Ahrweiler city fortifications
The city fortifications in Ahrweiler , a district of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in northern Rhineland-Palatinate , have been documented since the middle of the 13th century. The first records for the moat are in 1261, for the city gates in 1297 and the wall in 1298. The city fortifications of Ahrweiler are protected as a cultural monument.
City fortifications
The old town of Ahrweiler is still almost completely enclosed by the 1,800-meter-long city wall . Four gate systems still allow entry. The city moat is still partly preserved between Obertor, Adenbachtor and Niedertor. The walled inner-city area is approx. 18 ha . In addition to the four city gates, three defense towers can be seen.
Moat
Ahrweiler's oldest city accounts document expenses for masonry work in the Faulengraben . The moat or better expressed the four moats had the following course: From the upper gate to the Adenbachtor handed the Jeuchengraben from Adenbachtor to Niedertor the hamlet ditch , from Niedertor to Ahrtor the lazy ditch and from Ahrtor to the upper gate of Bitzengraben . Bitzen-, Jeuchen- and Weilergraben got their name after the corridor there . At the Faulengraben, the missing gradient between the two city gates must be observed. This part of the trench will have earned its name due to its stagnant water throughout. The division of the city moat into four has topographical and hydraulic engineering reasons, because water does not run uphill. The height points (in meters above sea level ) of the individual gates are: Obertor 106.2, Adenbachtor 109.2, Niedertor 103.7 and Ahrtor 103.9. A uniform water level in the trench was therefore not technically possible. The Mühlenteich brook that branches off from the Ahr crosses the city and the moat at the same time. The water was the main source of water for the city moat. The inlet at the Obertor and the outlet at the Niedertor were of decisive importance for the technical equipment of the trench and the aforementioned parts of the trench. These places were protected against intruders with lattice gates. The individual parts of the trench each had their own water level. They were separated from each other by barriers and clauses , so that in the event of threat the clauses could be raised and the parts of the trench could run out to the mill pond or the Bitzengraben. Here at the deepest point there was an overflow to the Ahr. According to the latest findings, there seems to have been a drainage ditch along Joerresstraße (formerly Schellengasse) to the mill pond at Faulengraben at the level of Plätzerstraße. During the annual drainage of the mill pond, the city moat was drained for 14 days and, like the mill moat, repaired. It should be noted that the trench was only filled with water in times of war. In peacetime, the parts of the trench were used as hay meadows and even as vineyards .
city wall
The 1,800-meter-long city wall does not stand on a continuous foundation , but is founded on arches and pillars . This construction not only saves material, but primarily has static reasons. The wall as a whole becomes elastic and can more easily absorb possible vibrations such as earthquakes . The pillars themselves protrude only 75 to 80 cm deep into the ground. The arches have a height of 50 to 100 cm and a chord length of 3.60 m. These arches were initially open. Today they are poorly bricked up because many residents have their cellars behind them. To protect against intruders, they were of course secured by bridges . Under bend one understood impenetrable undergrowth, mostly provided with thorns and spikes. At a height of 6 to 8 m, the base of the wall tapers to the top of the wall from 1.20 m below to 0.90 m above.
Between the Ahrtor and the Niedertor there are regularly recurring (at a distance of 140–150 cm) holes measuring 25 by 30 cm in the city wall. These holes are 3 to 3.50 m above the ground. The cantilever beams went through these holes, known as the armor hole . These in turn supported the wooden battlements sitting on the top of the wall . This special form of the parapet walk, called Hurde or Hurdengalerie, can be proven with certainty for the section of the Faulengraben, but probably also for the area of the Weilergraben, where these arming holes can only be seen sporadically. In the area of the Bitzengraben, between the Obertor and the first residential building, you can still see a parapet or breast wall on the top of the wall . This was a simplified variant of a parapet walk. It provided cover and made it possible to fight the enemy from a commanding height from the top of the wall. There was obviously no battlement at the Ahrweiler weir system , as it was built during the reconstruction after the destruction of the Ahr gate in the Second World War .
City gates and defense towers
In addition to the landmarks of Ahrweiler, the four preserved or reconstructed city gates , the cannon tower (half-tower in the wall ring), the Bitzenturm and the palace tower should also be mentioned. The names of all three defensive towers mentioned have no historical record.
Adenbachtor ( Winzertor, Marientor ): Northern three-storey square gate tower, open on the inside, made of quarry stone with slate-covered hipped roof , outer archway made of Drachenfels trachyte , provided with a cover, above a loopholes; Niche with Lady figure on the town page (patron of Marienhut, hence Marientor ); Portcullis slot and gate passage under wooden floor on beams with gate leaves. It was not until 1974 that the superstructure was rebuilt after being destroyed on May 1, 1689 by the troops of the French King Louis XIV . It is named after the former nearby, deserted hamlet of Adenbach, to which the road through the vineyards (hence the name Winzertor ) led.
Ahrtor : Southern five-story gate tower with two flanking three-story half-towers. Narrow shooting slots and rectangular windows. Outer archway made of trachyte and provided with a cover. Above it is a niche with a figure of the Mother of God . Portcullis slot and gate passage under barrel vault . (50 ° 32 '26 "N, 7 ° 5' 49" E)
Niedertor ( Rheintor ): Eastern four-storey gate tower with a slate mansard roof and flanking towers. In the gateway there is a barrel vault and two portcullis.
