City tower (Enns)

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Enns city tower
The landmark of Enns, the city tower, still serves as a bell and clock tower and is also used as a lookout tower

The landmark of Enns, the city tower, still serves as a bell and clock tower and is also used as a lookout tower

Data
place Enns
Architectural style Gothic and Renaissance
Construction year 1564-1568
height 60 m
Coordinates 48 ° 12 '50.7 "  N , 14 ° 28' 45.7"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '50.7 "  N , 14 ° 28' 45.7"  E
Enns City Tower (Upper Austria)
Enns city tower

The Enns city tower is the 60 meter high landmark of the city of Enns in the Linz-Land district in Upper Austria , built between 1564 and 1568 under Emperor Maximilian II at the request of the population as a bell , watch and clock tower .

The four-storey free-standing tower has an almost 17 meter high copper roof with a ball and a genius figure at the top, stands roughly in the middle of the Enns main square, combines stylistic elements from the Gothic and Renaissance periods and its facade is distinguished by its striking painting. Twice, in 1798 and 1860, the citizens of Enns were able to successfully prevent the impending demolition of the tower. A special feature of the city tower are the swapped minute and hour hands on the tower clock.

Since early 2013, is located in the up in the 1930s by a watchman residential tower room on the second floor a hotel room. The publicly accessible gallery above the tower clock, accessible via 157 steps, is used as a lookout point .

Location and surroundings

The Enns town tower is part of the historic old town of Enns, which is almost entirely protected as a monument, and as a free-standing tower dominates the numerous town houses in the middle of the Enns main square , which, like the tower, combine elements of different style epochs ( Gothic , Renaissance , Baroque , Classicism ) . Noteworthy buildings are the former baroque town hall, used as the town museum ( Museum Lauriacum ), and the savings bank building with Gothic arcades and a facade from the 19th century.

The road leading past the west side of the tower in a north-south direction connects Mauthausener Strasse, which comes from the north to the main square, with Wiener Strasse , which comes from the south . Directly at the city tower you can leave the main square via Linzer Straße heading west.

history

prehistory

The Enns city tower owes its creation to the need for representation of the Enns citizens during the time of the Reformation in the middle of the 16th century. It was supposed to function as a bell, clock and watchtower. According to the building inscription, it was built in the years 1564–68. At the same time, the Scheiblingkirche located in the middle of the main square - a central building from Romanesque times - was demolished and its stone material was used to build the city tower.

More recent source research discovered a previously unknown church tower of the Scheiblingkirche and was able to prove that for at least a century before today's city tower there was a distinctive predecessor building in its place with the functions of a bell, clock and watchtower. The steeple of the Scheiblingkirche was not only documented in the archives, it is also depicted in two paintings by Albrecht Altdorfer from around 1525.

In 1553 there was a reorganization of pastoral care in Enns. In translation deed dated August 22, 1553 decreed King Ferdinand I. after church and monastery of the Order Provincial had taken the Franciscans that the parish rights had to pass from the far lying just outside the city of St. Lawrence Church on the former Minorite in the city . The monks had Dating back to the 14th century Minoritenkirche together with the Minoritenkloster 1551 as part of the renewal of faith in which many citizens to evangelical transgressed faith, have to give up.

The plans for the construction of the city tower go back at least two decades, because in February 1547 the steeple of the Scheiblingkirche was described as being so bleak that the city council even considered that it should be popped up for the jar. The new tower was finally built in 1564. The lack of a bell tower, as was believed for a long time, was therefore not the reason. The now Protestant citizens could do without the Scheiblingkirche, but not the usual tower in the middle of the city. Maximilian II permitted the church building to be demolished on December 23, 1565, two years after the construction of the new tower began. The Lower Austrian Vice Chancellor, Privy Councilor Georg Gienger von Rotteneck, supported the citizens in financing the copper roof , took over the purchase of the copper sheets and ensured that the material was brought from Vienna to Enns by water in autumn . After five years of construction, the building could now be completed as a free-standing tower.

