Schaafentor

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Schaafentor, Ringwall and Schaafenstrasse around 1571

The Schaafentor ( Schaafenp (f) ortz (en) , Kölsch : Schaafepooz ) was one of the medieval city ​​gates of Cologne , which was built in the western curtain wall as part of the last city expansion . The gate was built in the 2nd quarter of the 13th century and laid down in 1882.

Origin of name

Adam Wrede described the area around the Schaafentore as a rural area, in which sheep breeding was very important as a supplier of meat and milk, but above all as a supplier of wool to the Cologne weavers' guild . This is how the successor gate of the former Janus - or Schaafenpforte at the "Laach" was called the "porta ovina" - the Schaafentor. The “platea ovina” (today's Schaafenstrasse) led through the new gate into the field corridor to the Weiher monastery and the early settlements of Lind , as well as further west to Bachem .

history

Creation of the Schaafenpforte district

The map shows five sectors as castle railways
Part of the Roman wall Mauritiussteinweg

The early area of Neumarkt above the old, western Roman wall was largely undeveloped and only slightly cultivated. Most of the few farmsteads on the area , such as the Hof der Kleingedank , were given by clerical landlords as inheritance to families whose membership remained the same for generations. After the creation of a new parish through the establishment of the St. Aposteln monastery around 1020/30, the neighbors of the old western town center, together with the residents of some of the clausal buildings that were built on the church, were subordinate to the new parish of St. Aposteln. In the period that followed, like the other old collegiate churches and monasteries in Cologne, a new parish group slowly formed around St. Apostles. This was divided into three shrine districts when the area was enlarged by the city expansion in 1180 . They were the districts of Neumarkt, Greeksmarkt and Schaafenpforte.

The Schaafentor, first mentioned between 1235 and 1251, indicates that animals were also kept on the nearby Neumarkt . Johann Marchelis (Marsilius) was burgrave in Schaafentor in 1377, hence his nickname "up der portzen". It stood at the current confluence of Schaafenstrasse with Habsburger Ring . To the south, the area of ​​influence of the St. Pantaleon Abbey with its parish church of St. Mauritius formed the border, the course of which was the south side of the Marsilstein (lapidis Marsilii) and Schaafenstraße, which began on Mauritiussteinweg (one of the old Roman stone paths) and which also ran behind the city gate as Schaafen- the later Linden- and Bachemer Straße, continued far into the foreland.

Initially, the owners of smaller properties in the Apostle Parish were all “little people”, with no further ownership provable in any of the other city districts after Keussen. It was not until later that some larger, walled courtyards developed, as shown on the map of the 16th century.

Building description

The depiction of Arnold Mercator in his Cologne cityscape from 1570 showed the "Schaeffen pforts" as a four-storey building with a crenellated crown , which was flanked by towers at the same height. The gate castle blended directly into the city wall on the city side without any other building parts. The large gate was, as some of the other gates in Mercator's drawings show, walled up at that time except for a doorway. The double gate castle opened on the field side to a round kennel , which was closed off on the west side by a two-storey gatehouse with one larger and two small passages . Behind the following protective ditch, which was spanned by a small bridge, a path flanked by stakes opened , which was probably used for cattle drift .

Use of the gate

Like most of the city gates, the Schaafentor was also a defense system serving the security of the city , the garrison of which had to be manned by riflemen during an attack or during sieges through the district. In times of peace, the Schaafentor was also used as a tower , it was equipped with three prison rooms. The council has been using the towers of the city fortifications since in 1475, in addition to the right to arrest, it was also given the right to conduct “embarrassing questions” ( torture ).

In the late Middle Ages , the Schaafentor played an important role as access to the pastures in the western foreland (or also Schweid ), into which mainly larger flocks of sheep were herded. These areas were under in this particular case, the farmer Bank Schaafenstraße.

The gate belonged to the five field gates of the city, the others are the St. Severins-, Weyer-, Friesen-, Hahnen- and the Eigelsteinpforte. At these there were the so-called farmers' banks. They were led by the Bur (g) - or Bur (g) bannmeister (also Bauermeister), whose tasks were to judge minor offenses in the field. They also gave instructions to the castle ban cooperatives for the maintenance of paths and footbridges, as well as those for regulating cattle drift . As city officials, the ban masters were solely responsible to the council.

Tranchot map around 1810

Laying down

The map of Tranchot from 1810 shows a rather sparse inner-city development. Schaafenstrasse, called “Rue des Moutons” by the French authorities, only has rows of houses on its edge, but this changed quickly.

Schaafentor around 1884

By the mid-19th century, the city's population had grown to around 100,000 people. The need of the growing industry to be able to expand to further areas could not be satisfied in the inner-city area. When the population density rose to over 35,000 people per km² by 1880 , the city was forced to act. The negotiations between the Prussian government and the city of Cologne to acquire the fortifications of the inner ring owned by the tax authorities in 1877 had failed because of the purchase price of 17.25 million marks. After renewed negotiations under Mayor Hermann Becker, a better result was achieved (11.794 million marks), a contract was signed in June 1881, which ultimately also led to the closing of the Schaafentor.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ To the different spellings used by historians, but also by official bodies, Wrede adds as follows: “The forms schaper, schaifer should be interpreted as shepherds, sheep farmers, sheep farmers, and accordingly the street as such. Does the Schaafenstrasse spelling still have to be officially and officially preserved today? "
  2. ^ Adam Wrede, Neuer Kölnischer Sprachschatz , Volume III, 1984, p. 62
  3. ↑ Kölnischer Geschichtsverein, publications , volumes 35–36, 1979, p. 313
  4. ^ Hermann Keussen : Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages , section "Almende", Volume I, 1910, p. 12
  5. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume I, p. 67
  6. ↑ Gerd Schwerhoff, Cologne im Kreuzverhör , 1991, p. 96
  7. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume I, p. 138, reference to: Document n. 13293
  8. ↑ Archive NRW: Stock number 1063 [1]
  9. ^ Carl Dietmar, Die Chronik Kölns , 1990, p. 270

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 4.9 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 25.1 ″  E