The Old Gate ( German: ''Altpörtel'') is the medieval west

city gate A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway. Uses City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

, and is one of the original 68 towers in the old walls and gates. Today it is one of the largest ( tall) and most architecturally significant of the remaining city gates in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

History

The Old Gate was built between 1230 and 1250 on the ruins of a previous tower. The bottom of the 13th-century tower remains as the foundation but, in 1511, Speyer's mayor ordered that the tower be rebuilt, so the top portion is newer. It was completed in 1514. It was originally built as an exterior gate, connecting the old town with the suburb of St. Gilgenvorstadt. A roof was added in 1708. The tower narrowly survived the destruction of Speyer in 1689, during the

War of the Grand Alliance The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

. French troops had placed explosives in the tower and were preparing to demolish it when the

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of the nearby

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monastery warned Marshal Duras that the tower's collapse might endanger the monastery and Duras' headquarters, which had been established nearby. When Duras responded that his soldiers knew how to demolish the building without danger, the entire Carmelite community knelt in front of the French troops with their burning firebrands, to plead for the tower to be spared. "Our monastery is old and weak," the Prior pleaded with Duras. "If the towers fall, ... the rotten walls ... would be rocked from the enormous mass of falling stones, and therefore collapse. So please have compassion and spare the tower." After pondering for a few minutes, the Marshal commanded the Carmelites to rise. "Stand up children, the tower shall stand." While the Old Gate was spared, the city of Speyer and the cathedral were left in a heap of rubble.

Significance

The old gate was constructed to mark the end of a "Via Triumphalis" that led from the cathedral to the city walls. On major religious occasions, the

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and his court would enter the city through the gate and proceed along this roadway—which was wide and long—to the cathedral. For security reasons, the only openings on the gate's west side are two rows of embrasures. The eastern side is more finely crafted. Above the gate's archway, there is a walkway around the tower. From that walkway, it is possible to see ten stone brackets that project from the wall itself; these once connected the gate to the walls on the north and south sides of the Old Gate.

Calibration Shoe of Speyer

Until the beginning of the 19th century, Speyer had its own units for length and mass. On the northern side of the passage through the Old Gate hangs an iron bar, known as the "Calibration Shoe of Speyer" (Speyerer Werkschuh). This bar, subdivided into twelve (local) inches, was available for any merchant in Speyer to use. Between 1772 and 1773, Senator Johannes Becker used it to measure the size of the city, including the four communities outside the walls.

References

External links

City of Speyer website
{{Coord, 49, 19, 03, N, 8, 25, 56, E, display=title, region:DE-RP_type:landmark_source:dewiki Buildings and structures in Speyer Gates in Germany