Siegen city fortifications

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The city of Siegen, view from the north, with the city wall and defensive towers, in the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian , 1655
The outline of the Siegen city fortifications on a map from 1751
The Marburger Tor, northeastern city gate of Siegen. Painting by Wilhelm Scheiner , 1850

The Siegen city wall was from the 13th to the 19th centuries the defense system of the Archdiocese of Cologne belonging and from the late 14th century Nassau City wins today in the south of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia area.

history

The city fortifications were first mentioned in a document in 1311, in a document which documents the income from the Siegen Martini Church , which dates back to an older time . The fortifications consisted of a city ​​wall that enclosed the high medieval settlement core on the local Siegberg , numerous defense towers and three city ​​gates - first mentioned in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The gates were named after the next larger cities to which the streets in front of the gates led: the Marburger Tor in the northeast, the Kölner Tor in the west and the Wetzlarer Tor (renamed after 1600 as Löhrtor ) in the south of the fortifications. In addition to the city gates, the city fortifications had several smaller gates that were mainly used by the residents. In addition, part of the outer works of the Upper Castle on the summit of the Siegberg was included in the eastern city fortifications from around the 16th century . At the beginning of the 17th century, the city fortifications and the outer works of the castle were expanded like a fortress at the instigation of the Nassau-Siegen Count Johann the Middle (1561–1623), who ruled from 1609 to 1623 .

There is no record of a military attack on the Siegen city fortifications - bombardment, siege or storming. The only documented military attack on the city took place in 1735. In the course of inner-city confessional disputes, the Catholic residents of the Upper Castle allowed a Cologne “peasant army” into the city through the Marburg gate of the castle in order to fight the Reformed city dwellers. The attack was put down and the intruders driven away.

In the course of the 19th century, the gates, most of the defense towers and the battlements on the top of the wall were gradually demolished. From the city fortifications, the hulls of four defense towers as well as individual sections of the city wall of different heights and about two kilometers in length - a total of around 60% of the wall - have been preserved to the present day. For some years now, parts of the Siegen city wall have been threatened in terms of their stability from extensive vegetation with ivy and frost damage.

literature

Web links

Commons : Siegener Stadtbefestigung  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Siegener Zeitung, Wednesday, February 9, 2011: Article on the renovation of the city wall
  2. ↑ Heinz Bensberg: Tower-crowned with a wall belt, it looked defiantly into the country. Heinz Bensberg, accessed on August 30, 2020 .
  3. ^ Heinrich von Achenbach : History of the city of Siegen . W. Borländer, Siegen 1894, III. History of the city of Siegen from 1421–1530, subchapter “Buildings and fortifications”, pp. 130–139 (with the page numbering of the digitized version ), pp. 45–54 (within Chapter III) , urn : nbn: de: hbz: 6: 1-4122 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Schiemer: Old Town Companion for Siegen , p. 7
  5. ^ Alfred Lück: Siegen in old views (plate no. 73, without pagination). European Library, Zaltbommel (Netherlands) 1977, ISBN 90-288-2488-X .
  6. ↑ Raimund Hellwig: City Wall Discussion Postponed - Article on Der Westen, September 15, 2008
  7. ↑ Bastian Föst: The city ​​wall continues to crumble - article on Der Westen from March 4, 2009