Korbisch House

Karden, St.-Castor-Straße 1: Korbisch house

South side of the Korbisch

The Korbisch house is a late Romanesque secular building built using older masonry in Treis-Karden in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate . The exterior of the building, largely preserved in the state of the beginning of the 13th century, with today's address St.-Castor-Straße 1, is right next to the Trier – Koblenz railway line. According to the current state of research, it is the oldest privately owned residential building in Germany that is still used for living.

history

Below the former Celtic oppidum and Roman temple district of Martberg on the Lower Moselle , where - as the name suggests - the god Mars Lenus was most likely worshiped, the late antique craftsmen and traders settlement Vicus Cardena , the valley settlement of the ancient mountain sanctuary , was located directly on the banks of the Moselle . As early as the fourth century, Castor von Karden (* unknown; † around 400), a student of Bishop Maximin von Trier who probably came from Aquitaine , worked with some companions as a priest and perhaps also a missionary in Karden on the Moselle and founded a Christian community . Part of the bones of St. Castor von Karden came to the Kastor Church in Koblenz in 836 . A collegiate monastery developed at St. Castor's grave and work place in Karden , of which, in addition to "Haus Korbisch", the former canons' building (presumably the refectory and dormitory from 1238) and the Romanesque collegiate church , the so-called "Moseldom" exist . Karden was the center of an archdeaconate in the Middle Ages . The provost of the monastery was one of the original four, later five archdeacons of the Archdiocese of Trier and supported the Archbishop of Trier in the administration of the archbishopric's secular territory. After the French Revolution, the collegiate monastery was abolished in 1802 and its real estate and most of the extensive possessions were auctioned.

Building history

House "Korbisch" (corruption by Chorbischof) is located in the middle of the former monastery district with the buildings of the canons and canons grouped around the former collegiate church of St. Castor, the former collegiate school and the dormitory (1238) and the Kurtrierisches Amtshaus (1562) on the Moselle and is now part of the heritage zone Convent of St Castor. The well-preserved building is an excellent example of Romanesque in Germany. The outside is largely unchanged; only its interior was constantly being adapted to changing needs.

Predecessor Ottonian building

Unusually, the medieval secular building was built entirely in stone. Large parts of the slate masonry walls of a (at least) two-story building with a barrel-vaulted cellar have been preserved from the original structure. In the course of building historical investigations during the last extensive repair work around 1996, partially pre-Romanesque masonry and several 70 to 80 cm wide - today walled up - window openings were documented, which were dendrochronologically to the time around 941 AD due to a wooden lintel over one of the windows ) can be dated. Even these pre-Romanesque walls - partly made in herringbone ( Opus spicatum ) - were plastered outside and inside. Fragments of a fresco painting with red, lanceolate leaves could be seen on a yellowish layer of paint on only small remnants of the plastered surfaces .

Romanesque building

In a later construction phase, the original building of the "Korbisch" was changed significantly. This resulted in its appearance, which is still preserved today, as a freestanding plastered rectangular building with biforias or coupled windows and an attached tower. In terms of architectural history (beginning of the 13th century) and dendrochronologically (1207), this renovation can be dated to around 1208, the term of office of a nephew of the first Archbishop of Trier, Johann , the Karden archdeacon and provost Otwin, who held office in Karden from 1198 to 1217 . The two-story residential building with a barrel-vaulted barrel cellar and storage facility in the attic had a floor space of 7 by 14 meters and a three-story tower porch measuring 3.5 by 5 meters and a height of 13.40 meters. Originally the ground floor was divided into two rooms; On the Moselle side it had three windows and two (meanwhile walled up) entrances. Two large wall chimneys and numerous rectangular windows, some with a central column, as well as double arcade windows (biforias) structure the facade of the upper floor and convey a lavish lighting for the time.

Todays use

House "Korbisch" served different uses over time. Given the prominent construction and its customary name, one can hardly go wrong in assuming that it served at least for a time as the residence and official residence of the archdeacon (choir bishop) of the Archdiocese of Trier, and was probably even built as such. After it was no longer used for these purposes, it was at times a mundane residential building and press house. House "Korbisch" is still privately owned today and has been used as a residence by the current owner family since 1986.

literature

Burghart Schmidt u. a .: Small house history of the Moselle landscape (= series of publications on dendrochronology and building research. Volume 1). Cologne 1989, pp. 51-74.
Anita Wiedenau: Catalog of Romanesque residential buildings in West German cities and settlements (without Goslar and Regensburg) (= The German community center. Volume 34). Tübingen 1983, pp. 89-92.
Peter Willicks: New findings on the building history of the late Romanesque house "Korbisch" in Karden on the Moselle. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . No. 4, 1990, pp. 254-259.

Web links

Commons : House Korbisch - Collection of images

Bernd Brauksiepe: Treis-Karden - Former Collegiate monastery and collegiate church St. Castor (Karden). History of architecture and art. In: Monasteries and monasteries in Rhineland-Palatinate. On the way to a Rhineland-Palatinate monastery lexicon (online project of the Institute for Historical Regional Studies at the University of Mainz)

Individual evidence

^ To the collegiate church of St. Castor in Treis-Karden
↑ Hubert Bastgen: The history of the Trier archdeaconate . In: Trierisches Archiv , No. 10, 1907, pp. 1–56.
↑ Lorenz Frank: The predecessor of the late Romanesque "Korbisch" in Karden on the Moselle . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege , 1999, No. 3, pp. 191–198.
↑ Sabine Maier: Investigation report on the results of the paint and plaster layer sequence in the hall of the former Provosty Korbisch zu Karden / Mosel (unpublished, Mainz 1996), p. 24; quoted in Frank 1999, p. 194.
^ Ferdinand Pauly: The Archdiocese of Trier 3, The St. Kastor Abbey in Karden on the Moselle . Max Planck Inst. für Geschichte (Ed.), Germania Sacra NF 19, The Dioceses of the Church Province Trier (1986), p. 299.

50.183633 7.302044Coordinates: 50 ° 11 ′ 1 ″ N , 7 ° 18 ′ 7 ″ E

[1] To the collegiate church of St. Castor in Treis-Karden

[2] Hubert Bastgen: The history of the Trier archdeaconate . In: Trierisches Archiv , No. 10, 1907, pp. 1–56.

[3] Lorenz Frank: The predecessor of the late Romanesque "Korbisch" in Karden on the Moselle . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege , 1999, No. 3, pp. 191–198.

[4] Sabine Maier: Investigation report on the results of the paint and plaster layer sequence in the hall of the former Provosty Korbisch zu Karden / Mosel (unpublished, Mainz 1996), p. 24; quoted in Frank 1999, p. 194.

[5] Ferdinand Pauly: The Archdiocese of Trier 3, The St. Kastor Abbey in Karden on the Moselle . Max Planck Inst. für Geschichte (Ed.), Germania Sacra NF 19, The Dioceses of the Church Province Trier (1986), p. 299.