Wunderbau (Wuppertal)
Wunderbau is the popular name of the oldest secular natural stone building in the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal .
The house was built in 1754 for the merchant and wine merchant Peter vom Heydt, presumably under the construction management of Johann Georg Leydel, on the rocky southern slope of the Hardtberg in the Baroque style. The building material was obtained by demolishing slate from the rock, which was then provided with several high terraces. Wine cellars were blown into the rock. Von Heydt had magnificent gardens laid out on the rock terraces, to which the building is said to owe its name based on the world wonder of the hanging gardens of the Semiramis . A fountain in the rock fed fountains and a waterfall, grottos, statues and a temple of love stood here between lawn borders and trees. However, it was also remarkable that the building was made entirely of natural stone, which was previously reserved for church buildings.
The facade of the two-story, ten-axis building is divided into three parts by vertical ashlar pilasters , and originally a baroque mansard roof rose above it . To the right of the building is a gate under a terrace with baroque wrought iron railings. The building had 45 rooms, including large halls, and the interior was also extremely splendid with ceiling paintings and rich figural decorations.
In the 19th century the building was sold to a textile dealer. The almost two meter thick outer walls withstood a bomb attack in 1943, but the roof and the inside of the building were completely destroyed. The reconstruction in the 1960s replaced the roof with a flat terrace floor. In 1966 the Wuppertaler Pfingstgemeinde e. V. has been using the building since then for their telephone counseling, the cellar vaults since 1973 as a church service room with 150 seats. The building has been a listed building since 1987 .
The Pentecostal Church was renamed the “Christian Center” (CZ) in mid-2015. After the pastor's departure and membership decline, the Pentecostal church decided at the beginning of 2016 to join the Christ Church in Wuppertal. Services continue to take place in the vaulted cellar.
literature
- Klaus Goebel , Andreas Knorr (ed.): Churches and worship places in Elberfeld , Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-930250-35-7
- Hermann J. Mahlberg : The miracle building of Elberfeld. A contribution to the Rhenish-Bergisch architectural history in the 18th and 19th centuries., Wuppertal, 1990
- Hermann J. Mahlberg : Der Elberfelder Wunderbau, POLIS H. 1, 1991, pp. 44-49
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- 360 degree panorama at 360.haifischbar.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felsenkirche remains sacred at wz.de.
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 '27.8 " N , 7 ° 9' 39.2" E