City Tower (Lich)

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City tower

The city ​​tower in Lich is a 50 meter high medieval fortress tower and the city's landmark. It was built in 1306 and was part of the original fortifications. Several renovations were carried out well into the 17th century. The cultural monument houses the bells of the neighboring Marienstiftskirche .

history

Marienstiftskirche with city tower
Council of war at the time of the Narrow Kaldic War (1546–1547), woodcut by Hans Döring, in the background the city tower with the old tower structure

Philip III von Falkenstein received city rights for Lich in 1300 and had the city fortified. In the south a moated castle was built, which was protected in the south and east by the weather and its marshland. In the west and north, the heaped up wall with walls and small round bastion towers took over the protective function. The castle pond is the remaining relic of the former moat. The city tower was built in 1306 with five storeys and a height of 32 meters to the pinnacle. The plateau opposite could be seen from here. The tower was an essential element of the northern fortifications.

The guard and observation tower on the upper floors was open to the city side. The battlements on the adjoining seven-meter-high wall bent off on both sides of the tower and ran straight through the tower on the first floor, directly above the dungeon. The dungeon on the ground floor originally had no door, but was only accessible through a fear hole in the ceiling during the 14th century , through which the suspects and the supplies were lowered using a winch. At that time, the upper floors formed a single large room, which was accessed by layers of beams and ladder corridors and could be seen from the outside. The southern opening encompassed the four upper floors and ended with a large round or pointed arch and was possibly vaulted inside. An open battlement with wide battlements and a stone conical roof formed the upper end.

Around 1405 the open tower side was walled up and an outer door to the dungeon was broken into. The upper floors were massively expanded and connected to one another by internal stairs. The fortification was reinforced by a wall in the years 1510 to 1512 (the street is still called “Am Wall” today). The upper floors were connected by stairs. Around 1540 the upper floor received a bell cage made of oak and the city tower took over the function of a church tower. The medieval bells could not be accommodated in the small roof turret of the newly built Marienstiftskirche, which was completed in 1537. The tower had a triangular gable and a roof turret as a conclusion and reached a height of 42 meters after this conversion.

Another renovation took place in the years 1624 to 1627. The tower received a half-timbered structure with a new bell floor and above it an apartment for the tower keeper. Finally a wooden hood was put on. The open arcade , which was divided into four fields by wooden supports, was later covered with slats.

From 1800 the tower keepers are identified by name. Johann Adam Schmidt, the last tower keeper, lived until 1912 with his wife Anna Margaretha, daughter of the penultimate tower keeper Hermann Philipp Walz, in the tower keeper's apartment. Eleven children were born to the two. The mentally ill daughter Philippine threw herself from the tower in 1891 and died of the consequences. In 1897 a tower clock with dials on all four sides was installed, which was electrified in 1960. In 1942 and 1943 fire stations were kept on the tower. During the air raids in 1945, the former dungeon served as an air raid shelter.

In the 1970s a renovation was carried out for 750,000 DM, concrete belts were laid in the masonry, cracks were filled with concrete and the vertical slate surface was repaired. In 1990 a comprehensive renovation followed for 220,000 euros. The roof was re-slotted in, windows replaced and the masonry repaired. Licher craftsmen made a duplicate of the weather vane, which can no longer be restored. The old weather vane found its place in the Licher Heimatmuseum. In the years 2009 to 2011 security measures were carried out and a visitor staircase was installed, which grants safe access over 152 steps. The financing was secured through the contribution of the “Turmfreunde Lich”, sponsors, numerous donation projects and a step purchase campaign.

architecture

Weather vane
South entrance to the dungeon
Remnants of the tower house

The city tower is built in the north of the original city fortifications on a square floor plan. The six-storey tower shaft above a sloping base has quarry stone masonry with corner blocks. It is divided into different sized sections by two circumferential cornices with a throat . The walls on the ground floor are four meters thick, but taper more and more towards the top. The arched city gate is attached to the east.

The dungeon on the ground floor has a groin vault , the vault caps of which rest on console stones. A pointed arched entrance gate with a drapery on the south side gives access to a small vestibule, which leads through an iron-studded door into the square dungeon. The old rectangular opening in the middle of the vault is now closed by safety glass. The stone with the pin for the winch has been preserved.

The first floor is accessed on the west side via an external staircase that leads to a round arched door. The old west entrance, through which the parapet walk originally ran, corresponds to a pointed arched gate in the east.

The old arch opening on the south side can still be seen in the masonry. On the top floor, the console stones with the grooved ribs on top have been preserved. They point to an original vault that may not have been built. In the northeast corner, a spiral staircase within the wall made it possible to climb from the fifth floor to the old battlement, bypassing the vault. The sixth floor was only created after the vault was removed or abandoned.

On the north side, each storey has a slit window that served as a notch during attacks. There are narrow rectangular windows on the south side. The east and west sides are windowless. The wooden interior of the tower shaft dates from 1406 and the timber-framed top from 1620, as a dendrochronological study has confirmed.

The framework structure is completely slated. The bell projectile has a large square clock face on each side, which is flanked by two round sound holes . The arcade is now slated, so that the bell storey together with the arcade appears like a cube today. A pent roof leads over to the two-storey octagonal dome in which the tower's apartment was furnished. Remnants of the clay plastered interior walls have been preserved.

