City wall Rheinbach

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One of several towers of the Rheinbach city wall

The medieval city ​​wall of Rheinbach , which was built around the turn of the 13th to the 14th century, only exists today in the form of a few towers and a few parts. The former fortifications of Rheinbach, to which the Rheinbach Castle also belonged, has been regarded as important for tourism since the 1980s, and partial reconstructions have been taking place since the end of the 20th century.

history

The Knights of Rheinbach, representing the Prüm Monastery, built a stone castle in Rheinbach at the end of the 12th century. After Rheinbach passed to the Archdiocese of Cologne in the middle of the 13th century, the knights began to strive for more independence. The construction of a city wall began around 1290. The starting point for the new fortification was the castle complex, which has now been expanded to include a bailey extending to the east, which was integrated into the new city fortifications.

course

The outer bailey had a half tower, the "dog tower", at its eastern end. The keep of the main castle, today's Hexenturm , was one of the three full towers of the city fortifications. The entire fortification was about 1200 meters long, was semicircular in the north and bevelled in the south. It covered an urban area of ​​around 11.5 hectares .

The city wall stretched from the castle in the southeast of the city - along today's Bungert - to the north to the Kallenturm (a rectangular full tower) used as a prison and to the west along today's parking lot ( Himmeroder and Prümer Wall ) to the Wasemer Tower (a round full tower) . From the Wasemer Tower to the north and in the north arch itself, the city wall ran along today's streets Pützstraße , Grabenstraße and Löherstraße . The “Voigtstor” was built on the eastern flank, from here the Rheinbacher Hauptstraße as part of the Aachen-Frankfurter Heerstraße led across the city to the “Dreeser Tor” on the west side. Later, a third gate, the “Neutor”, was built to the east, leaning against the Wasemer Tower . This gate, demolished in the 19th century, was completely reconstructed in 1983 and connected to the Wasem Tower . Two round half-towers were built into the city wall between the Wasemer tower and the castle tower. The city fortifications had a total of eight full and half towers; two half towers were on the north side of the city wall.

church

The integration of Heerstraße into the city wall had economic reasons. Further considerations about the location of the city wall to be built are not known. It is noticeable that the city wall enclosed only the most important courtyards of Rheinbach, namely the four courtyards of the Prüm monastery (“Himmeroder Hof”, “Junkerhof”, “Stadelhof” and “Meerkatzhof”) and the courtyard of Count von Manderscheid . The parish church and the adjacent Zehnthof, on the other hand, remained extra muros - possibly because of a dispute between the Rheinbach knights and the Münstereifel monastery , the patrons of the parish church, which was documented a few years earlier .

Around 1320 a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. George was built within the city walls ; Today the Martinskirche, which was built later, is located here . In the course of time, the chapel within the protective city walls became more popular with the Rheinbachers than the mother church outside, which is why all liturgical services were performed in the city church from the beginning of the 17th century, the Holy of Holies was kept and the sacraments were donated. From then on, the old parish church on St. Martin's cemetery was only used for the Friday collegiate mass, as a processional destination and for funeral services.

Himmeroder Hof

In 1317 - during the work on the new city wall - the Himmerod monastery decided to relocate the central lifting and administrative office for the Himmeroder possessions in the area from Rheinbachweiler to Rheinbach. The " Himmeroder Hof " established in Rheinbach now financed the construction of a section (16 rods ) of the city wall. In a document dated June 15, 1344, the Archbishop of Cologne, Walram von Jülich , stated that the Himmeroder had contributed to the fortification of the city of Rheinbach and were therefore exempted from taxes and haulage services to maintain the fortification "for all time". The process was by no means unusual; Cistercians also paid for the construction of fortifications in other cities, such as the Eberbachers in Oppenheim and Boppard or the Himmeroder also in Wittlich .

In 1323 the construction of the Rheinbacher fortification, which also included a surrounding moat, was completed. The demolition of the increasingly crumbling city wall began in 1820 to give the developing city more space. Of the six round half-towers, the lower part of the “windmill tower” (today there is a public toilet) and the “Bocksturm” have been rebuilt. Parts of the old wall are also being reconstructed in other places.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Fink, Rheinbach unterm Krumstab: from life in a small town in the Electorate of Cologne , Volume 2: Contributions to the history of the city of Rheinbach, Rheinbach City Archives, 2005, p. 185
  2. ^ Entry by Jens Friedhoff zu Rheinbach in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute, accessed on September 16, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b website  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. rheinland.info , Region Cologne / Bonn eV@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.rheinland.info  
  4. ↑ a b Monika Escher and Frank G. Hirschmann, The urban centers of the high and later Middle Ages: comparative studies of cities and urban landscapes in the west of the empire and in eastern France , Volume 2: Trier historical research , Kliomedia, 2005, ISBN 978-3- 89890-0-485 , p. 514
  5. ^ Franz Irsigler and Günter Löffler, Historical Atlas of the Rhineland , Volume 12: Publications of the Society for Rhenish History , Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Rheinland-Verlag, 2008, p. 66
  6. ↑ a b c Small Chronicle of the City of Rheinbach , Website of the City of Rheinbach
  7. ↑ Heimatbuch des Landkreis Bonn , Volume 2, Der Landkreis, Bonn 1959, p. 259
  8. ↑ In 1197, the Archbishop of Cologne, Adolf I, confirmed the patronage of the Rheinbach parish church to the Münstereifeler Stift ( Monasterium in Eiflia ), according to: Anton Joseph Binterim and Joseph Hubert Mooren, The old and new Archdiocese of Cologne divided into deaneries, or the Archbishopric of Cologne with the foundations, deaneries, parishes and vicarages, together with their income and collators , Simon Mullersche Buchhandlung, Mainz 1828, p. 140
  9. ↑ Klaus Fink, History of the Castle, the City and the Office of Rheinbach from the Beginnings to the End of the 18th Century: A Contribution to the Investigation of the Small Rhenish Town Volume 59: Rheinisches Archiv , publications by the Institute for historical regional studies of the Rhineland at the University of Bonn , Ludwig Röhrscheid Verlag, 1965
  10. ↑ Hans Orth, History of the Parish Church of St. Martin Rheinbach ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.katholische-kirche-rheinbach.de archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website of the Catholic parish of St. Martin Rheinbach
  11. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Oedigern and Richard Knipping, The Regesten the archbishops of Cologne in the Middle Ages , Volume 5: Publications of the Society for Rheinische history lesson , Society of Rhenish history lesson, P. Hanstein, 1973, p 303
  12. ↑ Winfried Schich, Ralf Gebuhr (eds.), Economy and Cultural Landscape: collected contributions 1977 to 1999 on the history of the Cistercians and the "Germania Slavica" , Volume 12: Library of Brandenburg and Prussian History , ISBN 978-3-83050-3- 781 , BWV Verlag, 2007, p. 137
  13. ↑ Klaus Fink, Rheinbach unterm Krumstab: From life in a small town in the Electorate of Cologne , Volume 2: Contributions to the history of the city of Rheinbach, Rheinbach City Archives, 2005, p. 33
  14. ↑ Klaus Fink, History of the Castle, the City and the Office of Rheinbach from the Beginnings to the End of the 18th Century: A Contribution to the Investigation of the Small Rhenish Town , Volume 59, Rhenish Archive , publications by the Institute for Historical Regional Studies of the Rhineland at the University Bonn, Ludwig Röhrscheid Verlag, 1965 p. 107