Canal Gate Square

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The Kanaltorplatz in Hanau is a structural reminiscence of the first Hanau harbor . The square takes up part of its area.

The canal gate from the inside - today's Kanaltorplatz - on a drawing by Carl Wilhelm Woerishoffer before 1829. On the left in the picture the rest of the former harbor canal with the bridge crossing it

requirements

While medieval Hanau was oriented towards the Kinzig , a river that was only navigable to a limited extent at that time, it was a considerable distance from the most important waterway in the area, the Main . The Kinzdorf was still between Hanau and Main . It was not until the new town of Hanau was built in 1597, which took up the space between the old town and Kinzdorf, that Hanau moved much closer to the Main. In addition, there were the commercial interests of the new citizens settled here. Both of these necessitated the construction of the first Hanau harbor.

The harbor

This came to lie within the fortifications of the New Town and was connected to the Main via the fortress moat and a canal . The port construction was agreed in the founding contract between the new residents and Count Philipp Ludwig II. Von Hanau-Münzenberg : The count was supposed to build the port and a crane, but be allowed to charge port fees. The eastern quay made of Haymarket .

The port exit cut through the ramparts immediately south of the canal gate, through which a road link ran. This was of course a weak point in the attachment. Therefore, during the Thirty Years' War , the canal gate was reinforced with an upstream hornwork , in the middle of which the harbor canal ran and there also operated a mill.

The port extended over the area that corresponded to a whole building block, as the interior development of the planned city "Hanauer Neustadt" envisaged in a checkerboard-like and uniform manner for the area between Heumarkt, Krämerstraße, Kanaltorplatz and Römerstraße. An area of ​​approx. 90 × 90 meters. The estimated cost was 10,000 guilders .

Right from the start, the project was fraught with problems - not just in terms of the high costs. The water in the ditch surrounding the Neustadt was too high for the intended building site. So a lock had to be built. In addition, the port and the canal silted up very quickly: the port was without any notable inflow, and the flow speed of the moat fed by the Kinzig was evidently too slow to keep the canal permanently free. The increasing difficulties led to the fact that in 1605 the work was stopped. The option of a port at this point should be kept open by completing the Canal Gate (which was also done in 1611). The partially completed, already water-bearing harbor basin could initially be used as a horse drink, said the count's administration. The canal was completed in 1617. The Thirty Years' War, which had now broken out, prevented it from flourishing. At the end of the war the harbor basin was muddy and was only called "stink chew". It has now been given up for good.

Subsequent use

A plan from 1684 shows that the harbor basin and the canal between the basin and the moat have since been filled. Main ships docked at the mouth of the canal in the Main, where a quay wall and a crane were erected. The canal served as a winter harbor. The area, which was originally intended for the harbor basin, was built over in its eastern half, while gardens were initially located in the western half. The Canal Gate was now almost meaningless: it led to nowhere. Only when Philippsruher Allee was built at the beginning of the 18th century did this quarter of Hanauer Neustadt gain in importance again. While the ramparts around the Neustadt were largely razed in the winter of 1806/1807 , the Canal Gate was only demolished in 1829. In 1830 the state of Hesse built a customs office here based on plans by Julius Eugen Ruhl . It was destroyed in World War II. 100 meters away, the terminal station of the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway Company was built in 1848 , today's Hanau West station . The Thurn-und-Taxis-Post , which later became Hanau's main post office, also settled on Kanaltorplatz .

See also

literature

  • Heinrich Bott : City and fortress Hanau according to the Stockholm plan by Joachim Rumpf of January 8, 1632 and according to other plans and views of the 17th and 18th centuries. (1) In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 18. Hanau 1962, pp. 183–222.
  • Werner Kurz: From the Count's traffic project to the “Stinkkaute” . In: Hanauer Anzeiger March 6, 2010, p. 33.
  • Eckhard Meise : Bernhard Hundeshagen - no monument protection in Hanau in the early 19th century . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2006.
  • Oskar Schenk: From the Main Canal, from the old Hanau harbor and the market ship . In: Hanau city and country. A home book for school and home . Hanau 1954, pp. 369-371.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Briefly, traffic project.
  2. ^ Bott, city and fortress (1), p. 199.
  3. ↑ Briefly, traffic project.
  4. ↑ Meise: Bernhard Hundeshagen , p. 6.
  5. ↑ Meise: Bernhard Hundeshagen , p. 37.
  6. ^ * Siegfried Lohr : Plans and buildings by the Kassel master builder Julius Eugen Ruhl 1796–1871. A contribution to the building history of Kassel and Kurhessen in the 19th century . Masch. Diss. Darmstadt [1982], p. 249.

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 57.1 ″  N , 8 ° 54 ′ 42.5 ″  E