Brussels Square
The Brussels Square is the center of the Belgian Quarter in Cologne with the Catholic parish church of St. Michael as a striking landmark.
history
Hermann Josef Stübben , who was the town architect from 1881 to 1898 , was commissioned in the first year of his activity to have the walls of the medieval town fortifications with their 12 gates and 24 gates largely laid down and to build a lavish and splendid ring boulevard in their place . With the first breakthrough of the city wall on Gereonswall on June 11, 1881 and its further demolition, the steadily growing city had the opportunity to expand into the terrain in front of it - the area of today's Cologne Neustadt - for which building was prohibited until then . In May 1889 the Archdiocese purchased the property on Brussels Square. Since all of Cologne's churches were to be aligned with the cathedral according to Stübben's ideas , a provisional brick building was built within 100 days based on plans by Heinrich Krings in 1894, which was consecrated on September 29, 1894. Between 1902 and 1907 the square was designed as a large open space, with the church in the center. In 1981 and 1982 Brussels Square got its present form.
St. Michael Church
In just ten years the parish had almost tripled, making it necessary to build a larger church. According to the plans of the Cologne architect Eduard Endler , today's neo-Romanesque building was built between 1902 and 1906 and was consecrated on September 29, 1906, St. Michael's Day. After the cathedral and St. Agnes , the church of St. Michael is the third largest church in Cologne. During the Second World War , the Belgian Quarter was also affected by Allied air raids. On September 28, 1944, 50 years after the parish was founded, the church of St. Michael was hit and the crossing tower and the dome were destroyed. When the church was rebuilt in 1956, the crossing tower was dispensed with. The ship was given a wooden ceiling to improve acoustics. The monumental nativity scene by the sculptor Hermann Inhetvin from 1928 was restored in 1995, and a new organ with 2,300 pipes was installed in the same year.
Center of the Belgian Quarter
The plaza lined with plane trees and the church form the center of the Belgian Quarter. Surrounded to the west and east by Moltkestraße and Brusselser Straße, Neue Maastrichter Straße branches off diagonally towards the northwest.
In the trendy district around the square there are boutiques, galleries, theaters, goldsmiths, trendy pubs, cafes and bars. Between March 2005 and February 2011 there was a reading stage on Brussels Square .
Noise pollution
Residents of Brussels Square have been fighting against the night life since World Youth Day in 2005 , when there was a church-organized stage program here. Since then, the young people have discovered the square in the summer months as an ideal location to pass the time. The first citizen complaints came in 2008. Despite various efforts to resolve the conflict with mediation, rules, obligations and the privatization of the square, it was not possible to contain the noise. It has been reported in the media several times, especially in connection with the noise nuisance of residents. In a judgment of October 20, 2011, the Cologne Administrative Court confirmed the reduction in the curfew imposed by the city for the period from March 19 to October 31, 2011 by means of an administrative order for the kiosk located directly on Brussels Square (0:00 - 6:00 a.m.). A judicial procedure before the Cologne Administrative Court on August 23, 2013 confirmed that the noise regulations must be complied with. According to several reports, the between 500 and 1000 people emit a disturbing noise. On June 4, 2011, there were 1570 people on the square at night.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 18.5 ″ N , 6 ° 56 ′ 4.7 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Die Welt from June 10, 2014, Jens Tönnesmann: The great ditch
- ↑ Kölner Stadtanzeiger from June 6, 2010, Insel fürs Feiervolk
- ^ VG Köln, judgment of October 20, 2011, Az .: 1 K 2016/11