Martin's Gate (Worms)

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Martinspforte, facing the city, before the destruction in 1689 (drawing: Peter Hamman )
Martin's gate with a bastion in front and an external gate

The Martinspforte (also: Martinstor ) was a city ​​gate of the inner wall ring of the city ​​fortifications of Worms .

Geographical location

The Martinspforte was the main passage in the northern section of the inner wall ring. It served the long-distance trade route Strasbourg - Mainz in the direction of Oppenheim and Mainz. A little to the north, when the street went through the outer wall , the street passed the Mainzer Tor . There was a place of execution in front of the gate . On the city side and east of the Martinspforte was the access to the Judengasse .

The Martinspforte is named after the neighboring church of the same name , which also gave its name to Martinsgasse, which leads to the gate. In the 19th century, when the outer ring of the wall had disappeared, the passage through the wall was often referred to as the “Mainzer Tor” (but this should not be confused with the “Mainzer Pforte” of the outer wall ring).

history

prehistory

In local historiography there is a tradition that the gate (or a predecessor of the same name) was already mentioned in the wall building regulations from around 900 . In the preserved, traditional texts of these wall building regulations, however, there is “porta mercati” and, in Friedrich Zorn's case, differently: “porta Mert.” Or “porta Mart.” Since a city wall was built in the late Roman period, there has always been a northern passage through the wall for the road to Mainz. But where exactly it was and at what point in time and how it was designated is unknown.

Medieval plant

The "Martinspforte", as it existed until the 18th century, was first created with the northern extension of the city wall at the beginning of the 11th century under Bishop Burchard . Certainly such a mention seems to be from the year 1016 ("porta s. Martini"). Roman gravestones were walled into the medieval gate. They were brought to the museum in the 19th century. The road to Mainz continued the tradition of the old Roman road. According to Roman tradition, the cemeteries were often on the arteries of the cities, including here.

The Martinspforte was the ceremonial entrance gate for a newly elected bishop when he entered the city for the first time, or the king when he came from Mainz or the Palatinate Oppenheim . The gate was therefore particularly beautifully designed. The roof turret of the gate tower was used to hang the city bell here. A clock was also built into the tower. Another function of the building was to be the meeting place for the “Pörtelgericht”. The aristocratic von Dalberg family was in charge of the tower .

The medieval gate was renewed around 1200 and rebuilt and decorated in baroque style in 1665 . It now had four full storeys (including the passage) and an attic storey built on top of it, with dormitories in each direction. The gate tower was 28 m high. On the northeast side there was an attached stair tower with a Welscher hood . The gate tower had visible structural elements from the Gothic , Renaissance and Baroque periods. On the city side, between the windows on the second and third floors, there was the city coat of arms, which was held by two dragons.

The moat in front of the gate was spanned by two drawbridges , in front of which was another, small gate. During the Swedish occupation of the city in the Thirty Years War , a ravelin was thrown in front of the gate in 1632 .

Martin's gate from the field side after the destruction in 1689 with a city moat in front

Shortly before its destruction in 1689, the gate was armed with one large and five small cannons . Before the French troops reached Worms in the course of the War of the Palatinate Succession in 1689 , the city bell was removed and buried. From March 1689, the French military that had occupied Worms began to tear down the inner wall. The French tried to blow up the Martin gate . The structure withstood the five mines laid , but the tower burned out. Three bells for the Holy Trinity Church were later cast from the metal of the buried city bell .

Late baroque complex

In 1719 the city council negotiated a reconstruction of the Martin gate, but this did not happen. In 1779 the condition of the ruin was so critical that the city had it demolished. The stones were used to fortify the banks of the Rhine, where many other parts of the city wall ended. The medieval gate was replaced by a baroque one, which served less for defense than as a customs post.

This gate was also a traffic obstacle in the 19th century. A dispute between the city and state authorities that had lasted for more than two decades broke out over the demolition plans. In this context, the gate was also referred to as the “Mainzer Tor”, which should not lead to confusion with the Mainz gate of the outer fortification ring, which no longer existed at that time. Reinhard Carl Friedrich von Dalwigk , who initially served as District Councilor in Worms from 1842 and later Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Hesse , campaigned for the preservation of the gate, the city preferred a wider street. In 1864 the wishes of the city prevailed: the gate was removed.

After the demolition

This “hole” as the city entrance was obviously perceived as unsatisfactory in terms of urban planning and was filled in 1903/04 with the construction of the Martinspforte house , which was set back from the line of the wall and thus did not disturb the traffic.

