Palatinate Paderborn

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Foundation walls of the main building of the Palatinate of Charlemagne

The Palatinate Paderborn was a royal palace built under Charlemagne in 776 in today's Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia , which is also known as the Imperial Palace. After it was destroyed by the Saxons in 778 , it was rebuilt and destroyed in a town fire in 1000. A few meters offset, a successor building was built under King Heinrich II in the 11th century, which German kings used until the 12th century.

location

The Palatinate arose during the Saxon Wars in a favorable geographical location on a slope to the sources of the Pader . The place was on the Westphalian Hellweg as a supra-regional east-west connection. Charlemagne chose this place in the middle of the Saxon territory conquered by the Franks in order to set up a military base there. The Christianization of the Saxons was also pursued from the Palatinate .

history

Historical-political background of the palace building

Charlemagne undertook several campaigns against the Saxons in order to Christianize them by force and to subjugate them to the Frankish Empire. In this context he built a fortified base, which the Frankish annals mention in 776 as Karlsburg ( urbs Karoli ), which could probably mean the first Paderborn Palatinate. Apparently, Charles followed the example of Constantinople, which means city ​​of Constantine in Greek . With Karlsburg, Karl apparently wanted to join the succession of the first Christian emperor. Nine stays by Charlemagne in the Palatinate and in the Paderborn area are documented. They took place in the years 776 (twice), 777, 780, 782, 783, 785, 799 and 804.

In 777, Charlemagne held a first imperial assembly in Paderborn in the area of ​​the subject Saxons . This gesture was tantamount to a show of power by Charlemagne, because until now such a meeting had mostly only taken place within the Frankish Empire. The Saxons were baptized in 776 at the Lippequellen near Paderborn, but rose against the Franks in 778 and destroyed the Palatinate for the first time. Around 793/794 the Saxons set the rebuilt Carolingian Palatinate on fire a second time. Karl had the Palatinate rebuilt this time and received Pope Leo III here in 799 . who crowned him emperor in Rome the following year. During his stay in the church belonging to the Paderborn Palatinate District, the Pope inaugurated an altar. Even after Charles' reign, Frankish monarchs ruled the empire from Paderborn for a time. No further visits to the king can be proven after 845.

Building description

When it was first fastened, it was likely to have been a wood and earth construction. After the first destruction, the place was renamed Paderborn. Then Charlemagne had the fortification rebuilt as a cathedral castle with the dimensions of about 280 × 250 meters. It was protected by a 1.5 meter thick limestone wall with a berm and a ditch in front of it. Two stone buildings were built inside the fortification. These were the King's Hall ( Aula regia ) as a representative building 31 meters long and 10 meters wide and the 9 × 20 meter Salvatorkirche. In the area enclosed by the wall there was presumably a development with wooden buildings in which the palace administrator and servants lived. There was also a cemetery.

In 799 a church was built in the fortified area as a predecessor to today's Paderborn Cathedral . In 836, Bishop Badurad had the church connected to the Palatinate. This created a closed complex with a secular royal and a spiritual church area. When Paderborn was no longer of great importance as a residence during the 9th and 10th centuries, parts of the palace complex were abandoned. After 983, building activity began under Bishop Rethar , which led to a fully expanded residence. In the city fire of the year 1000, the palace complex was completely destroyed.

Reconstructed main building of the Palatinate of King Heinrich II , today a museum in the Kaiserpfalz

From 1015 onwards, King Heinrich II and the Paderborn Bishop Meinwerk built a new royal hall as a limestone building with dimensions of 44 × 16 meters, immediately north of the destroyed Carolingian Palatinate, which, in conjunction with other buildings, is called the Ottonian - Salian Palatinate. It served as a residence for German kings until the end of the 12th century.

Research history

The remains of the Palatinate Paderborn were discovered in 1963 during an excavation on the grounds of the Ilkenberg north of Paderborn Cathedral . The cathedral chapter planned to rebuild the area, which was badly damaged by the air raids on Paderborn in World War II. After clearing away layers of rubble that were up to five meters thick and caused by the war, a medieval complex was found. Initially, the remains of the building were viewed as a royal stables . As early as 1850, blocks of sandstone had become apparent on the area that was still built over. They were also believed to be the remains of the horse stables from the time of the Paderborn bishop Meinwerk , as mentioned in the high mediaeval Vita Meinwerci . In 1935 this assumption seemed to be confirmed, because when the house at Am Ilkenberg 11 was demolished , the upper part of an archway came to light again. This was integrated into the wall of the house that was demolished in 1935 at the end of the 19th century. The sandstone blocks of the round arch resembled those of the neighboring Bartholomäus chapel, which dates from the 11th century from the time of Meinwerk. The diocese archivist Christoph Völker supported the Marstall thesis further by referring to the passage in a document from 1336 that mentions such a stable in the excavation area.

