Ochsenturm (Koblenz)

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City view of Koblenz with Ochsenturm (1632)

The Ochsenturm was a defensive tower of the Koblenz city ​​wall, first mentioned in 1284 , which was destroyed by French revolutionary troops in 1794/95 during the First Coalition War.

history

Its name probably refers, as it seems to be the case with the Ochsenturm in Oberwesel, to the strength of an ox. In fact, the defense tower of Koblenz represented the strongest part of the medieval city fortifications. It was located roughly where the railway bridge on the Peter-Altmeier-Ufer crosses the Moselle today .

A close partnership existed between the two Rhine cities of Duisburg and Koblenz as early as the 13th century . An outward sign of this was the mutual support in building the city fortifications. The Koblenz citizens had the partially preserved Koblenz Tower built in Duisburg in 1356 - see the Corputius plan . Before that, the Duisburgers had built the Ochsenturm in Koblenz around 1284 at their own expense .

According to a council ordinance from 1473, the citizens of Koblenz who did not do any handicrafts kept watch on the Ochsenturm. In 1598, a guard register assigned the Koblenz councilors to guard duty on the towers and the city gates. During the war of the Palatinate Succession , the French failed to take Koblenz in November 1688. The Moselle front in particular had fiercely resisted the attackers standing in Lützel , for which the gunners from the Ochsenturm received an award. About 100 years later the French were again at the gates of Koblenz. On October 10, 1794, the defenders repaired the ramparts near the Ochsenturm and equipped the tower with guns themselves. On October 23, the French revolutionary troops began firing artillery bombardments from Lützel on downtown Koblenz. Again, they received the greatest resistance, especially from the Ochsenturm. However, this time the city was much worse prepared for a siege and Koblenz surrendered on the same day. Shortly after the occupation, the Ochsenturm was blown up halfway by the French, the other part was removed on April 12, 1795 and the last remnants were finally removed around 1800.

In addition to being a defense tower, the Ochsenturm was also always used as a Koblenz prison.

Building description

According to a copper engraving, attributed to Matthäus Merian and made after 1632, the Koblenz ox tower was a mighty round tower with a crenellated wreath under an arched cornice, with a narrow roof bay and a pointed conical roof. Different cityscapes then show a tower without a conical roof between around 1720 and 1730. There were extensive vaulted cellars below the tower.

The defense towers as a sign of the earlier town twinning

In spring 2018, Petra Lötschert, founder of the Koblenz cultural salon, started an initiative to revive the former town twinning and to promote cultural exchange between Duisburg and Koblenz. She received the support of the two heads of culture. One of the goals is to use the two city archives to find out more about the history of the Koblenz Tower in Duisburg and the Ochsenturm in Koblenz.

Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 44.6 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 25.6"  E

literature

  • Christian von Stramberg : Coblenz, the city (=  memorable and useful Rheinischer Antiquarius . Volume 1 , no. 1 ). tape 1 . Koblenz 1851 ( [1] ).
  • Christian von Stramberg : Coblenz, the city (=  memorable and useful Rheinischer Antiquarius . Volume 1 , no. 4 ). tape 4 . Koblenz 1856 ( [2] ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Bär: Building the Wall in Koblenz. Bills 1276–1289 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 5 ). Leipzig 1888, p. 24 ( archive.org ).
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Arnold Günther: Topographical history of the city of Coblenz from its creation to the end of the 18th century . Koblenz 1815, p. 155-156, 210-211 ( dilibri.de ).
  3. ↑ Stramberg (1856), pp. 796, 804.
  4. ↑ Stramberg (1851), pp. 252, 258, 262-263, 285-286.
  5. ^ Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and their suburbs (=  The art monuments of Rhineland-Palatinate . Volume 1 ). Munich 1954, p. 53 .
  6. ↑ Gabriel Bodenehr: Coblenz [city view] . ( bildindex.de - copper engraving around 1720 still with a conical roof). The city of Coblenz with the Sambt fortress . ( bildindex.de - drawing from 1730 without conical roof). Friedrich Bernhard Werner [draftsman]: Confluentia Coblentz [city view] . (Engraving around 1730 without a conical roof).
  7. ↑ Stramberg (1856), p. 482.
  8. ↑ Kultursalon Koblenz (ed.): Press publications on the towers . Koblenz 2019 ( kultursalonkoblenz.de [accessed September 1, 2019]).

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