Friesentor

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Friesenstrasse and -pforte around 1571

The Friesentor was a new city gate of Cologne built around 1244 , which was built in the course of the last medieval city ​​expansion in the western ring wall and was at the height of today's Friesenplatz .

history

The new Friesentor owes its name to the main street of the district, which was built long before it was built, Friesenstraße, first mentioned in 1165 as “platea Frisorum”. With the new fortifications from 1180, the gradual destruction of the Roman wall, now used as a quarry , began , as it had lost its actual task of providing protection from attacks during the frequent medieval feuds .

Origin of name

Tomb of the northeast cemetery of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium on Friesenstrasse

Until the last city expansion of Cologne, the Löwenpforte, as the predecessor of the later Friesentor, was the northwest entrance and exit of the old core city. It led to the possibly very early inhabited area on the western edge of this suburban settlement, which Keussen considered likely to be settled in the 9th century. It is said to have been Frisian cloth merchants who in the Carolingian era controlled the wholesale trade up the Rhine with their goods . In addition to cities such as Worms (829), Mainz (886) and Duisburg (893), they are also said to have chosen Cologne (which they knew under the name of “Colnaburch”) as one of their trading bases, and as “strangers” to this At that time still uninhabited area, a suburban area used by the Romans as a burial ground , south of St. Gereon . This thesis was strengthened by the names of Frisian origin documented for the 12th century, which are quite common in this quarter and which have been recorded in the shrine books of the Cologne districts that have been kept since around 1130 .

The Cologne historians Adam Wrede and Hermann Keussen identified different names for the late medieval Friesentor over the centuries. As the oldest known form, the name "porta frisea" was in use in 1244. The gate was mentioned in 1370 as "de porta Frisonum", next to it a well (puteam iuxta portam Frisonum) was built in 1378. After 1386 the city council approved the construction of a footbridge over the ditch facing the field. In the sources, the gate in 1446 was called "Vresenpforte". In 1473 the council ordered the gate to be closed (for reasons not further explained). For the year 1505 Johann Jakob Merlo reported on a picture of St. Anne that was placed in front of the Friesenpforte . In 1528 it was said about the Friesenpforte: "There is no carriage traffic, the main gate is mostly walled up, only a small gate is open". Friesenpforte remained the name for a long time, as it was also called Vriesenpforts in Arnold Mercator's Cologne cityscape from 1570 , and the walled-up gate passage was also confirmed by the illustration in this city map. During this period of the 16th century, further gates were completely or partially walled up (Frankentorpforte, Neugasse and Fischpforte on the Rhine, Schaafentor with a passage, Pantaleonstor). Some of these gates were reopened for a short time in the 19th century (Schaafentor, Pantaleonstor).

Building description

To the originally twelve field gates of the city in the 12th to 16th centuries, the Kahlenhauser Pforte (Jewish gate, walled up around 1530), Eigelstein, Gereons, Ehren-, Hahnen-, Schaafen-, Weyer-, Bach- and Pantaleons- ( both walled up in the 16th century), Ulre and Severin gates also belonged to the Friesian paw, which was not open every day. The stone bulwark of the gate is said to have been reinforced several times over the years.

The Friesentor was the only gate of its kind to have a five-story asymmetrical hexagonal central building with a two-story rectangular structure, a total of six floors including the tinned defense platform on the roof of the structure and crenellated masonry at the end of the main building. In the depiction of Arnold Mercator from 1571, the six-storey building (with a roof platform), enclosed with crenellated wreaths, can be seen on the city side, with the already walled gate and wicket slightly to the right. On the city side it had an undivided, smooth facade . The central building was not bordered by semicircular flank towers or corner towers, as is the case with other gates of the city wall, but a complex, rectangular building with beveled (broken) edges on the field side, thus hexagonal, the rectangular top of which protruded the substructure by one storey with a crenellated platform, with the substructure It was closed off on both the city and the field side and included two crenellated defensive platforms on the side of the substructure. The gate, originally equipped with a drawbridge and portcullis and walled up since the early 16th century (between 1505 and 1525), has had a small doorway since then. Since 1687, a kennel has been connected to the field side in the middle , which ended in front of a small gate decorated with a stepped gable. Behind it, a small footbridge led over the moat of the gate system into a vacant field. A well had been built for the gate's guards in front of the city-side gate. The Friesenstraße leading to the gate led through the gate onto the country road to Venlo (today's Venloer Straße ).

