Town Hall (Koblenz)
The town hall of the city of Koblenz is now located in the former Jesuit college in the old town . The town hall consists of three closely connected building complexes from the late Renaissance , early baroque and modern times . The entire complex of grammar school, college and extension buildings is grouped around four inner courtyards. The Schängelbrunnen has been located in the large inner courtyard since 1941 .
history
The town hall is part of the building complex of the former Jesuit college and grammar school, to which an extension was added in the 20th century. The individual buildings were created:
- South wing 1588/89
- West wing 1591/92
- East wing 1670
- School building 1694–1701
- Extension buildings 1912–15.
Housing of the town hall until 1895
There are five previous buildings for the town hall. The first town hall of the city of Koblenz is documented for 1182, it was in the area of the Altenhof. Presumably in the first half of the 14th century, the city acquired the Monreal house in Braugasse, which was then the city hall for the next 300 years. The house was sold to a brewery after 1675 and finally demolished in 1889. In 1674 the city council moved to the old department store on Florinsmarkt, where it remained until the French period (1794-1814). After a brief interlude in 1804, when the administration was located in what was then the building at Rheinstrasse 6, the town hall was relocated in 1805 to the house Am Plan No. 9, which was still preserved today, the former Koblenz city command, where it remained until 1895.
The Jesuit College until 1895
A Cistercian convent already existed in this area of the city in the 13th century . The Archbishop of Trier, Jakob von Eltz , ordered the nuns to be resettled on the island of Niederwerth in 1580 so that the monastery could be handed over to the Jesuits . With this settlement he strove to force the Counter Reformation and the reforms of the Council of Trent in his archbishopric. The Jesuits initially took over the Cistercian buildings in order to use them as a monastery school. The first school building from 1581 was destroyed in the War of the Palatinate Succession , a new high school was built at the same location from 1694 to 1701.
With the annexation of the territories conquered after the First Coalition War in 1794, Koblenz became part of the French Republic as the capital of the Département de Rhin-et-Moselle . During this time the college served as a hospital. After 1802 all monasteries and monasteries in the new department were secularized , which also affected the Jesuit monastery and college. During this time, the assembly hall of the college served the Koblenz population as a ballroom, and in 1812 it was rented to a music association. In 1813 the college was again used as a military hospital, which the new Prussian rulers initially retained.
After Prussia took over the Rhineland , the city looked for opportunities to accommodate soldiers, so that in 1816 there was a demand for conversion into a barracks. It is thanks to the objection of the then Upper President of the Rhine Province of Ingersleben that the military could not prevail and instead the former Jesuit college was expanded into a barracks. Instead of being used for military purposes, the college was transferred to the Royal High School (today Görres High School ), which maintained classrooms and teacher's apartments here. In 1862/63 the auditorium of the grammar school was thoroughly renovated, whereby the old stucco ceilings were removed.
Takeover by the city of Koblenz and expansion
The city of Koblenz acquired the building complex on September 7, 1891 for 300,000 marks. After the Royal High School had moved to the new building erected in 1892/94, the college was converted into the “New Town House” between 1894 and 1895 in order to create space for the enlarged city administration. This gave the Koblenz town hall its fifth and final location. This became necessary because the abandonment of the city fortifications of Koblenz on March 13, 1890 by decree of the Prussian government created new districts on the basis of the plans of the Cologne city architect Josef Stübben and thus required increased building management. The last extensions to the historic town hall complex took place from 1912 to 1915. According to the plans of the city architect Friedrich Neumann, a three-storey extension was built around two inner courtyards. The simple structures take the existing building structure into account and adapt to it with a very reserved architecture. Since 1913, the town hall has been used for receptions, symposia, lectures and concerts in addition to the council meetings. A devastating fire destroyed the roof structure of the former school building in 1915. In 1931 the city acquired the former monastery building (today City Hall II ).
From World War II to today
The building complex was one of the few in the old town to remain undestroyed during the air raids on Koblenz ; only the Jesuit church was almost completely destroyed. On March 19, 1945, American troops conquered the city with the defeat of the 7th Army and hoisted the stars and stripes on the town hall.
The constituent meeting of the first Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament and the election of the first Prime Minister took place in the historic town hall on June 4, 1947 . The state parliament used the hall for all further meetings until August 1948. After the war, the hall served the Koblenz City Theater as a temporary venue until the theater reopened on June 1, 1946.
