Town hall between the cities (Warburg)
Town hall between the cities refers to the common town hall of the old town and the new town of Warburg , Höxter district , built in 1568 .
Architecture and building history
In the High Middle Ages the city of Warburg consisted of two legally independent cities, each with its own city council, its own marketplace, its own parish church, its own city wall and its own town hall: the old town in the Diemeltal and the new town on a ridge above it. In 1436 both cities merged to form a single city and agreed to have their court days on Mondays and Thursdays alternately in the town hall of the new town and the town hall of the old town , "as long as wet dat de Stede eyn Rathus buwen dar en dat comfortlick sy".
But it was only over 120 years later that this joint town hall came into being. In order to give both cities equal access, it was built in place of the former Liebfrauentor on the slope edge between the cities. With a length of 22.1 m and a width of 12.9 m, it was smaller than the medieval town halls on the marketplaces, since it only had rooms for the council assembly, the chancellery and the court, while the old town halls were wider than Department stores could be used. The southern part of the ground floor was designed as an open arcade hall with three arches rising slightly to the west , which was the only connection between the cities until the 19th century. The arcade openings were decorated with late Gothic ( timber frame ) and Renaissance ( grotesque figures , carnies cornices ) designs . In the gable triangle above the narrowest portal opening, here with a segmental arch, the coats of arms of the city of Warburg (the lily) and the Paderborn monastery (the cross) were affixed with the inscription: "WARBORCH ANNO DM MCCCCCLXVIII" (1568). The northern part of the ground floor, accessed through a door from the hall and another from the east side, contained prison rooms and a staircase for visitors to the old town to the upper floor.
From the Neustadt side, the upper floor was made accessible via an outside staircase through an ornate rectangular portal also provided with an inscription and coat of arms. The upper floor, in which the council chamber and the office used to be, is lit by partly simple, partly double rectangular windows, which alternate in irregular succession. Its sandstone walls are decorated with narrow pilasters , rods, masks and other Renaissance forms. Originally there was a half-hip roof with protruding gables made of oak framework directly above it.
With the loss of the right to self-government in absolutism from 1667, the town hall lost its importance and was given different provisions. After the Principality of Paderborn was occupied by the Prussian troops under General von L'Estocq in August 1802, the episcopal coats of arms were chiseled out over the portals. In 1822 the building was used as a girls 'school, in 1863 as barracks, in 1871 as a military hospital and then until 1894 as a boys' school.
In 1899 the east facade had a crack several centimeters wide above the portal to the civil cemetery. From 1901 to 1902 the city had it statically secured according to plans by the Cologne architect Eduard Endler , thoroughly restored, enlarged with a historicizing half-timbered floor and adorned with a roof turret for the town hall bell. A new large meeting room was built in, which was furnished with a large mural by the Düsseldorf painter Josef Kohlschein the Younger , which shows the city of Warburg from the south side in the 16th century.
In 2019 cracks were found again, especially in the area of the southeast corner. The soil surveyor Claus Schubert then determined that these had geological origins and were due to a tear in the slope. This leads to a gradual sinking of the building. However, there is no acute risk.
Similar buildings
Similar to Warburg, the town hall in Mühlhausen , built over a stream between the old town and new town, and the bridge town hall in Bamberg represent political compromises between two regional authorities. In Mühlhausen, this was used to mediate between different market areas, in Bamberg between secular and spiritual urban areas.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Magna Charta di de grotebreff darynne both Stee were defended , January 26, 1436, Warburg City Archives
- ^ Photo by Nikolaus Rodenkirchen 1939, p. 464
- ↑ Dieter Scholz: Why the historic Warburg town hall slips into the valley , Neue Westfälische , Warburg May 24, 2019
literature
- Elmar Nolte: On the secular building of the medieval city of Warburg. In: Franz Mürmann (ed.): The city of Warburg. 1036-1986. Contributions to the history of a city. Volume 2. Hermes, Warburg 1986, ISBN 3-922032-07-9 , pp. 137-176.
- Nikolaus Rodenkirchen: Warburg district. With a historical introduction by Gerhard Pfeiffer. Aschendorff, Münster 1939 ( architectural and art monuments of Westphalia 44).
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 14.6 " N , 9 ° 8 ′ 49.9" E