Use of the gate

St. Gereon and St. Christoph parish church 1571

The gateways of the city wall were primarily watchtowers and defensive towers and, as part of the city wall, served to protect the city. The Friesentor, with its wall sections leading to the north and south to the nearest gates (Gereons and Ehrentor), was subject to organized supervision of the district. The responsible secular and at the same time ecclesiastical district was called St. Christoph after the church next to St. Gereon, which was elevated to a parish church around 1190. The officials of the district were responsible for the appointment of guards who were recruited from the citizens of the district. The maintenance and possible repairs of the defense systems of the section were also under the control of the officials and were carried out according to their instructions.

The establishment or staffing of customs stations, as is customary at the open field gates of medieval cities, was a matter for the council. Like the Hahnentorburg, Severinstorburg and Bachpforte, the Friesentor was also not used for imprisonment.

Development of the suburb

The topographical representation of Keussen shows only little built-up area between 1000 and 1150 in the western, upper area of ​​the core city. This area was in the “Berlich” shrine district , a name that later (until today) replaced the “Schottengasse” that ran below the St. Klara Clarissi Monastery . The district ended above the "Klarenturm" (Roman tower) at the Roman wall that bent there to the south.

However, a much denser development outside the western wall has been proven. This explains why some of the wall breakthroughs in this area were demonstrably assigned to the late Middle Ages . This is where the “Löwenpforte” was located, which was also called “porta leonis” or “Lewenportzen”. For a long time it was the passage that enabled the direct route from the “Berlich” area, which stretched from the old “Breitstrasse” in the direction of St. Gereon , into the western, lively “Friesenviertel”.

The new city gate of the fortification, which was pushed forward to the west, was a replacement for the old "Löwenenpforte", probably built in Carolingian times, which the settlers of this western suburb had created in agreement with the citizens of the core city.

The Friesenviertel

The development of individual streets was not closed, the quarter was here and there of vineyards, tree or kitchen gardens. In the 15th century, a "stone house" was occasionally mentioned in the entries, but numerous wells were mentioned. At the end of the defensive moat running parallel to the Roman north wall (the later Zeughausstraße), behind one of the old Roman stone paths (Lapida) of the city (the later Steinfelder Gasse), the westward Friesenstraße began after the Löwenpforte. It was first called "platea Friesorum", or "area inter Frisones", as well as "area in platea Frisonica"). The Lions Gate was in 1196 by the Office of the people to the northern side of the Ehrenstraße reaching district S. Christopher, the blacksmith Gottfried to Erbleihe given.

Until 1226 the gate was called "porta Leonis", after which the Latin name gave way to old German names such as Leewen-, Leen- or Löwenportze. The old Löwenpforte was also mentioned in 1335 in connection with an interest transfer from the lay judges of St. Gereon. Behind the old gate on the south side of Friesenstrasse and in front of the "Alte Wallgasse" which flows into it, a butter alley appears several times in the shrine files.

To the north of the gate, the Steinweg (temporarily "An der Leenpotzen") led to the hospital of the local collegiate church of St. Georg and the small chapels in front of it. In the small street “Gereonskloster” there was possibly a collegiate school, as a source entry from 1393 shows that a donation from Archbishop Friedrich was to be used to build a school for scholars . Other streets were the Spiesergasse, the later no longer appearing “Buzgasse” (after the local farm “Bůze”) to the north and the “Alte Wallgasse” coming diagonally from Ehrerstraße; the later upper ramparts emerged with the construction of the new curtain wall. Elongated apartment buildings were built along the Wallstrasse (up to 10 houses under one roof according to the medieval name).

