Gereonsmühle

City wall at Hansaring

The Gereonsmühle is part of a 113 meter long remaining remnant of the medieval city wall of Cologne and is located between Gereonswall and Hansaring west of the Eigelsteintorburg .

History of origin

The Gereonsmühlenturm has been mentioned in a document since 1446. It was one of the 52 towers that surrounded the city from 1180 along with 36 gates and little wickets (12 on the land, 24 on the Rhine) of the medieval city wall. The mill corridor is supported by eight cross vaults. The wall contains two half-towers that were open to the city side and, for structural reasons, contained struts or were expanded for various purposes. The eastern half-tower was converted into a windmill in the 15th century. The names "Gereons-Mühle" and "Herrenleichnam-Mühle" refer to the next city gate (the Gereon Gate, which has not been preserved ) or to the Herrenleichnam monastery behind it . A mill tower (“Gereonsmühlenturm”) and a “mill corridor” standing on arches behind the half-tower were built in the same way as at the Ulrepforte . In Prussian times, the medieval wall was poured in on the city side and supported against Wallstrasse with an approximately 2-3 meter high lining wall .

Gereonsmühle - painting by Jakob Schreiner (1887)

In total, two more towers were converted into windmills in addition to the Gereonsmühle, the Carthusian mill on the Ulrepforte and the Pantaleonsmühle on the Bachtor . The Gereonsmühlenturm had to be renovated in 1558 because it was in disrepair. The last repair of the Gereonsmühlenturm took place in 1808. In 1838 , Andreas Hochkirchen from Sürth bought the Gereonsmühle for 1,460 thalers from the city. In the spring of 1859 a Jupiter altar made of sharp-grained sandstone was found near it. The private property spared the Gereonsmühle from its later demolition. In 1908 the city bought back the mill. Part of the gardens at the Gereonsmühle was only provisional, the northern part was intended for the Schnütgen Museum , which was inaugurated on October 26, 1910 . The tower has been used by the Catholic Student Youth (KSJ) since the 1950s and is therefore called the "KSJ Tower".

Adjacent city wall

A piece of the old city wall still stands southwest of the Gereonsmühle; it ends at the street Am Klümpchenshof. At this end, in 1954, the architect Hans Schilling installed his house almost completely hidden in the embankment on the lining wall. The half tower is part of the living space. A previous building destroyed in the Second World War was built on top of the embankment.

The Klingelpützpark is located behind the wall on the site of the former Klingelpütz city ​​prison .

Web links

Commons : Gereonsmühle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• The art monuments of the city of Cologne , Volume 7, IV. Section, The profane monuments; Ed .: Paul Clemen , 1930.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz-Günther Hunold, Vom Stadtsoldaten zum Roten Funken , 2005, p. 77
2. ↑ Walther Zimmermann, Die Kunstdenkmäler des Rheinlandes , Volume 23, 1978, p. 35

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 46.1 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 51.3 ″  E