Roman water pipes in Huerth
The Roman aqueducts in Hürth were the predecessors of the later Eifel aqueduct . They recorded sources of the Hürth brooks, which previously seeped into the gravel of the Rhine, and made them usable for the water supply of the ubic / Roman predecessor settlements of the city of Cologne , the oppidum Ubiorum (around 19 BC) and the later Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (from 50 AD ) , which thus reached Roman standards. There were four lines that were brought together near Hermülheim Castle and then led along today's Berrenrather Strasse to Cologne. Find places and exhibited parts are under monument protection .
(Old) Hürth management
The most important and oldest line was the one that opened up the headwaters of the Duffesbach . According to Roman coin finds of three As ( Augustus , Tiberius and Caligula ) at the sedimentation basin of the line at the city limits of Efferen / Cologne (source or construction sacrifice in the foundations), which can be assumed to be the construction date for the first line from around AD 30. The source area, the versions of which could not be archaeologically proven, was about 800 meters northwest of Knapsack in the area of the Goldenberg power plant / Knapsack chemical park . The line was then dug in along the left bank of the stream across today's Mühlenstraße, Schlangenpfad, Weierstraße (sic), along the Römerkanal, in order to then reach the area at the castle in a lower position over the spur from Kreuzstraße with little gradient. Nothing has yet been found of the last section, not even in the construction of the council and town hall, which lies in the presumed alignment. Sections of the Schlangenpfad and (1938) the Römerkanal and Kreuzstraße were exposed during construction work. In the 30 m long section in the embankment of the former Villebahn on Kreuzstrasse, a rectangular entry shaft was exposed, which consisted of tuff stone slabs and was covered with a tuff stone slab. It was erected on Luxemburger Strasse and destroyed in the war. The line had a clear height of 1.07 cm and a width of 33 cm at the bottom and 44 cm at the top. Changes in dimensions and materials in the area of the Hürth line suggest an expansion and an increase in capacity. The access road was named after the canal after the excavations were completed. In 1952, another section was found on Kreuzstrasse, which had a depression in the ground for a 5 cm thick pile, which had obviously been used to measure the slope during construction. Waldemar Haberey investigated the further course of the line from Kreuzstrasse and was able to identify around 2.5 km of line on the Kummet and in the Hürther Tälchen through search excavations. The gradient of the line was steeper at the beginning and the descent to the castle area, but naturally lower at the mountain spur and on the plain. Changes in dimensions and materials in the area of the Hürth line suggest an expansion and an increase in capacity. A supply from the oil break would be conceivable. In the Middle Ages and the early modern period there are reports of several actions to increase the capacity of the Duffesbach, these could have reshaped older versions. After the construction of the Eifel pipeline, the pipeline (with a smaller cross-section) was used by an excavated villa rustica (today's street at the Römerhof). A section of the Hürth line was set up at the law school / Drususgasse.
Burbach management
The Burbach pipeline developed the sources of the Burbacher Bach , which fell victim to the lignite mining in Hürth along with the old town of Berrenrath . The first discovery of this line was made near Alstädten . There it was only 18 cm wide and 12 cm high and consisted of pebble concrete and was covered with slates of slate. It led via the former Pescher Höfe to the assembly point.
Gleueler line
She recorded sources during the seven jumps near the former, now excavated Aldenrath Castle . The spring sockets, which were excavated in 1930, consist of a slate floor and permeable cheeks with a tuff plate cover, similar to those on the Grüner Pütz of the Eifel pipeline, which were then continued in a stone channel. In Ernst-Reuther-Strasse, No. 31, a section has been placed under protection as a ground monument. In the center of Gleuel she met what is probably the youngest supply line, the Frechen / Bachemer line.
Frechen / Bachemer management
The line is probably the youngest of the foothills and comes from outside the Hürth city area, but may be briefly listed here. Here, too, clear excavation results are still missing. According to older topographical maps, the source areas were west and northwest of Bachem and naturally drained towards the Frechener Bach .
