Nördlinger city wall
The Nördlinger city wall is the only city wall in Germany that has a completely preserved, accessible and roofed battlement . It surrounds the entire medieval old town of Nördlingen and can be walked continuously over a length of 2.6 kilometers. The city wall includes five gates with four gate towers (Baldinger gate tower collapsed in 1703), eleven other towers and a bastion.
history
The construction of the city wall began in 1327 on the orders of Ludwig of Bavaria . It replaced the old defensive wall, the course of which can still be seen today on the course of the old town streets Drehergasse, Bei den Kornschrannen, Vordere Gerbergasse, Herrengasse and Neubaugasse. Between 1536 and 1613 four gates and two towers were completely rebuilt. In addition, seven oven towers, three strong bulwarks and two bastions were built during this period. During the Thirty Years' War in 1634, the Nördlingen city fortifications resisted a siege by imperial troops in the run-up to the battle of Nördlingen . From 1803 the Nördlingers began to remove parts of the now redundant city wall. In 1826, King Ludwig I of Bavaria placed the wall under his protection and prohibited its further demolition.
Overview of the structures
| number | Name of the structure | State of preservation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baldinger Gate | Gate and Vorwerk preserved, gate castle with Kaiserturm and Bognerhaus demolished |
| 2 | Berger Gate | receive. Wall reinforcement largely broken off |
| 3 | Reimlinger Tor | receive |
| 4th | Deininger gate | receive. Vorwerk canceled |
| 5 | Löpsinger Tor | receive |
| A. | Upper water tower and burger pond | Tower and pond preserved. Vorwerk and staircase demolished |
| B. | Löwenturm (Powder Tower) | receive |
| C. | New bastion | canceled |
| D. | Filing tower | receive |
| E. | Old bastion | receive |
| F. | Wall house | canceled |
| G | Rice storm | receive |
| H | Bulwark at Löpsinger Tor | canceled. Arcades on the battlement have been preserved |
| I. | Lower water tower | receive. Vorwerk canceled |
| J | Large bleach tower and second Eger passage | Tower demolished in the Middle Ages, Eger passage bricked up |
| K | Spire | receive |
| L. | Oven towers | all but one received |
Gates
Reimlinger Tor
The Reimlinger Tor secured the road to Augsburg in the Middle Ages . It dates from the 14th century and is the oldest city gate in Nördlingen. The superstructures with the bulging cannon platform and the tower watchman's room were added later, as was the well-fortified outwork.
Berger Gate
The Berger Tor secured the road to Ulm . It was built between 1435 and 1436 by the builder Hans Rews. From 1574 to 1575, Wolfgang and Kaspar Wallberger expanded the upper floors of the tower and the Berger Tor received its present form. Noteworthy is the cased barrel for the gate passage. A cannonball from the Thirty Years' War is still stuck in the masonry . Inside the gate tower there is now a café and a coin sawmill.
Baldinger Gate
_TRS_040418_056.jpg)
The road leads through Baldinger Tor towards Würzburg and Frankfurt am Main . It was first mentioned in 1376. Master Wenzel Parler completed the vestibule in 1406 , and the gate was rebuilt in 1430 under the direction of the stonemason Conrad Stenglin. The gate group was probably originally similar to the Berger gate. The gate tower was damaged during the siege of 1634. As a late consequence, he collapsed on August 20, 1703. There is an entrance gate next to the gate. In the Middle Ages, this enabled people to enter the city in the evening when the gate was already closed.
Löpsinger Tor
The Löpsinger Tor secured the important trade route to Nuremberg . It was built before 1388, but demolished in 1592 and rebuilt in the following two years in the style of the Deininger Gate by Wolfgang Walberger . The sundial dates from 1837. The depiction of a head in the ceiling of the passage is reminiscent of the Nördlinger saga of “So G'sell so”, the scene of which is the Löpsinger Tor. Today the city wall museum is housed in the 42 meter high Löpsinger Tor .
Deininger gate
The Deininger Tor secured the road towards Regensburg and Vienna . It is similar to the Löpsinger Tor, but is a bit slimmer. Imperial troops invaded the tower during the siege in 1634. The Nördlingers then set fire to the tower. The current structure, including the twelve arched windows and the curved roof hood, was built towards the end of the Thirty Years War.
Towers and other structures
Old bastion
Caspar Wallberger and Lorenz Scheer began building the old bastion in 1554. Wolfgang Wallberger completed the bulwark in 1598. The defensive fortress could accommodate ten guns on two floors. Today the Nördlingen open-air theater is located in the building. To the northwest of the file tower stood the no longer existing New Bastion with an angular wall.
