Cathedral Hotel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dom Hotel (2008)
Dom Hotel, 2014

The Dom-Hotel in Cologne-Altstadt-Nord is one of the oldest grand hotels in Europe. The current building dates back to 1893 and was rebuilt in a simplified manner after being destroyed in the Second World War. Due to extensive construction defects that have appeared during the renovation since 2012, the Bavarian Supply Chamber, as the owner, announced the complete demolition of all non-listed building parts and reconstruction from 2018. Currently (2019) the building is being demolished except for the facade and the stairwell and rebuilt. A new opening date has not yet been set.

Medieval predecessor buildings

The Cologne Cathedral was closely remodels the 19th century, yet at the turn of the 18th. The Domhof, today Roncalliplatz on the Domplatte , was a market square, on which Gaddemen (stalls) and junk stalls were. There were several buildings on the west side of the cathedral courtyard in the Middle Ages. These included the "Kamp (f) hof" (today's Domhof 7; later "Kamperhof") and the property "zum Palast" (Domhof 9).

The court duels, which were first mentioned in 1169 and pursued blood revenge, took place in the cathedral courtyard. The "Kamp (f) hof" built for this purpose got its name from these court-ordered duels, which belonged to the Ordalien (court judgments), the so-called divine judgments or divine judgments. These judges-ordered duels were among the means used to research the truth when there was a lack of direct evidence of guilt or innocence. The superstition should be used to ask God to intervene on the pending question and determine the truth. Judicially ordered duels were common in the first half of the Middle Ages and were considered a judgment of God. The "Kamp (f) hof" served these court-ordered duels and is first mentioned in the 1356 shrine book . Heinrich von Boele rebuilt the "Kamp (f) hof" with permission from April 18, 1460. However, he undertakes to vacate the Kamphof temporarily in the event of a court-ordered duel. The Kampfhof on the Hacht was lent on August 22, 1466. This eliminated the duels in the building and replaced them with the so-called “embarrassing question”, a kind of torture .

Next to the “Kamphof” was the property “zum Palast” (Domhof 9). The oldest leaseholds give the house “zum Palast” to Johannes Konstantin von Lyskirchen around 1300; the next loan comes from 1349. A stone-built property was built in 1423/1425 on the site of four old wooden houses. In 1444 a gate and a gate house was built in the corridor between the house "zum Palast" and the "Kamphof". On February 21, 1481, Mayor Jakob von Berchem sold the houses "zum Palast" and "zum Hirtzhorn", separated by a corridor, to Asseymeister (coin weight checker) Johann Helmann, the father-in-law of the printer Heinrich Quentell . He had married the Cologne civil servant daughter Elisabeth Helmann. His in-laws made the neighboring houses "zum Palast" and "zum Hirtzhorn" available to him as an office for the printing press. Since November 4, 1500, both properties were owned by the Quentell printer family. The house “zum Palast” can be seen in Anton Woensam's Cologne cityscape from 1531 ; Not surprising, because the printing works of Heinrich Quentell, whose son Peter Quentell published Woensam's work, was in the house. "To the palace" was one of the outstanding urban secular buildings of that time. The houses "zum Palast" and "zum Hirtzhorn" passed on March 28, 1528 to Peter Quentell, who remained the sole manager of the printing house from 1520 until his death on February 29, 1546. Kamphof and palace were closed before 1779.

Founding period

Domhof 7–9 - first cathedral hotel (around 1880)

