Zitadelle Mainz
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The Mainzer Zitadelle (Citadel of Mainz) is situated at the fringe of the Old Town in direct proximity to the railway station Südbahnhof . The fortress had been erected in 1660 and had been the backbone of the Fortress Mainz.
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[edit] History
The mount Jacob, where the citadel was erected, had been settled by a Benedictine abbey during the middle ages (since 1050). Halfway upward, the roman theatre of the roman Mogontiacum, which should have been rudimentarily visibal at that time, can bee seen. Mount Jacob was not integrated in the ring of the defensive city walls of the town and only slightly protected. This position immediately at the gates of the town opened a eine strategic gap, as an agressor could have been using the hill den Hügel for a raid into Mainz or for a cannonade. The rising of the "Schweickhardtsburg" under supervision of vicar Adolph von Waldenburg during the years 1620-29 filled this gap for the time being and connected the hill with the defensive wall. The name of the pentagonal, irregular fortification is derived from the principal, the prince-elector Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg.
Around 1655 prince-elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn initiated an improvement of the fortification of the whole town Mainz comprising bastions according to French type. Within this modification of the fortress, the Schweickhardtsburg was converted into the regular, quadrangular citadel, as it is today. St. Jacobs abbey and the roman cenotaph, the Drususstein, remained untouched within the fortress.
Above the gate in direction to the town, a building for the commander of the citadel was erected in 1696 by the order of Lothar Franz von Schönborn. The gateway, existing since 1660 was skilfully integrated in the new building.
During the siege of Mainz (1793) St. Jacobs abbey was destroyed largely by Prussian shelling. The remainings of the abbots and guest house had been used only for military purposes since then. In the south of the courtyard a baroque garden existed, which can be seen on a map dated 1804.
After the Napoleonic Wars Mainz became in 1816 a fortress of the German Confederation. Prussians and Austrians settled in the citadel and used it as barracks. For this purpose, the Austrians erected 1861 the shellproof Citadel Barracks; the small side building was used as casino and kitchen.
Even in 1914 a double company barracks was erected. Due to this, the last remainings of the abbey declined. However numerous architectural elements of the abbot and guest houses had been integrated in the new buildings. During World War I and World War II the citadel was used as prisoner-of-war camp.
According to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 - and the slighting of the fortifications in and around Mainz as effect of it- the military history of the citadel of Mainz ended. Nevertheless, during the last days of WWII, the population of Mainz got shelter in the casemates of bastion Drusus, which had been turned into air raid shelters.
[edit] The citadel today
After WWII the French army seized the premises until 1955. Today the citadel is owned by the town of Mainz and accommodates numerous administrative offices. The Mainz Citadel belongs officially to the cultural heritage since 1907. The trench in the southern part of the citadel had been considered natural heritage since the 1980ies. One of the buildings near the Drususstein accommodates the Historical Museum of the Town Mainz today.
The citadel and her surroundings are documenting the history of Mainz concentrated at one spot: commencing with the roman cenotaph Drususstein via the barracks of the federal fortress up to the air raid shelters of world war II.
Since 1975 every year, a non commercial youth festival, the Open-Ohr-Festival, takes place at the citadel during Pentecost.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links (de)
