Caesar and Knoeffel's house

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North-east corner of the Coselpalais with the remains of Caesar's house
Location of the Caesar and Knoeffel house
facade
facade

The Caesar and Knoeffelsche Haus were two palais-like residential buildings built by Johann Christoph Knoeffel in 1746 on Salzgasse in Dresden . The houses stood on the site of the Coselpalais built in 1764 and were largely destroyed in the Prussian bombardment of Dresden on July 19, 1760.

description

Both houses had their main façades facing Salzgasse. It was a three-wing and a four-wing apartment building, each with a five-story and seven-axis main facade facing Salzgasse. The facade of at least Caesar's house showed a three-axis central projection, which was particularly decorative. The Knoeffelsche House will have been executed in the same style. On the ground floor there was a portal with a large segment arch with a cartridge and flower chains on the side. The triaxial central projection rose above it, the window walls of which were richly profiled and provided with steps on the upper edge. On the first and second floors there were square relief fields decorated with rocailles between the windows. The jewelry consisted of cartouches and various shell motifs as well as flower chains and palm fronds. On the third floor, the windows closed off without decoration. The arched windows located on the fourth floor and adjoining a belt cornice were also without decoration.

Hentschel and May explain that the side facade and back of the Coselpalais were still those of the original building, only the facade facing the Frauenkirche was completely redesigned. They also believe that the building could have been stylistically related to the Dresden Hotel “Stadt Rom” . However, Hertzig does not share this assumption, for example because of “the elaborate and also very unique architectural language” of the Dresden hotel “Stadt Rom”.

history

The mill that had been on this site since the 16th century and had long served as a powder tower was demolished after Johann Christoph Knöffel had received the property as a gift. Knöffel built two five-storey houses on this property, which are described in a contemporary text as “two large, fifth-storey, level stone buildings according to the latest architecture”. Hasche writes that Knöffel “built his massive five-storey house on the permanent foundation walls”. The new building was completed by March 1746 at the latest.

Also Stefan Hertzig and Henning Prince speak of two larger houses. Accordingly, the eastern house has been sold to the secretary and chief clerk Johann Carl Caesar. The western house remained in Knöffel's property.

As in many Dresden town houses, there were “sales vaults” on the ground floor of the houses, i.e. shops. For example, Meissen porcelain was sold in Knöffel's house.

Both parts of the building complex were affected to different degrees by the bombardment of the Seven Years' War . While the western Knöffel building was probably completely destroyed, at least the facade of Caesar's house was preserved. So the eastern of the two buildings could be rebuilt by the owner by 1762. It was sold in 1763 to Friedrich August von Cosel , who had also acquired the property of the Knöffel House. Taking the existing remains into account, the Coselpalais was created by November 1765, with the orientation of the buildings being rotated 90 degrees in the direction of the Frauenkirche.

According to May and Hentschel, Knöffel's house still had a mortgage of 20,000 thalers on his death, which was "more than covered" by the large palace-like building, because when the house burned down in 1760, its value was given as 40,000 thalers, which was "at its size was entirely believable ”. It was even the "largest amount ever registered".

The residents of Caesar's house included the Saxon court painter Bernardo Bellotto , who lived here until 1758. When the house was destroyed in 1760, Bellotto's losses amounted to 50,000 Reichstaler. In addition to Canaletto's furniture, numerous etched plates were destroyed.

literature

  • Stefan Hertzig: The late Baroque town house in Dresden 1738–1790 . Society of Historical Neumarkt Dresden e. V., Dresden 2007, ISBN 3-9807739-4-9 , pp. 88-93 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Stefan Hertzig, Walter May , Henning Prinz : The historic Neumarkt in Dresden - Its history and its buildings. Sandstein, Dresden 2005, ISBN = 3-937602-46-1, p. 49.
  2. ↑ a b c Newly-improved and accurate Dreßdnish ADDRESS, Or: Brief advertisement, What a curious passenger traveling to Dreßden about Dreßden, Neustadt, Friedrichstadt, Also in and in front of the suburbs of many things, buildings, churches, gardens and other things, if he does not want to go back without use, it is necessary to observe, also to whom he has to report in each place, along with an appendix of all guest yards and an accurate description of the green vault. Third and greatly increased edition, provided with a special register. Published by PG Mohrenthalen, Dresden, 1749, p. 19.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Stefan Hertzig: The Dresden town house of the late Baroque 1738–1790. Society of Historical Neumarkt Dresden e. V., Dresden 2007, pages 88-93.
  4. ^ Walter Hentschel / Walter May: Johann Christoph Knöffel. The architect of the Saxon Rococo . In: Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Volume 64, Issue 1, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1973, p. 147.
  5. ^ Walter Hentschel / Walter May: Johann Christoph Knöffel. The architect of the Saxon Rococo . In: Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Volume 64, Issue 1, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1973, p. 79.
  6. ^ Hermann Heckmann: Builders of the Baroque and Rococo in Saxony , Berlin 1996, p. 246.
  7. ^ Stefan Hertzig: The late Baroque town house in Dresden 1738–1790 . Society of Historical Neumarkt Dresden e. V., Dresden 2007, p. 90, footnote 102.
  8. ^ Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities historically and architecturally , Leipzig 1781, Volume 1, p. 330 ( online ).
  9. ^ A b Stefan Hertzig: The baroque Dresden. Architecture of a metropolis of the 18th century. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86568-833-0 .
  10. ^ A b Walter Hentschel / Walter May: Johann Christoph Knöffel. The architect of the Saxon Rococo . In: Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Volume 64, Issue 1, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1973, p. 32.
  11. ↑ Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Edited by R. Steche and C. Gurlitt, Dresden 1882–1923, issue 22, p. 546.
  12. ↑ Thomas Liebsch : Notes on Bernardo Bellotto's “The Neumarkt zu Dresden vom Jüdenhof” and a reference to Canaletto's address in Dresden . In: Dresdener Kunstblätter , 3 (2006), pp. 163–167.
  13. ^ Fritz Löffler : Bernardo Bellotto called Canaletto. Dresden in the 18th century , Leipzig 1985.

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 7.4 "  N , 13 ° 44 ′ 33.1"  E