Gautor (Mainz)
The Gautor in Mainz was part of the fortress ring built around the city in the 1650s . The gate was one of the most important entrances to Mainz and was only demolished in 1896. In 1998, the preserved façade on the outer side of the Gautor was re-erected near the original location .
Today's appearance
The fortress gate, which dates from the 17th century, was provided with a red sandstone façade decorated in the Baroque style , both towards the inside towards the city and towards the outside towards the surrounding area . The preserved outer Gautor facade shows a group of sculptures with Saint Martin and two beggars in the gable . Since 2002 only replicas can be seen at the Gautor, the originals of the group are now in the Landesmuseum Mainz .
The figure of Saint Martin is depicted high on horseback with a feather hat, breastplate and lace-up boots at the moment when he shares his thrown cloak with the sword. His gaze is directed backwards, where (as seen from the right of the observer) a beggar crouching on the floor extends his hand. In front of the rider and horse (on the left of the viewer) stands a second beggar with a wooden leg and a crutch, who also extends his hand pleading for help. The three figures with the towering Saint Martin on a horse in the middle and the two beggars on his sides repeat the triangular shape of the upwardly tapering gable.
Under the gable and the group of sculptures directly above the middle of the arch there is a coat of arms , which is now empty. The coat of arms of the Elector of Mainz used to be attached here (→ Mainzer Rad ). The year 1670 can be read underneath.
history
The Mainz Gautor bears this name because it once served as a connection from the city to the Gau ( Old High German for landscape ). The Gautor's forerunner was the so-called Gaupforte , which has been part of the medieval city wall since the 13th century , but which probably existed earlier.
Gaupforte
In addition to the Münstertor, the Gaupforte was the most important gateway to Mainz. It actually consisted of an inner, a middle and an outer gate, the inner and outer gates being about 150 meters apart. The outer gate was additionally secured by the Martinsturm , which was presumably built in the 1370s, and the middle gate since 1438 by the bridge tower. Despite this good fortification, the enemy troops of Adolf II von Nassau managed to penetrate the city at the Gaupforte on October 28, 1462 during the Mainz collegiate feud . Mainz lost its status as a Free City through this defeat . During the Thirty Years' War , the Swedish troops under King Gustav Adolf entered Mainz on December 23, 1631, and kept the city occupied until the beginning of 1636. During the Swedish era, like the rest of the city wall, the apron of the Gaupforte was additionally secured with earth walls.
The Gaupforte in Mainz during the Swedish era - in the foreground, earth walls reinforce the medieval city wall (detail of a city view from the west from the Topographia Archiepiscopatuum Moguntinensis, Trevirensis et Coloniensis by Matthäus Merian the Younger ).
Inner and outer gate gates with reinforcing earth walls (detail of a map from 1637 from the same work).
On the left the Stephanskirche , on the right the Martinsturm of the Gaupforte in Mainz (detail of a city view from the east from the same work).
Fortress gate
After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the medieval city wall was expanded into a bastion fortress ring in the 1650s under the Mainz Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn . Between the two new bastions Philipp and Martin, a walled transverse wall was built , in which there was a new passage instead of the gate. For this Gautor, the inner and middle Gaupforte including the bridge tower had to give way. The Martinsturm (or Powder Tower) was initially retained within the Martin Bastion. (But it was destroyed on November 18, 1857 in the explosion of a neighboring powder magazine ). In front of the new Gautor's outer side was a stone bridge that spanned a moat .
After the medieval Gaupforte, the Gautor was also one of the most important entrances to the city. According to the Jewish code of 1671, Jews were only allowed to enter or leave Mainz through this gate. On October 21, 1792 and December 30, 1797, French revolutionary troops moved into Mainz here . It was not until 1896 that the Gautor and the fortifications there were demolished and the ditch in front of it was filled in to enable the city to expand and to remove a traffic obstacle.
monument
Only the facade on the outer side of the gate from 1670 has survived from the Gautor and these remains were only saved from destruction through protests by Mainz citizens. The remains of the gate were first placed in the courtyard of today's women's lobby high school. From 1962 they stood in the green area on Fichteplatz . In 1998, the remains of the Gautor were finally put back in the vicinity of their original location.
literature
- Ernst Stephan: The community center in Mainz (= The German community center. Vol. 18). Wasmuth, Tübingen 1974, ISBN 3-8030-0020-3 .
- Rolf Dörrlamm, Susanne Feick, Hartmut Fischer, Hans Kersting: Mainz contemporary witnesses made of stone. Architectural styles tell 1000 years of history. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-87439-525-1 .
See also
Web links
- The author on the website of the city of Mainz.
- The gate on the homepage "fortress Mainz - the" bulwark of Germany "by Stefan Dumont.
- The Gautor in Mainz, regionalgeschichte.net
Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 40.3 ″ N , 8 ° 16 ′ 2.8 ″ E