Cologne mikvah
The Cologne mikvah was the ritual bath of the medieval Jewish community in Cologne.
history
The Jewish ritual bath of the medieval Jewish community of Cologne, one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities in the area of the Holy Roman Empire, was located on today's Rathausplatz, since 1990 characterized by a silver pyramid as a skylight.
The first construction phase of the mikveh dates from the 8th century. As a result, the building was renewed and renovated several times. After 1096 the mikveh was rebuilt at the beginning of the 12th century. The Cologne mikvah appeared for the first time in 1270 as Puteus Judaerorum (Judenpütz) in the documents. Even after the expulsion of the Jews in 1424, the mikveh was still mentioned as Pütz (Brunnen) Kaltenborn , although it was filled in before 1426.
architecture
The mikveh was located in the medieval Jewish quarter of Cologne, southwest of the synagogue . It belonged to the ensemble of the most important buildings in the medieval Jewish quarter with a synagogue , mikveh, wash well, warm bath, bakery, dance and playhouse and hospital.
Initially, the mikveh was accessible from the west until the entrance was relocated to the east in the 11th century. You first entered a vaulted anteroom with a waiting bench. From there a staircase leads down on the west side. In this upper part, the stairs run along the outside of the shaft, where three arched window openings provide a view into it. A small, spiral staircase with an antique column polie made of Elbagranite leads from a small changing room into the shaft.
In contrast to other monumental mikvot, the stairs inside the shaft now lead down to the bathing pool, which is framed in red sandstone, to the water level. The mikvah has wall niches in the lower part to accommodate towels and lamps. The shaft (3.60 × 4.00 meters) of the system extends almost 16 meters deep to the groundwater, which according to the Jewish rite was considered "living water". In the mikveh, the prescribed cleansing rituals were carried out after a hot bath, especially by women after menstruation and childbirth or before the wedding. Men also used the mikveh when they became ritually unclean. The bath shaft of the mikveh was surmounted by a tower, which is documented in the sources as early as the 17th century.
Rediscovery
During the excavations carried out by Otto Doppelfeld in 1956, the mikveh and the synagogue were rediscovered. In 1990, a steel and glass pyramid was placed over it as a skylight, which, however, had to be covered again since 2007 due to the unfavorable climatic conditions that this caused. New excavations took place in and around the mikveh under the direction of Sven Schütte in 2010/2012, which yielded numerous new results.
The mikveh will be moved to the “ MiQua. LVR-Jewish Museum in the Archaeological Quarter of Cologne ”and cannot be visited until completion.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Haupt, forecourt , p. 211
literature
- Otto Doppelfeld: T he excavations in Cologne's Jewish quarter , in: Zvi Asaria (Hrsg.): The Jews in Cologne from the oldest times to the present. Cologne 1959, pp. 71-145
- Isabel Haupt: The forecourt of the Cologne City Hall , in: Buildings and places as carriers of memory . Zurich 2000
- Sven Schütte / Marianne Gechter: Cologne: Archaeological Zone / Jewish Museum. From excavation to museum - Cologne archeology between town hall and praetorium. Results and materials 2006–2012. 2nd edition 2012 ISBN 978-3-9812541-0-5
See also
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 16.2 " N , 6 ° 57 ′ 30.6" E