St. Wendelin Bridge
Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 51 ″ N , 8 ° 2 ′ 18 ″ E
| St. Wendelin Bridge | ||
|---|---|---|
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| use | Road bridge | |
| Convicted | K 478 Niederhadamar - Offheim | |
| Subjugated | Elbbach | |
| place | Niederhadamar | |
| construction | Arch bridge | |
| overall length | 22 m | |
| width | 4.40 m | |
| Longest span | 8.40 m | |
| height | 6.25 m | |
| completion | around 1150 | |
| location | ||
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The St. Wendelin Bridge is a small bridge over the Elbbach, dating back to the second half of the 12th century . It is located in Niederhadamar in the town of Hadamar in the Hessian district of Limburg-Weilburg . It is probably the oldest stone bridge in Hessen .
The bridge is dedicated to Saint Wendelin , who is venerated in Catholic areas as the patron saint of shepherds, country people, farmers, day laborers and farm workers. Wendelin is also considered to be an emergency helper against the plague. Probably in this context, the Sankt-Wendelin shrine was built by the bridge before 1496 .
The bridge was built over a ford , which was an important traffic junction in the Middle Ages. This is where the Via Regia from Cologne to Frankfurt am Main and the road from Siegen to Mainz met . These streets then crossed the Lahn on the old Lahn Bridge in Limburg . The road from Koblenz to Wetzlar also crossed the Elbbach here.
Today the St. Wendelin Bridge is a district road bridge in the Limburg-Weilburg district that is no longer used by long-distance traffic. It connects the places Niederhadamar and Offheim .
Appearance
The appearance of the bridge is very inconsistent due to several construction phases.
The arch bridge has two unequal arches. Seen from upstream, the left arch measures 8.40 meters and the right 5.10 meters. The larger arch is a regular segment arch. It rests directly on the naturally occurring limestone rock . It is uniformly walled with scarf stone from the Offheim forest. The smaller arch is built randomly from different natural stones and bricks , only the outer row of stones is optically matched to the larger arch. The smaller arch rests on a brick abutment with a beam grate and crater bar .
A pillar 2.70 meters wide stands between the two arches. On the upstream side the pillar has an icebreaker of 2.10 meters, on the downstream side it has a front head of 1.40 meters length, which extends to the upper edge of the parapet . The pillar is made of limestone.
The bridge has its highest point at about the apex of the larger arch, from there it drops about 0.30 meters to the left and 1.20 meters to the right.
The lane width on the bridge is about 2.75 meters at the narrowest point and increases to about 4 meters at the bridge ends. The parapets, each 0.5 meters wide, are made of limestone, and an increase was made with basalt rubble .
history
Archaeological finds indicate that the natural Elbbachfurt was already used in the Hallstatt period.
The exact history of the bridge can only be understood to a limited extent on the basis of documents, as there are no more documents about the construction and the bridge is only mentioned secondarily in the existing documents.
In 1367, the Cistercian register mentions the "stege versus ufhem" (footbridge / bridge towards Offheim). This register is very likely a copy of a directory that was created around 1330. The Cistercians from Eberbach Monastery owned goods in Niederhadamar.
The St. Wendel wayside shrine was first mentioned in writing in 1496. In the next few years, the name Wendelfeld will be used for the corridor.
Uninterrupted reports of the bridge have been available since 1513. This year the bridge is referred to as the St. Wendelin Bridge for the first time.
The Calvinist village Niederhadamar complained in 1592 when Diezer mayor that the Catholic inhabitants of Elz "our bridge sake" corridor processions in the district Niederhadamarer organize. This is the only older document in which the bridge is mentioned not only in passing as a landmark.
According to documents from the Thurn and Taxis Archive in Regensburg, the bridge was used from 1628 to 1739 for the post line from Frankfurt to Cologne. In 1722 a relocation of the postal route was considered. In a letter, the Nassau-Siegensche bailiff Emmermann points out that he had a "new bridge" built. After the postal route was relocated, the importance of the bridge decreased.
In 1981 the bridge was closed to traffic due to its disrepair. Farmers then occupied the building and demanded that it be repaired. However, the district of Limburg-Weilburg did not see itself in a position to raise the estimated 500,000 marks. After long discussions, the Hessian finance minister Heribert Reitz (himself born in Offheim) promised 400,000 marks from the state treasury for the restoration of the cultural monument. The work took place in 1983. The bridge was carefully examined in terms of its construction history.
result of the investigation
At the beginning of the investigations it was noticeable that in the registers of the Eberbach Cistercians between 1367 and 1439 a " Stegwert " was mentioned in Niederhadamar. ( Steg ( Middle High German ) = narrow, elevated transition over a body of water; Value (Middle High German) / werid ( Old High German ) = free land between the swamps.)
When the arches were uncovered, considerable signs of wear and tear became apparent on the larger arch. Iron-studded wheels had "tracks" cut into the stone up to 20 centimeters deep. The larger arch must therefore have been driven on directly - judging by the extent of wear and tear over a longer period of time.
No timber was found under the larger arches. A dendrochronological examination was therefore not possible. Stylistic studies of the segment arch did not reveal any similarity between the construction of the larger arch and other bridges in the area (Limburg, Runkel, Diez, Hadamar). Rather, there are similarities with buildings by the Cistercians in Eberbach Monastery (from 1145) and Maulbronn Monastery (from 1147). At the end of the 12th century, the segmental arch became unusual with the transition to Gothic .
Beneath the smaller arch there were beechwood beams and beam gratings. Parts of the wood were removed for a dendrochronological examination. The result of this investigation showed that the trees for the wood were felled in the spring of 1440 at the earliest and were built in the same year.
The result of the investigation shows that the larger and smaller arches were built at different times. The larger arch is the older of the two arches; it was built by Cistercian builders in the second half of the 12th century. The arch was filled with ramps on both sides and traffic drove directly on the arch. Probably after a flood around 1440, the smaller arch and pillar were built. At the end of the 15th century, a low parapet, the icebreaker and the forehead were added. In 1722 the Poststrasse was expanded. In this context, the bridge was paved, the driveways and the parapets were raised and repair work was carried out.
Wendelinus Chapel
A few dozen meters next to the bridgehead in the direction of Offheim is a chapel dedicated to St. Wendelin, which around 1900 replaced a previously existing wayside shrine . The building can be classified in the neo-Gothic style . A ridge rider with a bell adorns the roof. The flat vestibule with its wavy roof shows the design language of Art Nouveau .
swell
- Johannes Schweitzer / Peter Paul Schweizer: Stegwert and bridge at St. Wendelin in Niederhadamar , Hessian Road Administration , Weilburg 1983
Web links
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): St. Wendelinbrücke In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
- Description of the bridge
- Description of the repair