House to stone

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House to stone

The Haus zum Stein is a Romanesque residential tower in Mainz that was built at the end of the 12th century . Today the building is located on Weintorstraße and thus in the southern old town . With the partially original structure from the middle of the 13th century , the Haus zum Stein is essentially the oldest surviving and inhabited building in Mainz.

history

The Haus zum Stein was built towards the end of the 12th century at the southeast end of the city area, directly on the city wall ring, as a three-story residential tower in the Romanesque style. The builder probably came from the noble mentioned in 1250 in Constance armorial patrician family of Judd of stone (even Judeus de Lapide or de Lapide ). The formerly Jewish family, who converted to Christianity by the middle of the 13th century at the latest, was very wealthy and a member of the tournament society "Zum Esel". For 1250 Eberhardus de Lapide is named as the owner of the Haus zum Stein. After renovations and an unauthorized increase in the residential tower, he got into a dispute with the Archbishop of Mainz, Christian II von Bolanden . In order to forestall a possible demolition of the residential tower, Eberhardus promised the archbishop that he would leave the Haus zum Stein to the Mainz cathedral chapter after his death .

Despite this promise, the house remained in the possession of the Judd vom Stein family until the family died out around 1500. Structural adjustments such as breaking window openings into the ground floor or additions and enlargements of the entire property can be proven for the coming decades. Philipp Erwein von Schönborn , brother of Mainz Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn , is attested as the owner for 1657 . At that time, the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher and the Welschnonnen , whose monastery was under construction, lived in the now large property around the Haus zum Stein .

In the 18th century the Haus zum Stein was in civil ownership. During the siege of Mainz in 1793, the upper part of the tower was destroyed and then closed off by a half-timbered floor with a gable roof. The entire gable front on the previously undeveloped west and south sides was clad with slate, which optically lost the tower character of the house.

During repair work, especially in the 1970s, well-preserved original components from the Romanesque phase came to light. From 1981 to 1983 the tower was renovated and partially reconstructed with historical building fabric.

description

The Haus zum Stein is a three-storey tower over 20 m high with a rectangular floor plan of 11.2 × 16.3 m. The floor heights vary between 4 and 5 m. Slit windows on the ground floor and coupled window arcades that have been preserved on the upper floor of the north wall date from the Romanesque period . These are windows with two double arcades, coupled over a pillar, with two pillars and warping stones that run out in rolls . The cube-shaped capitals have different patterns such as spiral patterns. These windows also served as a model for the windows on the entire building that were reconstructed in the 1980s.

reconstruction

The Haus zum Stein was still privately owned in the early 1970s, but it was in dire need of renovation. In the course of the renovation of the old town in Mainz, the city declared the building a renovation object in 1972. In 1974, as part of structural engineering work, the aforementioned Romanesque building remains were discovered and the structural and historical importance of the building was recognized. In 1979 the owner handed over the Haus zum Stein to the trust of the city of Mainz.

During the reconstruction of the building, which lasted from 1981 to 1983, the monument preservation staff oriented themselves towards the lower part of the building and the north wall with its Romanesque twin windows, which were built somewhat later . The original structure from the middle of the 13th century was still present here. The upper floors were reconstructed in the same way based on this model. Since there was no historical tradition or illustration of the roof termination, this was freely reconstructed as a flat roof.

During the reconstruction of the building, there were content-related differences between the preservation authorities and the city administration. The latter insisted on a total reconstruction of the tower and on some structural adjustments in relation to the planned use of the Haus zum Stein as a residential building. On the other hand, monument preservation staff argued that too little of the original building structure had been preserved for a total reconstruction of the building and that there were no images of the building from earlier times that could be consulted. The city of Mainz's redevelopment committee then decided to restrict the reconstruction to the outside of the residential tower and a smooth roof that hides the gable from the outside. In its reconstructed form today, the Haus zum Stein resembles other buildings such as the Baumburger Tower in Regensburg or the Frankenturm in Trier .

Despite these differences, the city of Mainz received a special prize for the reconstruction and modernization of the Haus zum Stein in 1984 as part of the federal competition “Building and Living in Old Surroundings”.

Todays use

The Haus zum Stein has been privately owned by several Mainz families since 2000. The majority of the building consists of rented or privately owned maisonette apartments. Until 2007 there was a gallery in the basement of the tower. Today there is also a privately owned apartment there.

See also

literature

  • Rolf Dörrlamm, Susanne Feick, Hartmut Fischer, Hans Kersting: Mainz contemporary witnesses made of stone. Architectural styles tell 1000 years of history. Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-87439-525-1
  • State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate (Ed.): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 2.2 .: City of Mainz - Old Town. in: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1997 (3rd edition), ISBN 3-88462-139-4
  • Günther Gillessen (Ed.): If stones could talk - Mainz buildings and their stories. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1206-7
  • Renate Arzdorf: A house tells the story of Mainz. About the difficulties of renovating the Romanesque "Haus zum Stein". In: Mainz. Quarterly issues for culture, politics, economics, history . Number 4/3. Born 1983. Verlag H. Schmidt Mainz, ISSN  0720-5945

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 47.5 "  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 33.8"  E