The construction of the city tower

The construction of the Enns city tower fell into the city's heyday. The trade in wine, wood, iron, salt and linen flourished and the Danube bridge from Tabor to Mauthausen , built at the beginning of the 16th century, also brought the city additional income.

Since the middle of the 20th century it has been assumed that the Italian Christoph Canevale was the builder of the Enns city tower, as he was then active as a builder in several Upper Austrian cities and markets.

On the basis of a documented note found in 1977 ("in beysein Maister Hansen von Mainz, bricklayer who built the thuern in Enns"), one initially believed in a master builder from Mainz on the Rhine. Augustine Hartl questioned Canevale in 1987 and 1989 for artistic reasons as the master builder of the city tower, since the buildings he designed are characterized by their cubic unity, sparse structure and lack of decoration.

More recent source research in Enns archives brought the correct name of the builder to light, among other things on the basis of a handwritten invoice in which he calls himself "Hans von Matz". With documentary and stylistic arguments, this master builder was able to ascribe an extensive work in Enns and the surrounding area for bourgeois and aristocratic clients over a period of about thirty years.

The total costs of the Enns city tower cannot be determined with certainty due to the lack of evidence. There is only one partial invoice signed by the chamber administrator Sigmund Strasser, which contains the sum of ten guilders, five kreuzers and two pfennigs for work on the copper roof for the period from July 1 to September 22, 1567. The only indication of the total cost is a note from the end of the 18th century, which puts the total cost at 10,960  guilders . Around 20 town houses could have been built at that time .

Since it was built

City tower Enns 1898

On April 12, 1798, the district office of the Traunviertel responsible for Enns was supposed to examine whether the city tower should be demolished, since the tower was considered an unzierde and the city also wanted to generate income by selling the demolition material. The tower clock should be attached to the town hall . Since the majority of the Enns were against the demolition of the tower, the Enns magistrate tried in the report requested by the district office to provide a detailed explanation of why the city tower was indispensable for the city. He stated that the clock would put too much strain on the town hall. Other main reasons for the preservation of the tower were the question of where to place the bells and the constant fire hazard posed by marching troops. On 5 July 1798 the corresponding report was District Chief Albert Graf presented by Clam. This agreed with the magistrate on all points. At the meeting on July 19, 1798, the state government took note of this presentation.

In 1860 the city tower was threatened with demolition again. Storm and rain had badly damaged the roof of the tower, and rainwater penetrating the roof had badly damaged, so that there was a risk of collapse in the event of a storm and repair was inevitable. As an alternative, consideration was given to completely removing the roof including its copper cladding and replacing it with a platform ( flat roof ). The platform could have been financed with the estimated proceeds of 4655 guilders from the sale of the roof copper. However, since the new election of the municipal council was imminent and the season was already advanced, it was agreed to repair the roof, and the original appearance of the city tower was not changed. In 1940, a special permit enabled the urgent restoration of the copper roof. The designs submitted by Rudolf Steinbüchler in 1939 to furnish the tower facade with frescoes and the painting planned by Otto Götzinger in 1952 were not carried out.

The public weighing house originally built on the east side of the tower, where goods such as wool, hay or salt were weighed, no longer exists. It was removed around the middle of the 20th century.

Architecture, use and equipment

Tower painting on the south side of the city tower

The Enns city tower consists largely of conglomerate rock , granite and bricks . The roughly square floor plan is around 10.7 × 10.7 meters and, with the tower figure, is around 60 meters high. The Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles are combined in the city tower . It is a four-storey square building with corner pilasters , double pointed arches, cross-arch friezes and coffin cornices . The facade is divided into four superimposed fields that correspond to the height of the storeys. A renaissance roof rises above it.

First floor

The entrance is on the ground floor on the south side (an automatic door with coin slot); Above it, according to the inscription, a sundial from the time of the tower is painted. It fills a six meter wide and three meter high field with simple frescoes . The shadow stick and the hour markers along the three-sided border allow the time to be read accurately.

