Old Theater (Ravensburg)

Facade to the Gespinstmarkt

View into the Brotlaube (towards the Gespinstmarkt)

Former municipal gallery on the upper floor (2009)

The Old Theater (also called Brotlaube ) in Marktstrasse in Ravensburg , Upper Swabia , was built in 1625 as a market hall and department store. The upper floor was later used as a theater and museum. The listed building is the only larger building from the early baroque era and the last representative large-scale urban building from the imperial city period in Ravensburg.

description

The building consists of a monumental vaulted hall on the ground floor, which is divided into two arcades by a low partition wall (with numerous passages). The open hall allows passage from Marktstrasse to Gespinstmarkt.

The upper floor consists of a large hall.

A stair tower with a spiral staircase on the Gespinstmarkt provided access to the upper floor; in the late 20th century, however, the main entrance was relocated to a newly built extension on the Gespinstmarkt, which also contains a foyer and other rooms.

On Marktstrasse, the building is adorned with a magnificent relief of the coat of arms from the time of construction, which shows the city coat of arms as well as the imperial eagle as a symbol of imperial freedom. The entrance on the stair tower is also decorated with a (simpler) coat of arms relief.

history

From 1386 the imperial city scales stood at this point . From 1497 the house became a sales house for bakers, butchers and furriers. The new building, which has been preserved to this day, was built in 1625. The builder is unknown.

The ground floor was originally the sales hall of the bakers' guild . In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the eastern arcade was lockable on both sides by large wooden doors (which had since been removed) and was used as a gym and storage room. Today there are bread, meat, cheese and egg stands in the entire hall at the weekly Saturday market . Otherwise the hall is empty.

The upper floor originally served the furriers' guild as a shop. From 1698, theater performances by the Ravensburger "Komödiantengesellschaft" took place in the spacious hall. The hall served as a theater until it was closed for fire protection reasons in 1881. After that all stage fixtures were removed. After the opening of the concert hall in 1897, the building was then called the "Old Theater". From 1910 to 1932 the hall housed the “City Museum”, which, in addition to works of art, also displayed a natural history collection. After a renovation in 1956, it was used until 2011 as the “Städtische Galerie Altes Theater Ravensburg” for art exhibitions with a focus on the art of classical modern and contemporary art. In order to offset part of the costs for the new Ravensburg Art Museum, which opened in 2013, the upper floor should be rented profitably after a renovation. In 2014, however, the city administration was satisfied that the listed building was actually used by the dual university and that the rental income could at least finance the renovation costs in the long term.

In the vaulted cellar, accessible from the Gespinstmarkt, the puppet theater “Ottokars Puppenkiste” was set up in the 20th century. These rooms are now used by the “Puppet Theater Ravensburg”.