House Fey
Haus Fey was an elegant town house in Aachen . In 1929 the first Couven Museum was opened there. The house was completely destroyed in the Second World War .
location
The Fey house was on Seilgraben 34 and thus on the road ring that ran around the inner city wall . The Johannisbach also passed there on its way from the Neupforte to the Hotmannspief .
history
Haus Fey was built after the great fire in Aachen , which destroyed a large part of the city in 1656. The oldest components date from 1681. They formed the two rear wing structures of the later house. The Mayor of Aachen Alexander Theodor von Oliva , who had lived in the neighboring house Pley (today Seilgraben 32) since 1726, acquired the property, but sold it again to the merchant Michel François Grand Ry in 1735 . In 1740 he had the left wing extended by a slightly recessed extension. As part of this renovation, Johann Joseph Couven designed two neat pavilions on both sides of the street gate, of which the right one is still preserved. In the pavilion to the left of the gate was the Alexander Battles hall, so named after the murals depicting this theme by Johann Chrysanth Bollenrath , the right pavilion served as a magazine. Grand Ry's widow sold the property in 1765 to the merchant Andreas Ludwigs and his wife Constantia, b. Becker, who let Jakob Couven give the house its final shape from 1765 to 1767 . Couven connected the two existing buildings with a central building and thus created a castle-like three-wing complex of the French Hôtel particulier type with a courtyard . On the street, he closed off the property with a wall with an archway and two flanking pavilions. In the garden rising towards the Lousberg , he laid stairs and terraces and built a garden house at the end.
With the marriage of the only daughter of Andreas and Constantia Ludwigs, Helena, to the Eupen cloth manufacturer Peter Fey, the house became the property of the Fey family in 1777, after whom it was later named. From this family comes u. a. the founder of the order Clara Fey , a granddaughter of Peter and Helena Fey. In 1925 Ignaz Fey, impoverished by inflation, sold the house to the city of Aachen, but continued to live in the left wing of the house until his death. When the Rochusstrasse was laid out, the garden was shortened, which meant that Haus Fey lost its garden shed. 1927 was the summer house Nuellens that before in the courtyard of the Hotel Nuellen at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz had stood against the Elisenbrunnen, in the remaining part of the garden translocated . In 1928 the wall fountain from the Wespienhaus was installed in the courtyard of Haus Fey.
Felix Kuetgens set up a museum of home decor from the 18th and early 19th centuries in the house, the first Couven Museum , which opened on July 1, 1929. At first it only comprised the central building and the right side wing, after the death of Ignaz Fey in 1935 it was extended to the whole house. From 1929 August von Brandis painted the interiors of Haus Fey in the Impressionist style, including the Biedermeier room.
On July 14, 1943, Haus Fey burned down completely after a bomb attack. Much of the furnishings in the Couven Museum were destroyed. The remains of the house that were still standing were razed to the ground in another bomb attack on April 11, 1944. Nevertheless, many components were saved and in 1949 they were relocated to the neighboring house at Seilgraben 32, which was built in couven style. The remains of a gate house and the wrought-iron entrance gate have also been preserved, as well as other lattice systems and remains of the garden stairs in the garden of Seilgraben 34.
The Couven Museum was reopened in 1958 in Haus Monheim . The Nuellens garden house was initially preserved and rebuilt in the Burtscheid spa gardens in 1961 .
building
House Fey's lot was very long and narrow, and the house adapted to that. The central building was only three window axes wide, while the side wings were very long. Most of the rooms only got light from the courtyard side, only the halls in the central building and the neighboring halls in the right wing had windows facing the garden and the courtyard.
A detailed description of the rooms can be found under Couven-Museum # Haus Fey .
literature
- Felix Kuetgens: Guide to the municipal Couven Museum . 2nd Edition. Publishing house of the Aachen Museum Association, Aachen 1932.
- The Couven House . The parlor of the city of Aachen. Aachener Verlags- und Druckereigesellschaft, Aachen (illustrated book with an art-historical introduction by Felix Kuetgens, early 1940s).
- Felix Kuetgens: The "old" Couven Museum . In: Hans Feldbusch, Peter Ludwig (Ed.): Aachener Kunstblätter . No. 16 . Publishing house of the Aachen Museum Association, Aachen 1957, p. 7-10 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 '43.8 " N , 6 ° 5' 7.5" E