Head of Hürth – Cologne
Nothing has been found of the system that took up the foothills and later the Eifel pipeline at Hermülheim Castle. During construction work on the western corner of the Friedrich-Ebert-Realschule in Hermülheim, part of the line to Cologne was found right next to the Duffesbach in 1959. A little below in 1961, when the sports field was built, another section was excavated, supplemented, conserved and roofed over and thus made accessible to the general public. It is noteworthy that you can see two lines here. The lower one was used for the older lines, which ran with a gradient of 0.10% not far, parallel to Luxemburger Strasse to Cologne, as far as what would later become Neumarkt . The later Berrenrather Strasse, like Kreuzstrasse, may have served as a maintenance route for the important line. She had a mud trap near what would later become the green belt. Even before the Eifel pipeline was connected, the pipeline was raised by using the gradient of only 0.10% from Hermülheim Castle, so the water in Cologne reached a higher height and could be better distributed.
Eifel aqueduct
Parts of the Eifel aqueduct could be located in the Hürth area (in contrast to Brühl , where these parts were excavated very early and were used as building material). In 1989, during construction work in the area of the former gardens at Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 10, a well-preserved section of the line was found, which was broken down into nine sections and now set up as illustrative material at "water suppliers", for example at the Leichtweiß Institute of the TH Braunschweig, drinking water treatment at the Wahnbachtalsperre , the Am Staad waterworks , Düsseldorf, and the administration building of the Mittelrhein energy supply . A section in the basement of a residential building in Bettina von Arnim-Weg (1989) can be viewed (for example on the day of the open monument ). Another part is exhibited under the city hall in Cologne (Praetorium), one at the LVR office for soil monument preservation in the Rhineland and finally one in Buschhoven, at Burgweier. Another soil monument was found at the intersection of the line with Luxemburger Strasse (building site Haus Sachsen), a part that had to be excavated (around 1983) is placed at the town hall. A piece from today's Severinusstrasse is at the swimming pool, Sudetenstrasse 91. The aqueduct marble , which had formed as sinter of lime in the pipe, was also widely used. In St. Katharina (Alt-Hürth) the base of the baptismal font is made of this material.
Second use
In the city of Hürth, parts of the Eifel aqueduct can be found as masonry at Fischenich Castle . In earlier times also at the broken off first Hermülheim church at the castle and at the medieval church in Kendenich . Pieces of the wall are also said to have been used at Efferen Castle .
Touristic
Hürth is on the Römerkanal hiking trail .
Individual evidence
- ↑ What is under protection is listed in the list of ground monuments in Hürth .
- ^ Grewe: Aqueducts , p. 247.
- ↑ Bonner Jahrbücher 155/56, p. 157.
- ↑ Clemens Klug: Hürth - as it was, as it was. Steimel Verlag, Cologne undated (1962), p. 28 f.
- ^ Klaus Grewe : Nine sections of the Eifel water pipeline to Cologne recovered. In: Hürther Heimat , No. 65/66, pp. 113–117.
- ^ Grewe: Aqueducts, pp. 390/91.
- ^ Grewe: Aqueducts, p. 324.
- ^ Grewe: Aqueducts, p. 297 f.
literature
- Waldemar Haberey : The Roman water pipes to Cologne. The technology of water supply in an ancient city (= art and antiquity on the Rhine. No. 37). 2nd Edition. Rheinland-Verlag u. a., Bonn 1972, ISBN 3-7927-0146-4 , p. 12 ff.
- Klaus Grewe : Atlas of the Roman water pipes to Cologne (= Rhenish excavations. Volume 26). Rhineland, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7927-0868-X .
- Klaus Grewe: Aqueducts. Water for Rome's cities. Regionalia, Rheinbach 2014, ISBN 978-3-95540-127-6 , pp. 218, 245–252 and others (accompanying volume for the exhibition of the same name in the Museum of Bathing Culture ; with many references and examples on Cologne management).
- Raymund Gottschalk: Romans and Franks in Hürth. Habelt, Bonn 2014, ISBN 978-3-7749-3928-8 , pp. 29-35.
