French avenue
The Französische Allee in Hanau is - contrary to what the name suggests - not an avenue street, but the second most important square in the Neustadt Hanau , just as big as the market. It serves as a presentation area for the Walloon-Dutch double church in the new town.
history
On June 1, 1597, Count Philipp Ludwig II signed a treaty with Calvinist refugees, who originally came from France and the Spanish Netherlands , the surrender of the new town of Hanau , which regulated their settlement in Hanau. It is the founding act for the Neustadt Hanau. The count made the building site south of Hanau's old town available. The city plan was based on a regular street network running at 90 degrees to each other, which delimited the street blocks to be built on. Two of these blocks were left out and formed the Neustädter Markt and the Französische Allee , originally called the church plan. Paradiesgasse runs between the two, creating a line of sight between the Neustädter Rathaus on the market and the Walloon-Dutch double church on Französische Allee. This also included a political program: The extensive political and ecclesiastical independence of the new city from the sovereign was thus structurally expressed.
According to the first drafts for the new town of Hanau, no space was provided here. The churches should be inserted into the perimeter block development. In the end, however, they were set free-standing as one building, as a double church, asymmetrically, namely on the northern half of the square. Historically, the square was an outstanding residential area for the middle class upper class of the Neustadt.
meaning
The Französische Allee is one of a series of squares that run almost axially from north to south through the old and new town of Hanau: Schlossplatz , Old Town Market , Freedom Square , New Town Market, French Allee and Hafenplatz .
The French Avenue is listed in law after the Hessian Denkmalschutzgesetz part of the overall system French avenue with Walloon Dutch Church .
Development
Monument to Count Philipp Ludwig II.
The monument to Count Philipp Ludwig II has stood south of the church since 1988. It is his second location. It was originally built on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Neustadt Hanau in 1897 in a former small green area in the southeastern area of today's Freiheitsplatz. It is a portrait bust of the count on a base with an inscription plaque. Both were salvaged from the rubble of the Second World War and repositioned in the Französische Allee.
Post-war development
In contrast to its tradition as an outstanding residential area in the Neustadt district, the square was rebuilt after the extensive destruction of the Hanau city center in the Second World War, now predominantly with blocks of social housing . The buildings are all components of the overall system. A block of flats in the adjacent Hahnenstrasse, still within the overall complex, is designated as a single cultural monument . It is an arcade house consisting of ten two-story residential units. It documents an unconventional and cost-effective approach within housing developments, in which two single-family houses are always placed one above the other. The lower residential units each have a street-side entrance, the upper ones are accessed via a balcony designed as a balcony on the second floor.
In recent times, the Französische Allee is to be upgraded in terms of urban development through the renovation of the housing stock. A first step in this direction was the demolition and new construction of the apartment block in the west (including French Allee 17-25) under the name Westcarre. This was followed by the demolition and new construction of the apartment block in the east (Französische Allee 2-6) under the name Ostcarre. The area around the Walloon-Dutch Church, which was previously used as a parking lot, is to be further upgraded by converting it into a green area. The listed arcade house in the south has since been demolished in favor of a new building project for the Nassauische Heimstätte .
literature
- Martin Hoppe : Hanauer street names. Hanau 1991, ISBN 3-87627-426-5 .
- Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen. Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 .
- Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country. 3rd edition, Hanau 1919. ND 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. P. 98 f.
- ↑ Information to the contrary in Krumm, p. 193, is incorrect.
- ^ Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. P. 207.
- ↑ Hanau: Living on a historic underground. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. ( faz.net ).
- ↑ Hanau: Living more modern and expensive. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. ( fr.de ).
Coordinates: 50 ° N , 9 ° E