Rheintor Basel

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The Rhine Gate as seen from the Rhine Bridge. On the left the Käppelijoch (watercolor, before 1839)

The Rheintor was a city ​​gate of the city of Basel and was once part of the inner city ​​wall . It formed the porte on the Grossbasler side of the Rhine bridge (today's Middle Bridge). The gate was demolished in 1839 before the Basel City Expansion Act was passed in 1859.

There are various theses on the construction date of the Rhine Gate. For one thing, it is said to have its roots in Roman times . However, it is more likely that, like the Rhine bridge, it was built by Bishop Heinrich von Thun around 1225/26 . At the beginning, the gate tower had a drawbridge , which was replaced by a solid piece of bridge at the end of the 14th century, analogous to the completion of the outer wall. The Rhine Gate was renovated around 1363/64. From 1376 it is documented that there were prison cells in the Rheintor. On the one hand, minor offenses were served there, on the other hand, there was also the so-called "bat tower", where serious offenses were served.

Lower Rhine Gate

Also in 1376 riots broke out in the city during the evil carnival . In order to prevent mounted people from entering, a locking chain was attached to the gate after the events. The so-called "Lower Rhine Gate", a second archway that was first mentioned by name in 1440, was located right next to the gate tower downstream. It is very likely that this second gate is older and it was built when the drawbridge on the gate tower was abandoned. The earliest portrayals of the gate show the tower with an overhanging cladding around it.

Equestrian painting

Around 1420, Hans Tieffental, from Schlettstadt, renewed a large, already existing equestrian image on the tower on the Rhine side in order to buy Basel citizenship ; it was renovated again in 1450 by Hans Gilgenberg . In 1531 the Rheintor received a double-sided clock with two dials each , which were painted by Hans Holbein the Younger . A sundial was also attached, but it was restored in 1543. To make room for the clock, the equestrian painting was removed and repainted by Hans Holbein the Younger at the Lower Rheintor; The Rhine gate and its equestrian painting were probably also damaged in the fire of the shipmen's guild in 1533.

During new construction work on the Rheintor from 1617, the painting was removed again. The tower foundations of the gate had been washed under by the Rhine , which made repairs necessary. Since people in Basel were not familiar with such complicated construction work, water pumps from Nuremberg and the Strasbourg master for hydraulic engineering, Hans Fuchs, were brought in. In February 1619 the renovation work was finished; the painter Hans Bock the Elder was commissioned with his sons to create a new equestrian painting at the Lower Rhine Gate. From 1669 to 1671, the Rheintor was renovated again due to foundation damage. In 1674 the guard house, the Lower Rhine Gate and some of the ship's guild were renewed with the help of foremen from Colmar , Mulhouse and Rheinfelden . The side of the Rhine gate facing Kleinbasel received a pinnacle wreath , the pinnacles of which were provided with the coats of arms of the 13 old towns .

Lällenkönig

Copy of the Lällenkönig with movable eyes and tongue at Schifflände 1 in Basel

In 1641, a larger than life head, driven into sheet copper , was mounted on the Rhine gate, to the left of the clock on the Rhine side . This was connected to the clockwork, rolled its eyes every second and stuck its tongue out 10 cm. This grimace , designed by Daniel Neuberger from Augsburg, was taken over by Lällenkönig . After the Rhine Gate was demolished, the Lällenkönig came to the Historical Museum and can be admired in the Barfüsserkirche .

Prison use

The Rheintor made dark legal history as a prison when the leader of the guild committees, who rebelled against the authorities, Johann Fatio, was imprisoned here in 1691. The Basel Ancien Régime took revenge for the rebellion of the citizenry and had Fatio beheaded on the market square with two of his fellow fates. Despite the supplication of Fatio's relatives, his head was pinned on the Rhine gate above the clock and displayed in order to suppress further rebellions. See also Gluckhennentaler # Note on the end of the Koehler revolt.

The court servant's apartment has always been in the Rheintor. The long use of the tower for prison purposes is documented in 1806 with the purchase of a grinding lock for the prison bar in the gate. Between 1700 and 1702 new buildings were built next to the gate tower, with the neighboring Lower Rhine Gate being provided with a crenellated wreath; the equestrian painting definitely disappeared.

demolition

The last major repair work on the Rheintor dates from 1719, with the owners of the ship's guild complaining of considerable damage to the building. In addition, the narrow gate passage met the traffic from St. Johanns-Tor , from the Rhine bridge and from the city center of Grossbasel. From 1815 on the elimination of this bottleneck was discussed; Around 1836, concrete plans were drawn up to widen the “Eisengasse” and include the demolition of the Rhine Gate, the Lower Rhine Gate, the ship's guild and the guard room.

In February 1839 the Rhine Gate was finally demolished. The residents complained that the defiant but venerable gate had darkened the narrow streets and the ship landing. At that time, nobody regretted the disappearance of the Rhine gate with the tower clock, because the clock often went wrong and it had no striking mechanism either.

literature

  • Casimir Hermann Baer: Decoration of the walls and gates. In: Swiss Society for the Preservation of Historical Art Monuments (Ed.): Art Monuments of the Canton of Basel City. Volume 1. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1932/1971 pp. 205-219.
  • Emil Blum, Theophil Nüesch: Basel then and now. A local culture and history. Text tape. Verlag Hermann Krüsi, Basel 1913, pp. 64–66.
  • Daniel Albert Fechter : The public clocks in Basel during the Middle Ages. In: Wilhelm Theodor Streuber (Hrsg.): Basler Taschenbuch . Printing and publishing of the Schweighauser'schen Buchhandlung, Basel 1852, pp. 244–248.
  • Annie Hagenbach: Basel in the picture of its painters 1770-1870. B. Wepf & Co, Basel 1939, article 41.
  • Guido Helmig, Christoph Philipp Matt: Inventory of the Basel city fortifications - plan template and catalog. 2. The city fortifications of Grossbasel on the Rhine side. In: Rolf d'Aujourd'hui (Hrsg.): Annual report 1990 of the archaeological soil research of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Basel 1992, ISBN 3-905098-11-3 , pp. 167-171.
  • Paul Koelner : Back in the day. Lehrmittelverlag des Bildungsdepartements Basel-Stadt, Basel 1929, pp. 304–305.
  • Emil Major: Buildings and pictures from Basel's cultural history. Verlag Peter Heman, Basel 1986, ISBN 3-85722-010-5 , p. 52.
  • Eugen A. Meier : Basel then and now. 3. Edition. Buchverlag Basler Zeitung, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-85815-266-3 , pp. 188-190.
  • Christian Adolf Müller: The city fortifications of Basel. Part 2, In: Society for the promotion of the good and non-profit (Hrsg.): 134th New Year's Gazette of the GGG . Commission publisher Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1956, pp. 49–52.

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Coordinates: 47 ° 33 '35 "  N , 7 ° 35' 19.5"  E ; CH1903:  611,298  /  267,678