The inscription on the sundial reads:

Sundial and Latin inscription

“CEPIT UT OBLATOS SIBI MAXIMILIANUS HONORES
IMPERII HOC ANASI SURGERE COEPIT OPUS
CYNTHIUS AD QUARTUM SCEPTRI CUM VERTERAT ANNUM
SUSCEPTI FINIS GRATA LABORIS ERAT

ASPICIS EXIGUAM NEC MAGNI NOMINIS URBEM
QUAM TAMEN AETERNUS CURAT AMATQUE DEUS
HAEC DE LAUREACO RELIQUA EST, HIS MARCUS IN ORIS
CUM LUCA CHRISTI DOGMA PROFESSUS ERAT ”

Freely translated this text is:

“When Maximilian accepted the homage as ruler,
this building began to rise in Enns.
When the Cynthian (sun god) turned the year for the fourth time during
his reign, the desired completion of the
undertaken work was completed.

You see the small town without a meaningful name,
but God the Eternal cares for it in love.
She is the rest of Lauriacum. In this area Markus
preached Christ's teaching with Luke. "

The first part of this inscription indicates that construction began under Emperor Maximilian and was completed after four years. In contrast, the second part does not represent a factual report, but is an indication that the first Christian cells in Upper Austria go back to primeval apostolic times. The two evangelists mentioned above certainly never preached in Upper Austria. The start of construction and completion can be read from an inscription on the south side of the tower: INITIUM EXSTRUCTIONIS ANNO MDLXIV FINIS ANNO MDLXVIII. On the east side, above the Enns city coat of arms, there is a reference to the granting of city rights to the Enns citizens from April 22, 1212 with the inscription Stadtrecht Enns 22 April 1212 . The years of the tower renovations 1772, 1837, 1883, 1940, 1962, 1977 and 1995 are barely legible below the coat of arms.

Second and third floors

The south side has been painted with a double-headed eagle at the level of the second floor since 1883 . The double-headed black double-headed eagle, elevated by the Austrian imperial crown , with golden nimbles and red tongues, holds a silver sword with a golden hilt in its right claw and a golden scepter in the left . The split coat of arms of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen is placed on the eagle as a breast shield. The shield stands for Habsburg and Austria and the red diagonal right bar in gold with the three mutilated silver eagles for Lorraine . The shield, on which the Habsburg lion is missing, is surrounded by the chain of the order of the Golden Fleece and crowned with an archducal hat. The fields on the north and east sides are unpainted. The pixel hotel of the Enns city tower is also located on the second floor. On the third floor area, the Gothic windows of the bell chamber open on all four sides with their arched gables on a horizontal cornice.

Fourth floor

Clockwork in the Enns city tower

The mechanical clockwork is on the fourth floor . Outwardly, the clock faces of the tower clock are shown in all four directions. On the south side, in the corners of the clock field, the symbols of the four evangelists adorn the dial:

Above the clock you can see the year 1564, which dates the construction of the city tower. The years 1772, 1837 and 1883 around the dial on the east, north and west side indicate the years when the tower was renovated in the 18th and 19th centuries. The first and last digits of the year 1772 have the forms of the letters i and z that were customary until the 18th century .

Gallery and roof

Old altar plate of the Scheiblingskirche

The gallery above the tower clock offers a view on all sides. In 2012, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary celebrations, the municipality decided to install LED lighting, which has since made the Enns city tower visible from afar at night. A control unit can program different colors, the selected color spectrum depends on the seasons. The roof with its rich structure is still made of copper. The brass ball on the top of the tower with a diameter of 0.9 meters carries a winged, 1.37 meter high genius figure , which, based on the ancient Victoria, was called the angel of victory and in 1568 by critical contemporaries as an idol .

use

Club room

The Enns cultural and medieval association Civium Anasi - Enns Citizenship has been using a former storage and storage room on the first floor as a club room, accessible via 21 steps.