The curved hood is crowned by a tower button and a magnificent weather vane. Above wrought-iron tendrils, it shows the Solms coat of arms, which is held by the Solms lions, over which a crescent moon and orb (perhaps a reworked sun) are attached. Above it rises the double-headed eagle with a crown, which grasps sword and scepter in its claws. A twelve-ray sun is attached to the side and corresponds to the sun on the east side of the Marienstiftskirche. The weather vane is 2.50 meters high and 1.75 meters wide without the sun. It was completely renovated around 1990 by the Schnabel locksmith's shop in Lich. The old one was missing and is now in the Licher Heimatmuseum. Dating the old weather vane is difficult because the arrangement of some elements points to the time after 1711, but the badges themselves speak for the first half of the 17th century. The gold-plated "F II" on the eagle's chest stands for Emperor Ferdinand II († 1637). A renewal of the helmet pole and repair of the flag are proven for the year 1723. In 1787 the rod was renewed again. Presumably the 17th century weather vane was reworked after 1723.

View from the tower to the south over the old town of Lich, viewing angle 180 °

Peal

The city tower houses a triple bell that belongs to the Marienstiftskirche. The bells hang on the bell floor below the apartment of the tower keeper who was responsible for beating the quarter-hour. The large festival bell "Anna" comes from Arnsburg Monastery , the small bell was made in Windecken. In 1942 the bells were delivered to the armaments industry, but escaped being melted down and were brought back from a Hamburg bell warehouse in 1948. The bells rang for the first time on Palm Sunday 1947 after their return.

No.
  		Name
(position) 		Casting year
  		Foundry, casting location
  		Diameter
(mm) 		Percussive
( HT - 1 / 16 ) 		Inscriptions
  		image
 
1 Anna , festival bell 1400 unknown 1,380 f 1 + anno · domini · m ° cccc ° · anna + me · fvndi · ivssit · philippvs · nobilis · hic · sit + falckensteyn totvs · regim [ine] · tvnc b [e] n [e] · notvs + Also
as reliefs of the head of Christ with a large nimbus, a bishop's bust, a crucifix with shamrock endings and a blessing bishop		 City tower Lich bells 01.JPG
2 Maria , Elfuhr Bell 1517 Nicholas of Lorraine 1,230 ges 1 · 1 · 5 · 1 · 7 · hoc | opus | effusum | est | magna | cum | laude | decorum | virginis | ac | matris | regnantis | cuncta | per | euum [= aevum] | ni | v | loth · as well as HOC SIGNVM MAGNI REGIS EST and a cast, flat cross with raised points and tendrils City tower Lich bells 22.JPG
3 Fire bell 1755 Johann Peter Bach , Windecken 1,050 g 1 ANNO 1755
REGENTE ILUSTRISSIMO COMITE AC DOMINO
DOMINO CAROLO COMITE IN SOLMS LICH ETT [= etc]
CIVITATIS LICHENSIS PRAEFECT [us] GP ROTH
CONSUL [es] IP HIZEL ET PI SCWK HOC [c] E
AES CASU QUODAM RIMISTAS PASSUM DE
NO CLANGORI
IN GOD'S TAKEN FLOSS I JOHAN PETER BACH
IN BURNIES GOSS ME 1755 		City tower Lich bells 11.JPG

Conservation and use

In 2006 the Association of Tower Friends was founded. He is committed to maintaining, restoring and making the building accessible to the public. Financed by donations, a galvanized iron staircase was built over the historic wooden staircase from 1406, making the tower accessible again. The association is developing a cultural and educational concept for the use of the tower and the former tower house, which is to be reconstructed.

literature

  • Otto Alt: Evangelical Marienstiftskirche Lich. (= Little Art Guide 666 ). 3. Edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-6896-5 .
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I: Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 560.
  • Hannelore Rischmann et al .: It is time… . 2nd edition, Albohn printing workshop, Fernwald 2012.
  • Magistrate of the city of Lich (ed.), Paul Görlich (edit.): Licher Heimatbuch. The core city and its districts. Lich 1989.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Karlheinz Lang (arrangement): Kirchenplatz 13 and 17. Former Marienstiftskirche today Ev. Parish church. In: Cultural monuments in Hessen. District of Giessen I. Hungen, Laubach, Lich, Reiskirchen. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2177-0 , pp. 401-404, 424-426.
  • Heinrich Walbe : The art monuments of the Gießen district. Vol. 3. Southern part . Hessisches Denkmalarchiv, Darmstadt 1933, pp. 235–241.

Web links

Commons : Stadtturm Lich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Kirchenplatz 13 and 17. 2008, p. 404, 425–426
  2. ↑ a b Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008, p. 560.
  3. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 232.
  4. ↑ a b c Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 235.
  5. ↑ Rischmann: It is time… . 2012, pp. 9, 16.
  6. ↑ Rischmann: It is time… . 2012, p. 12.
  7. ↑ Rischmann: It is time… . 2012, pp. 67, 71.
  8. ↑ Rischmann: It is time… . 2012, p. 15.
  9. ↑ Rischmann: It is time… . 2012, p. 69 f.
  10. ↑ a b Turmfreunde Lich: visitor stairs , accessed on September 15, 2014.
  11. ↑ a b Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 240.
  12. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 241.
  13. ↑ Robert Schäfer: Hessian bell inscriptions (PDF file; 37.7 MB), in: Archives for Hessian history and antiquity. 15, 1884, pp. 475-544, here: p. 531.
  14. ↑ Rischmann: It is time… . 2012, p. 45.
  15. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 281 f.
  16. ↑ Giessener Allgemeine from August 11, 2011: Enhancing the Licher City Tower experience even further , accessed on April 8, 2014.

Coordinates: 50 ° 31 ′ 14.8 "  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 9.8"  E