Five button tower
As Fünfknopfturm are mostly gothic towers called, in addition to the spire also at the four corners at the height of the spire have small turrets. They therefore carry five tower balls , also called "tower buttons". The corner turrets can be integral parts of the square tower spire, or stand on cantilevered bay windows . These crowd watch towers - also called "pepper cans" because of their special shape - once served as a lookout for guards and during attacks to defend the immediate area of the tower.
Urban defense towers
Five-button defense towers in two German cities are known as fixed names :
The functions are identical:
- the Fünfgratturm in Augsburg,
- the Fehnturm in Herzogenaurach ,
- the blue tower in Bad Wimpfen ,
- the Luginsland tower of Nuremberg Castle ,
- the Rententurm and the Eschenheimer Turm in Frankfurt / M.,
- the theft storm in Lindau .
Gothic religious buildings
In churches with five-button towers from the 15th century, the corner turrets, as in the case of urban defense towers, fulfilled the task of creating optimal viewing positions for the guards in the event of a siege. The typical choir towers of this time served as escape rooms for the population, so it was also a matter of immediate defense. Examples of this are given by a number of Gothic churches that were built in the 15th century in areas with increased armed conflict. The main areas of distribution of these buildings are in Franconia (time of the First Margrave War ) and Transylvania (time of the Turkish Wars ):
Locations in Franconia and the western Upper Palatinate
- Ahorn (Coburg district) , castle church
- Altenkunstadt , Catholic parish church of the Birth of Mary
- Amlingstadt , St. Giles
- Bad Staffelstein , Catholic parish church St. Kilian and Georg
- Baunach , St. Oswald
- Berg near Neumarkt in Upper Palatinate , St. Vitus parish church
- Dietenhofen , St. Andreas
- Ebermannstadt , St. Nikolaus (until approx. 1850)
- Ebersdorf near Coburg , St. Laurentius
- Eggolsheim , Catholic parish church of St. Martin
- Erlangen -Bruck, Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Peter and Paul
- Moist , St. Jakob
- Fürth- Burgfarrnbach , St. Johannis
- Gleußen , Evangelical Lutheran Parish Church
- Grub am Forst , St. Giles
- Hannberg , fortified church Hannberg
- Heroldsberg , St. Matthew's Church
- Kirchehrenbach , parish church of St. Bartholomew
- Menschenbach , St. Jakob
- Scherneck , Evangelical Lutheran parish church
- Schnaittach , parish church St. Kunigund
- Schottenstein , St. Pankratius
- Stettfeld , Catholic parish church Mariae Himmelfahrt
- Zeil am Main , parish church of St. Michael
In other Franconian churches, the gothic five-button watch towers were dismantled during later renovations, such as the fortified church of St. Marien zum Gesees or the churches in Eschenbach , Offenhausen , Ottensoos and Pommelsbrunn . In many cases this can still be seen in the shape of the roof.
Locations in Transylvania
- City Parish Church (Sibiu)
- Evangelical parish churches in Sebeş and Saschiz (Transylvania)
- Margaret Church (Mediaș)
- Fortified church in Cincu
- Fortified church in Cristian
- Fortified church in Hărman
Locations in other regions
- St. Anna (Bacharach-Steeg)
- Berka / Werra , St. Laurentius
- St. Marien (Bernburg)
- Church of the Holy Cross (Bettenhausen)
- Brilon , Provost Church of St. Petrus and Andreas
- St. Bartholomew (Ebeleben)
- Cheb (Eger), St. Nicholas (reconstruction of the Gothic spiers in 2008)
- Engerda , St. Michael
- St. Crucis Church (Großenehrich) (actually a "six-button tower")
- St. Jakobus (Guldental)
- St. Margarethen (Kahla)
- Külsheim , Roman Catholic parish church of St. Martin
- Malching , parish church of St. Giles
- Jakobikirche (Mühlhausen) , rare example of a five-button double tower front
- Müncheberg town church
- Naumburg Cathedral (west towers)
- Evangelical Church (Ostheim)
- St. John the Baptist (Petting)
- City church Pößneck
- St. Antonius (Rauenthal)
- Rhaunen , Evangelical Parish Church
- Röxe , Ev. Luther Church
- Johanneskirche (Saalfeld) , twin towers at the choir
- Fortified church swellings
- St. Petri (Seehausen) , also double tower front
- St. Petri (Stendal)
- Teutleben , St. Michaelis
- Assumption of Mary (Türkheim)
- Ummerstadt , St. Andreas Church (tower preserved until 1945)
- Frauenkirche (Wasserburg am Inn)
In the case of early Gothic towers, the corner turrets of which are clearly separated from the spire, the term five-button is not used, as is the case with the Elisabeth Church in Marburg or the Church of Our Lady in Frankenberg an der Eder . Even with more structured roof shapes, such as the two-row corner tower groups of the Tyn Church in Prague, the term “five-button” no longer applies. Closely related are towers with four watch towers, but different main helmets, such as the Church of St. Petri in Brumby .
A special case among the five-button sacred buildings is the Red Tower in Halle / S., which was built as the campanile of the Market Church of Our Lady .
Neo-Gothic five-button towers
Five-button towers were again built in the neo-Gothic style, but their corner turrets no longer have any function. Examples are:
- the Briesnitz church ,
- St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges (spire 1877)
- Granschütz , Evangelical Church,
- the Johannes Church in Hechingen ,
- St. Johannis in Harvestehude ,
- the Königsberg castle church (spire 1864),
- Apostle Church (Viernheim)
- City Church Warin .
The Braunschweig town hall is an example of a representative building in the neo-Gothic style. The adaptation of Gothic guard towers in the neo-Gothic tower decoration of the Liebfrauenkirche in Wernigerode , with four clock towers in between and four upper towers above , looks even more playful .
literature
- Ernst Rühl: Cultural studies of the Pegnitz valley and its neighboring areas. Nuremberg, 1961, 412 pp.