King's chair by Rhens

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The original King's chair by Rhens in the late 18th century, drawn by Laurenz Janscha , engraved by Johann Ziegler in 1798.
The royal chair of Rhens in its present form
The Königstuhl by Rhens

The Königsstuhl von Rhens is a stone, two-story octagonal building as an enlarged representation of a throne at the location of the walnut garden in Rhens on the Rhine south of Koblenz , where negotiations between the electors for the election of the Roman-German kings and some kings were carried out in the Middle Ages . Through these negotiations the electors strengthened their position of power, which they secured in the Kurverein von Rhense in 1338 through an alliance and which in 1356 found its permanent expression under imperial law in the Golden Bull . Today be visited building that thus on the formation of the historical foundations of modern federalism in Germany refers, but is now offset new building from 1842, the original in the turmoil of 1795 First Coalition War and the French occupation of the left bank of the Rhine was destroyed .

construction

The floor plan of the Königsstuhl probably goes back to an older wooden structure. Today's octagonal building consists of an octagonal base plate on which seven outer pointed arches on eight outer pillars (each with a buttress on a common base) over the sides and eight inner arches together with an octagonal central pillar carry an also octagonal platform surrounded by a wall to one of them 17-step staircase (instead of the eighth outer arch) in the south-west through another pointed arch with a stepped gable . The structure is made of black lava blocks , the eight pillars and the central column are made of basalt . The base and the capital of the central column come from the previous building . The pillar bases were initially whitewashed.

The original Königsstuhl (erected before 1398) differed from its successor from 1842 in many ways: It had no gable above the staircase arch of the staircase, and the surrounding wall and the platform were on the same level. The right-angled staircase had a landing between its first steps (pointing towards NW) and its continuation to the platform (towards NE like the entire straight staircase today). In addition, instead of solid masonry, the rear section of the staircase was supported by an arch the width of the stairs, which left a passage under the stairs so that all eight pillar bases were free. The walls were plastered and whitewashed, so there was no stonightness (a clear view of the unplastered, unpainted or uncovered wall substance). The pillar bases were set off halfway up the stairs and the stair arch edging was completely reddish. The eight buttresses were shorter and provided with their own base, the present-day ones share a base with the arched pillars. The eight outer arches were kept flatter and thus appeared a little wider than in today's building. On the south-east outer wall towards the Rhine, the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire was painted on the light-colored plaster above the arch .

history

In 1273 the four Rhenish electors (the Archbishops of Mainz , Trier , Cologne and the Count Palatine of the Rhine ) for the election of Rudolf von Habsburg took place for the first time in the Nussbaumgarten on the banks of the Rhine at Rhense , as their territories met there. After further preliminary discussions for the elections of Heinrich VII. And Ludwig dem Baier as Roman-German king in 1308 and 1313/14, the Kurverein von Rhense was closed in 1338 , which shortly afterwards became an imperial law in Frankfurt am Main .

The first royal election in Rhens was carried out at the Königsstuhl in 1346 when Charles IV was elected as the opposing king. Ten years later, the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV determined Frankfurt as the place of the king's election. In the year 1376 the election of Wenzel , the son of Charles IV., Was prepared at the Königsstuhl and was carried out on June 10, 1376 in Frankfurt. A few days after his coronation, Karl decreed on July 9, 1376 that a "steynen gestuel" (stone stalls) was to be built on which the electors had to name the future king.

"... and always preserve and dump that forever"

"... and want to preserve and preserve this at all times"

Emperor Charles IV, the initiator of the King's Chair

The citizens of Rhens had to build the Königsstuhl, but they received a customs privilege from Karl for the costs incurred and the subsequent maintenance of the building .

The stalls were first mentioned in writing in 1398, probably in connection with a visit by Wenceslas to Rhens. After the deposition of Wenceslas in 1400 Ruprecht III. raised by the Palatinate as the first king and future emperor on the stone royal chair. After Ruprecht's death, Rhens gradually lost its position as a place of consultation and election, but in 1433 Friedrich III. raised on the king's chair. At this point he took an oath on the empire and received the accolade . Maximilian I climbed the Königsstuhl near Rhens on the journey from Frankfurt to Aachen . According to other sources, Ruprecht III. the first and last king of the Palatinate, who was elected to the king's chair in Rhens, since Frankfurt was already the place of choice, and the building of the king's chair by Charles IV for future meetings in preparation for the king's election by some historians as compensation for the lost actual Election location is viewed. The following kings and emperors - including Friedrich III. - were elected in Frankfurt and only visited the Königsstuhl in Rhens on the way to the coronation in Aachen, climbed it to take the oath of loyalty and to present to the people. Around 1550 this custom was also lost among the successors of Maximilian I.

After a restoration of the King's Chair by Landgrave Georg II of Hesse in 1624, it gradually fell into disrepair over the next 170 years. After its destruction and the sale of the stones to citizens of Rhens by French soldiers in the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars in 1795, the Königsstuhl was finally demolished in 1806. After a fundraising campaign triggered by a New Year's plaque with the relief of the king's chair designed by Karl Bernhard Hundeshagen in 1826 and supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia , a call was made to rebuild the monument , and in the years 1841 to 1843 for the new building of the Königsstuhl by the master builder Johann Claudius von Lassaulx . In 1848 a solemn meeting took place on the occasion of the Frankfurt National Assembly .

In 1929, the Königsstuhl was moved from the Nussbaumgarten outside Rhens to its current location on the Rheinhöhe Schawall near the bypass road (B9) with a view of Rhens and the Rhine Valley . A plaque on the Rhine bears witness to the building's former location. From 1979 to 1982, the Rhineland-Palatinate Palace Administration renovated the monument and added the Rhineland-Palatinate coat of arms to the structure.

For many years the Königsstuhl near Rhens was the place where the Koblenz mayors received their chain of office . Since Pentecost 1978 there have been frequent meetings of the mayors of Koblenz and Rhens on the "Königsstuhl zu Rhense".

Monument protection

The Königsstuhl von Rhens is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is in the district of Rhens .

The Königsstuhl von Rhens has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Königsstuhl (Rhens)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Alfons Huber (ed.): The Regests of the Empire under Emperor Karl IV. 1346-1378. From the estate of Johann Friedrich Böhmer . Innsbruck 1877, p. 471, no. 5644. (Regesta Imperii: VIII )
  2. Magnus Backes: State castles, palaces and antiquities in Rhineland-Palatinate (=  State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Rhineland-Palatinate Dept. Castles, Palaces, Antiquities [Ed.]: Edition Schlösser, Altert leads Rheinland-Pfalz . Guide booklet 7). Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2003, ISBN 3-7954-1566-7 , pp. 146 (new edition).
  3. ^ Entry on the original location of the Rhenser Königsstuhl in the Nussbaumgarten in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 19, 2017.
  4. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Mayen-Koblenz district. Mainz 2020, p. 85 (PDF; 5.8 MB).

Coordinates: 50 ° 16'56.1 "  N , 7 ° 36'49.4"  E