St. Mang Square

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St. Mang Church on St. Mang Square
View over St. Mang Square

The St.-Mang-Platz (formerly the churchyard ) is a large open space south of the parish church of St. Mang in Kempten (Allgäu) . Along with the Rathausplatz, it forms the most spacious square within the old town; the patrician houses to the south are among the largest and most magnificent in the city. The house fronts of the rectangular square south of the church result in a closed structure despite different construction times.

location

Bäckerstrasse as seen from the St. Mang church tower

To the west is the area of Reichsstrasse and its continuation, Schützenstrasse . The square also includes the narrower areas north of the St. Mang Church, above all the Mühlberg ensemble as a historical group of houses. To the northwest, the Rathausplatz connects to St.-Mang-Platz. A street goes through from west to east, which is initially called Mehlstrasse , then turns into St.-Mang-Platz and as Bäckerstrasse leads to the St.-Mang-Brücke .

history

The already profaned double cemetery chapel before it was demolished in 1857
Excavations on St. Mang's Square, with the St. Mang Fountain in the background

The square developed from the abandonment of the old imperial city cemetery around the Michaelskapelle (today known as the Erasmus Chapel showroom ), which was newly established under the Burghalde in 1535/37 and is known today as the Evangelical Cemetery .

In 1584 the square was surrounded by a new wall, which was replaced by a lower one in 1763. It was completely removed in the 19th century. In 1857 it was decided to demolish the building of the former cemetery double chapel, which had already been secularized; the building had been used for commercial purposes from around 1560 until then. During the Second World War , a splinter trench with an earth bunker was built on the square .

In the 1960s, exposed aggregate concrete slabs were laid here, flower beds and a low concrete wall were built to separate the car park from the thoroughfare. During archaeological investigations in the 2000s, numerous grave sites were found a few centimeters below these concrete slabs. The oldest skeleton dates from the 7th century and proves that Christian burials had already taken place here 50 to 100 years before the alleged arrival of the "Allgäu Apostle " Magnus von Füssen . Among other things, because of the dating of these burials, the Christianization by Magnus in Kempten is interpreted as a legend.

Because of the redesign of the square, the paving was removed and intensive archaeological investigations were carried out; As a consequence, the Erasmus Chapel was integrated into the design of the square as a showroom. This media-equipped exhibition space with the square was ceremoniously opened in September 2010; the total costs for the redesign of the square amounted to 1.7 million euros.

description

The place is covered with light gravel and planted with trees on the sides. A bronze band marks the foundations of the showroom. A bronze plaque marks the newly built crypt below the square, where some remains of the skeletons found from the grave sites are exhibited. In front of the entrance to the church there was a court linden tree and between the town hall and St. Mang-Platz the letter tower , in which important imperial city documents were archived.

Near the church tower is the St. Mang's fountain, built in 1905 and in Art Nouveau style . The southern row of houses is dominated by the Red House , the Jenisch House and former inns.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cadastral plan of the city of Kempten from 1823
  2. ^ A b c Alexander Duke of Württemberg: City of Kempten (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VII.85 ). Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7954-1003-7 , p. 8 .
  3. ^ Michael Petzet : City and district of Kempten. (= Bavarian art monuments. Vol. 5), 1st edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, DNB 453751636 , p. 62.

literature

  • Birgit Kata: The Erasmus Chapel showroom in Kempten (Allgäu). 1st edition. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2011, ISBN 978-3-89870-706-0 .
  • Harald Derschka , Elke Weinhardt, Roger Mayrock, Azer Arasli, Ernst Sontheim: St. Mang-Platz and its history . Ed .: City of Kempten: Sikko Neupert, Birgit Kata. Kempten (Allgäu) 2010.
  • Ernst Sontheim: excavations at St.-Mang-Platz. In: The old town letter. 2003, Volume 24, No. 30, pp. 10-13.

Web links

Commons : St. Mang Square  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 43 ′ 31.1 ″  N , 10 ° 19 ′ 10.4 ″  E