Neustadtischer Mühlentorturm
The Neustadt Mühlentorturm is a gate tower of the Neustädter city wall in Brandenburg an der Havel . It is one of the formerly at least 8 gate towers (today 4 still remain) of the former two cities of Brandenburg and is part of the medieval fortifications that once had ten gates.
Name and position
The Neustadt Mühlentorturm was part of a distinctive gate system with a front gate, which was fully preserved until the 17th century. To improve traffic management, this was partially torn down and the adjacent city wall opened. Until 1839 there was a baroque gate to the east of the tower , which served as part of the excise wall . The gate controlled the arterial road from the new town of Brandenburg to the northeast (later called Spandauer Heerstraße ). This road ran over the Mühlendamm to the cathedral island and further over other dams in the direction of Spandau . In front of the gate on the Mühlendamm there are former water mills of the new town of Brandenburg, which have been using the water level difference to drive their mills since the beginning of the 13th century by damming the Havel by about 1.20 m. It bears the addition "Neustädtisch" because the old town of Brandenburg also had a mill gate tower, which however was put down in 1805.
shape
The Neustadt Mühlentorturm is a brick building in the Pomeranian late Gothic style . It rests on an octagonal floor plan and is 28.85 m high. According to Grasow, the tower shaft used to stand on a rectangular substructure, which, however, was set back to the floor plan of the tower shaft in 1864 in order to facilitate traffic routing past the tower. The eight outer surfaces are of high Gothic pointed arch dazzle decorated. In the attic, a crenellated wreath surrounds the octagonal pointed dome of the tower, which is crowned by a wrought-iron eagle. The tower has five floors, which can only be reached through ladders and narrow ceiling openings. The bottom floor presumably served as a prison room. The tower itself can only be reached through a doorway on the city side (in the south) at a height of 4 to 5 m. On the first floor of the tower, the socialist children's organization of the GDR , the Young Pioneers and the FDJ have immortalized themselves with their emblems . According to Marcus Cante, the tower is "... one of the most unusual and artistically high-quality fortification towers in the Mark Brandenburg ...".
History of origin
Nikolaus Kraft from Stettin names an original plaque on the southern outer wall of the tower base as the builder of the tower. Kraft built the tower in 1411. He was a colleague and acquaintance of Hinrich Brunsberg , who was also presumably from Stettin and whose construction company ended work on St. Catherine's Church 300 m to the south-west at the same time . The latest dendorative dates of anchor timbers drawn into the tower wall one floor at a time indicate that the tower was completed within a year. In addition, shaped stones were found during the overhaul of the spire, which almost certainly come from the surplus stocks from the construction site of the north chapel of St. Catherine's Church.
The text of the inscription embedded in the tower wall reads: "Anno domini 1411 edificata est haec turris per magistrum Nicolaum craft de stettin." Translated, this means: "In the year of Lord 1411 this tower was built by Master Nikolaus Kraft from Stettin."
particularities
During the Brandenburg Door Day in September each year, the tower can be viewed and climbed from the inside.
See also
literature
- Friedrich Grasow: Brandenburg, the millennial city - A walk through the culture and architecture of past centuries . Self-published by the city of Brandenburg, Brandenburg an der Havel in 1928
- Chronicle of the City of Brandenburg Ed. By the Urban History Working Group in the Brandenburg Cultural Association, Neddermeyer, Berlin 2003 ISBN 3-933254-40-X
- Marcus Cante: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , monuments in Brandenburg, city of Brandenburg an der Havel, Volume 1.1 Dominsel-Altstadt-Neustadt , Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft Worms am Rhein 1994, ISBN 3-88462-105-X
- Prussian Landbote, magazine for politics, economy and culture, listed at the German National Library, ISSN 1613-8910 , special edition Vanished Treasures of the City of Brandenburg, Brandenburg an der Havel 2003
Individual evidence
- ↑ see literature: Marcus Cante, p. 255
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '39.3 " N , 12 ° 33' 53.6" E