Dragoon barracks Wels

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South portal in the middle wing

The Dragonerkaserne Wels is a former military building west of the city center of Wels in Upper Austria .

Building history

Wels had been a garrison town since the late 17th century . The troop strength was initially so low that the troops were housed in the city center in empty town houses or aristocratic houses. 1847/48 these were associations for the Swiss unrest in connection with the Sonderbundskrieg to Vorarlberg laid and it garrisoned the late Biedermeier period the staff of kk Chevauleger - Regiment . No. 5 with two squadrons in Wels. Since the remaining squadrons of the regiment had to be divided between Enns and Salzburg , plans were made to build barracks in Wels.

The first plan comes from the local and folk song poet and "private engineer" Anton Schosser and corresponds to the current location of the building on the strategically favorable location between the Gmundner Bahn and Reichsstrasse (today B 1 ) and north of the kk military catering magazine on the current site of the Art mill Fritsch . This plan did not come to fruition.

Planning was only resumed after the revolution of 1848/1849 in the Austrian Empire . Hussar Regiment No. 8 was stationed in Wels between 1851 and 1854 and the new situation plan, which corresponds to the three-yard facility that was built, dates from this time. The facility was planned and built in the open field and was enormous for that time, as it was not much smaller than the old town. Since there was apparently no construction company in Wels that would have been up to the task, two master builders from Steyr , Johann Benninger and Josef Werndl, were commissioned with the execution.

Construction began in the late autumn of 1853, and after a construction period of just under four and a half years, the approval was given on April 24, 1858 . In the meantime, both master builders had died in 1856, so that the completion was carried out by other entrepreneurs. One was Benninger's son, Matthäus Benninger, who worked as a foreman when building the barracks and now, as heir and owner of the construction company, had a considerable share in the construction of the dragoon barracks .

The gable fields adorned with sculptures were executed by the Linz painter and sculptor Ferdinand Scheck (1827-1891) after plans were discarded by the building assistant of the regional building authorities, Josef Hofer, who was the building supervisor. The barracks chapel, built by Matthäus Benninger and handed over on November 8, 1858, was also furnished by Scheck.

The numerous cast iron columns for the stables were made by the “ Noitzmühle ” foundry , which demonstrated its efficiency.

The 2nd floor of the east and west wing were owned by the army administration  , the rest belonged to the state fund.

The first military unit that was stationed in the dragoon barracks was a squadron of Hussar Regiment No. 6, which moved into the barracks on May 1, 1858.

After the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy , the barracks served as the location for the " Upper Austrian Alpine Hunter Regiment Empress Maria Theresa No. 8 " and was named " Alpenjägerkaserne ".

During the Second World War , the barracks housed infantry and artillery units and also a hospital. After the war ended, the stables were used as accommodation for the stallions of the Spanish Riding School until 1955 . The road maintenance department of the state of Upper Austria was last housed in the Westhof before the WAG Wohnungsanlagen Ges.mbH came into possession of the building in 1998 and built apartments and usable areas for commercial operations in them - also in the former stables. In the south wing of the west courtyard is a museum about the history of the 4-er Dragoons with historical uniforms, weapons, medals and items of equipment.

The buildings of the dragoon barracks are listed .

Troops stationed in Wels

South facade of the Dragoon Barracks Wels in an old view

Building description

With a length of 337 meters and a width of 123 meters, the building complex of the Dragoon Barracks is probably the largest secular building in Upper Austria. The longitudinal axis, to which three barracks courtyards are lined up, runs from southwest to northeast about one kilometer west of the historic town center of Wels. The area is bounded in the north by the Salzburger and in the south by the Dragonerstraße.

The facades of all building wings are structured on the street side by cornices , pilasters and pilasters with ashlar plaster on the ground floor.

South wing of the building

Middle part

Blind gable above the main south portal

The main portal is located in the southern two-story middle section of the building and leads into the middle of the three barracks courtyards. This part of the building complex has seven window axes, of which the three middle ones are designed as a flat risalit . It has a basket arched passage which is flanked by two slim round arched passages. On the two upper floors there are double windows in the middle and single windows in the side window axes. The windows are faschengerahmt and have the first floor sills and Verdachungen . The risalit is crowned by a stepped gable with a semicircular end in front of a hipped roof. The pediment is adorned with a striking sculpture with the wreathed Upper Austrian coat of arms over volutes and flanked by two winged horses over flags, weapons and steel helmets . Including the Roman number "MDCCCLVII".

Several similarly designed single-storey side wings adjoin the middle section of the southern building front to the east and west .

Western wing

The first to the west of the central section has nine window axes and a gable roof. On the ground floor there are round arched windows with a profiled arch, the square windows on the upper floor, which are framed by a frame, have sills on brackets . In one axis of the ground floor, a round arch portal forms the access to the building wing.

Western risalit on the southern front of the building

This part of the building is followed to the west by a five-axis risalit, which represents the narrow side of a wing of the building, which continues to the north and separates the middle courtyard from the west courtyard on the courtyard side. The risalit has a hipped roof behind a triangular glare gable that attaches to consoles. In the gable is a cartouche with a relief, which is flanked by figural depictions of animals. The surrounding cordon cornice is attached to consoles in the area of ​​the risalit. The bottle-framed rectangular windows on the upper floor have sills on consoles, on the ground floor there are four arched windows and an arched portal.

This is followed by a slightly lower four-axis wing with a gable roof, in which - probably because of the lower ceiling height of the ground floor - the square-frame windows on the upper floor are attached directly to the surrounding cornice, which in this area becomes the cornice. There are four arched windows on the ground floor.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The plan is dated August 26, 1846 and is kept in the Upper Austrian Provincial Archives in Linz .
  2. ↑ The plan is dated May 25, 1853 and is kept in the Upper Austrian Provincial Archives.
  3. ^ Receipt dated September 10, 1856.
  4. ↑ The Noitzmühle tunnel on the Innkreis Autobahn A8 and the unofficial name of a district of Wels are a reminder of this operation.

Web links

Commons : Dragonerkaserne Wels  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Holter, Gilbert Trathnigg: Wels from primeval times to the present. Musealverein Wels, S 201 f, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  2. ↑ See Markus Rachbauer: The German Wehrmacht in Wels 1938-1945. In: Stadt Wels (Ed.), National Socialism in Wels, Volume 3, Wels 2015, pp. 101, 152.
  3. ^ Upper Austria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento of June 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) . Federal Monuments Office , as of June 26, 2015 (PDF).
  4. ^ Report on the revitalization of the barracks in " Die Presse.com ", accessed on September 16, 2014.

Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 23 "  N , 14 ° 0 ′ 41"  E