A tower

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The single tower is a preferred form of the church tower , especially in the German sacred architecture of the Middle Ages , which, in contrast to the double tower facade, consists of only one single tower on the entrance side of the church building.

development

As a precursor of the Carolingian Einturms can Westwerk be referred to, is accompanied the dominant central tower by two side towers (in Corvey after cancelation of the central tower subsequently transformed to the two-tower facade). In Romanesque architecture, the tower of the Elten Collegiate Church , consecrated in 1137, is the oldest single tower, followed by the Sigward Church in Idensen . Since the middle of the 12th century, the single tower has been the preferred design in urban and rural parish church building, but cathedral buildings such as the Paderborn Cathedral can also have a single tower. The prominent Gothic towers include the Utrecht Cathedral Tower , the Freiburg Cathedral Tower , the Rottweiler Chapel Tower , the Frankfurt Cathedral Tower and the Ulm Cathedral Tower , the tower of the Esslingen Frauenkirche and the Martinskirche in Landshut . In the Baroque era , the towers of Zwettl Abbey , the Ludwigskirche in Saarbrücken or the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg , in historicism the Memorial Church in Speyer or the tower of the Hamburg Nikolaikirche represent the type.

Outside of German architecture, the single tower is less common, in France, for example, in Albi Cathedral . In the Anglo-Saxon architecture the churches of Earls Barton and Barton-on-Humber should be mentioned as early examples.

literature

  • Robert Bork: Gothic Towers in Central Europe . Imhof, Petersberg 2008.
  • Winfried Hecht and Stefan King: Chapel tower and chapel church in Rottweil . Kunstverlag Fink, Lindenberg 2nd edition 2009.