Todenwarthsche bower
The Todenwarthsche Kemenate is a building in the center of the historic old town of Schmalkalden , which is located on the German half-timbered street. The representative patrician house is an eye-catcher in the historic city center and is located on the Altmarkt in the direct vicinity of the town hall and the town church of St. Georg .
description
The Todenwarthsche Kemenate is a single building on the historic old market of the city of Schmalkalden. The gable facing bower is dated in the top stone of the stepped gable with the year 1575. However, since the cornices of the stepped gable do not harmonize with the graduation of the steps, a renovation can be assumed in 1575. The core of the house and large parts of the facade date from earlier centuries, but were built in their current form in 1500 at the latest.
The trapezoidal floor plan of the building is due to the moat ( silence ) that used to flow directly next to the building . The three-storey building has coupled windows (biforia) and a painted corner block . The entrance to the house is through the late-Gothic , slightly ogival portal with seating niches and bars. A small Gothic portal on the main facade with coats of arms was only exposed again in the 20th century.
There was once a large hall on the ground floor, which will be reconstructed later. The usable area of the ground floor and the two upper floors is approx. 200 m² each.
history
The building history of the property goes back 1200 years. In the place of the current building, there was already a manor house from which the town emerged during the first documented settlement development of the town of Schmalkalden in the Franconian period (7th / 8th centuries) . The current structure dates from the 15th and 16th centuries, although parts of previous buildings have been preserved.
In the Middle Ages the house belonged to the Counts of Henneberg . In the 17th century, the barons Wolff von Todenwarth lived in the building as an urban aristocratic seat.
The Hessian poet Arnoldine Wolf lived here around 1800 . Her guests were Jean Paul in 1801 and Johann Gottfried Seume in 1802 . Seeum's stay in Schmalkalden was reflected in his work “Walk to Syracuse”. After Arnoldine Wolf's time, the house was used in different ways, including a hotel, Schmalkalden's largest store (Merkel family) and various retailers and rental apartments on the upper floors.
Todays situation
Since the political change in 1990 , only the ground floor of the bower has been used. The upper floors experienced various looting. The rear building is in a very bad condition due to the weather. However, the historic front building is secured. The lack of maintenance over the past decades offers the advantage that the historical building fabric has not been "renovated" here without expert knowledge of monument preservation. The original room division has been preserved, as has most of the historic wooden floor planks. A shoe shop has been located on the ground floor for over twenty years.
In 2010, friends of history founded the “Gesellschaft Kulturerbe Thüringen eV”, which now has over 80 members. A central goal is the renovation and revitalization of the Todenwarthschen Kemenate.
Web links
- Website "Todenwartsche Kemenate"
- Article about the Kemenate on the website of Wolff Verlag
- Website "Gesellschaft Kulturerbe Thüringen e.V."
Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 17 " N , 10 ° 27 ′ 6.8" E