Filing tower
The filing or debt tower, which may have been used as a prison tower, dates from the 14th century. A two-story round tower with a concave conical roof rises above the square substructure with a parapet walk all around.
Lion tower
The lion or powder tower was first mentioned in 1535. It served as a battery tower to further strengthen this part of the wall and was placed in the trench between the gun parapet. The tower on a horseshoe-shaped floor plan has three floors. Towards the city it has a smooth gable with a low, hipped roof. On the outside it has a gun platform with a bulging parapet.
Upper water tower
The upper water tower was built between 1469 and 1471. The Eger flows into the city through the six-storey building on a square floor plan . The canalized Eger flowed over a trough made of oak wood over the city moat, as long as it was filled with water.
Oven towers
The city fortifications had seven oven towers between the Upper Water Tower and the Spitzturm, five up to the Baldinger Tor and two behind it. They were built between 1480 and 1520. Oven tower no. 1 next to the upper water tower is called Tannenturm (oldest of the oven towers from 1481), oven tower no. 5 to the left of Baldinger Tor (as seen from the city) Kolturm (mentioned as such in 1530). They are the only two oven towers identified by name. Oven tower No. 2 was demolished around 1810, the walled entrance can still be seen. The six oven towers still in existence, attached to the outside of the city wall, were used to defend the wall and moat close-up without guns. A breach in the semicircular outer wall does not mean a breach in the city wall itself. The name comes from the first tower that was built directly next to the Upper Water Tower on the city's oven at the time. Their same construction with a characteristic shape on a horseshoe-shaped floor plan gave them their common name. They used to have a crenellated wreath, as can be seen on the merian engraving. Some of the towers are now used by clubs. To the north of the Löpsinger Tor there was another but larger tower with a horseshoe floor plan similar to the lion tower. It was demolished around 1820.
Spire
The pointed tower between Baldinger Tor and the lower water tower was built in the 15th century. Its pointed spire gives it its name.
Lower water tower
The lower water tower, through which the Eger leaves the city again, was built in the 15th century. He protected the weak point of the Eger passage.
Towing tower
The towing tower near Reimlinger Tor, first mentioned in 1408, was possibly built by Hans Rews. It received its current shape in 1644. The round front building has a floating Welsche hood .
Kasarmen
The Kasarms, houses built directly on the city wall, in which the city soldiers once lived, stretch along the inside of the wall.
Digging and irrigation facilities
The moat around the wall has been preserved, some of which was filled with water in the Middle Ages. With the Burgerweiher (today's use: ice rink) the water supply in the water-filled section was controlled. A former drainage tunnel can be recognized from the battlement by the lining wall opposite the ditch. Parts of the former city moat are now parks.
Demolished structures
- New bastion. Former location: between the file tower and Berger Tor
- Wall reinforcement around the Berger Tor
- Rising tower at the upper water tower
- Oven tower. There used to be another oven tower between the Upper Water Tower and Baldinger Tor. Its location can still be seen on the outside of the city wall
- Great bleach tower. This tower was located between the top tower and the lower water tower. Its former location is still recognizable today from the walled-up access door from the battlement
- Bulwark at Löpsinger Tor. Between the lower water tower and the Löpsinger Tor there was a tower that was very similar to the existing lion tower. Its location is recognizable by the preserved arcades on the inside of the battlement
- Wall house at the old bastion. Nothing of this building has survived, its former location is no longer recognizable today, but the wall house must have stood roughly at today's ox pen
- Vorwerke. At some of the gates and towers, previously existing porches were torn down:
- Vorwerk at Deininger Tor
- Vorwerk at the upper water tower
- Vorwerk at the lower water tower
- Torburg with Kaiserturm and Bognerhaus at Baldinger Tor
Oven tower
Filing tower
Lion tower
Upper water tower
literature
- Kessler, Hermann: The city wall of the free imperial city of Nördlingen . Uhl, Nördlingen 1982; ISBN 3-921503-63-9
- Steinmeier, Andrea: 1100 years of Nördlingen . F. Steinmeier, Nördlingen 1998; ISBN 3-927496-54-5
- Voges, Dietmar-Henning: The imperial city of Nördlingen. 12 chapters from their history. Beck Verlag, Munich 1988; ISBN 3-406-32863-6
Individual evidence
Web links
- Information about the city wall on the website of the city of Nördlingen