Hotel room

Since the beginning of 2013 there has been a hotel room in the Enns city tower belonging to the Pixel Hotel, a company that emerged from a project for the cultural capital Linz 2009 . The room can be reached via 71 steps and is located 20 meters above the Enns main square. The idea developed in 2008 as part of the celebration of the thousandth get-together of the gentlemen in Enns was implemented by the Enns architect Theodor Haas, taking into account the preservation of historical monuments . 23 layers of plaster and paint were exposed and documented. The presumably original cable duct for the clock elevator and the original shop floor were found in a niche.

Furnishing

Bells

Immakulata bell

In the third tower shell is provided with sound windows equipped bell chamber housed come to be inside the tower 95 stone steps along the exterior walls. The chime consists of six bells with a total weight of 6.55 tons. A further 62 wooden steps lead past the clockwork to the old tower parlor, where there is a table with a marble top . This is the former altar plate of the Scheiblingkirche, which was demolished in 1565. It is believed that some of the original bells came from the Lorcher church and came to the city tower in 1553 with the transfer of parish rights. During the First World War , the bells were melted down for armament purposes. The bells newly acquired in 1922 also had to be delivered during the Second World War . The bells procured in 1948 come from the St. Florian bell foundry :

Surname Weight diameter volume inscription
Heart of jesus 2868 kg 166 cm H Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us
Maximilian 1495 kg 132 cm dis Holy Maximilian be our patron saint
Immaculate 825 kg 111 cm f sharp Immaculate Heart of Mary be our salvation
Floriani 624 kg 92 cm g sharp St. Florian protect us from fire and all evil
Josefi (death bell) 423 kg 98 cm ais St. Joseph stand with us in the last hour
Leopoldi 350 kg 97 cm H St. Leopold, illustrious patron of the country, pray for us before God's throne

In the summer of 2010 the bells were refurbished and electrified and consecrated on September 26th, 2010 as part of the parish and harvest festival. Three times a day, at 7 a.m., 12 p.m. and 7 p.m., the bells ring to ring the angelus . If news of the death is made in Enns or Ennsdorf, the death bell will also ring at 9 a.m. , and on the day of the funeral it will ring at 11 a.m. The immaculate , Maximilian and death bells sound . If there are several farewells in one day, the bells will ring several times in a row. Furthermore, the Maximilian bell rings on Thursday evening in memory of the Last Supper after the angelus has been rung and on Friday at 3 p.m. to commemorate the hour of Jesus' death. On Sundays at 5 p.m., the big bell sounds to ring Vespers .

Tower clock

The originally wooden balance clock from 1564 was considered a jewel of craftsmanship at the time and was first put into operation in 1568. It was held together by forged slots and wedges without a single screw connection . In 1706 the wooden clockwork was replaced by one made of iron, which turned the balance clock into an anchor clock with a repeating mechanism .

Above this large clockwork there is a small wheel clock in the clock chamber , which is used to set the time for the outer clock hands . In 1932, the tower watchmaker Leitner from Steyr subjected the clockwork to major repairs, and the clockwork has been driven mechanically since 1977. The movement was not made accessible to the public for the first time until the anniversary year of 2012.

A special feature of the city tower are the interchanged minute and hour hands. Similar to the Graz clock tower , the Enns tower clock originally only displayed the hours. Only later was a minute hand added. However, since the hour hand was already very long, the minute hand had to be shortened.

Tower guard

In early New High German there are the sound variants "Turm" and "Turn". Therefore the tower guard , the tower keeper or tower, was also called "Thurner". The main task of the tower watchman, appointed by the city's mayor , was the fire station , in order to sound the alarm with a trumpet or a horn in the event of a damaging fire .

