig, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998, p. 17
  6. ^ Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig - history and stories , in: City archive and public library Braunschweig. Small writings No. 18 , edited by Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998, p. 7f
  7. ^ NN: The fountain on the old town market in Braunschweig. Braunschweig 1951, title page

Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 46 ″  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 3 ″  E