Innsbruck City Hall

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The town hall of Innsbruck has been located in Herzog-Friedrich-Straße in the old town since 1358 (today: Old Town Hall , ), the New Town Hall has been in Maria-Theresien-Straße ( ) since 1897 .

Old Town Hall

history

Old town hall with city tower
Relief of the city arms on the old town hall

The official business of the city administration was originally carried out in the respective apartment of the mayor , city ​​judge or city ​​clerk . In the middle of the 14th century, the administrative effort was so great that a separate official building was required. On May 8, 1358, the sovereign, Margrave Ludwig the Brandenburger , granted a tax rebate that enabled the purchase of a town house on the town square. This was converted into the first town hall of a Tyrolean city. 1442–1450 it was enlarged by purchasing the house adjoining it to the south and the city ​​tower was built. 1450-60 another narrow house south of the city tower was purchased and the arbors were built. In 1496 a separate council chamber ( "jnn the prudent ersamen vnnd weysen mayor vnnd rats zu Jnnspruggs hinder ordinary bike rooms" ) is mentioned as a notarial place.

Originally the town hall only had an upper floor and an attic , as well as a high pitched roof with the gable front facing the town square. It was given its current shape during a renovation in 1658. As was common in many town halls in German-speaking countries at the time, the building was divided into three parts: A department store and bread bank were on the ground floor, the council chamber, the administrative offices of the town clerk and the town archives on the first floor. The 110 m² large representative citizens' hall was on the second floor. In 1691 the town hall was  renovated by Johann Martin Gumpp the Elder after earthquake damage .

In 1897 the town hall was replaced by the new town hall on Maria-Theresien-Straße and then used for other purposes. For the 800th anniversary of Innsbruck in 1980, the culture and education office moved into the building, which has since served as the municipal office building again.

Building description

The wide, deep house on a ground plan that tapers towards the rear now encompasses the city tower on three sides. It has three window axes north of the city tower, one south of it. The northern part consists of a three-storey front building with  a blind wall and a four-storey Stöckl building , which are connected by an extension at ground level. The first and second upper floors of the front building emerge from the street above the arcades and are on the same level as the city tower, which is also stepping forward. A relief on the facade shows an angel with the city coat of arms and a citizen couple in the costume of the 16th century, which was created in 1939 to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the confirmation of the city charter by Hans Andre . The passage leads to an inner courtyard with a fountain.

City tower

The 56 m high city tower was built around 1450. Originally provided with a pointed spire, it was given a Renaissance onion dome around 1560. It is the oldest building of this type in Austria, which was built based on Italian models. It was an expression of the bourgeois self-confidence towards the sovereign city lords residing in the Neuer Hof . The tower keeper had to watch out for fire hazards, keep an eye out for enemies and keep things quiet. From the tower gallery at a height of 33 m there is a view of the roofs of the city.

new town hall

history

new town hall
Extension from 2002
passage

Three Gothic town houses in Maria-Theresien-Straße, then called Neustadt, were converted into the baroque Palais Künigl at the beginning of the 18th century according to plans by Johann Martin Gumpp the Elder . In 1810 it was bought by the merchant Leopold Ferstl, and in 1847 by the Viennese hotelier Ernst Manlik, who had it converted into the Hotel d'Autriche ( Austrian court ) in 1848 . It was the first hotel on the square, but had to shut down again in 1876 due to competition from the new hotels on Bahnhofsplatz. In 1882 it was acquired by the Innsbruck paper wholesaler Leonhard Lang , who used and expanded it for his business that had grown into a wholesale business, and in 1897 donated it to the city of Innsbruck as the new town hall. For this he was made an honorary citizen in the same year . On November 10, 1897, the city magistrate moved from the old town to the new town hall.

Building description

The originally baroque palace complex consisted of a four-story, twelve-axis main wing and two three-story transverse wings. During the renovation in 1848, the facade was redesigned in the classical style. The four central axes of the strictly symmetrical facade are structured by colossal pilasters extending over all floors . There is a balcony on the second floor.

The transverse or hall wing in the inner courtyard with frescoes by Ferdinand Wagner , built between 1882 and 1886, was destroyed by bombs in 1944. The west wing of the town hall on Fallmerayerstraße dates from 1939.

extension

From the mid-1980s there were plans to expand the town hall, which was finally realized in a project by the city of Innsbruck with private investors. In 2002, the significantly enlarged town hall complex planned by the French architect Dominique Perrault was opened, which, in addition to new premises for the city administration, includes a congress hotel with a roof garden, a shopping arcade ( town hall galleries ) and an underground car park. The passage creates a connection between Maria-Theresien-Straße, Adolf-Pichler-Platz  and Anichstraße. It is covered by a glass surface with individual colored glass fields designed by Daniel Buren . In the middle of the passage is the access to the new town hall, above which rises the 37 m high glass staircase and lift tower, the top floor of which is accessible as a viewing platform. The facade of the tower was designed by Peter Kogler . The six-storey new building stands free between the two old buildings and has a black and white glass facade in a checkerboard pattern.

In the course of the construction of the new building and the underground car park, parts of the hospital cemetery , which was abandoned in 1856, could be exposed and archaeologically examined.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hannes Obermair : Bozen Süd - Bolzano Nord. Written form and documentary tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500 . tape 2 . City of Bozen, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-901870-1-8 , p. 226, No. 1309 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Altes Rathaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Neues Rathaus  - collection of images, videos and audio files