Cracauer Gate
The Cracauer Tor was part of the city fortifications of the city of Magdeburg and was part of the Magdeburg fortress .
location
The gate was initially the only land-side access to the Turmschanze , the city's bridgehead east of the Elbe . In order to get to the old town , traffic from there first had to cross an Elbarm, then along the Magdeburg citadel , then another Elbarm and finally through the old or later the new bridge gate . The gate was located in the area of today's streets Am Cracauer Tor / Cracauer Straße .
history
The gate was built in 1731. From here the only road running east from Magdeburg and the Elbe crossing there led to the nearby village of Cracau , from which the name resulted. The traffic route then continued over the Klusdamm, which ran through the Elbe foreland over many small bridges . The gate lost this important traffic function when the Chaussee from Magdeburg to Berlin , the Berliner Chaussee , and the newly created Charlottentor were built around 1820 . The previous route to the east through the Cracauer Tor only had regional significance.
It was designed as a simple wall passage for the roadways. The passage was very narrow in relation to the Charlottentor. The gate pillars were bricked and covered with stone . There were swing gates made of steel on the pillars. A log house was built on the field side to protect the gate. There was a drawbridge over the moat in front of the gate .
The route was changed around 1870. The Cracauer Tor was demolished and rebuilt in a slightly different location. None of the structures was involved in a military conflict.
Due to the strongly changing weapon technology, the fortress lost a lot of its importance at the end of the 19th century. After 1900 the gate was demolished.
The name of a street located there as Am Cracauer Tor still reminds of the existence of the gate.
literature
- Bernhard Mai, Christiane Mai: Magdeburg Fortress. Verlag Janos Stekovics, Dößel 2006, ISBN 3-89923-098-1 , pp. 143, 242.
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 27 ″ N , 11 ° 39 ′ 14.9 ″ E