On April 1, 1733, the goldsmith Johann Rohr and his wife Catharina Brewers acquired "the allingen Camphoff as the one located by the Hacht vnndt is now called to the Morian", followed by their four children in the possession of their four children on February 26, 1773 ; One of these is the gold and silver worker Johann Heinrich Joseph Rohr, who is named in the address book of 1798 as a resident at that time. "Joan Henrich Joseph Rohr Ratz, relative of the goldsmiths guild me facit Collen auf dem Dohmhoff lives in Morian an der Hacht." As a successor to the house "zum Palast" (No. 9), a ballroom was built in 1779, where winter concerts took place, the only larger one Hall of this kind in Cologne next to the Gürzenich . In addition, in the “Directory of the City of Cologne Residents” from 1798 “Aufm Domhoff No. 2587, Joh. Ehl, Ballhaus” was written. It initially belonged to Johann Joseph Ehl, after his death on February 9, 1812, the Ballhaus became a wine tavern run by the "Weinzäpfers und Caffe-Schenk" Johann Peter Lempertz ("Pierre Lempertz, cafétier-limonadier"). As early as 1814 he is said to have given a big ball here for the Swedish Crown Prince Karl XIV. Johann , who had had his headquarters in Cologne since February 10, 1814. In 1821 it was said: "There were also some concerts like in earlier years at Lempertz's in the cathedral courtyard". Lempertz also exhibited curiosities such as “transparent people” and “albino children”. Lempertz can be found in the 1822 address book as "Weinzäpfer und Kaffe-Schenk". A program announced a large declamatory for April 1, 1826 in the "Lempertz'schen Saale auf'm Domhof Nro. 9 “. In 1826, wine landlord Franz Wilhelm Horst acquired the property, who before 1838 also bought the successor to the “Kamphof” (“Morian”; No. 7) in order to structurally combine it with No. 9, which belongs to him. Hotelier and wine owner Albert Harff acquired the building on September 1, 1839 and then renovated it. Around 1840 the first guests were able to spend the night in the new "Hôtel du Dôme" or "Dome Hotel". Albert Harff organized concerts, masked balls and carnival sessions. On September 29, 1840, the Concert Society invited the members of the Musical Society, the Singing Society and the Liedertafel with Mr. Harff in the cathedral courtyard to elect the direction for the winter concerts. The "New Cologne Address Book of 1841" listed him as resident of Domhof No. 7 and No. 9. Harff had the building expanded in 1841. On January 1, 1842, the first carnival meeting of the new "Great Carnival Society" took place here. It became known in the Cologne population in particular for its subscription concerts. On March 3, 1848, at least 500 Cologne democrats gathered in the “Saale Harff” as part of the March Revolution . The hapless Harff sold the two houses in 1857 to Ignatz Theodor Metz (* 1819) from Strasbourg, a former restaurateur of the Cologne Steamship Company. Metz had the complex rebuilt and opened the "Dom-Hotel" ("Hôtel du Dôme") on November 28, 1857. In 1859, Metz bought the neighboring house No. 5 to the south (it had been in the possession of wig master Franz Joseph Wilcken since April 14, 1757), which he replaced in 1860 with a new coffee house ("Café du Dôme"). This developed into a meeting place for politicians, artists and writers. Before 1873, Metz also acquired No. 11 and integrated it into the hotel complex.

  • Left: the second Dom-Hotel in the
    middle: "Photographisches Atelier" JH Schoenscheidt
    Right: the third Dom-Hotel under construction (around 1892)

  • Domhotel after the demolition of the second hotel and the gardens by Josef Stübben (1893)

  • Dom Hotel (before 1900)

  • Dom Hotel, floor plan

After the death of Ignatz Theodor Metz on April 13, 1880, his son Friedrich August Metz took over the business. On December 31, 1885, the ceiling of the large banquet hall collapsed due to static miscalculations of an increase made in 1866, and nobody was harmed; the reconstruction of the entire hotel took place in the same place and not set back despite the criticism of the cathedral building association. The second Hôtel du Dome was then built in the Italian Renaissance style with a ten-arch arcade and opened in February 1886. The hotel business expanded with the opening of the “Central Personenbahnhof” (December 5, 1859) and the Hohenzollern Bridge (May 22, 1911).

After the city council approved the building of the hotel on December 27, 1888, the third Dom Hotel was built between 1890 and 1893. The new building by Heinrich Joseph Kayser and Karl von Großheim took place behind the - not yet completely demolished - old hotel. The condition was met that the now completed cathedral could not be covered by the new hotel building at the insistence of the cathedral building association. During the time of the German Empire - next to the Excelsior Hotel Ernst on the other side of the cathedral, which had been in existence since 1863 - it became the traditional accommodation of the upper class in Cologne. The opening of the new building took place on April 15, 1893. Kaiser Wilhelm II lived here several times , and Mata Hari had an espionage meeting here in 1916.

During the Second World War , the bombing raids of March 2, 1945 hit the hotel and largely destroyed it; only three rooms were still habitable. The hotel director and critic of the regime, Roland Metz, was previously found hanged in the roof of the north dome in March 1944. The reconstruction took place between 1947 and 1952, the previous roof with its domes and towers was not rebuilt; a flat roof was built, which should not disturb the view of the cathedral. The house was rebuilt by the descendants of Theodor Metz until 1952 by Karl Wilkens and Edgar Lührs, the spouses of the daughters of Roland Metz. Edgar Lührs, the great-grandson of Theodor Metz, ran the business until 1984. In 1971 the cathedral courtyard was renamed " Roncalliplatz ".

