Selenhofen

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Selenhofen (also: Selehoven , Sehlhofen , Selovia , Silovia ) was a settlement in the south of the Roman-early medieval Mainz . As the first documented incorporation, Selenhofen came to Mainz in the second half of the 13th century. The best-known personality associated with Selenhofen was Arnold von Selenhofen , Archbishop of the Diocese of Mainz from 1153 to 1160 . Today the medieval Selenhofen corresponds to the southeastern old town around the church of St. Ignaz and is traditionally known under the name " Vilzbach ".

Name derivation

The name Selenhofen is most likely derived from a Merovingian Salhof , which was located south of and outside the old late Roman city wall ring. After the incorporation and walling of Selenhofen into Mainz, the new southernmost district of Mainz kept this name. In modern times, the name Vilzbach established itself for the district, which is still used today in traditional Mainz language.

location

Selenhofen corresponds to today's Ignazviertel around the old Selenhofen parish church of St. Ignaz. The settlement was roughly between today's Holzstrasse, which was also the demarcation from the city, below the trench towards the Rhine and south approximately to today's Dagobertstrasse. The center of the settlement was the parish church of St. Ignaz. Today's Kapuzinerstraße was probably the main street of the settlement at the time. The Vilzbach settlement bordered even further to the south and was located approximately at the confluence of Holzhofstrasse / Rheinallee (Cinestar location). Selenhofen and Vilzbach were separated by the Wiesbach, which flowed down from the citadel towards the Rhine.

history

During archaeological excavations at the site of today's Cinestar (Neutorstrasse), the remains of an extensive settlement complex from the late Roman period (partly after 430/440) were found, which were thus directly below the decaying Roman theater . The settlement of this so-called “theater settlement” continued seamlessly in the early Merovingian period; the excavations resulted in intensive Merovingian and Carolingian settlement activity. It is possible that this early medieval settlement outside of the late Roman wall ring was the core of what would later become Selenhofen (or Vilzbach, which would mean only a small spatial change), which in the course of the High and Late Middle Ages was more and more close to the city relocated. In any case, it is archaeologically certain that the southeastern apron of Mainz, on which the settlements of Selenhofen and Vilzbach crystallized in the course of the Middle Ages, was continuously inhabited in the late Roman, Merovingian and Carolingian periods. It is not clear to what extent a Merovingian royal or even episcopal domain ("Salhof"), which could have given Selenhofen its name, existed on an earlier Roman fiscal plot.

Selenhofen belonged to the district of the parish church of St. Ignaz, which extended beyond Selenhofen to the Kirschgarten and Grebenstrasse. The patronage goes back to Ignatius of Antioch and thus indicates a church was founded in Franconian times around 800. There is evidence of a Romanesque church building, which was later extended in a Gothic style. Since the church was very dilapidated at the beginning of the 18th century, it was demolished and a new church built in the classical style from 1763 to 1774/75 .

From the beginning of the 12th century, Selenhofen is mentioned and documented several times in connection with an archaeological ministerial and officer family of the same name and originating there . The most famous representative of the family was Arnold von Selenhofen, Archbishop of Mainz from 1153 until his murder in 1160 by citizens of Mainz.

With the incorporation and walling of Selenhofen in the middle of the 13th century, the new tower was also built as part of the fortification. The new tower was first mentioned in 1366 and replaced the Romanesque Wingert gate that had existed there until then as a fortification and gate tower. Renovation work at the beginning of the 15th century gave the building, known today as the wooden tower , its current Gothic appearance. The new tower was the most southeast corner of the newly built Mainz city wall and at the same time Selenhofen.

With the final abandonment of the village of Vilzbach , located in front of the southern city wall, after it was burned down by Swedish troops in 1635, the villagers moved to neighboring Selenhofen, which was depopulated by the plague and the turmoil of war . The name of their abandoned village, which had been legally and economically closely linked to the city of Mainz since the 12th century, was carried over to the new district and Selenhofen became Vilzbach in everyday parlance.

population

Selenhofen's population consisted mainly of boatmen and fishermen and was relatively poor. Then there were the Weinschröter . This guild was responsible for the transport of the wine barrels and Selenhofen was the seat of the "upper Weinschröter" in Mainz, based on the course of the Rhine.

literature

  • Ludwig Falck: Mainz in its heyday as a free city (1244–1328) (= history of the city of Mainz. Volume 3). Rau, Düsseldorf 1973, ISBN 3-7919-0142-7 .
  • Ronald Knöchlein: Mainz - Between Romans and Boniface. Settlement finds from the Merovingian period (= archaeological site considerations. Volume 2). von Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-935970-01-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In detail Ronald Knöchlein: Mainz - Between Römern and Bonifatius. Settlement finds from the Merovingian period. Mainz 2004, p. 12 ff.
  2. ↑ Franz Staab: Mainz from the 5th century until the death of Archbishop Willigis (407-1011). In: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Hrsg.): Mainz - The history of the city. 2nd Edition. Mainz 1999, p. 79.
  3. ↑ Ludwig Falck : The Mainz guild system in the Middle Ages. In: Oberrheinische Studien 3, 1975, pp. 267–288, here: p. 271.