Cross-vaulted stable
The cross-vaulted stables , also popularly known as cow chapels , were built in the post-Napoleonic period, when many former church craftsmen were looking for new customers for their architecture. They are part of the wine architecture . Some of the owners of these groin -vaulted cow stalls , which are often found in Rheinhessen, have joined forces for marketing in the Rheinhessische Weingewölbe interest group.
New customers for old arts
In the early 19th century, master mason Franz Ostermayer from Eisenberg in the North Palatinate and other craftsmen of his guild broke away the church customers. The monasteries and churches in what was then the Département du Mont-Tonnerre had been secularized . In the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , the princes were compensated on the right bank of the Rhine. Due to the Reformation, however, the monasteries in the remaining areas on the right bank of the Rhine were in the process of dissolution. The clients for new buildings were therefore missing in large parts of Palatinate , Rheinhessen and Franconia .
New requirements
Agriculture was intensified as early as the late 18th century and new agricultural production methods produced higher yields in animal husbandry. The cultivation and feeding of clover, the keeping of cattle and fertilization of the fields made a prosperous agriculture possible. Since most of the stables were still built in half-timbered construction around 1800 , the new sizes soon led to problems with the statics . The risk of fire increased because of the decomposition processes on the material, which resulted from the vapors from the cattle and manure in high concentrations.
In the early 19th century, the stables were at least as important to economic well-being as the apartments in the main house, so a lot of money was invested.
The craftsmanship of the church builders were now most welcome to build stone vaulted structures for more intensive livestock farming. In Rheinhessen, this was promoted by an agricultural association for agricultural modernization that was set up by the government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse . In 1841 the association magazine printed a lecture by the Osthofen landowner Best, which dealt with the use of cross vaults in cattle stalls, but in particular the introduction of a recently invented simplification in the necessary shuttering devices .
State funding
Ludwig von Lichtenberg , who was General Commissioner of the Province of Rheinhessen from 1835 to 1845 and had already been District President since 1817, asked other regional master masons in 1842 to learn the technique of vault construction from Franz Ostermayer. By 1856, around fifty master masons had been trained.
The state funding for the new statics led to the construction of an estimated 300 groin vaults and thus created a regional type of building that can only be found sporadically in the surrounding area (Nahe, Glan, Hunsrück) due to a lack of funds and materials - for example sandstone for the columns . Large vaulted stalls cost almost as much as a two-story house. The earliest examples date from 1832. The height of construction activity in this style was between 1850 and 1880. Later, the reinforcement iron and steel girders and with them the cap ceiling prevailed.
Expressions
The cross ridges stretch from wall to wall and rest on recessed, simply shaped capitals . Depending on the size of the systems, one or two rows of columns cross the room. The animals stood with their heads to the wall. In the construction with two-row columns, you gain a central aisle, with the animals standing in two rows on each long side of the barn.
Further changes
When the dairy industry was gradually abandoned in Rheinhessen in the middle of the last century, more and more companies switched entirely to grain and viticulture. The cow chapels were either demolished or converted into storage buildings.
present
Today the buildings give the impression of monastic comfort. At the beginning of the 1980s, customers recognized the importance of these vaults for gastronomy and tourism even before the owners. The most beautiful of these constructions have been lovingly renovated today and serve as wine tasting rooms or ostrich taverns within the direct marketing of the wine. In 1999 around fifty owners joined together to form the Rheinhessische Weingewölbe interest group. Since then, the most imposing of these buildings have opened at least once a year for art exhibitions, concerts, theater, culinary menus or simply for the courtyard party.
literature
- Hildegard Friess-Reimann: Building in Rheinhessen villages. In: The village on the Middle Rhine. Fifth Alzeyer Colloquium (= Historical Regional Studies. Publications by the Institute for Historical Regional Studies at the University of Mainz. 30). Steiner-Verlag Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-515-05151-1 , pp. 229-240.
- Klaus Freckmann: Vaulted stables in agricultural science literature with examples from Rheinhessen, the Nahe and the Glan. In: Konrad Bedal (written): House building in the 19th century. Report on the meeting of the working group for house research in Schwäbisch Hall from 16. – 20. September 1987 (= yearbook for house research. 38). Jonas, Marburg 1989, ISBN 3-922561-89-6 , pp. 209-239.