Town Hall (Schwäbisch Gmünd)
The town hall (rarely also the New Town Hall ) in Schwäbisch Gmünd is a baroque building on the town's market square and serves as town hall to this day for the local city administration. It arose from the conversion of a patrician house and replaced the old town hall , which was a large half-timbered building on the market square until 1793.
history
In 1760, Franz Melchior Debler had the Jehlische Apotheke demolished and a residential building built by the Gmünd city architect Johann Michael Keller . The division of the house is documented by the chronicler Dominikus Debler , who spent his childhood there. In 1783 the city administration bought the house to turn it into a new town hall. By 1785 it was converted into a town hall, again under the builder of the house Johann Michael Keller. The roof turret and the three bells were taken over from the old town hall. In 1819 the lavish lattice on the town hall balcony was replaced.
After the first expansion in 1875, the town hall was significantly expanded to the south from 1906 to 1908 under Johann Herkommer . Continuing the baroque forms, a new gable wing was built facing Rinderbachergasse. During the interior restoration in 1962, the baroque and neo-baroque stucco in the council hall was destroyed. Further renovation and reconstruction measures followed in the years 1973 to 1975, whereby the roof turret was also renewed.
Bells and chimes
Until it was sold in 1942, the new town hall owned the three bells of the old town hall: the large hour-strike bell from the 15th century, the 1/4 hour-strike bell from 1537 and the storm bell from 1755. The two new bells come from the Kurtz bell foundry in Stuttgart 1950. The big bell is adorned with two craftsmen and a goldsmith on the work board and bears the inscription: I call to work, I warn 'to rest, God give' the strength 'to do both of them right! The little bell was with Saint Cecilia with the little violinist and the inscription Call I down how far the time, look up to eternity. decorated. The town hall also has a carillon .
Old Town Hall
The old town hall ( location ) was a half-timbered house built by Peter Brehm in 1523 , which stood on the area of today's upper market square. It was 35 meters long, 15.5 meters wide and about 30 meters high. After the patrician house Debler had been converted into the new town hall between 1783 and 1785 and the fire of 1793 between Kornhaus and Klösterle destroyed part of the town, the town council decided to rush to demolish the old town hall for fire protection reasons and to enlarge the market square. The appearance of the town hall is recorded in the chronicle of Dominikus Debler . The dimensions were determined during excavations in 1984.
literature
- Richard Strobel: The art monuments of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. Volume 3: Secular buildings of the old town without city fortifications . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-422-00570-6 , pp. 193-204.
- Theo Zanek: Gmünder Houses and Stories , Einhornverlag, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1997, ISBN 3-927654-56-6 , pp. 157–159.
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 47 '57.8 " N , 9 ° 47' 54.2" E