Main Square (Linz)
The Linz main square is the city center of Linz and with 13,140 m² one of the largest enclosed squares in Austria. It is only separated from the Danube by a street and the buildings at the bridgehead .
history
During the foundation survey of the city expansion in 1207, the city border with new city walls, the main square and the city parish church were marked out. The axes are 145 and 255 fathoms , in Linz 1 fathom = 1.83 m. The main square at the axis point of the city has a ratio of 1: 3 and the lengths of the diagonals are 100 fathoms.
The main square was laid out around 1230 and is now 219 m long and 60 meters wide (a total of 13,140 m²). In the course of its history, today's main square has had a variety of different names. Originally it was called An dem Markt , this is documented for 1338. The north side of the square on the Danube was called Heubühel (1439). In the 15th century the name Am Platz is used, later the name Großer Platz . At the beginning of the 19th century the name was changed to Hauptplatz . In 1873 it was named Franz-Josephs-Platz in honor of Emperor Franz Joseph I. After the proclamation of the First Republic on November 12, 1918, the square was named November 12th in memory of that date . During Austrofascism , it was renamed Franz-Joseph-Platz (1934). After the Anschluss the square was called Adolf-Hitler-Platz . In 1945 the last name to be changed was Hauptplatz .
Since the complex was built, annual fairs have been held on the main square, which means that the prices of land around the square have been relatively high. Therefore, the buildings around the square were built with narrow facades that stretched a long way to the rear. The square has always been used for other events with a large crowd. The legendary Losenstein tournament is said to have been held here on May 25, 1521 on the occasion of the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand with Anna of Hungary in Linz . The pillory stood on the main square until 1716, and executions were also carried out next to it.
Buildings
Former buildings and structures
In 1828 the Schmidtorturm at the southern entrance of the square was demolished. The old water pharmacy stood in the way of widening the exit to a new bridge over the Danube in 1872. One of its owners was Nikolaus Johann van Beethoven , Ludwig van Beethoven's younger brother . Today's water pharmacy is located in one of the bridgehead buildings completed in 1947.
Today's buildings and structures
There are some important buildings in Linz's history on the main square or in the immediate vicinity. After the various city fires , almost all of the houses changed their facade design, so that some houses look younger than they actually are.
- The old town hall is still the seat of the mayor of Linz today. It was built in the years 1513–1514 and possibly replaced a previous building that was affected by the fire in 1509. The LinzGenesis City Museum is located in the building. The town hall is the east of the main square lies the town hall area its name.
- Another interesting house is the Feichtinger House with its famous carillon .
- The Schmidtberger-Haus and Bankhaus Spängler received the Austrian Builder Award for their successful renovation in 2011 .
- The Kirchmayr house with its neo-baroque facade was built by master builder Gustav Steinberger , who built numerous buildings in Linz.
- The two youngest buildings on the main square are the bridgehead buildings (with wide granite stairs and L-shaped arcades), which began in the course of the construction of the Nibelungen Bridge after 1938 but were not completed until 1947. The Linz tax office was housed in the right bridgehead building (Finance Building East) until 2009 , and moved to an office tower at the train station. The building on the left (Finance Building West) houses part of the Linz Art University and a pharmacy. Both buildings each had a paternoster lift (the only one in operation in Upper Austria in 1965), when the Art University moved in around 1980, the one in the west building was taken out of service.
Trinity Column
The Trinity Column is one of the city's landmarks. It was built in the years 1717–1723 by the Salzburg stonemason Sebastian Stumpfegger on the site of the pillory at that time. The reason for the construction was the averted danger of war (1704), a surviving conflagration (1712) and the end of a plague epidemic (1713).
Others
- On the facade of the house at Hauptplatz 10 , the relief of a Roman family, a fragment of a Roman tomb from the 3rd century, refers to the former Lentia fort .
- The then house owner, Mayor Jörg Hutter the Elder, left the relief of the elephant Soliman on the middle floor of the house at Hauptplatz 21 in memory of the procession of the future Emperor Maximilian II with his young wife Maria of Spain and his entourage from Valladolid to Vienna in 1552 attach.
