Bonn city fortifications
The Bonn city fortifications protected the city of Bonn over a longer period of its history . A medieval wall ring from the 13th century was supplemented by baroque fortifications in the 17th century . The best-known remains are the Old Customs and the Star Gate . Remnants have also been preserved in some other places in the city.
history
middle Ages
The city wall was erected on March 18, 1244 after the Archbishop of Cologne, Konrad von Hochstaden, was granted city rights . Today's Kasernenstrasse and Theaterstrasse mark the north-west and north of the city wall. It had four main gates: The Stockentor ( Stocken pfort ) to the south (since the 18th century also Koblenzer Tor ), the Sterntor ( (Pi) sternen pfort ) to the west (Eifel) at the end of Sternstraße (in the Middle Ages Pisternenstraße - Bäckerstraße , from lat. pistrina - bakery), the Kölntor ( Cölnisch pfort ) as the northern main gate to Cologne (today's intersection of Kölnstraße / Kasernenstraße) and the Rheinpforte to the bank of the Rhine as the eastern main gate. Other port gates were the Giertor ( Gier pfort ) and the Krantor ( Gran pfort ) above the customs, near which a pedal crane stood for loading. In addition to the main gates, which in the course of the Middle Ages were expanded into arches based on the Cologne model, there was also the Mülheimer Pförtchen ( Mülmer Thörlen , today's Mülheimer Platz ) a little south of the Sterntor to the southwest and the Wenzelpforte ( Wentzel gate ) to the north between Kölntor and the Rhine (at today's crossing Welschnonnenstrasse / Theaterstrasse) at the end of what was then Wenstergasse ( Wanstmachergasse , now Wenzelgasse), which led from the market north to the northern city wall. As in Cologne, on a smaller scale, the Rhine side was strongly fortified. The northern bulwark was a square defense tower ( new tower ) with battlements to secure the access to the banks of the Rhine, at the southern end of the Rhine wall the new customs (later called old customs ) was built under Archbishop Salentin von Isenburg after 1576 .
Modern times
Among the reasons for the gain of 300 years proven medieval wall like the threat of the Rhine skier Pfaff cap on the victory mouth and the course of the Thirty Years' War , particularly in the years 1642-44, count. The advances in the manufacture of guns at that time forced many cities to build fortifications with a reduced hit area through appropriately inclined masonry.
A leading master builder is not known for the baroque fortifications, the Munich construction industry around Elector Ferdinand's relatives and the contemporary fortress construction by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban had a recognizable influence . Most of the engineering officers involved came from the Italian or French school. In 1688 Ing. Thomas de Choisy , Governor of Saarlouis , was named as the "First Man after Vauban". In 1701 the elector Joseph Clemens held the formal management.
The development of weapon technology and the increased artillery effect required a deep, bastionary fortress belt. The construction of the modern fortification began in Bonn in 1587 with the construction of a ski jump in front of the Sterntor. In 1622/23 the construction of the bastion fortifications at the Stockentor began. From 163 to 1642 the customs bastion was built in the area of the former Renaissance customs building from the time of the former Cologne Elector Salentin von Isenburg . The first reliable mention of the old customs comes from 1644 in the original plan of the fortress.
During the occupations of Bonn in 1673, 1689, 1703 and 1811, the facility was partially destroyed, the heaviest in 1689, and subsequent repairs. In the 18th century, the Old Customs was popular as the “palace terrace”.
Shares received
Medieval city wall
The Sterntor , which was rebuilt two years after the demolition of the original gate castle on Bottlerplatz in 1900 as an art product of its time , also contains parts of the city wall and a semicircular tower. Since 1987/88, part of the counter wall at Friedensplatz has served as a medieval fortification ( Contrescarpe ) as a seating wall in the pedestrian zone.
Since 2006 there has been a bronze plaque and signs in the pavement on Gangolfstrasse . The architectural suggestion in the shop window of house no.11 gives an idea of the shape of the half-tower as a continuation of the floor markings. Not directly visible, but the course of the city wall in the cityscape along Theaterstrasse in the area of the Beethovenhalle towards the bank of the Rhine can be sensed. The Beethoven Hall as one of the subsequent superstructures marks the northern bastion of the city wall.
Baroque city fortifications
The Alte Zoll is a former bastion of the facility on the banks of the Rhine and is now a popular excursion destination in the city center (Photo: 5). Other smaller remnants are, in the order of their rediscovery or installation:
- In 1972, during construction work, the Maximilian Bastion , also called Botterweck and built between 1642 and 1648, was recognizable. The southeast corner ( Kurtinenwinkel ) was later in a gallery in the business Cassiusbastei ( Maximilianstrasse left visible). (Image: left of 1).