The prescribed signals were described in the fire fighting regulations of the city of Enns (1847). According to the recordings, the tower guard had to step into the open aisle every quarter of an hour day and night and to show his vigilance by calling Ho! Three times on all four sides. If he noticed a fire, the tower guard immediately had to ring the big bell in the tower. Six strokes meant a fire in the city, four one in the suburbs Schmidberg , Lerchental or Reintal , and three strokes indicated a fire in the suburb of Enghagen . Two strikes meant fire in the parish in the country and one strike in the vicinity of the parish . These included Mauthausen , Asten , St. Florian , Tillysburg, Hargelsberg , Kronstorf, Ernsthofen , St. Valentin , Rems and St. Pantaleon . During the day, the tower guard had to hang up a signal flag immediately after the fire was announced. At night a lantern had to be hung up and shouted out in all four directions by means of a mouthpiece , wherever it was burning.

The tower keeper had additional representational duties and had to train four journeymen . The tower guards performed their duties in the room within the gallery, the inventory of which consisted of a stone table, a bench and a tiled stove .

These regulations remained in place with minor changes until the 1920s. In 1935 the tower watchman was transferred to the shoemaker Gustav Höllmüller. In addition to the fire station, his tasks included housekeeping (building security of the tower, keeping the stairs clean), collecting the tower climbing fees and ringing the bells according to the ringing regulations prescribed by the city office . As a reward, he was allowed to live freely in the tower, received ringing fees and half the fee for climbing the tower. Technical progress has made the tower keeper superfluous, whose former living room on the first floor was converted into a hotel room.

Sage - The giantess from the city tower

The Enns city tower owes its fame not only to its striking appearance, but also to a legend . According to legend, the builder's goal was to build the tallest free-standing tower in Austria . The stonemasons had to cut 156 steps. Shortly before completion, he was made aware that the huge stone block, which was to find its place at the top of the tower, could not be lifted to this height. This is said to have annoyed the builder, whereupon a giantess appeared, put the stone block in her apron and carried it to the tower. Up in the room she unloaded the stone where it can still be found today. A rib hanging under the flying buttress and allegedly coming from the giantess is described in Hoheneck's genealogy . It was in the city tower until the French Wars in 1809 and has since disappeared. Today it is assumed that it must have been the bones of a primeval animal or whale.

