Citizens Hospital (Kronach)
The Bürgerspital in the Upper Franconian town of Kronach is a social institution that was probably built towards the end of the 14th century . It originally served to accommodate and care for old and sick citizens who could not provide for their own support, and as a hostel for destitute travelers. In the 19th century, the city's first hospital was built right next to the hospital and the associated Roman Catholic hospital church St. Anna . The hospital was closed in the middle of the 20th century and its building was annexed to the Citizens Hospital, which served as a senior citizens' home and nursing home until spring 2014. The buildings of the citizen's hospital, which is owned by the city of Kronach, are under monument protection .
Location and description
The Bürgerspital is located south of the old town of Kronach on a plot of land on the west side of Spitalstrasse. The building complex extends almost in an east-west direction along the right bank of the Kronach .
The main building is a plastered , two-storey hipped roof building with sandstone structure and two side wings on the south side facing the river. A large-format relief with the coat of arms of the Bamberg prince-bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn is attached to the southern front of the eastern side wing . Above the entrance door on the north side of the building is the inscription "Johann Heinrich Murmann des Raths and Hospitallmeister alhier Anno 1715".
Directly to the east side of the main building of with close pursuit occupied choir with five-eighth final at the hospital church of St. Anne. The nave of the church is integrated into the hospital building, as is the bell tower , which sits on the main building in the form of a roof turret . A relief with a crucifixion group and two people kneeling in front of it is embedded in the eastern outer wall of the choir facing Spitalstrasse . These two kneeling figures represent Jörg von Zeyern , a sponsor of the hospital foundation, and his wife Anna. The relief is, however, a replica; the original from the 15th century is inside the church.
To the west of the main building is another two-story hipped roof building, which was originally built as a hospital. It is structured vertically by pilasters and has triangular gables on the north and south sides. The northern gable bears the inscription "Wohlthaetigkeits-Anstalt" and the year 1821, in the southern one is the coat of arms of the town of Kronach. In the 20th century, this formerly free-standing building was connected to the main building.
A third building is located north of the former hospital building on the north side of the property. This outbuilding is a massive one- story hipped roof building with jointed corner blocks .
history
The citizen hospital was probably built towards the end of the 14th century under the Bamberg prince-bishop Lamprecht von Brunn . In 1430, this first hospital building was destroyed by fire during the siege of Kronach by the Hussites . It is unclear whether the building was burned down by the attackers or whether the townspeople themselves were responsible for setting fire to the suburbs around the hospital to drive away the Hussites. The destroyed building was restored in 1462. The hospital church was built between 1464 and 1467.
During the Thirty Years War , the city of Kronach was attacked and besieged several times by the Swedes and their German allies. During a siege in 1634, the attackers set parts of the city on fire, which destroyed the hospital building again; the hospital church was spared. The burned down hospital was rebuilt in 1644/45.
The hospital and church were given their current appearance in the years 1715 to 1718, when the buildings were rebuilt and expanded under the direction of the architect and builder Johann Dientzenhofer ; the structures were connected to form a unit. The renovations were carried out during the reign of Prince Bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn, whose coat of arms was attached to the south facade of the hospital building.
In 1821 another building was erected to the west of the hospital building, which housed the city's first hospital until 1954. The construction management was the responsibility of Johann Baptist Dietrich and his son Melchior. In 1957 the former hospital was connected to the original hospital building by a corridor. Today's two-storey connecting wing dates from 1989/90.
From 1882 the citizens' hospital was run by Niederbronn sisters , and in 2005 the Caritas Association of the Kronach district took over this task. In March 2014, the senior citizens' home and nursing home in the Bürgerspital was closed. The triggers were new legal provisions for residential and nursing homes, which came into force in June 2016, and fire protection regulations to be met. In addition to the high costs that would have arisen from the necessary structural changes, the changed provisions would have made a significant reduction in the 36 care places necessary; the operation of the home would no longer have been profitable. In addition, monument preservation requirements for the listed buildings might have made the renovations more difficult or prevented.
In the course of the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 onwards , several underage refugees who had come to Germany unaccompanied were housed in the hospital buildings from May 2015 to December 2017.
swell
- Information board of the Lions Club Kronach by the building.
- Denis André Chevalley: Upper Franconia . Ed .: Michael Petzet , Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (= Monuments in Bavaria . Volume IV ). Oldenbourg, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-486-52395-3 .
- Ludwig Hertel: History of Kronach in street names - A guide through the 1000-year-old Franconian town . 3rd revised and expanded edition. Kronach 2015.
- Hans Kremer, Helmut Wenig: coat of arms stones and stone inscriptions in Kronach and on the fortress Rosenberg . Ed .: Working group for home care (= Heimatkundliches Jahrbuch des Landkreis Kronach . Volume 4/1976 ).
- Sascha Vogel: Bathing and health care in Kronach . In: Bernd Wollner, Hermann Wich (Hrsg.): Historisches Stadtlesebuch: Kronach - 1000 years of history of a city and its inhabitants . 1000 Years of Kronach Association, Kronach 2003, ISBN 3-00-011351-7 , p. 182-199 .
- Corinna Igler: Kronacher Bürgerspital will soon no longer be a retirement home. inFranken.de, August 15, 2013, accessed on November 24, 2015 .
- Bianca Hennings: New life in the citizen hospital . In: New Press Coburg . Local edition Kronach. June 6, 2015, p. 7 .
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 18.7 ″ N , 11 ° 19 ′ 28.7 ″ E