- 1989: Bastion fountain with a bronze floor plan near the curtain wall of the Maximilian and Heinrich bastions in Windeckstrasse (picture: at 3) (cannot be visited at the moment, possibly due to construction work).
- In the course of the demolition of Bonn, the now listed, 35-meter-long Sterntorbrücke disappeared from the cityscape. Its seven barrel vaults , rhythmically structured towards the middle and made of bricks, span the partially buried moat and connected the newer outer star gate from 1662, which was demolished in 1858, with the bank of the western fortress foreland. In the Sterntorbrücke pedestrian zone , paved areas have been referring to the original bridge since 1993, which was widened in a southerly direction to over 10 meters in the middle of the 19th century and adorned with circular ornaments as building decorations.
- Since 1996 is the northern and southern face of the bastion Sterntor / St.Maria , built in 1658-64, on Annagraben near the new courthouse. Another part of the wall was visibly included in the Oxfordstrasse / Wilhelmstrasse underground car park (picture: at 4).
- In 1999 a part of the curtain wall between the bastions Heinrich and Sterntor / St. Maria , built 1658–64, was exposed in the new "malt house" in the basement of a brewery restaurant ( Sterntorbrücke ) (picture: at 4).
- The curtain wall between the Ferdinand and Cassius bastions from 1642 has been in the Kaiserpassage since 2000 (picture: between A and B).
- A bronze plate and floor stone markings have been reminding of the course of the southwestern face of Bastion Cassius from 1642 in Gangolfstrasse since 2006 .
- Well-preserved remains of the wall in the line on the northern flank of Bastion Heinrich were uncovered in 2011 on the construction site at Friedensplatz 1 and documented in 3D. Also in the special exhibition of the StadtMuseum (from December 2013 to April 2014 "Bonn as a fortress city | The Bonn city fortifications of the 16th and 17th centuries", continued from May to June 2014 and expanded as "The bombing of Bonn in 1689 | Bonn as a fortress city") this 3D computer reconstruction was shown. In two places in the new underground car park of Sparkasse KölnBonn, pieces of the wall have been left visible. For example, near the entrance to the underground car park, the only known place of discovery is the inner structure of the fortress wall in the cross-section on the wall enclosed with a concrete frame (fired bricks and intermediate layers with horizontal basalt columns). The other piece of the bastion wall, which is enclosed in concrete and exposed in the parking area, with a recognizable small space, still puzzles the experts.
The course of the bastionary system in the cityscape from Wilhelmstrasse to the bleached wax in the area of the Beethovenhalle is not directly visible, but can be suspected as a topographical trace . The hall itself stands as one of the successor buildings on the remains of the bastion that Bonn protected on the banks of the Rhine to the north.
The streets Florentiusgraben, Annagraben and Wachsbleiche run as ditch streets in the partially filled ditch and thus reflect the course of the modern fortifications.
Further fortifications in Bonn
Other fortifications in Bonn city area, the existing 1,583 to 1,713 Beueler ski jump and the Roman camp close to the former, ancient Castra Bonnensia located Schänzchen . Other systems in Bonn's urban area that were not connected to the medieval or baroque fortifications were or are various castles and knight seats in the villages in the area that were later incorporated, such as Castle Endeich and Dransdorfer Burg , whereby there were concrete plans to integrate Godesburg structurally into the insert baroque overall concept.
literature
- Gebhard Aders : Bonn as a fortress. A contribution to the topography of the city and the history of its sieges , L. Röhrscheid, Bonn 1973, (series: Publications of the Stadtarchiv Bonn, Vol. 12) is the classic on this topic.
- Ingrid Bodsch (ed.); Sigrid Lange (edit.): The bombing of Bonn in 1689 - Bonn as a fortress city . Book accompanying the exhibition at the StadtMuseum Bonn , Bonn 2014, ISBN 978-3-931878-44-3 .
- Alexander Hess: The Bonn city fortifications and their effects on today's cityscape , In: Fortis. The 2015/2016 magazine. Cologne 2016, pp. 83–97. Fortis Colonia magazine
- Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the city and the district of Bonn . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1905, pp. 143–154 (= Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , Volume 5, Section 3, pp. 439–450). (Unchanged reprint Verlag Schwann, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-590-32113-X ) ( Internet Archive )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Hess: The Bonn city fortifications and their effects on today's cityscape. In: Fortis. Das Magazin, p. 84f.
- ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), p. 62, number B 13
- ↑ Impressively reproduced in the documentation DVD Bonner Keller Tell Stadtgeschichte | From Roman times to the nuclear bunker. Verlag und Medien Service, 2017, ISBN 978-3936-253-90-0 in Edition Rheinland in the film by Georg Divossen.
- ↑ Alexander Hess, pp. 90, 93f, 96f.
Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 5.1 ″ N , 7 ° 6 ′ 29 ″ E