literature

  • Eduard Straßmayr : The Enns city tower. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Volume 97, Linz 1952, ISSN  0379-0819 , pp. 121-134, online (PDF; 1.3 MB) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  • Gottfried Kneifel (ed.): Around the city tower. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. Trauner, Linz 1998, ISBN 3-85320-915-7 .
  • Gottfried Kneifel (Ed.): My Enns. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. Landesverlag, Linz 1988, ISBN 3-85214-497-3 .
  • Helmut Lackner : City towers in Austria - signs of bourgeois self-confidence. In: Viatori per urbes castraque. Festschrift for Herwig Ebner on his 75th birthday. Edited by Helmut Bräuer, Gerhard Jaritz, Käthe Sonnleitner, Institute for History of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz , Graz 2003, pp. 431–451, ISBN 3-901921-19-2 .
  • Erwin Hainisch (edited by K. Woisetschläger): Dehio Oberösterreich, Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Institute for Austrian Art Research of the Federal Monuments Office, 6th edition, Vienna 1977.
  • Norbert Haslhofer: Enns Towers. Some remarks on the previous building of the Enns city tower. In: Announcements of the Lauriacum Museum Association. NF 38, Enns 2000, pp. 19-32.
  • Norbert Haslhofer: Sources on the life and work of the Renaissance master builder Hans von Matz. Architecture in the city of Enns 1550 - 1580 (= research on the history of the city of Enns in the Middle Ages 1). Norderstedt 2018, ISBN 978-3-7460-6061-3 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f City Tower - Enns. Retrieved April 22, 2013 .
  2. ^ A b c d e f g Helmut Lackner : City towers in Austria - signs of bourgeois self-confidence in: Viatori per urbes castraque. Festschrift for Herwig Ebner on his 75th birthday. Ed .: Helmut Bräuer - Gerhard Jaritz - Käthe Sonnleitner, Institute for the History of the Karl-Franzens-University, Graz 2003, pp. 441–444.
  3. ↑ Welcome to Enns. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 10, 2011 ; Retrieved July 6, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Room with a view . In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten , July 31, 2012. Accessed April 26, 2013.
  5. ↑ tse-enns.at. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 14, 2013 ; Retrieved July 9, 2013 .
  6. ^ City history of Enns. In: enns.at. Retrieved July 9, 2013 .
  7. ↑ a b c Straßmayr 1952, p. 124.
  8. ↑ Haslhofer 2000.
  9. ↑ Willibald Katzinger : Remarkable details on the construction of the Danube bridge in Mauthausen in 1502 . In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association . tape 159 . Linz 2014, p. 156 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  10. ↑ see Capture of St. Florian and Martyrdom of St. Florian in the Wikimedia Commons.
  11. ↑ Haslhofer 2000.
  12. ^ Johannes Ebner: 500 years of the Reformation. Enns: The Protestant Century. (PDF) Enns :, 2017, accessed on July 21, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Straßmayr 1952, p. 125.
  14. ↑ Gottfried Kneifel: My Enns. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. 1988, p. 345.
  15. ^ Justus Schmidt: Linzer Kunstchronik . tape 1 . Linz 1951, p. 32 .
  16. ↑ Walter Aspernig: The builder of the Enns city tower . In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . tape 31 , 1977, pp. 208 f . ( online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).
  17. ^ Augustine Hartl: The master builder Christoph Canevale in Upper Austria . Ed .: In: Art Yearbook of the City of Linz. 1989, p. 22 .
  18. ^ Augustine Hartl: The Canevale family of artists in Austria. Sources on life and work . Salzburg 1987, p. 27 .
  19. ↑ Haslhofer 2018.
  20. ↑ Enns City Archives, Box 13, BI 36.
  21. ↑ a b Gottfried Kneifel: Around the city tower. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. Trauner Verlag, Linz 1998. pp. 219-221.
  22. ↑ Kneifel Herbert: Enns in old views. 1996, p. 13.
  23. ↑ We discover Linz. (PDF; 2.4 MB) In: linz.at. Retrieved June 30, 2013 .
  24. ↑ a b c Gottfried Kneifel: Around the city tower. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. Trauner Verlag, Linz 1998, p. 217 f.
  25. ↑ a b Straßmayr 1952, p. 127.
  26. ↑ Tourism City Marketing Enns. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 9, 2013 ; Retrieved May 22, 2013 .
  27. ↑ Pixel Hotel website. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 2, 2013 ; Retrieved April 30, 2013 .
  28. ↑ City tower in new splendor. Retrieved June 26, 2013 .
  29. ↑ www.civium-anasi.at Website of the association Cicium Anasi - Ennser Bürgschaft .
  30. ↑ Enns district circular. Retrieved May 28, 2013 .
  31. ↑ Pixel Hotel website. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 2, 2013 ; Retrieved April 30, 2013 .
  32. ↑ Tourism City Marketing Enns. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 24, 2013 ; Retrieved May 28, 2013 .
  33. ↑ Website of the city of Enns (PDF; 1.6 MB).
  34. ↑ zeitgeist. (PDF; 1.6 MB) Retrieved July 14, 2013 . P. 21.
  35. ↑ Gottfried Kneifel: My Enns. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. 1988, p. 345.
  36. ↑ a b Eisenbeiss revitalizes the Enns tower clock. Retrieved July 6, 2013 .
  37. ↑ fachdidaktik-geschichte.at. (PDF; 1.1 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 17, 2015 ; Retrieved July 6, 2013 .
  38. ↑ a b c Gottfried Kneifel: Around the city tower. Contributions to the history of the oldest city in Austria. Trauner Verlag, Linz 1998. p. 222.
  39. ↑ a b Website Danube Upper Austria. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 1, 2012 ; Retrieved March 23, 2013 .
  40. ^ Website Tourismus und Stadtmarketing Enns GmbH. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 23, 2013 ; Retrieved March 23, 2013 .