Kunibert Tower

The Kunibertsturm , also called Riehlerturm, was originally the medieval defense tower of a gate complex at the northern end of Cologne's city ​​wall .

Kunibertsturm, Stromkopf (Ark) and "round tower" on the Cologne cityscape from 1570 by the cartographer Arnold Mercator

history

Beginning as a Torburg

Kunibertsturm (from: CF Kaiser, Cölner Thorburgen and fortifications: 1180 - 1882 , 1884, sheet 50)

The tower was part of a gate castle built by the city, which was built around 1233 “domus cum orto et ar. in parochia s. Kuniberti prope turrim versus novum turrim ”and as“ nova turris ”in 1244 in the sources. After the city was taken by Archbishop Engelbert in 1261, it underwent extensive expansion. Engelbert attached particular importance to the improvement of the two gate systems on the banks of the Rhine, so the "Kunibertsburg zu Riehle" was also converted into a fortress. The Archbishop invested 6,000 marks in the expansion of the two bank fortifications, which were made of the same material as all field gates. Both fortifications were stormed and "broken" during the uprisings of the citizens in 1262, with only the towers remaining.

Tower construction and fortification

Just like the Bayenturm preserved at the southern end of the curtain wall, the northern Kunibertsturm remained the torso of the former Torburg after 1262. By comparison with the other buildings of the city wall and the materials used at around the same time, as well as the descriptions of the rest of the complex that existed up to the city's expansion by the city architect Josef Stübben , some details are to be given.

Basalt columns with tuff stone spandrels were used almost exclusively as building material for all fortifications , only the Hahnentor shows small amounts of demolition material from the Roman wall. All of the gateways of the last city expansion were built as a rule with several storeys, their arched gateways were created using Niedermendiger basalt stone or trachyte blocks . Before 1370, the Ark was built, a battlements connected to the tower , which protruded on pillars over the towpath into the stream and led to a guard house. Then the extension of a Vorwerk on the tower was made.

Use for tower-like

Medieval mocking crown for 2 people (armory)

A visitation in 1592 reported that there were vaulted prison rooms in which embarrassing interrogations were carried out in the torture chair .

The tower detention was only one of the possible measures taken by the authorities as part of their investigations and sanctions . A source from the beginning of the 18th century, the Visitationis Prothocollum of the towers and prisoners from May 1709, also cited the Kunibert tower, which was equipped with three vaulted prison rooms.

Vorwerk and ancillary buildings

Today's Weckschnapp, formerly, "nuwer ronder Torn"

The Kunibertstorburg had two outbuildings . The first joined at right angles to the north side of the tower and had an arched opening in the wall that had been broken for the traffic of the towpath and access to the Ark, a massive rectangular watchtower, protruding into the Rhine. The ark was built at the same time as the ark of the southern Bayenturm around the year 1371. Like this one, it largely fell victim to the ice drift in the winter of 1784 , and remains are said to have been preserved until the French era . The other Vorwerk was connected to the main building by a crenellated wall, which led to a small round waiting tower.

This still exists today, Weckschnapp called small tower, which since the year 1446 as "Nuwer Ronder Torn" was mentioned, was also built with the Vorwerk. The turret with an outer diameter of 6 meters and a height of around 17.30 meters was completely preserved in its complex at the time of the description (1930). Its masonry consisted - like the other urban mill towers (Gereonsmühle etc.) - from the end of the 14th century from regularly changing layers of columnar basalt and tuff stone. Its basement with a domed vault was previously only accessible from above through an entrance hatch . The tower had three upper floors, each with arched niches in which the loopholes were. The first of the upper floors had a flat brick vault and access to the outer battlement, the next had a layer of beams as a ceiling and the last one ended with a domed vault. As it is today , the platform of the building carried a crenellated wreath , which, like the Bayenturm , rested on consoles over a circumferential arched frieze with cloverleaf arch fillings.

The small structure escaped the fate of the rest of the Kunibertstorburg and was not abandoned. The tower was acquired by the city in 1891 and repaired according to Stübben's design under the direction of "Sesterhenn" in 1898 at a cost of 15,000 marks.

literature

• Hermann Keussen, Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages. in 2 volumes. Cologne 1910. Reprint: Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-7560-9 and ISBN 3-7700-7561-7 .
• Hans Vogts , Fritz Witte: The art monuments of the city of Cologne , on behalf of the provincial association of the Rhine province and the city of Cologne. Published by Paul Clemen, Vol. 7, Section IV: The profane monuments of the city of Cologne , Düsseldorf 1930. Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf. Reprint Pedagogischer Verlag Schwann, 1980. ISBN 3-590-32102-4
• Gerd Schwerhoff: Cologne in the cross-examination , publisher: Bouvier (1991). ISBN 978-3416023320

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume II, p. 281 a
2. ^ Vogts, Witte, note on page 75, "de superiori et inferiori porta duo firmissima castra facere disposuit, MG SS.XXIV, p.157"
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Vogts, Witte: The art monuments of the city of Cologne , on behalf of the provincial association of the Rhine province and the city of Cologne. (Ed.) Paul Clemen, vol. 7, section IV: The profane monuments of the city of Cologne , city fortifications p. 27 ff
4. ↑ Vogts, Witte, reference to "Wiethase" p. 13
5. ^ Vogts, Witte: Reference to Lau, Book Weinsberg IV, p. 147
6. ↑ Gerd Schwerhoff, page 96

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 55.7 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 55.2"  E