Although spared from destruction during the war, the buildings of City Hall II had to be closed in the 1960s due to acute dilapidation of the centuries-old ceilings. Demolition and new building plans were not implemented, instead the city decided to extensively gutting and renovating the old structure, so that the entire complex was comprehensively renewed in 1981-86. This involved an almost complete gutting and the installation of new ceilings and walls. The vaults on the ground floor of the east wing and the stucco ceiling of the former Jesuit library in the south wing were saved on historical parts of the building. In contrast, the stucco ceiling in today's entrance hall, formerly Aula domestica , could only be taken over to a limited extent. Since a new staircase was installed here, the ornaments from the removed ceiling part were used to restore the remaining one. The middle column was moved because of the changed proportions. Due to its damage, almost all of the plaster on the buildings and the roof of the west wing were completely renewed. The entire renovation cost around seven million DM .
construction
The former Jesuit college is a two-storey, twelve-axis, strictly symmetrically structured Renaissance building from the 17th century. The plastered building is adorned with tower-like corner pieces with lantern-crowned tail hoods by Johann Georg Judas from the years 1694 to 1701. The building is attributed to the Kurtrier court architect Johann Christoph Sebastiani . The portal decoration comes from Lorenz Staudacher. The portal facing the Jesuit church leads to a three-aisled passage with cross vaults on columns. The former auditorium of the grammar school was originally considerably larger and richly decorated with stucco ornaments, probably similar to the staircase ceiling that is still preserved today. She owned two stages for plays performed by high school students. After the division in the 19th century, the former auditorium now houses the historic town hall of Koblenz from the beginning of the 20th century. What has been preserved, however, is the richly decorated stucco ceiling by Carlo Maria Pozzi with frescoes by the master Lucaes (possibly Luca Antonio Colomba ) in the staircase to the auditorium. The three large ceiling paintings correspond to the educational and religious program of the Jesuit order: They show the "punishment of the lazy", the "triumph of true faith" and the "reward of diligence". The four smaller fields show landscapes with which perhaps the four seasons are meant. In front of the entrance to the town hall hall there are today the boards with the Koblenz honorary citizens . The preserved older stucco ceilings in the west and south wings are designed more simply. They show geometric shapes made of strips, the only partially preserved ceiling of today's entrance hall is a so-called Cologne ceiling . In the entrance hall there is also the grave slab of Heinrich von Rübenach from the Dominican Church in Koblenz .
Division and offices
The building complex of the town hall is divided into town hall I (school building and extensions) and town hall II (east, south and west wings). There are u. a. the mayor's offices, the registry office and the historic town hall. There is also a branch of the Sparkasse in the west wing . Since there is not enough space for all offices in the historic buildings, some of them are located in the immediate vicinity in the administration tower at Schängelcenter (formerly GEWA, Rathauspassage 2). In addition, the city has set up a citizens' office in the building next to the registry office (formerly Görres bookstore).
Monument protection
The town hall of Koblenz is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located on Willi-Hört-Platz .
The town hall of Koblenz has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 . Furthermore, it is a protected cultural asset according to the Hague Convention and marked with the blue and white protection symbol.
literature
- Max Bär : From the history of the city of Koblenz. 1814-1914. Krabben, Koblenz 1922, p. 92.
- Hans Bellinghausen: On the history of the Koblenz town hall. sn, Koblenz 1952.
- Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 3: City of Koblenz. Volume 2: Herbert Dellwing , Reinhard Kallenbach : City Center. Werner, Worms 2004, ISBN 3-88462-198-X , pp. 72-79.
- Fritz Michel : The former Jesuit college and its buildings. Contribution to the building history of the city of Coblenz. Lintz, Trier 1919.
- Karl Oster (Red.): Historic town hall of the city of Koblenz. Documentation for the general renovation of the town hall, building II. City of Koblenz - Press and Information Office, Koblenz 1985 ( Documentation of the city of Koblenz 12, ZDB -ID 237933-8 ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ History of the City of Koblenz Volume 2, pp. 340f.
- ^ History of the City of Koblenz Volume 2, p. 424.
- ^ History of the City of Koblenz Volume 1, p. 419.
- ↑ Stübben plan from 1889
- ↑ Kulturdenkmäler , p. 76
- ↑ List of cultural monuments in Koblenz old town
- ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - District-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.3 MB), Koblenz 2011
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 37 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 53" E