House of the Blackheads (Tallinn)
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The House of the Blackheads (Estonian: Mustpeade maja ) is the listed former community house of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads in the Estonian capital Tallinn ( German Reval ). Today it is used for holding cultural events.
location
It is located in the historic old town of Reval on Langstrasse (Estonian Pikk tänav ), at the address Langstrasse 26.
Architecture and history
The Brotherhood of Blackheads was formed in 1399 when the unmarried members left the Great Guild, which was made up of merchants . After a marriage, the Blackheads transferred to the Great Guild. The Blackheads later also included foreign merchants who were staying in Reval. The name goes back to the patron saint of the brotherhood, Saint Mauritius , who was represented as a Moor .
The German-speaking blackheads held an important social position in Reval. Close relations existed with the Katharinenkloster . The Blackheads took part in jousting tournaments. There is a tradition of a tournament from 1536 in which a blackheads presumably threw a country noble from the saddle, which led to considerable unrest in the city. The Blackheads also provided a mounted unit to defend Reval. There is a record of a conflict with Russian troops on September 11, 1560 outside the walls of Reval, in which ten blackheads were killed. The Blackheads had their own armaments and carried out exercises in the country in the summer until the 19th century. Later in the 19th century, the Blackheads were still responsible for the position of the mounted honorary escort in Reval for the imperial family or the sovereign. They wore the uniforms of the Guard Dragon Regiment given to them by the Russian Tsar Nikolai I.
Originally the brotherhood, there were no restaurants for high demands in Reval, also had the task of adequately accommodating traveling merchants. The brotherhood kept a brother book in which guests of the brotherhood, including the Russian monarchs since Peter the Great, entered .
In 1517 the brotherhood leased a merchant's house at Langstrasse 26, which they then acquired as property in 1531. It had two rooms, with a large hall above the vestibule instead of the usual attic. In the course of the Reformation , there was an iconoclasm on September 14, 1524 , during which the establishment of the St. Catherine's Monastery, which was connected to the Blackheads, was destroyed. However, the Blackheads had previously succeeded in securing the magnificent Altar of the Blackheads, which had come from Lübeck in 1495 and was located as a side altar in the church. The altar then stood in the House of the Blackheads for centuries. In 1531/1532 another hall was built south of the courtyard on Heiligengeiststraße. It was 4.50 meters high and had a large octagonal pillar with a supporting arch as a support element. There was no vault. The hall was divided into two naves by means of three columns. On one of the capitals, the year of completion in 1531 was recorded in Roman notation (MVCXXXIJ).
There are several stone sculptures on the facade of the building facing Langstrasse. The oldest sculptures are the supplementary panels on both sides of the entrance, donated by Ewert Schroeder and Hans Koser in 1575 , which show the coat of arms of a Moorish head with a forehead band.
In 1597 extensive renovations were carried out by the builder Arent Passer, who is known in Reval . In particular, the facade was also changed. Although the old structure and the Gothic elements were retained, elements of the Dutch Renaissance were added at the same time . By preserving the building fabric, the asymmetrical division of the facade remained, which is shifted slightly to the right in the left part of the building, whereby the gable itself is symmetrical and is decorated with volutes on the edge . In the height of the floors are ogee executed. At the carnies above the ground floor there are the coats of arms of the Hanseatic branches of Bruges , Novgorod , London and Bergen on Renaissance shields ; the carnies above the first floor is decorated with lions' heads and mascarons . A goods hatch designed as a rusticated portal is located on the second floor .
There were also other stone sculptures decorating the building. Particularly noteworthy is the design of the portal with lion heads and rusticated pilasters . The decorations are designed in the style of Dutch Mannerism . The bas-reliefs in the window gables of the first floor show portraits of the Polish royal couple Sigismund III. Wasa and Anna from Austria . Between the windows of the first floor there are two more reliefs depicting knights armed with lances with closed visors at a tournament. They are provided with the Low German inscriptions HELF GODT ALLEZEIDT and GODT IS MY HULF in the Gothic style and are attributed to Arent Passer.
