Town hall Wernigerode
The town hall Wernigerode is the town hall of the city of Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt .
location
It is located on the south side of the city's market square at Marktplatz 1 . Marktstrasse begins at the town hall in a southerly direction.
Architecture and history
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The town hall was built around 1420 by Count Heinrich as a count's playhouse (Spelhus) on the wine cellar. This is indicated by an inscription in the coat of arms above the main portal. The building was then donated to the city of Wernigerode by Count Heinrich in 1427. The city also used it as a playhouse. Carnival games were held here, and it was also used as a place of trade and court. In the years 1494 to 1498, the striking half-timbered building facing the market square was built with two slender oriels flanking the entrance . The bay windows, which rest on free-standing stands, protrude over the eaves of the house with a single storey, have small gables and taper off into very slender, pointed roofs like towers. The framework of the upper floor protrudes about 50 centimeters over the massive basement. It is made of mighty beams. In contrast to the vertical emphasis of the towers, there is a horizontal structure with a dense row of curved St. Andrew's crosses . They are limited at the top by a strong chest latch . Also remarkable are the figures on the lugs of the building. The cleats on the first floor show saints, those below the roof minstrels, fools, drinkers and morris dancers with the May Queen . The beam heads are also carved. The building was completed by the master carpenter Thomas Hilleborch according to an inscription on the threshold . Inside, a hall was created that was used as a ballroom for the citizens. The half-timbered facade was designed in the Lower Saxon style, although features of the Franconian-Hessian design form are also evident.
During the city fire in 1528, the old town hall located nearby was destroyed. The city of Wernigerode then acquired the house of the agricultural bourgeois Schierstedt family, which was built in 1455/56 and is located on the Klint on today's west side of the town hall, and converted it together with the playhouse into today's town hall between 1539 and 1544. The renovation was carried out by Simon Hilleborch . The Schierstedt estate was transformed into a council scale , the so-called weighing house. The high ground floor of the weighing house is made of quarry stone and has a low, cantilevered upper floor in half-timbered construction. Here, too, the figurative cleats represent both saints and the carnival. Beam heads and thresholds are also richly carved.
In 1699 a roof turret was added to the town hall .
In the years 1873 to 1875 the town hall was fundamentally rebuilt, whereby considerations of expediency had priority. Among other things, the roof that had been hipped up between the bay windows was removed. The renovation was later seen as a mistake and from 1906 onwards it was largely reduced again. In the years 1936 to 1939, extensive renovations and extensions were carried out. Among other things, the office space added to the old ballroom was removed and the hall restored to its original size. The massive east wing was added from 1873 to 1875, and was newly constructed in half-timbered construction and used for the Sparkasse. A Renaissance oriel from 1584, the so-called Bürgermeisterstübchen, was added to the roof of the new wing in 1939. The figurative decoration of the grand piano was created by the Wernigerode sculptor Otto Welte and shows figures in local costume. The weighing house was extended. Due to the Second World War , the renovation work had to be interrupted. The interior renovation was only completed between 1948 and 1950.
The basement of the building is still used today as a council cellar. It consists of a main room with a rectangular floor plan. It is spanned by a groin vault , which rests on two strong central pillars. There are also two small storage rooms with barrel vaults . In 1948 the painter Bert Heller created a mural Harzsagen in the Ratskeller , but it has not been preserved.
Presumably, the ground floor of the town hall was originally structured like the cellar. However, only the outer walls built from rubble stones have been preserved here . The ground floor, which is high above the market square, is accessed via a double flight of stairs between the two oriels , which was renewed in 1741.
The town hall of Wernigerode was depicted on several postage stamps.
In the local register of monuments , the town hall is listed as a monument under registration number 094 03341 .
See also
Until the 16th century, the Neustadt had its own town hall, today's Neustädter Schenke in Breite Straße .
literature
- Ute Bednarz, Helga Neumann in Dehio, Handbook of German Art Monuments , Saxony-Anhalt I, Magdeburg District , Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-422-03069-7 , page 1005 f.
- Hermann Dieter Oemler : Fachwerk in Wernigerode , Oemler Verlag Wernigerode 1999, ISBN 3-9805751-1-X , page 13 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Julia Hartwig: From Spelhus to City Hall: The Wernigerode City Hall as a legal place in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period . In: Bernd Feicke, Harzverein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde eV (Hrsg.): Harz-Zeitschrift 2013, 65th year . Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86732-159-4 , pp. 83–100 ( preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Short question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture March 19, 2015 Printed matter 6/3905 (KA 6/8670) List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt , Magdeburg.pdf, page 2379 f.
Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 59.5 ″ N , 10 ° 47 ′ 3.6 ″ E