Galluswarte (watch tower)

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The Galluswarte, south facade

The Galluswarte is one of the four waiting towers ( Bockenheimer , Friedberger , Gallus- and Sachsenhäuser Warte ) of the Frankfurt Landwehr built in the 14th century . It is located in the center of Frankfurt 's Gallus district in the middle of Mainzer Landstrasse on a square of the same name .

history

The Galluswarte 1856. Photo by Johann Schäfer.
The two drinking halls at the Galluswarte
Interior of the Galluswarte, as it was in 2015
Loopholes

First a wooden fortification tower was built. This already bore the name " Warte zu den gute Menschen" , which referred to the pious brotherhood that ran a leprosy station in the Gutleuthof not far from this control room in what is now the Gutleutviertel .

In 1414 the wooden fortification tower was replaced by the stone tower that still exists today. The stone tower was named Galgenwarte, named after the "gallows field" in the east. The Frankfurt gallows stood in the area of ​​today's Taunusstrasse , presumably at about the height of the intersection with Moselstrasse.

With the establishment of the St. Gallus community named after St. Gallus in 1903, the Galgenwarte was renamed Galluswarte .

The 20th century saw a rather careless handling of the historical building. As a result of the expansion of the Mainzer Landstrasse to the main thoroughfare, it came to be in the middle of numerous car lanes. In addition, until recently it was used as a ventilation shaft for the municipal sewer system. In an extension from the post-war period, the Galluswarte was enhanced with a kiosk and a public toilet.

As part of the urban renewal program “ Socially Integrative City ”, the Galluswarte and its immediate surroundings are to be redesigned. To this end, a competition “Redesign of the Galluswarte district entrance” was held in 2011. A relocation of the toilets is planned; However, according to the results of the competition, the cultivation is to be largely retained and made available for other uses.

Building

The remaining part of the Galluswarte is limited to the actual watch tower and a piece of surrounding wall with a door. From a wider, round, high ground floor, also on a round floor plan, two upper floors grow, crowned by a cantilevered, octagonal, slate-clad tower watchman's room, above which a likewise clad spire .

The clear diameter of the tower shaft is only less than 3.50 m, which severely limits the possibilities for using the upper floors. The other courtyard and defense buildings that used to belong to the Galluswarte have not been preserved.

From 1886, the structure, like the Friedberger and Bockenheimer Warte, served as an exhaust air shaft for the then new municipal sewer system. The brick pipe that was built into the tower for this purpose was only 30 cm away from the inner wall and ended on the top floor. The digester gases then left the building through the window openings. During a redesign of the interior from 2008 to 2010, the city planning office had the upper part demolished and the lower remaining part closed with a glass floor plate.

Trivia

Immediately at the control room there are two water houses , the pump room in the tower is called “pump room at the control room”, while the one a little further away from the tower is called “pump room in the tower”.

literature

  • Hanne Emrich, Renate Ullrich: Far outside the gates of the city ... 600 years of the Galluswarte . Self-published, Frankfurt am Main 2014, p. 154 (financially supported by the disposal fund of the city of Frankfurt am Main, city planning office as part of the Social City Gallus project).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sandra Busch: Gallus: The tower in front of the front door. In: fr-online.de. September 1, 2010, accessed December 18, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Redesign: Galluswarte will be new and beautiful ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ^ Jöran Harders: Landmark and meeting place. In: fr-online.de . December 9, 2016, accessed July 31, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Johannes Vetter: View into the Galluswarte. In: fr-online.de. July 5, 2015, accessed July 9, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Gernot Gottwals: Frankfurt tower - The latest Galluswarte. In: fnp.de . July 6, 2015, accessed July 9, 2015 .

Web links

Commons : Galluswarte  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 11 ″  N , 8 ° 38 ′ 40 ″  E