_The Castle, the Walls and Mediæval Fortifications_
"Aufwärts Ich mit dem Alten ging
Nach einer königlichen Veste,
Am Fels erbauet auf das Beste;
Manch Thurm auf Felsvorsprüngen lag,
Darin ein kaiserlich Gemach.
Geziert nach meisterlichen Sinnen
Die Fenster waren und die Zinnen;
Darum ein Graben war gehauen
In harten Fels."
--HANS SACHS.
Nuremberg is set upon a series of small slopes in the midst of an
undulating, sandy plain, some 900 feet above the sea. Here and there on
every side fringes and patches of the mighty forest which once covered
it are still visible; but for the most part the plain is now freckled
with picturesque villages, in which stand old turreted châteaux, with
gabled fronts and latticed windows, or it is clothed with carefully
cultivated crops or veiled from sight by the smoke which rises from the
new-grown forest of factory chimneys.
The railway sets us down outside the walls of the city. As we walk from
the station towards the Frauen Thor, and stand beneath the crown of
fortified walls three and a half miles in circumference, and gaze at the
old grey towers and picturesque confusion of domes, pinnacles and
spires, suddenly it seems as if our dream of a feudal city has been
realised. There, before us, is one of the main entrances, still between
massive gates and beneath archways flanked by stately towers. Still to
reach it we must cross a moat fifty feet deep and a hundred feet wide.
True, the swords of old days have been turned into pruning-hooks; the
crenelles and embrasures which once bristled and blazed with cannon are
now curtained with brambles and wallflowers, and festooned with virginia
creepers; the galleries are no longer crowded with archers and
cross-bowmen; the moat itself has blossomed into a garden, luxuriant
with limes and acacias, elders, planes, chestnuts, poplars, walnut,
willow and birch trees, or divided into carefully tilled little garden
plots. True it is that outside the moat, beneath the smug grin of
substantial modern houses, runs that mark of modernity, the electric
tram. But let us for the moment forget these gratifying signs of modern
prosperity and, turning to the left ere we enter the Frauen Thor, walk
with our eyes on the towers which, with their steep-pitched roofs and
myriad shapes and richly coloured tiles, mark the intervals in the
red-bricked, stone-cased galleries and mighty bastions, till we come to
the first beginnings of Nuremberg--the Castle. There, on the highest
eminence of the town, stands that venerable fortress, crowning the red
slope of tiles. Roofs piled on roofs, their pinnacles, turrets, points
and angles heaped one above the other in a splendid confusion, climb the
hill which culminates in the varied group of buildings on the Castle
rock. We have passed the Spittler, Mohren, Haller and Neu Gates on our
way, and we have crossed by the Hallerthorbrücke the Pegnitz where it
flows into the town. Before us rise the bold scarps and salient angles
of the bastions built by the Italian architect, Antonio Fazuni, called
the Maltese (1538-43).
Crossing the moat by a wooden bridge which curls round to the right, we
enter the town by the Thiergärtnerthor. The right-hand corner house
opposite us now is Albert Durer's house. We turn to the left and go
along the Obere Schmiedgasse and the row of houses labelled Am Oelberg,
till we arrive at the top of a steep hill (Burgstrasse). Above, on the
left, is the Castle, and close at hand the "Mount of Olives" Sculpture
(see p. 201).
We may now either go through the Himmels Thor to the left, or keeping
straight up under the old trees and passing the "Mount of Olives" on the
left, approach the large deep-roofed building between two towers. This
is the Kaiserstallung, as it is called, the Imperial stables, built
originally for a granary. The towers are the Luginsland (Look in the
land) on the east, and the Fünfeckiger Thurm, the Five-cornered tower,
at the west end (on the left hand as we thus face it). The Luginsland
was built by the townspeople in the hard winter of 1377. The mortar for
building it, tradition says, had to be mixed with salt, so that it might
be kept soft and be worked in spite of the severe cold. The chronicles
state that one could see right into the Burggraf's Castle from this
tower, and the town was therefore kept informed of any threatening
movements on his part. To some extent that was very likely the object in
view when the tower was built, but chiefly it must have been intended,
as its name indicates, to afford a far look-out into the surrounding
country. The granary or Kaiserstallung, as it was called later, was
erected in 1494, and is referred to by Hans Behaim as lying between the
Five-cornered and the Luginsland Towers. Inside the former there is a
museum of curiosities (Hans Sachs' harp) and the famous collection of
instruments of torture and the Maiden (Eiserne Jungfrau), to which we
shall refer at greater length in the next chapter. The open space
[Illustration: THE CASTLE FROM THE HALLERTHORBRÜCKE]
adjoining it commands a splendid view to the north. There, too, on the
parapet-wall, may be seen the hoof-marks of the horse of the
robber-knight, Ekkelein von Gailingen, whose story we have already
narrated (p. 43). Here for a moment let us pause, consider our position,
and endeavour to make out from the conflicting theories of the
archæologists something of the original arrangement of the castles and
of the significance of the buildings and towers that yet remain.
