Filzengrabentor

The Filzengrabentor located between half towers. Anton Woensam, woodcut from 1531

Entire city panorama based on Rudolf-Manuel-Deutsch, 1548

Filzengrabentor, Mercator 1571

The Filzengrabentor of the Cologne city ​​fortifications on the Rhine side was built around 1200 in the course of the last city expansion. It lasted until its abandonment in 1854.

Location, environment and name interpretation

The gate was at the end of the old city moat ( civitatis fossa ), the "Filzengraben" running between the streets of Mühlenbach and Holzwerft as the road and the end of the Duffesbach , which until 1106 formed the border between the Rhine suburb and the southern suburb of Oversburg .

Filzengraben

According to the Cologne historian Adam Wrede , the old Cologne name "Fezejrave" is the origin of the street name Filzengraben, which is still used today. The word “Felz”, old Cologne “viltz” and similarly used in Low German , brought Wrede in connection with the trade of feltmakers. In Cologne, soon after the 12th century, they made hats and coats from felt , which were preferred for the clothing of the tower and gate guards.

history

The Rhine wall built to defend the city was a 13th century structure. According to Keussen's surveys, there was previously only a small wall between the Saphirturm and the Rheingasse gate. This is evidenced by all the early shrine maps that recorded the development of the Rhine suburb of the 12th century. You mention houses on the Rhine or on the bank and often mention the “shipyard” in front of them.

Reasons to secure the Rhine side

With the privileges of the stacking and customs rights obtained , the city's interest in comprehensive protection of the riverside area in front of the core city, in front of which the market districts stretched between Butter, Thurn and Holzmarkt. The fortifications on the Rhine, like the systems on the field side, were built over decades of work and, after their completion, closed the semicircle of the resulting ring wall. The Rhine wall then extended between the Bayenturm, built in 1220 in the south, and the Kunibertsturm, built around 1223 in the north. These had received power heads protruding into the Rhine as Vorwerk , which were called "Ark" or "Arkier". The defensive wall began at these corner points and developed into a coherent system equipped with gateways and towers, which, like the wall on the field side, was stabilized by buttresses and arches. On the city side, some sections of it had battlements that connected the numerous half and gate towers. Almost every one of the streets and alleys that ended on this wall had a gate or at least a small gate, which made this wall, which was adjoined by a densely built-up area, very different from the circular wall on the field side. For the year 1470, 26 such gates were specified in the Rhine wall, of which one of the larger was the Filzengrabentor in the southern area of ​​the suburb of Oversburg.

"Porta Vilcengraven"

First mention, use

In the area of ​​the church of St. Maria Lyskirchen , mentioned in 948, was the Filzengrabentor, which was first mentioned in Cologne city accounts of 1373 as "porta Vilcengraven". In addition to its security function, the gate also served to manage the movement of goods from the ships and boats docked there. A wide variety of goods were handled here, with the wine and timber trade especially having a large share in this bank area. For the years 1370/80, notes on the file document the prohibition of timber storage above the gate up to Salzgasse and in 1427 the prohibition was extended to the timber trade with the restriction "between the Salz- and Vylzengravenpforte". In 1555 the bank area in front of the gate was widened. In addition, it said “The rent masters will be allowed to continue the“ warff ”at the“ Viltzengravenportze ”because it will be very narrow and the town of Zierrat will be there”. Keussen interpreted this measure as a favor from the council towards the mayor Arnold von Siegen, who lives on the Holzmarkt .

The gate, which was closed at nightfall, was under the control of the burgrave, who was entitled to open it at night for a given occasion.

One of these occasions was the nightly disposal of the feces by a professional group working for the executioner , ironically referred to in Cologne as "gold diggers". These were active for a fee at the request of private homeowners, but also the city or church owners of numerous apartment buildings , who had to pay for the emptying of the latrines , which were also called "secret chamber", "secret room" or "secret room". The council had decreed that these transports should only be carried out through the Neugasse gate and the Filzengrabentor in order to pour the collected mass into the Rhine at a suitable location.

Building description

The simple structure was a square tower, whose pointed arched gate to the Rhine was spanned by a sweeping round arch panel and a flat arched passage to the city side. The building had an upper floor with cross windows, which originally had a crenellated top , but was later given a simple hipped roof . On the north side of the building there was an attached staircase, which was supported by cantilevered consoles , next to which a bay window was attached.

The shrine files from 1494 describe the tower house and its upper floor apartment, which was connected to the city wall by two corridors. Via these battlements one reached the further conditions as follows:

“The apartment on top of the Viltzengravenpforte, which apartment is as long and wide as the gate is now, together with the corridor between the apartment and the house of zer Lilien belonging to Daniel Jude, which corridor extends to the city wall and on to the little house, which used to be a "secret" in the past, in which the city can now be found, and then the stone corridor to the other side, where you walk along the gate to the apartment ". Daniel Jude leaves this to the council in return for a pension of 6 Upper Rhenish Rhenish guilders , to be replaced with 150 guilders.

Wall areas and gate a few years before the demolition

Demolition and change of terrain

The gate tower was later used again and was expanded in 1744 by the builder Nikolaus Krakamp on behalf of H. Schölgen . It served as a flour scale until 1834, which in turn was the reason to name a smaller northern wall passage "Mehlpförtchen". In 1854 the medieval Filzengrabenrores was demolished, which was then replaced by a brick gate.

As early as the 17th century, the historiographer Aegidius Gelenius reported that the Filzengrabentor “subterranea” was located. In the further course of time, the soil level in the Lyskirchen / Filzengraben area had experienced a sharp rise due to several embankments. At the time of the demolition, the top of the gate passage was only 3 m high.

literature

• Marianne Gechter: Water supply and disposal in Cologne , in: Cologne yearbook for prehistory and early history. Roman-Germanic Museum (ed.) And the Archaeological Society of Cologne. Volume 20, year 1987
• Hermann Keussen : Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages , in 2 volumes. Cologne 1910. ISBN 978-3-7700-7560-7 and ISBN 978-3-7700-7561-4
• Hans Vogts , Fritz Witte: The art monuments of the city of Cologne , on behalf of the provincial association of the Rhine province and the city of Cologne. Published by Paul Clemen , Vol. 7, Section IV: The profane monuments of the city of Cologne , Düsseldorf 1930. Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf. Reprint Pedagogischer Verlag Schwann, 1980. ISBN 3-590-32102-4
• Adam Wrede : New Cologne vocabulary . 3 volumes A - Z, Greven Verlag, Cologne, 9th edition 1984, ISBN 3-7743-0155-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans Vogts, Fritz Witte in: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln , Vol. 7, Section IV: P. 142
2. ^ Adam Wrede, Volume 1, p. 213
3. ↑ ^{a b} In: Hermann Keussen, Chapter XII. The fortifications in the Middle Ages, section “The Rhine Wall” in Volume I, page 185
4. ^ Rheinische Kunststätten: St. Maria Lyskirchen. P. 3.
5. ^ ^{A b} Hermann Keussen: Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages , Volume II, Streets and Shrine Registers, p. 25 ff
6. ^ Marianne Gechter: water supply and disposal in Cologne , p. 251
7. ^ Hans Vogts, The Cologne House up to the beginning of the 19th century. , Volume II, p. 229 ff

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 1.6 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 45.8 ″  E