Posthof (Trier)

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Trier Kornmarkt BW 2.JPG
Inner courtyard evening.jpg

The Posthof am Kornmarkt is a historic and modernized office and commercial building in the center of Trier . The listed building ensemble housed the Trier Post Office Directorate for several decades , with a post office attached on the ground floor .

In the centuries before, the property and its predecessor buildings were known as Kronenburg , Königsburg and post and telegraph buildings . Although different construction phases in the history of the building, in which the original complex was continuously expanded, rebuilt and converted, today's Posthof has retained its neo-baroque sandstone facade to this day.

General

The building stands on a plot of land of around 6,095 m² in downtown Trier. It has a usable area of ​​approx. 13,500 m². The entire complex, which consists of six building parts (four-wing complex, Remise and House Pesé) and a total of three inner courtyards, was extensively modernized in the 1990s on behalf of the then owner, the Deutsche Bundespost.

Until 2010, the property was owned by Deutsche Telekom AG in Bonn and offered 400 employees a job. As part of a structural reform at Deutsche Telekom, these workplaces were gradually relocated to other locations. In the end, all that remained in the building was a small telecommunications branch ("T-Punkt") as well as the technical infrastructure that was necessary for maintaining inner-city telephony, the Internet and the mobile radio transmission systems.

In 2011 planning began for a revitalization of the largely vacant ensemble . Between 2012 and 2015, extensive renovation and modernization work was carried out in all parts of the building, coordinated with the monument preservation office.

history

In 1759, the so-called "Kronenburg" was built on the Kornmarkt, opposite the Georgbrunnen, which is now widely regarded as one of the most beautiful Rococo fountains in Germany. The two-storey building with a splendid central projection and mansard roof was designed by Johannes Seiz (born 1717 in Wiesentheid and died in Ehrenbreitstein in 1779) for the wealthy Trier merchant Johann Jakob Vacano , based on a design by the well-known architect and court master builder of Trier Elector Philipp von Walderdorff (1756–1768) (1758-1849) executed. Along with Balthasar Neumann and Ferdinand Tietz, he was one of the master builders and sculptors who were brought to the Moselle from Main Franconia . Seiz's designs are considered prime examples of upscale town house construction on the threshold of classicism . The local builders agreed that this building must be seen as an exemplary solution for prestigious new building projects (both a draft for the new building of the University of Trier from 1773 and the new building of a palais-like residential building in Simeonstrasse based on the facade scheme of the Kronenburg according to Seiz ). In 1879–1882, August Kind (1824–1904), the building department in the Reich Post Office and design by the government master builder Hausmann under the direction of post construction supervisor Karl Albert Sigismund Cuno from Frankfurt a. M. erected the post and telegraph building of the Imperial Oberpostdirektion here (he was also involved in the construction work on the post offices in Fulda, Kassel, Darmstadt, Worms and others). Here, some “original parts” of the Kronenburg were used, as the architecture was to be reminiscent of the previous building from the 18th century.

The late baroque city ​​palace became the upper post office in 1830. At this point on the Kornmarkt , ie Fleischstrasse 57–60 or Metzelstrasse 10–13, the three-storey main wing, originally comprising eleven axes, was built. The neo-baroque building integrated the post office rooms with the counter hall on the ground floor, while the upper floor housed the post office itself. The Chief Postal Director stayed on the second floor. A rear west wing also contained an apartment for sub-officials, the post office box and telegraph rooms. The neo-baroque or also called the second baroque, eclectic art form is considered a manifestation of historicism and had its actual heyday in the era of reconstruction from approx. 1871–1890, after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 . It is particularly widespread as a style after 1880. The common attributes of the baroque, such as dynamization and opulence of the forms, can also be found in parts here in the architecture.

In 1909 and 1911, it was decided to expand the building, as the services of the post office expanded, with all designs being made by the government master builder Friebe. For example, the building complex received new utility wings with sheds, as well as the north connecting wing and the rear west wing were enlarged.

Due to its monumentality, the castle-like, neo-baroque main wing is an impressive example of late historical facade architecture in the old town of Trier.

The architectural quality of the three-storey, axially symmetrical plastered building with sandstone structure occupies the entire western front of the Kornmarkt and still dominates it visually today.

The literature on the subject likes to refer to the complex as "Neo-Baroque Seizian coinage", since many parts of the Kronenburg were reused or reused. A number of architectural details such as a cartouche from 1759 were incorporated into the construction of the late 19th century. The renovation measures of 1911 made some changes and especially rebalancing; While in the construction stage of 1882 single-axis side projections were subordinate to the three-axis central projection, the side projections have now been upgraded to more or less main accents. A roof solution was also found that emphasized the facade. It presented itself as a continuous, hipped mansard roof protruding over the side projections . Further windows and passageways were built on the ground floor and still exist today. Inside, basalt block steps and staircase arches on double columns have been preserved. The north wing or its western side received a three-storey superstructure with a segmented arched roof in the course of the construction work in 1911 , which must be considered quite remarkable from an architectural point of view. The courtyard-facing, neo-baroque sandstone facade is designed entirely in the style of contemporary department store architecture and thus deliberately hit the nerve of the times: three arched arches clamped between colossal pilasters with magnificent rocaille ornamentation, which span three window axes on all floors and function as a framework architecture. The western front of the sandstone-facing west wing, which has finally comprised 15 axes since 1911, was designed in restrained neo-baroque forms. The new baroque style is also taken up by the plastered south wing. A portal cartridge with a representation of a cargo ship adorns its staircase projection .

Overall, the building is characterized by a relaxed, painterly quality. A certain, aesthetically pleasing irregularity emanates from the asymmetrically distributed passageways and the pavilions, which vary in wall structure and roof shape, thus underlining the neo-baroque dynamic. The building looks lively and yet dignified.

The building complex impressively demonstrates the prestige of the Post as a state and imperial institution. It can be seen as one of the most important public-sector building projects in Trier and Trier's old town in the late 19th century. In 1992 the main wing of the building, which was badly damaged in the course of the air raids on Trier during the Second World War, was comprehensively renovated. A new paint job was also applied. However, this does not correspond to the historicist façade, which was designed for stony vision.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments in the district-free city of Trier . Koblenz 2010 ( PDF; 1.2 MB [accessed September 7, 2015]).

Coordinates: 49 ° 45 ′ 19.3 "  N , 6 ° 38 ′ 19.5"  E