Cheese cellar (Hildesheim)
The cheese cellar is a 80 m² casemate under the Kehrwiederwall near the New Gate in Hildesheim .
Location and access
The parts and changes in sections of the Hildesheim city fortifications can be traced back to the area New Gate (Porta Nova) - Kehrwiederwall - Goschentor described here using maps and old city views.
- (1598) Simon Novellanus: Hildesheim - view from the northwest publ. in Braun-Hogenberg
- (1632) Johann Ludwig Gottfried: View of Hildesheim
- (1641) Matthaeus Merian d. Ä : Hildesheim from a bird's eye view from the southwest
- (1653) Caspar Merian : Hildesheim - view from the southeast
- (1740/50) Johann Georg Ringle: General view
The older and larger part of the complex, which consists of a system of connecting corridors and barrel vaults made of sandstone blocks , was built between 1450 and 1461 with the construction of the Kehrwiederwall and the Dyesgraben. The cheese cellar consists of a 31 m long, three meter wide and up to to a four meter high corridor that runs in north-south direction and connects Lappenberg and Dyesgraben.
There are still two entrances: the first is about 50 meters east of the New Gate below a staircase that leads from the moat to the wall, the second is in the back yard of the house Lappenberg 9 near the Kehrwiederturm . In his town plan, Matthäus Merian calls this corridor the long vault . The function of several niches on the sides of this corridor has not yet been clarified.
The assumption that more than 300 horsemen were able to defend the southern border of the city from here has not been proven . There is also no evidence of its use as a secret route for monks of Godehardi monastery from the monastery to the city or as a connection to Godehardi prison.
From this older main corridor, a small side room for a previously unknown purpose and a side tunnel that was 16 m long, five meters wide and 4.5 m high, dug only in 1750/51 - shortly before the city fortifications were abandoned - branch off to the west. The latter was built as a safe powder magazine to replace the previous powder tower at the Brühlstor , whose further use seemed too dangerous. A locked room with another entrance was discovered in 2013. The baroque portal that the southern entrance received on this occasion has not been preserved. The conversion costs amounted to 778 Reichstaler and 30 Groschen .
Reuse
After softening the city's constant 13 ° C cooling tunnels were used as storerooms until the 20th century by various shops, first by a brewery , then from a grocery store , and finally by a Molkereiwaren- and cheese store. Today's name as "cheese cellar" comes from the latter.
During the Second World War , the rooms, which are still covered by a layer of earth about five meters thick, were used as air raid shelters . Remnants of power lines and a contemporary baby carriage and two bicycles that were left there during the clean-up work in 2008 are evidence of this.
After the end of the war, the access on the wall was walled up and completely filled in and only exposed again in May 2008. On the other hand, the facility was accessible via the other entrance and for several decades was regularly used as a soundproof venue for unauthorized private parties and, most recently, as a private wood store.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 5000 historical city views from Germany . In: Digital Library . Directmedia Publishing, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-936122-26-1 , Hildesheim.
- ↑ New tunnel discovered in Kehrwiederwall. In: Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung . Gerstenberg Verlag , January 28, 2013, archived from the original on August 1, 2013 ; Retrieved August 19, 2016 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 '44.8 " N , 9 ° 57' 7.6" E