Speyer gate
The Speyerer Tor (formerly Speyerthor ) is a triumphal arch-like city gate , a relic of the former fortifications of the city of Frankenthal , which is located in today's state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The gate characterizes the southern entrance to the city center and the pedestrian zone . It was named after the Free Imperial City of Speyer, as was Speyerer Strasse, which led from the city center (market square) through the gate to Speyer. The counterpart to this is the Wormser Tor at the northern entrance to the city center.
history
At the end of the 16th century the up-and-coming community of Frankenthal, which at that time had around 3,000 inhabitants, belonged to the Electoral Palatinate . In 1573 the construction of the first, albeit still inadequate, city wall began. After Count Palatine Johann Casimir granted the town city rights in 1577 , Frankenthal was expanded between 1600 and 1608 to become the strongest fortress on the left bank of the Rhine in the Electoral Palatinate, which immediately had to stand its ground in the Thirty Years' War . 1621 siege by the Spaniards, 1623–1632 and 1635–1652 Spanish occupation, with Swedish occupation in between. Thanks to the efforts of the Frankenthal rifles , it was possible to defend the fortifications against attacking troops three times (1621, 1622 and 1644).
In 1689, during the War of the Palatinate Succession , the fortress was razed and the city burned down by order of the French King Louis XIV .
Under Elector Carl Philipp , the construction of a simple curtain wall began in 1718, but it remained unfinished. Elector Carl Theodor had the fortifications expanded and improved. From 1770 two more sophisticated city gates were built, which had more to serve for representation than for fortification. After the new construction of the Wormser Tor , the Speyerer Tor was built in the Baroque style in 1772/73 according to plans by the Mannheim architect Nicolas de Pigage . The gate was built immediately before the Karlstor in Heidelberg, which was planned by the same architect, and is the last of its kind to be preserved in Rhineland-Palatinate today.
On January 3, 1794, as part of the 1st coalition war , a battle broke out in front of the Speyerer Tor between French revolutionary troops attacking from the south and the Prussian army defending the city. The French fired eight and a half pound cannons at Frankenthal and they also hit the Speyer gate, which is still damaged today. There was also an exchange of fire with muskets , the numerous bullet holes at the gate and in the inner passage.
The city grew very quickly in the following century, so that most of the walls were torn down by 1870. The two city gates were spared the same fate because the citizens were able to prevail against the city council. The gates were damaged in the Second World War , but they could be preserved and later restored.
The logo of the city of Frankenthal is a graphic representation of the Speyer Gate .
Fixed illumination was installed at the gate in 2008 .
literature
- City of Frankenthal: information board at the gate .
- Volker Christmann: Frankenthal . A lost cityscape. 1st edition. Darmstadt 1995.
- Ulrich Kerkhoff (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate . Vol. 6, Frankenthal (Palatinate). Schwann in Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-491-31037-7 .
- Anna Maus: The history of the city of Frankenthal and its suburbs . Self-published, Frankenthal 1970.
- Wilhelm Winkler: The art monuments of the Palatinate . VIII. City and district of Frankenthal. First edition Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1939, ISBN 3-422-00559-5 (Unchanged reprint by Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin 1982).
- Franz Popp: The Frankenthal Fortress . In: 100 years of Frankenthaler Altertumsverein 1892-1992 . Frankenthal 1992.
Individual evidence
- ^ Association for the Promotion of Jewish Remembrance in Frankenthal: 17th to 19th centuries. Retrieved on November 10, 2011 (city map excerpts from 1837 with “Speyerstrasse” and “Speyerthor”).
- ^ Anna Maus: The history of the city of Frankenthal and its suburbs , Frankenthal, 1970, p. 87
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 31 '54 " N , 8 ° 21' 15.5" E