City butcher
The Stadtmetzg of Augsburg is a historical building in the style of the late Renaissance . It was built by Elias Holl between 1606 and 1609 and is located in the Lechviertel at the lower end of the Perlachberg .
The history of the city butcher
With the flourishing trade since the end of the Middle Ages, the population of the old imperial city of Augsburg had steadily increased. Around the year 1600 there were already 16,000 people living in the urban area, the surrounding city walls had to be expanded several times at that time.
To ensure that the population was supplied with meat products, the city council decided at the beginning of the 17th century to build a central slaughterhouse to distribute the meat to the city's butchers. Such a “city butcher” existed before, but its capacity was no longer sufficient to properly and hygienically store the processed goods.
In search of a suitable location for the building, the then city architect Elias Holl decided in favor of Augsburg's Lechviertel, where he found ideal conditions for a central slaughterhouse: the site was in the middle of the city and was criss-crossed by Lech canals , which provided both water and energy as well as ensuring waste disposal.
Elias Holl already proceeded with the planning with a certain degree of sophistication. The magnificent four-story building with the narrow gable was to be the most modern building of the butchers' guild up to that point. The Vordere Lech, one of the Lech canals, was routed openly under the slaughterhouse, which on the one hand enabled sufficient cooling of the meat products and on the other hand allowed butchers to dispose of waste from the slaughterhouse directly into the canal.
After three years of construction, the new city butcher was opened in 1609. Johann Matthias Kager is likely to have contributed to the design of the facade of the southern gable front of the three-storey saddle roof building . In the lower area there were 126 meat banks as sales stands, the upper area contained guild and official offices. On the main facade, a bronze city coat of arms created by Hans Reichle and cast by Wolfgang Neidhardt adorned the building.
In the Stadtmetzg itself, slaughter was not carried out, but a slaughterhouse was built in the immediate vicinity, which was expanded in 1718 and replaced by a new building in 1850 (Schlachthausgässchen 4; building officer: Kollmann).
In 1712 the Imperial City Art Academy moved into the upper floor. The directors at that time were the Catholic Johann Rieger and the Protestant Georg Philipp Rugendas . Lessons were only available in the winter months from October to March from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. For a fee of a maximum of two guilders, the students drew according to templates or models. The equipment was poor and teachers often complained about lack of space, some disgusting smells and conditions that were uncomfortable for visitors. Nonetheless, this academy promoted Augsburg's reputation as a cultural center and training location for artists.
The city butcher today
In the course of industrialization, the importance of the city butcher as an urban central slaughterhouse continued to decline. With the opening of a modern slaughterhouse at the gates of the city in 1900, the Augsburg slaughterhouse and cattle yard , the continued operation of the butchers became unnecessary, but it was only after the butchers moved to the new Augsburg city market that the city butcher finally closed its doors in 1930 . After years of vacancy, the building was completely renovated in 1937, during which it was completely gutted and the ceiling fresco in the entrance hall created by Johann Josef Anton Huber in 1783 was also destroyed. From 1939 the Stadtmetzg served as a municipal office building, most recently as a social welfare office . In 1944 the house was significantly destroyed by the air raids on Augsburg , rebuilt after the end of the war and used by the city administration.
Plans after the turn of the millennium to relocate the Augsburg city library into the building are finally off the table with the new construction of the library on Ernst-Reuter-Platz. In the course of a step-by-step renovation, the inside of the building was modernized and in 2016, in coordination with the State Office for Monument Preservation and the Lower Monument Protection Authority, the original paintwork from the 17th century was returned. It still serves as an administration building.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Augsburger Stadtlexikon , 2nd edition, page 836 ISBN 3-922769-28-4
- ^ "Augsburger Allgemeine" from September 13, 2005: Painting next door to the butchers
- ^ Franz Häußler: The Stadtmetzg has been completely modernized . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . ( augsburger-allgemeine.de [accessed on November 17, 2018]).
- ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine: The historic city butcher is being painted in two colors . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . ( augsburger-allgemeine.de [accessed on November 17, 2018]).
Coordinates: 48 ° 22 '11.8 " N , 10 ° 53' 57.6" E