St. Alban's Gate

The St. Alban-Tor ( called Dalbedoor in Basle German ) is a former city gate of the city of Basel and an earlier part of the Basel city wall . It is one of the three city gates that still exist today and is a listed building .

The St. Alban Gate was first mentioned in history in 1230. The facility was partially destroyed in the Basel earthquake of 1356, but was rebuilt from 1362 onwards. In 1374, the year it was completed, it is explicitly mentioned again in a watch order, but not as a city gate, but as a tower that the residents would have to guard. It was not until 1387 that a weapons inventory mentioned the "sant Albansthor".

Original appearance

Investigations showed that the first floor above the gate passage could have been built as early as the 1360s. The building was initially a free-standing tower, which was later connected to the city wall by side extensions. The fact that the tower initially had no gate function is probably due to the fact that it was not inserted into the line of the city wall, but was somewhat behind it.

It can be assumed that the tower of St. Alban's Gate originally had a wooden paneled and roofed defensive plate . The tower crown was later changed by replacing the defensive plate with a pent roof inside. After 1647 the tower received a flat pyramid roof; so the gate tower received an attic, which is why the battlements of the crown to narrow loopholes rebuilt. In 1473 a forework with a drawbridge was built on the tower in the city wall moat .

Redesign

The redesign of the gate (1871–1873) thanks to the “Friends of St. Alban's Gate” prevented its demolition (in contrast to other city gates), but brought about changes which impaired the character of the building. The ground level of the area had been lowered, making the gate opening and the tower appear higher. An unsuitable, high roof with windows on all four sides had been placed on the top of the tower. The defensive bay on the tower was removed, but the second floor on the side facing the former field was provided with a small decorative balcony. Large dials were installed on all four sides of the tower , which is why the windows on the city side on the fourth floor had to be walled up. Wooden gates and driven posts disappeared. Was in the style of on the north side Neugotik a police station grown.

restoration

Thanks to the support of the Christoph Merian Foundation and the federal government , the St. Alban Gate was largely authentically restored in 1975 . It received a flat pyramid roof again and the small balcony on the field side was removed; two floors higher, the bay window , which once emerged from the machicolation, was reconstructed .

At the same time as the wooden gate and driven piles, the pull and suspension device of the driven pile system from the late 16th century was rebuilt on the second floor. The huge dials on the tower were removed and replaced by more subtle dials on three sides; On the field side, the machicolation oriel was built again at the appropriate place. This enabled the two walled-up windows on the city side to be opened again. The former police station and staircase have been retained as attractive additions in a style of their time. The owner of the St.-Alban-Tor is the community of Basel-Stadt .

literature

Rudolf Kaufmann: Basel the old cityscape . Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1936, articles 2 and 4
CA Müller: The city fortifications of Basel . 1956, pp. 28 to 29
1989 annual report of the Archaeological Soil Research BS: Catalog of the landside outer city fortifications of Grossbasel . P. 88 to 89 with a comparative map p. 77.
Guido Helmig: Annual report 1985 of the Archaeological Soil Research BS. in: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde , pp. 182 to 187.
CH Baer: Art monuments of the Canton of Basel Stadt . Vol. 1, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1932/71, pp. 237 to 243.
Hans Eppens: Building Culture in Old Basel . Verlag Frobenius AG, Basel 1974, p. 45.
Eugen A. Meier : Basel then and now . Buchverlag Basler Zeitung, 3rd edition, 1995, pp. 82 to 83.
Emil Major: Buildings and pictures from Basel's cultural history . Verlag Peter Heman, Basel 1986, p. 44.
Helmi Gasser , Fritz Lauber: St. Alban-Tor then and now . Christoph-Merian-Verlag, Basel 1977.
Rudolf Suter : The restoration of the St. Alban valley in retrospect. In: Basler Stadtbuch 1988 , pp. 23–36.

Web links

Commons : St. Alban-Tor - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

47.553352777778 7.60325Coordinates: 47 ° 33 '12.1 " N , 7 ° 36' 11.7" E ; CH1903: 612 392 / 266 973