Fish Gate (Mainz)

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The Mainz fish gate around 1840

The fish gate in Mainz was a Gothic city ​​tower. The name of the building was given by the fish market that took place in the immediate vicinity until the 19th century. Unlike the still existing city towers of the Rhine front of the Mainz city wall like wooden tower , iron tower and the Kästrich lying Alexander tower it was demolished 1847th

Mainz city fortifications throughout history

View of the city of Mainz by Franz Behem, 1565. The fish gate is in the line of the Liebfrauenkirche / Dom.
Depiction in Merian's "Topographia Germaniae", detail with cathedral and St. Maria ad Gradus ; 1633

As dendrochronological studies of wooden post gratings of the wall sections running parallel to the Rhine show, Mogontiacum was surrounded by its own city fortifications with walls and rectangular, slightly protruding towers as early as the middle of the 3rd century . After Limes case occurred primarily in Merovingian time under I. Theudebert and Sidonius , as well as in the Carolingian time to repair work on the Roman Wall. In Mainz city archeology, this city wall is therefore referred to as "Roman-Carolingian".

After Mainz ministerial and citizens in conflict over control surveys with their Archbishop Arnold of Selenhofen killed them, the Hohenstaufen Emperor imposed Frederick I Barbarossa , the 1163 punishment outlawed across the city. Your city wall including the city towers should be razed. According to some historians, this was limited to destroying the gate towers.

In the dispute between the Hohenstaufen and Welfs for supremacy in Germany, the city of Mainz was an important political and strategic ally, so permission to rebuild the city fortifications was granted as early as 1190/1200. The Roman-German King Philip of Swabia was able to convince himself of the desolate condition of the fortifications at his coronation in Mainz Cathedral in 1198. It is historically proven that the city wall was built from 1200 at the latest. In the copy book of the St. Peter monastery there is a document dated July 4, 1200, on which the city demands five marks of silver from the canons for the reconstruction. The gentlemen had used the rubble stones and built their houses with them. During this construction phase, the fish gate was also built as one of a total of 34 gate and watchtowers.

location

The fish gate ensured access to the old port of the city of Mainz. The name Fischtor can still be found today in the pedestrian zone where the tower once stood - Fischtorstrasse - and in the Fischtorplatz, which lies between Rheinstrasse and what is now the bank area. The nearby Fischergasse monument zone is the remainder of the fishing district that was in this area. Venantius Fortunatus described in his verses that Bishop Sidonius had built a new bank fortification to ensure economic prosperity. The hagiograph does not report whether this was about the fortification of the old Roman civil port in front of the fish gate or at the Dimesser site near the former customs and inland port .

architecture

The Gothic gate storey of the fish gate with the two arched portals for pedestrians and vehicles was built in the first half of the 13th century, possibly even around 1200. It does not consist of the central tower that was originally characteristic of the Mainz city gates, but is provided with a heptagonal flank tower. The windows set into the walls indicate three usable floors.

Use in the Middle Ages and in modern times

From its construction until the 16th century, the fish gate served as a city and gate tower as part of the Mainz city fortifications. When the French occupation withdrew after the siege of Mainz (1793) , clubists were also interned there. While the tower also served as a guilty prison. The fish gate, together with the other towers on the Rhine side (wooden tower, iron tower, etc.) formed a secular-architectural contrast to the many church towers in the church town of Mainz.

In the Middle Ages, the fishmongers' market was held around the fish gate, which gave the tower its name, which is still used today. In addition to the fresh fish market, Mainz had been an important distribution center for stockfish and herring as far as the Upper Rhine to Strasbourg and also into the Black Forest since the 15th century at the latest. The fish gate is still marked on the map of the city of Mainz in 1844 by J. Lehnhardt. The Mainz Antiquities Association , which was founded in the year the card was published, did not save the building. It was demolished in 1847 in order to gain free access to the new building sites for the first planned urban expansion, the old town expansion as part of the straightening of the banks of the Rhine.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marion Witteyer : Mogontiacum - military base and administrative center. The archaeological evidence. In: Franz Dumont , Ferdinand Scherf , Friedrich Schütz (Eds.): Mainz. The history of the city. von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 , pp. 1021-1058, here p. 1051.
  2. ^ Document in the Mainz city archive and printed by Georg Christian Joannis : Rerum Moguntiacarum. Volume 2: Excerpta PP Antverpiensium Actis Sanctorum. Johann Maximilian a Sande, Frankfurt am Main 1722, p. 471.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Diepenbach: The city fortifications of Mainz. City walls, gates, towers. Ramparts and bastions. In: Heinrich Wothe: Mainz. A home book. Johann Falk III. Sons, Mainz 1928, pp. 21–42.
  4. ↑ Günther Gillessen (Ed.): If stones could talk. Mainz buildings and their stories. Guided tours through an urban landscape. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1206-7 .
  5. ↑ Franz Staab : Mainz from the 5th century to the death of Archbishop Willigis (407-1011). In: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Eds.): Mainz. The history of the city. von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 , pp. 71-107, here p. 77.
  6. ^ Franz Dumont: Mayence. The French Mainz (1792 / 98-1814). In: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Eds.): Mainz. The history of the city. von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 , pp. 319-374, here p. 341.
  7. ^ Friedrich Schütz : Provincial capital and fortress of the German Confederation (1814 / 16–1866). In: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Eds.): Mainz. The history of the city. von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 , pp. 375-426, here p. 380.
  8. ↑ Michael Matheus : From the diocese dispute to the collegiate feud 1328-1459. In: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Eds.): Mainz. The history of the city. von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 , pp. 171–204, here p. 195.

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 57.7 "  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 36"  E