Long before the great city wall was built, some of the Cologne patrician families owned farms on both sides of the "Friesengass" . There were farms of the family (often also lay judges or mayors ) Gr (y) in , the Hardefu (y) st, that of the Horne, as well as the Kleingedank and Scherfgin. These properties were also merged over the generations through marriage or purchase . Below the Wallstrasse of the new curtain wall, at the height of today's Hildeboldplatz , was the courtyard of Kleingedank. Further south was the farm of the widow Ida Vetschulder, who sold it to Bruno Hardefust in 1271, as well as the farm “zum Pœle” (the family of those “von Pœ”, had lived on the Niederich from ancient times and had the court there as a fiefdom ), both farms were bought up in 1425 by Werner von Palant , Herr zu Breitenbend . The now quite large Palanter Hof was taken over by Jacob Klapper in 1617, as a half-man on the property, henceforth called Klapperhof.

As in other countries and cities, these wealthy families in medieval Cologne built so-called gender towers on their estates. On the one hand, they served security in the unprotected foreshore of the fortified cities, but they were also a sign of their power and prosperity, and the families also tried to excel in the design of these towers. Cologne examples are the tower of Hardefust that can be seen in Mercator's drawing (the "Saphirturm" in the Rheinvorstadt was also connected with the Hardefusts ), but also the tower of Richmodis von Aducht on Cologne's Neumarkt , or the one that was laid down in 1911, before 1516 built tower by the Rinck family .

The courtyard of Franco Grin stood directly on Friesenstrasse, and on the south side of the street were the courtyards of zum Horne as well as the Scherfgins and Karl Grins courtyards. A peasant association had already formed in the Friesenviertel as early as the late Middle Ages . It was one of the five Cologne farmers ' banks that looked after the interests of the farmers , small and vegetable farmers who lived in the St. Christoph district until the 19th century .

Secularization and "Porte des Frisons"

The Tranchot map around 1810 describes the area in front of the Friesentor as "District Friesenstrasse"
Friesentor (from: CF Kaiser, Cölner Thorburgen and fortifications: 1180 - 1882 , 1884, sheet 38)

In addition to the properties of the "patricians", churches and monasteries also owned properties in the district, which were mostly managed by tenants and in this way brought the owner income. Mention should be made of St. Gereon, St. Aposteln , St. Klara, St. Quintin and the Knechtsteden monastery .

With the arrival of French troops at the end of the 18th century and the subsequent secularization , legislation and old, grown urban and ecclesiastical structures changed. The names of the district and its city gate, which were created from ancient times, were also left to the new administration. The authorities stuck to the term referring to a tribe and named the city gate in 1812 "Porte des Frisons" - Friesentor.

Laying down

Friesentor around 1884

The years under Prussian sovereignty following the French era brought the city a rapid increase in population from the middle of the 19th century, so that an expansion of the city center, which was narrowed by the curtain wall, seemed necessary. The city of Cologne's first negotiations in 1877 to acquire the city ​​wall, which is in the possession of the Prussian state, with its archways and bastions , failed due to the government's high demands. Later, renewed negotiations could, however , be brought to a positive conclusion for the city by Lord Mayor Hermann Becker . In June 1881 it signed a corresponding contract work, which then in the following year the resignation also followed the Friesentors.

  • Today's surroundings of the former city gate

  • Friesenplatz and Hohenzollernring

  • West side of the square

  • North-east corner of the square, former location of the gate

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Vol. I., p. 46
  2. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Vol. II., P. 244, Col. 2
  3. ^ Adam Wrede, Volume I, page 251
  4. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume I, page 67
  5. ↑ Gerd Schwerhoff, page 96
  6. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Vol. I and II. Maps / drawings from different periods
  7. ↑ Ludwig Arntz, Heinrich Neu and Hans Vogts, In: Paul Clemen (Ed.): The art monuments of the city of Cologne. Volume II, pp. 278ff.
  8. ↑ Herman Keussen, Vol. II., P. 244, Col. 1, a.)
  9. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Vol. II., P. 248, Col. 1
  10. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Vol. II., P. 241, Col. 1, 2
  11. ^ Hermann Keussen, vol. II., P. 244, col. 2, 245 col. 1
  12. ↑ Herman Keussen, Vol. I and II. Court information and location according to: Maps / drawings of different periods
  13. ^ Adam Wrede, Volume I, p. 251
  14. ^ Carl Dietmar, Die Chronik Kölns , 1991, p. 270

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 26 "  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 27.9"  E