During the excavation in 1963, even older deposits from the early Middle Ages were discovered southwest of the complex, which at the time was regarded as a royal stables . Thereupon systematic investigations of the area began in 1964 under the direction of Wilhelm Winkelmann . During excavation work it turned out that the alleged stables had several floors. This refuted the thesis of a horse stable. To the south-west, pottery from the 9th century was found in the walls of the complex, which was even older than the second royal palace . Based on his observations on the strata of the earth, Winkelmann designed a model of the construction phases of the two royal palaces. At the top lay debris from the demolition of the previous building of today's Paderborn Cathedral in the 13th century. Underneath was a gray, 15 cm thick layer from the 11th and 12th centuries. Findings in this layer belong to the younger Palatinate complex. An even deeper layer is marked by traces of fire, which is why Winkelmann linked them to the city fire in the year 1000. The walls of the older Palatinate are still under this layer of fire. Here, too, traces of fire were found, which coincide with the Saxon War of Charlemagne. The royal hall building seems to have been exposed to attacks by the Saxons in 778 and 793/794. Various construction activities must have taken place from 776 to 799. The archaeological investigations in the Palatinate lasted until 1978 and are among the largest and richest excavations of the post-war period .

Construction of a museum building

From 1976 to 1978 , the Metropolitan Chapter of the Archdiocese of Paderborn erected a new building on the excavated foundations of the King's Hall from the 11th century , which is used for events and as a museum in the Imperial Palatinate . Only the foundation walls of the older Carolinian Palatinate have been made visible and accessible. It is the only archaeologically examined Palatinate in Westphalia .

literature

  • Sveva Gai, Birgit Mecke, Sascha Käuper: Est locus insignis… Charlemagne's palace in Paderborn and its structural development up to 1002. The re-evaluation of Wilhelm Winkelmann's excavations in 1964-1978. (= Preservation of monuments and research in Westphalia 40). Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3418-4 ,
  • Sveva Gai: From the military base to the bishop's seat. The Paderborn Palatinate Plants as an example of structural continuity in: DGAMN Communications: Continuity and Discontinuity in Archaeological Findings , Volume 17, 2006, pp. 26–36 ( online )
  • Martin Kroker: Die Pfalz Paderborn in: Babette Ludowici (Ed.): Saxones , Theiss, 2019 (volume accompanying the exhibition Saxones ), pp. 279–281

Web links

Commons : Kaiserpfalzen in Paderborn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antonella Sveva Gai: The Carolingian palace complex. From documentation to reconstruction. In: Fenske, Lutz et al. (Eds.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian era. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 71–100, here p. 72.
  2. ↑ Kaiserpfalz zu Paderborn: Switching point of Carolingian power with the Internet portal Westphalian history
  3. ↑ Matthias Becher : Charlemagne. Beck, Munich 1999, p. 59.
  4. ^ Antonella Sveva Gai: The Carolingian palace complex. From documentation to reconstruction. In: Fenske, Lutz et al. (Eds.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian era. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 71–100, here p. 74.
  5. ↑ Birgit Mecke: The Carolingian Palatinate Paderborn. Discovery and excavation. In: Fenske, Lutz et al. (Eds.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian era. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 51 - 70, here p. 52.
  6. ↑ Birgit Mecke: The Carolingian Palatinate Paderborn. Discovery and excavation . In: Fenske, Lutz u. a. (Ed.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian era , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 51 - 70, here p. 55.
  7. ↑ Birgit Mecke: The Carolingian Palatinate Paderborn. Discovery and excavation . In: Fenske, Lutz u. a. (Ed.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian era , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 51-70, here pp. 53-54; Manfred Balzer: The spectacular discovery of the Paderborn royal palaces. A look back after 50 years. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift, magazine for patriotic history and antiquity (165) 2015, pp. 139–150, here pp. 139 and 141.
  8. ↑ Birgit Mecke: The Carolingian Palatinate Paderborn. Discovery and excavation . In: Fenske, Lutz u. a. (Ed.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian era , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 51 - 70, here p. 55; Manfred Balzer: The spectacular discovery of the Paderborn royal palaces. A look back after 50 years. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift, magazine for patriotic history and antiquity (165) 2015, pp. 139–150, here p. 143.
  9. ↑ Birgit Mecke: The Carolingian Palatinate Paderborn. Discovery and excavation . In: Fenske, Lutz u. a. (Ed.), Splendor palatii. New research on Paderborn and other Palatinates from the Carolingian period , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 51 - 70, here p. 56.
  10. ^ LWL: Museum in the Kaiserpfalz. LWL, accessed March 28, 2018 .
  11. ↑ LWL Newsroom: The excavation of the Paderborn imperial palace in 480 pictures and 300 plans. LWL, October 24, 2005, accessed July 27, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 ′ 9.44 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 18.54"  E