Main Canal (Hanau)
The Main Canal in Hanau is the relic of the former Main Port of the Neustadt Hanau .
location
The Main Canal lies on the right bank of the Main and branches off from there about 100 meters upstream of the Kinzig estuary . From there it ran as a branch canal in a north-easterly direction, originally to Kanaltorplatz .
history
On June 1, 1597, Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg signed a treaty with Calvinist refugees, who originally came from France and the Spanish Netherlands , the surrender of the new town of Hanau , which regulated their settlement in Hanau. The count made the building site south of Hanau's old town available. The city plan was based on a regular street network running at 90 degrees to each other, which delimited the street blocks to be built on. These new residents of Hanau were highly qualified craftsmen and traders with Europe-wide connections. For this reason, a port within the city fortifications was also planned in the southwest of the city to be newly built. It was connected to the Main via a canal, but it did not prosper as originally planned, which was perhaps also due to the fact that it was difficult to keep the port navigable in the long term.
The harbor basin within the Hanau Fortress was filled again in 1666, and the area was built over between 1673 and 1686. From the beginning of the 18th century, the lower part of the Main Canal and the banks of the Main on both sides were used as port and land . There is also a historic crane , probably from the 19th century, on Werftstrasse . In 1830 a new customs office was built by Julius Eugen Ruhl at the northern end of the canal . The previous building had been the target of popular anger in the July Revolution of 1830 and was destroyed. Most recently, the Main Canal was used as a winter harbor.
Status
The Main Canal can only be seen in its southwestern course, southwest of the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway .
The section closest to the river still carries water and is now used by the Aschaffenburg Waterways and Shipping Office as a service port . A historical crane has been preserved in the north-western part of the site . The subsequent section up to the railway line was filled in in 1952/53 and until then also still carried water. This presents itself today as a tree-lined square. These two sections are listed in law after the Hessian Denkmalschutzgesetz part of the overall system at the small Main, Historical branch canal .
At the latest when the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway was extended to Aschaffenburg in 1854 , the Main Canal northeast of the railway was also filled in. Nothing can be seen of these systems there today.
In the street Am Mainkanal 4 there is still a historical warehouse, which was rebuilt after the destruction of the Second World War (so-called Walz's house). Other street names reminiscent of the Main Canal are Vor dem Kanaltor and Kanaltorplatz .
Varia
Between spring ( Laetare ) and autumn ( Michaelis ), after the establishment of the Neustadt Hanau, a market ship commuted from Hanau to Frankfurt several times a week from the beginning of the 17th century, which was under the sovereignty of Count von Hanau-Münzenberg ( disputed by Kurmainz ) . This ship probably also used the Main Canal. This traffic was only abandoned after the opening of the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway in 1848.
literature
- Martin Hoppe : Hanauer street names . Hanau 1991. ISBN 3-87627-426-5
- Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen. Wiesbaden 2006. ISBN 3-8062-2054-9
- Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country . 3rd edition, Hanau 1919. ND 1978. ISBN 3-87627-243-2
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ In Krumm, p. 91, shown on the map as a cultural monument , but not described.
- ↑ Krumm, pp. 91-92.
- ↑ Krumm, p. 146.
Coordinates: 50 ° N , 9 ° E