On both sides of the hatch there are reliefs depicting the symbolic female figures Pax and Justitia . Above is another relief with a picture of a blessing Jesus Christ . The gable is crowned by a massive carnation.
The building on the right has only been redesigned in a similar style on the ground floor. The coats of arms of two Reval families can be found on its facade, as well as a representation of Saint George in the gable . In addition, with large floor hatches and crane beams, it still has the external appearance of a store.
In the left part, a large hall, the so-called brother hall, was set up on the upper floor. The brother hall was then furnished with life-size portraits of German , Swedish and Russian rulers who functioned as rulers of Estonia and Reval, respectively. There were portraits from the Roman-German Emperor Charles V to the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. In addition, there was also an epitaph for the ten Blackheads who fell on September 11, 1560 in the Brother Hall. This is the oldest preserved cityscape of Reval. The hall on the ground floor is called Dornste, which means something that can be heated. Cultural events took place in the house, in particular it was the venue for festivals of the Baltic Germans in Reval.
Berent Geistmann created the lunette carvings in 1604. The colored front door itself was created in the 1640s. The carvings above the door show the head of Mauritius.
Another major renovation took place in 1908, but only affected the interior. It was directed by the architect Wilhelm Neumann . In this context, the furnishings from the 16th century were removed and replaced with equipment in the neo-renaissance style .
On November 30, 1918, Alfred Rosenberg , later a leading ideologue of the NSDAP, gave a speech on what he called the Jewish question in the rented large hall of the House of Blackheads .
The character of the Blackheads as an association of merchants declined over time. In 1895 it was dissolved as a professional organization. There was a corps of the Blackheads which was supplemented by the election of unmarried merchants, whereby they no longer had to leave when they married. The corps rented the rooms on the first floor of the house to the secular Blackheads Club, which existed until 1940. The upper rooms remained in the use of the corps, where in particular the valuables of the Blackheads were kept. After the Second World War there was a socialist cultural and youth center in the house . Period furniture and parade portraits belonging to the brotherhood came to the city museum , silver cups went to the art museum .
The house was registered as a monument on April 15, 1997 and is listed under number 3040 in the Estonian register of monuments.
literature
- Thorsten Altheide, Heli Rahkema, CityTrip Tallinn , Reise Know-How Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-8317-2815-2 , page 30.
- Sophie Dehio, Reval then and now , Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 120 ff.
- Sulev Mäeväli , Tallinn historical buildings and works of art , Perioodika Tallinn 1990, ISBN 5-7979-0202-8 , page 60 ff.
- Valeri Sepp, Tallinn History of an Unusual City , Felistella, Estonia 2013, ISBN 978-9949-9264-8-0 , page 42 ff.
- Arved von Taube , Reval / Tallinn , Walter Rau Verlag Düsseldorf and Kempen / Allgäu 1979, ISBN 3-7919-0187-7 , page 49 ff.
Web links
- 3040 Tallinna Oleviste gildi ja Mustpeade vennaskonna hooned, 14.saj., 15.saj., 16.-20.saj. In:register.muinas.ee(entry in the Estonian register of monuments, No. 3040) (Estonian)
Individual evidence
- ^ Sophie Dehio, Reval once and now, Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 121
- ^ Sophie Dehio, Reval once and now, Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 120 f.
- ↑ Sulev Mäeväli, Tallinn historic buildings and works of art , Perioodika Tallinn 1990, ISBN 5-7979-0202-8 , page 61
- ^ Sophie Dehio, Reval once and now, Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 121
- ^ Sophie Dehio, Reval once and now, Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 121
- ^ Sophie Dehio, Reval once and now, Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 121
- ↑ Valeri Sepp, Tallinn History of an Unusual City , Felistella, Estonia 2013, ISBN 978-9949-9264-8-0 , page 44
- ^ Sophie Dehio, Reval once and now, Verlag von Franz Kluge, Reval 1910, page 121
Coordinates: 59 ° 26 ′ 19.9 ″ N , 24 ° 44 ′ 47.6 ″ E