Historic town hall Lechenich
The building, known as the historical town hall of Erftstadt , is the town hall of the former town of Lechenich . Due to its central location on the market square, it largely determines the image of the old town. The building, erected in the neo-Gothic style, was entered on August 10, 1982 under number 003 in the list of architectural monuments in Erftstadt and is therefore a listed building .
History of the town hall
The first town hall was probably built in the middle of the 15th century as a meeting place for the mayor and the magistrate . A town hall, called a community center, is documented in 1590 as a payment point for the excise paid by the tradespeople and as a meeting place for the city council . Until the Hessian War , the council hall was rented for wedding celebrations. At times, an inn in the basement, a council cellar , was set up. Other rooms were rented to merchants.
On the city view by Matthäus Merian , the town hall is shown as a two-story half - timbered building , on the hipped roof of which there was a ridge turret with a small bell. After the siege of Lechenich in 1642 , during which the town hall was badly damaged, a new building was necessary, which was then erected in 1681. After the city fire in 1702, a new town hall was built again. In the middle of the 18th century it had become dilapidated and a new building was erected in 1752, for which Clemens August Graf Wolff-Metternich, the son of Lechenich bailiff Franz Arnold Graf Wolff-Metternich , laid the foundation stone .
During the time of the French administration , the town hall was the seat of Mairie Lechenich and the Magistrates' Court of the Canton of Lechenich .
In a building description from 1833, the two-story house was described as in very poor condition. The guard room and two prison rooms were housed in the basement, and the fire syringe was in one room. On the upper floor there were two halls for council business and for the magistrate's court.
In the middle of the 19th century the space requirement had increased and an extension seemed necessary. In 1861 the council decided to build a completely new building again on the market square, in which the peace court should again be housed. The later Viennese cathedral builder Friedrich von Schmidt provided the design for a building in the neo-Gothic style, which was slightly modified by the Cologne cathedral builder Friedrich Zwirner . The current building was completed in 1862. As a token of gratitude to the late cathedral master builder Zwirner, a stone with an inscription was built into the stairwell opposite the old foundation stone from 1752. After the completion of the town hall, the rooms on the upper floor were used by the municipal administration, the lower floor was left to the peace court, which sat there until 1879.
City hall foundation stone from 1752
Town hall memorial stone from 1862
Town hall city arms above the main portal
After the Second World War , minor war damage was repaired. The attic was expanded with dormer windows to create new rooms. In 1954 the interior was converted and the house was adapted to today's needs by installing a heating system . A conference room was built for the community representatives, the windows of which were given lead glazing with motifs from the villages of the office. The building remained the town hall of the city and the Lechenich office until the administrative reform of 1969 .
Today (2012) the “historic town hall” houses the registry office of the city of Erftstadt, a meeting room and other rooms that are used for other purposes.
description
The two-storey brick building is built on a cross plan. The sides of the building are designed in the same way with stepped gables and three windows each on the ground floor and on the first floor on the east and west sides. The upper floor windows are enclosed by pointed arches , the middle window also by a lancet arch . The facades on the north and south sides are emphasized by a strongly projected central projection. On the north side, two large windows on the ground floor and three windows on the upper floor frame the central projectile with the main portal, which can be reached via an outside staircase. On the upper floor, a lancet arch surrounds a large window, above which is the city coat of arms as a sandstone relief and above the eaves another rectangular window. The south side is less elaborate. Above the entrance door in the central projection there is a large window surrounded by a blind arch . There are narrow windows on both floors on both sides of the central projectile, and a small pointed arch window in the stepped gable. A cornice between the ground floor and the upper floor runs around the entire building. Window and portal frames, profiled cornices and gable covers are made of sandstone . All the stepped gables carry iron weather vanes .
literature
- Frank Bartsch (ed.): Continuity and change in the country. The Rhine Prussian mayor of Lechenich in the 19th and early 20th centuries (1815-1914). Landpresse, Weilerswist 2012, ISBN 978-3-941037-91-5 . (History in the Euskirchen district, vol. 26)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl and Hanna Stommel: Sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt. Vol. IV No. 2091.
- ^ Stommel: sources. Vol. IV No. 2322, No. 2437.
- ^ Stommel: sources. Vol. V No. 2705.
- ^ Stommel: sources. Vol. V No. 2791.
- ^ Stommel: sources. Vol. V No. 2910.
- ^ Stommel: sources. Vol. V No. 3043, No. 3044, p. 368 and p. 371.
- ^ A b c Frank Bartsch: Continuity and change in the country. The Rhenish Prussian mayor of Lechenich in the 19th and early 20th centuries (1815 - 1914). Pp. 654-663.
- ↑ Erftstadt City Archives No. 2049: Peter Simons, Siegfried Jahnke: History of the City of Lechenich. Unpublished typewritten manuscript, Lechenich 1955.
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 0.4 " N , 6 ° 45 ′ 56.1" E