Column arch

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The spal flying arch seen from the Spalenberg (watercolor, 1838)

The Spalenschwibbogen (also called Spalenturm or Inneres Spalentor ) is a former small city ​​gate of the city of Basel and an earlier part of the inner city ​​wall . It was the forerunner of the Spalentor , which was built further outside after the city expansion, and was demolished in 1838.

Appearance

The floating arch, which stood at the upper end of the Spalenberg in the city ​​wall built by Burkhard von Fenis around 1080 , was the gate to the city before the construction of the outer city wall. It was probably the successor to an old gate from the 11th century and was first mentioned in writing in 1230. In 1231 the Franciscans founded a monastery right in front of the gate, which was later called Gnadental . At the beginning, the Schwibbogen had a drawbridge , which was probably replaced by a solid stone bridge after the construction of the outer city wall (1362–1398), which can also be easily recognized on the bird's eye view by Matthäus Merian (1615). The actual Schwibbogen consisted of a massive square tower, made of stone, with only part of the side facing the city being smoothly plastered.

The Basel master Lawelin, who later also decorated the courtyard facade of the armory, adorned the column arch with paintings in 1428. In 1518 Hans Frank was commissioned with further paintings. Later depictions show the gate tower with a pyramid roof , which carried a bell tower on top. The top floor was clad with a wooden wreath , which ran as a protruding arbor on the field side . In the 16th century, a clock was placed directly under the wreath on both sides . Above the clock face on the city side, an artist had painted a window on the wood with a man looking out.

Prison use

After the completion of the Spalentor , the spaled flying arch remained in use as a prison. The three tower floors above the archway housed six so-called "captives":

  • the oak forest for particularly difficult cases; was made of oak beams.
  • the witch cage and hall , which are said to have been particularly painful and which were at the top of the tower, where torture devices were still kept.
  • the detention room, which was provided with an oven.
  • the Herren-Küfer-Stüblein which had a small tiled stove.
  • the whore's room for imprisoned women of this profession; was described as very unhealthy.

Not only prostitutes sat in the arch, Andreas Jamometić , Archbishop of Kraina between Montenegro and Albania, was held prisoner in the tower; he had turned away from Pope Sixtus IV and fled to Basel, but an imperial decree in December 1482 forced him to be arrested and imprisoned in the spaled arch. Although Sixtus forced the archbishop to be extradited, the archbishop remained imprisoned in the arched arch until he hanged himself on November 12th or 13th, 1484.

demolition

In 1822 the Basel government abolished the prison rooms. In 1837 the master bricklayer Remigius Merian bought the building for 7,200 francs at the auction of the spaled candle arch and had it demolished in 1838. The dials of the clocks were dismantled and re- attached to the Spalentor . The demolition of the candle arch marked the beginning of the removal of the medieval fortifications in Basel; a year later the Rheintor , which stood on the Rhine bridge on the Grossbasler Ufer, was torn down.

literature

  • Casimir Hermann Baer: Photo documents of the removed fortifications. 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. 176–177.
  • Emil Blum, Theophil Nüesch: Basel then and now. A local culture and history. Verlag Hermann Krüsi, Basel 1913, p. 22.
  • Guido Helmig: A new exposure of the inner city wall at Leonhardsgraben 3. In: Annual report 1989 of the archaeological soil research of the canton Basel-Stadt. Rolf d'Aujourd'hui, Basel 1991, ISBN 3-905098-10-5 , pp. 40-45, with a comparative map p. 40.
  • Christoph Philipp Matt: Observations on the column arch and the bridge. In: 1986 annual report of Archaeological Soil Research Basel-Stadt. In: Historical and Antiquarian Society of Basel (Ed.): Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde. Volume 86, number 2. Verlag der Historischen und Antiquarian Gesellschaft, Basel 1986, p. 165.
  • Eugen A. Meier : Basel then and now. 3. Edition. Buchverlag Basler Zeitung, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-85815-266-3 , pp. 176-177.
  • Christian Adolf Müller: The city fortifications of Basel. Part 2. In: 134th New Year's Gazette of the GGG . Commission publishing house Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1956, pp. 18-19.
  • Wilhelm Vischer : corrections and additions. In: Wilhelm Vischer (Ed.): Basler Chroniken . Volume 2. Verlag von S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1887, p. 639. (On the life data of Master Niklaus Lawelin)

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Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ′ 25.5 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 4"  E ; CH1903:  610,976  /  two hundred and sixty-seven thousand three hundred eighty-five