- The Neptune Fountain was created by the sculptor Johann Baptist Spatz in 1686–1690 as a replacement for an old wooden city fountain. The eponymous Neptune statue is now lost. The octagonal fountain, which was moved in front of the Linz Regional Court in Fadingerstraße in 1872, was returned to its original location in 1979 as part of the redesign of the main square with pedestrian zone. On this occasion, the sculptor Josef Huber provided the empty cartouches on the side walls with the coats of arms of the seven princely cities of Linz, Steyr , Wels , Gmunden , Vöcklabruck , Freistadt and Enns .
- The bell ring on the main square with the inscription "1693" is reminiscent of the casting of the largest bell in the Linz parish church, the "Kaiserin", in 1693.
traffic
Public transport
- The Linz tram has its route in the middle of the main square. Due to the narrowness of the highway , consideration was given to extending the tunnel that had already been built at Linz Central Station to the main square. In addition to the unsecured financing, the bunker and the underground car park stand in the way.
- The Pöstlingbergbahn was extended to the main square in 2009, just in time for the Capital of Culture year . This was made possible by changing the gauge to 900 mm, so that the railway can use the tram tracks. In addition, a siding stump had to be built on the main square. With these measures the operators hoped to increase the number of passengers by 50–100%.
- As early as 1988, a pair of points was (again) installed on the main square, which is used as a reversal with a two-way car so that the main square can still be served from Urfahr in the event of a track closure in the city center.
Bunker and underground parking
There are extensive bunker systems from the Second World War under the main square . In addition to these, an underground car park was opened in 1988 between bored piles under a concrete ceiling and offers 377 parking spaces. The garage entrance and exit is via 2 portals on the bridge ramp to the upper Donaulände.
Pedestrian and bicycle traffic
As an extension of the Nibelungen Bridge, the main square forms an important axis for bicycle traffic. The main square was redesigned on the surface with the construction of the underground car park around 1988. Shoe plates laid in a concrete bed (about 20 × 25 cm, flat-rectangular at the top, but rather rounded stones at the bottom, elements of old pavement paving) did not withstand the stress of traffic and tipped over in the bedding. The square in front of the old town hall was prohibited from stopping and was used to park the mayor's and his visitors' vehicles. The bridge, Klosterstrasse and Rathausgasse remained open as access roads for vehicles. Since the ordinance of a pedestrian zone in Hofgasse, vehicles can only exit towards the bridge. The area to the west of the track axis and from the south to the plague column, which is higher because of the bunkers, has long been used for flea markets and as an event area and also has pub gardens. Cars from Klostergasse drive east of the tracks to the bridge. There is also a pedestrian zone east of this route.
With the establishment of flower beds on the embankment near the track, the city administration forbade cycling southwards from the plague column in 1988. Today this route is again open to bicycle traffic in both directions. Coarse, rumbling pavement on the steep section to the traffic light was later provided with a smooth strip of granite pavement for cyclists. The first handrail was installed on the traffic light column to the bridge for waiting cyclists.
With the arcades in the bridgehead buildings, pedestrians will find rain protection and wide paths. Two pedestrian crossings lead over the carriageway ramps to the bridge. Alternatively, pedestrians can use an underpass on the east side and a footbridge to the Donaupark without waiting.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Erwin Reidinger : Medieval town planning using the example of Linz. In: Historical yearbook of the city of Linz 2001.
- ↑ a b main square. In: History of Linz street names.
- ↑ Rudolf Lehr: State Chronicle of Upper Austria. Verlag Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 2004, p. 200, ISBN 3-85498-331-X .
- ^ Georg Grüll: The first elephant in Linz. In: Historical yearbook of the city of Linz 1958. Archive of the city of Linz , Linz 1958, pp. 386–390, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
- ↑ "Neptune Fountain" main square. In: stadtgeschichte.linz.at.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 48 ° 18 ′ 21 ″ N , 14 ° 17 ′ 11 ″ E