Worth knowing

Martin Luther reached Worms for the Reichstag in 1521 on a carriage through the Martin gate.

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • KH. (= Karl Heinz Armknecht): The Martin Gate . In: Worms monthly mirror from December 1968, p. 25f.
  • KH. (= Karl Heinz Armknecht): The Neidturm . In: Worms monthly mirror from December 1970, p. 4f.
    • Gerold Bönnen: The heyday of the high Middle Ages: From Bishop Buchard to the Rhenish Bund (1000–1254) , pp. 133–179.
    • Gerold Bönnen: Between Bishop, Empire and Electoral Palatinate: Worms in the late Middle Ages (1254–1521) , pp. 193–261.
    • Gunter Mahlerwein: The imperial city of Worms in the 17th and 18th centuries , pp. 291–352.
    • Fritz Reuter : Between reaction and Hessian urban order (1852–1874) , pp. 441–478.
  • Mathilde Grünewald: Under the pavement of Worms. Archeology in the city . Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2012. ISBN 978-3-89870-754-1
  • Walter Hotz: Defensive Worms. Art history of the city fortifications. 2) Late Gothic and Renaissance towers and gates . In: Wormser monthly mirror from June 1982, pp. 5-11. [quoted: Hotz, June 1982]
  • Walter Hotz: Defensive Worms. Art history of the city fortifications. 5) Destruction, Baroque Restoration, and Decline . In: Wormser monthly mirror from July 1982, pp. 19–24. [quoted: Hotz, July 1982]
  • Heribert Isele: The defense system of the city of Worms from the beginning to the end of the 18th century . Masch. Diss. Heidelberg [1951?].
  • Monika Porsche: City Wall and City Development. Investigations into the early city fortifications in the medieval German Empire . Wesselkamp, ​​Hertingen 2000. ISBN 3-930327-07-4
  • Fritz Reuter: Defensive Worms. 2. Staufer wall and late medieval expansion . In: Worms monthly mirror from March 1982, pp. 5-8.
  • Erich Schwan: The street and alley names in medieval Worms = The Wormsgau. Supplement 1. City Library, Worms 1936.
  • Friedrich Zorn : Worms Chronicle with the additions of Franz Berthold von Flersheim = Library of the Litterarian Society in Stuttgart 43rd Literary Society, Stuttgart 1857. ND: Rodopi, Amsterdam 1969.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In contrast to this, Hotz, June 1982, p. 10, states that the city bell was hung in the Trinity Church.
  2. ↑ See: Armknecht: Die Wormser Stadtmauern , p. 62, note 53.
  3. ↑ See: Armknecht: Die Wormser Stadtmauern , p. 59, note 32.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 25.
  2. ↑ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 25.
  3. ↑ Swan: The names of streets and alleys , p. 18.
  4. ↑ Grünewald: Under the plaster , p. 104.
  5. ↑ See: here .
  6. ^ Porsche: Stadtmauer , p. 68.
  7. ^ Zorn: Wormser Chronik , p. 39.
  8. ↑ Bönnen, in: Bönnen (ed.): The bloom time , p. 161.
  9. ↑ Hotz, June 1982, p. 10
  10. ↑ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 25.
  11. ↑ Bönnen, in: Bönnen (ed.): Zwischen Bischof , p. 230.
  12. ↑ Hotz, June 1982, p. 10
  13. ↑ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 25.
  14. ↑ Grünewald: Under the plaster , p. 104.
  15. ↑ Hotz, July 1982, p. 21.
  16. ^ Reuter: Wehrhaftes Worms. 3. Towers, walls and battlements , p. 8.
  17. ↑ Hotz, June 1982, p. 10
  18. ^ Armknecht: Die Wormser Stadtmauern , p. 62; Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 26.
  19. ↑ Hotz, July 1982, p. 21.
  20. ↑ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 26.
  21. ↑ Mahlerwein in Bönnen (ed.): Die Reichsstadt , p. 301.
  22. ↑ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 26.
  23. ^ Armknecht: Die Martinspforte , p. 26; Isele: Das Wehrwesen , p. 56; Grünewald: Unter dem Pflaster , p. 104, mentions the year 1699.
  24. ↑ Reuter in Bönnen (ed.): Between reaction , p. 468.
  25. ^ Heimo Schwilk: Luther. Gods wrath. Biography . Blessing, Munich 2017, p. 226.

Coordinates: 49 ° 38 ′ 2.8 ″  N , 8 ° 21 ′ 53.5 ″  E