Complete renovation

Dom-Hotel gutted and under renovation in November 2018

In March 2001, the Cologne-based real estate group Lammerting acquired the majority in Dom-Hotel GmbH & Co. KG ; she sold it in January 2010 to the supplementary pension fund of the Bavarian municipalities . From 2010 to August 2012 the adjoining Blau-Gold-Haus (Domkloster 2) was equipped as an extension of the Dom-Hotel with 42 new suites and luxury rooms. This building was erected in 1952 by the architects Wilhelm and Rudolf Koep in the style of the kidney table era for the manufacturer of 4711 Eau de Cologne with a curtain wall made of aluminum in its house colors turquoise and gold. The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development awarded a special prize on May 22, 2012 for its renovation in accordance with the preservation order .

From March 2013, the old building of the Dom Hotel was to be rebuilt and modernized, and in 2017 it was to be reopened as a five-star plus hotel under the Althoff Hotel Collection brand . As of June 1, 2013, all employees were laid off. However, the start of construction work was delayed until 2016, as the client repeatedly restructured the planning team. While the interior of the hotel has meanwhile been torn down except for a listed staircase, the facade, which is also listed, has been preserved with supports. The building permit applied for in autumn 2017 was granted for the new inner building in April 2019.

Web links

Commons : Dom-Hotel (Cologne)  - Collection of images

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Borger, The Cologne Cathedral in the Century of Its Completion , 1980, p. 113
  2. ^ Johann Jakob Merlo: Der Kamphof zu Köln , in: Yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland Volume 57, 1876, p. 9.
  3. ^ Johann Jakob Merlo: Der Kamphof zu Köln , in: Yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland Volume 57, 1876, p. 96.
  4. ↑ Johann Peter Eichhoff: Materials on spiritual and secular statistics of the Lower Rhine and Westphalian districts and the neighboring countries together with news on their older history , Volume 1–2, 1783, p. 66.
  5. ↑ “Johannes filius Coiistantini de ecclesia Lisolfi, et Bliza eius uxor, et Bruno eorum filius, habent ad tres manus quilibet ad unam manum illam domum que pelence appellatur. et dant thome apostoli talentum cumini. "
  6. ^ Johann Jakob Merlo: Der Kamphof zu Köln , in: Yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland Volume 57, 1876, p. 102.
  7. ↑ Yvonne Leiverkus: Cologne: pictures of a late medieval city , 2005 S. 184th
  8. ^ Hermann Keussen , Topography of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1910, p. 290
  9. ↑ Yvonne Leiverkus: Cologne: pictures of a late medieval city , 2005 S. 184th
  10. ^ Johann Jakob Merlo: Der Kamphof zu Köln , in: Yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland Volume 57, 1876, p. 102.
  11. ^ Joseph Hennecke, Kölner Almanach 1951/52 , p. 265.
  12. ↑ Johann Friedrich von Cotta: Allgemeine Zeitung Munich of February 25, 1814, p. 224.
  13. ↑ Karlheinz Weber: From the minstrel to the urban chamber musician , 2009, p. 409
  14. ↑ Ludwig Röhrscheid: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine , 1884, p. 67.
  15. ↑ Ludwig Röhrscheid: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine , 1884, Volume 42, 1884, p. 69
  16. ↑ Klaus Körner: Das Musikleben in Köln , 1969, p. 43.
  17. ^ Ludwig Röhrscheid: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine , 1884, p. 69.
  18. ^ Carl Dietmar / Gérald Chaix: Chronik Köln , 1997, p. 249.
  19. ↑ Ludwig Röhrscheid: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine , 1884, p. 70.
  20. ↑ Judith Breuer: The Cologne cathedral environment as a mirror of the cathedral reception in the 19th century , 1981, p. 59
  21. ^ Peter Fuchs, Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 159
  22. ^ Espionage rendezvous in room 206 Kölner Stadtanzeiger from May 18, 2007, accessed on December 31, 2012.
  23. ↑ Kölner Stadtanzeiger from October 19, 2010, Blau-Gold-Haus soon in its old glory . October 19, 2010, accessed December 4, 2017
  24. ^ Cologne urban development: Dom-Hotel will not open until 2017. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Retrieved March 25, 2016 .
  25. ↑ ksta.de March 8, 2013: Dom-Hotel dismisses employees ;
    koeln.de from April 30, 2013 All employees dismissed: Dom Hotel closes until the end of 2014 , accessed on May 3, 2013;
    Press release althoffhotels.com ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; tophotel.de February 15, 2013 ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 4, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.althoffhotels.com
     @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tophotel.de
  26. ↑ Tim Attenberger: Building permit: renovation of the Dom Hotel can begin soon . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . ( ksta.de [accessed on February 14, 2017]).
  27. ^ New building on Roncalliplatz: City of Cologne grants building permit for the Dom Hotel. April 16, 2019, accessed on April 16, 2019 (German).

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 25.5 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 25.5 ″  E