Murgasse (Graz)

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The two Murtore and the Franciscan Church. Watercolor by Josef Kuwasseg (1835).

The Murgasse is a street between the main space and the Archduke Johann bridge (formerly main bridge ) in the first Graz District Inner City . The Mur , the main river of Styria, gives its name to the street from which Paradeisgasse , Badgasse (built in front) and the narrow Nürnbergergasse branch off to the south .

history

The course of the road that has been preserved coincides with that of the former Roman road and Strata Hungarica . It is an extension of the Sporgasse to the west. The first documentary mention is dated 1487. Mainly bourgeois craftsmen and merchants settled here. Murgasse has remained a shopping street to this day.

The outer and inner Murtor closed the alley until 1837 and in 1848 the Franz-Carl-Kettenbrücke (today the Erzherzog-Johann-Brücke) was built. In 1876 the entrance to the main square was widened because of the horse tramway.

Today the Murgasse is used by the trams of lines 1, 3, 6 and 7. With the introduction of slightly wider trams around 2015, the sidewalks were narrowed in places, several curbs were set with the web address "murgasse.com" and a speed limit of 20 km / h was introduced for trams and a speed display was installed on the protruding corner of the building facing Nürnbergergasse, which also Can display the pace of cyclists and pedestrians.

Outer and inner Mur Gate

Some sources speak of the construction of a Murtor as the oldest Graz city gate in 1036, but it was not until 1462 that the two gates, which were part of the medieval city fortifications, were first mentioned.

The bridge that existed in front of the Franz Carl Chain Bridge was the only connection across the river to the west until 1787. The older, inner Murtor ⊙ stood at the height of the house Murgasse 9. In the 15th century built a kennel and for the younger, outer Murtor ⊙ a simple, two-story building, which at today's opening of the Neutorgasse in the Murgasse had his location . On April 23, 1471, the Styrian mercenary leader Andreas Baumkircher was beheaded between the gates.

The sides of the street from the Murtoren to over the bridge were lined with stalls from 1659. When the city fortifications were abandoned in 1784, the Murtore lost its importance and became a traffic obstacle. Both gates were demolished in 1837 while the chain bridge was being rebuilt.

Preservation instead of demolition

For the construction of a motor vehicle main road through Murgasse and via Hauptplatz and Herrengasse to the south, the demolition of a house front on Murgasse was planned. The width of the main bridge from the 1960s was planned for 4 car lanes and is now used by pedestrians and cyclists. Ultimately, efforts to preserve the old town predominated. Today, Murgasse is an essential part of the old town, which has been declared a World Heritage Site and is of great tourist value.

literature

  • Robert Engele: Only one bridge led over the Mur . From the series At that time in Graz in the Styrian edition of the Kleine Zeitung of November 6, 2011. pp. 34–35.
  • Karl A. Kubinzky , Astrid M. Wentner: Grazer street names. Origin and meaning . Leykam, Graz 1996, ISBN 3-7011-7336-2 , pp. 281-282 .
  • Fritz Popelka: History of the City of Graz. Vol. 2. Schroll, Graz, Vienna, Cologne 1960.

Web links

  • The Murgasse page on the website of the knife shop Rino P. Scala, which has been based here for generations
  • murgasse.com - Presentation of the alley and its shops. Citymanagement Graz, 2013.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl A. Kubinzky, Astrid M. Wentner: Grazer Strasseennamen , 1996, p. 281 f.
  2. ^ Karl A. Kubinzky, Astrid M. Wentner: Grazer Strasseennamen , 1996, p. 282.
  3. ^ Fritz Popelka: History of the City of Graz. Vol. 2. , p. 18.
  4. ↑ a b Robert Engele: Only one bridge led over the Mur . Series Back in Graz , Kleine Zeitung , Styria edition, November 6, 2011, p 34th

Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 16.4 "  N , 15 ° 26 ′ 11.8"  E