Petersburg (Osnabrück)
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The Petersburg was a citadel in the southeast of the city of Osnabrück . It existed in the first half of the 17th century during the Thirty Years' War and was intended to help enforce the Counter Reformation in the city.
history
In 1618, Emperor Ferdinand II had confirmed the city of Osnabrück its privileges and freedom to join the Augsburg confession . At the beginning of the Thirty Years War , the city declared its neutrality. In October 1625 Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg was elected Bishop of Osnabrück . Like his predecessor, he tried to push through the Counter Reformation in Osnabrück . In 1628 Franz Wilhelm came to the city with the Catholic League and gave the order to strengthen the Osnabrück fortifications and to build the Petersburg Citadel as his own residence.
Petersburg was a very modern fortress in the shape of a five-pointed star by the standards of the time of its construction . The population of Osnabrück and the city's evangelical council perceived the Petersburg as a threat and not as a building for their own protection. Because despite the protest of the population, part of the city wall opposite the castle was torn down, which allowed it to keep the residents under control, as well as enemies from outside.
In 1633 Swedish troops besieged Osnabrück; at this point the fortress was largely complete. The military occupation of Osnabrück had to give up the city and partly withdrew to the Petersburg. Erich Andersson Trana, General Commissioner of Livonia and War Commissioner of Estonia, informed the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna of the successful siege of St. Petersburg in 1633: “ On September 14th, the mortars came from Hameln with which St. Petersburg could be conquered with stones. And it was shot in with stones day and night in the Russian style in one go, so that the 600 men - without women and children - who were besieged in it, could not hide themselves other than by digging themselves pitifully into the walls. Their great luck was the beautiful weather on all these days, so that they did not suffer from rain. "
At the end of the Thirty Years' War the Osnabrückers leveled the walls of the Petersburg they hated. The last remains disappeared when the city expanded in the 19th and 20th centuries. The street names "An der Petersburg" and "Petersburger Wall" as well as the cultural association Petersburg eV remind of the fortress today
Representations
A model of the city of Osnabrück and St. Petersburg, which the painter and stage designer Heinrich Bohn (1911–1990) made from 1955 to 1957 based on a colored city map by the Bohemian engraver Wenzel Hollar from 1633, is located on the upper floor of the city hall of Osnabrück . The Museum of Cultural History has a map of the city with the citadel .
literature
- André Lindhorst: The Petersburg near Osnabrück - Reconstruction and building history of a fortress architecture of the early 17th century . Osnabrück, Association for History and Regional Studies 1986.
- Rudolf vom Bruch: The knight seats of the Principality of Osnabrück . Wenner, Osnabrück 2004 (first edition 1930), pp. 469–489, ISBN 3-87898-384-0 .
Web links
- City map from 1633 by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677) with the Petersburg (1 MB)
- Explanation of Hollar's card
Individual evidence
- ↑ From Tartu to Osnabrück - The Modern Hanseatic Days , accessed on December 23, 2015
Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 0.3 ″ N , 8 ° 3 ′ 32.6 ″ E