Obertor ( Walporzheimer Tor , Gesemer Tor ): Western four- story gate tower with a cantilevered upper floor. Four corner turrets and a pointed hipped roof . Outside there is a pointed arched gate with portcullis, as well as a machicolation and three walled-in stone balls to commemorate the siege by the Burgundian troops of Charles the Bold in 1476. Named after the neighboring town of Walporzheim and the desert of Gesem. (50 ° 32 '25 "N, 7 ° 5' 30" E)
Bitzenturm : Inwardly open five-storey half-shell tower with flat arched niches and pointed arched slots. Rectangular windows, the floors being divided up by simple wooden beams covered with planks. Bar holes and supports are still clearly visible. Wooden ladders led to the individual floors.
According to sources, the Gesemer Portze (Obertor), the Adenbach Portze (Adenbachtor), the Nidderste Portze (Niedertor) and the Arportze (Ahrtor) have come down to us from the period after 1487 . However, a number of other urban fortifications have come down to us from this period: Calcktoirn (1487 - each first mentioned), Sintziger Toirn (1495), the Thorn opposite Orsbeck's house (1603), the Thorn opposite Hambach's Johanns house (1603), Prümer Wijchuis (1492) and the Wijchus in the Arhoids (1508). Such a Wichhaus - also called Scharwachtturm - was a small, protruding watch and lookout tower on the corner or bend of the city wall. It served as an observation tower and was sometimes also a place for a shooter. One can only speculate about the exact location of the two major houses. What is certain is that the Prümer Wichhaus was in the area of the Jeuchengraben in the Adenbachhut and the Ahrhuter Wichhaus was near the Ahr gate. The tower across from Orsbeck's house can only have been in the Niederhut, roughly at the height of today's opening. The tower opposite Hambach's Johanns House could have been today's cannon tower. The Sinziger tower can be located without a doubt. This tower - called the Metternicher tower in 1603 - can be seen on the map by Galibert in 1775 in the hamlet of the hamlet. All of these towers were constructed as half-shell towers that were open on the city side, as can still be seen, for example, on today's Bitzenturm. Around 1500 the Adenbach and Obertor were also designed as three-walled gates, so they were open to the city.
Times of war
The entire fortification of Ahrweiler had to pass its great test in 1474, when the city was enclosed and overrun by Archbishop Ruprecht's troops for a few weeks from April 14th during the Archbishop's feud . Under the command of the field captains Eberhard von Arenberg and Count Dietrich von Manderscheid , heavy weapons were used against the fortification. The Manderscheider alone charged his client eight tons of gunpowder and one ton of crossbow arrows after the withdrawal on May 12th . The archbishop's troops had to “break up with shame”, as Koelhoff's Chronicle reports, but the damage to the fortifications must have been very significant. The oldest surviving city invoice from 1487 tells us about extensive repair work on the towers, gates and walls still 13 years after the event. Masonry, carpentry , roofing and locksmith work were necessary for years to restore the gates to a state of defense. The front gates, which every city gate had, also had to be renovated.
The reinforcement of the city fortifications
At first, only sparse news flowed about the reinforcement of the Ahrweiler weir systems. The first mention of a gun can be found in 1495 in the city accounts. We learn that a small gun turret has been built at the Niedertor. As early as 1487, hook boxes are mentioned in the oldest city bill . These hook bushes were an early form of the muzzle loader , which, due to its weight, could only be used stationary. There are also reports on powder purchases and the construction of a municipal powder mill .
At the beginning of the 17th century the information became more precise. A handover protocol from the town's master builder Hubert Hansmann in 1632 reports on guns, hook boxes, muskets and powder. In the tower of Ahrtores, the arsenal of the city, then three large were culverins on gun carriages , also 11 double muskets, two half harquebuses without charge and seven chamber liners . In the powder chamber there were three tons of powder and a small keg with a little powder, a number of cast bullets, some lead and saltpeter .
End of the sensible city fortifications
The Thirty Years' War did not spare the Ahr valley . At the end of 1632, Swedish troops under General Baudissin moved into the Ahr valley. Ahrweiler was besieged and had to surrender. On December 11, 1632, the Swedes entered the city. In 1642 Hesse and Weimaraner moved into Ahrweiler under Marshal Guébriant . Due to the inadequate sources, it cannot be said whether there had been fighting and, above all, the town being bombarded beforehand.
Four years later, during the War of the Palatinate Succession, the French under Turenne enclosed the city with 14 guns. Here, too, it cannot be said with certainty whether the city surrendered without a fight. On November 4, 1673 the Dutch were in Ahrweiler. In 1688, the French were in the city, and when they withdrew a year later, the city went up in flames.
The medieval fortification was no longer up-to-date because of the progress in war technology, especially the further development of guns. Richer cities had replaced their fortifications with contemporary fortresses . This was out of the question in Ahrweiler because of the high costs and the cramped valley location. The outer gates to the city gates have not been mentioned since the Thirty Years War. Repairs to the battlements are also not reported. The trenches were never flooded again. They had lost their meaning and value. Only the wall and the city gates were looked after and maintained by the city in order to keep unwanted people out of the city - especially at night - and to be able to control people moving into the city.
literature
- Hans-Georg Klein: New aspects of the city fortifications of Ahrweiler . In: Heimatjahrbuch für die Kreis Ahrweiler 2007 , Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler 2006, pp. 126–131.