Stretching to the east of the rock on which the Castle stands is a wide
plain, now the scene of busy industrial enterprise, but in old days no
doubt a mere district of swamp and forest. Westwards the rock rises by
three shelves to the summit. The entrance to the Castle, it is surmised,
was originally on the east side, at the foot of the lower plateau and
through a tower which no longer exists.
Opposite this hypothetical gate-tower stood the Five-cornered tower. The
lower part dates, we have seen, from no earlier than the eleventh
century. It is referred to as Alt-Nürnberg (old Nuremberg) in the Middle
Ages. The title of "Five-cornered" is really somewhat a misnomer, for an
examination of the interior of the lower portion of the tower reveals
the fact that it is quadrangular. The pentagonal appearance of the
exterior is due to the fragment of a smaller tower which once leant
against it, and probably formed the apex of a wing running out from the
old castle of the Burggrafs. The Burggräfliche Burg stood below,
according to Mummenhof, south-west and west of this point. It was burnt
down in 1420, and the ruined remains of it are supposed to be traceable
in the eminence, now overgrown by turf and trees, through which a sort
of ravine, closed in on either side by built-up walls, has just brought
us from the town to the Vestner Thor. The Burggrafs' Castle would
appear to have been so situated as to protect the approach to the
Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg). The exact extent of the former we cannot
now determine. Meisterlin refers to it as _parvum fortalitium_--a little
fort. We may, however, be certain that it reached from the Five-cornered
tower to the Walpurgiskapelle. For this little chapel, east of the open
space called the Freiung, is repeatedly spoken of as being on the
property of the Burggrafs. Besides their castle proper, which was held
at first as a fief of the Empire, and afterwards came to be regarded as
their hereditary, independent property, the Burggrafs were also
entrusted with the keeping of a tower which commanded the entrance to
the Castle rock on the country side, perhaps near the site of the
present Vestner Thor. The _custodia portæ_ may have been attached to the
tower, the lower portion of which remains to this day, and is called the
Bailiff's Dwelling (Burgamtmannswohnung). The exact relationship of the
Burggraf to the town on the one hand, and to the Empire on the other,
is, as we have already observed, somewhat obscure. Originally, it would
appear, he was merely an Imperial officer, administering Imperial
estates, and looking after Imperial interests. In later days he came to
possess great power, but this was due not to his position as castellan
or castle governor as such, but to the vast private property his
position had enabled him to amass and to keep.
As the scope and ambitions of the Burggrafs increased, and as the
smallness of their castle at Nuremberg, and the constant friction with
the townspeople, who were able to annoy them in many ways, became more
irksome, they gave up living at Nuremberg, and finally were content to
sell their rights and possessions there to the town. Besides the
_custodia portæ_ of the Burggrafs, which together with their castle
passed by purchase into the hands of the town (1427), there were
various other similar guard towers, such as the one which formerly
occupied the present site of the Luginsland, or the Hasenburg at the
so-called Himmels Thor, or a third which once stood near the Deep Well
on the second plateau of the Castle rock. But we do not know how many of
these there were, or where they stood, much less at what date they were
built. All we do know is that they, as well as the Burggrafs'
possessions, were purchased in succession by the town, into whose hands
by degrees came the whole property of the Castle rock.
Above the ruins of the "little fort" of the Burggrafs rises the first
plateau of the Castle rock. It is surrounded by a wall, strengthened on
the south side (_l_) by a square tower against which leans the
Walpurgiskapelle.
The path to the Kaiserburg leads under the wall of the plateau, and is
entirely commanded by it and by the quadrangular tower, the lower part
of which alone remains and is known by the name of Burgamtmannswohnung
(_r_). The path goes straight to this tower, and at the foot of it is
the entrance to the first plateau. Then along the edge of this plateau
the way winds southwards (_l_), entirely commanded again by the wall of
the second plateau, at the foot of which there probably used to be a
trench. Over this a bridge led to the gate of the second plateau. The
trench has been long since filled in, but the huge round tower which
guarded the gate still remains and is the Vestner Thurm (_r_).[23] The
Vestner Thurm or Sinwel Thurm (sinwel = round), or, as it is called in a
charter of the year 1313, the "Turm in der Mitte," is the only round
tower of the Burg. It was built in the days of early Gothic, with a
sloping base, and of roughly flattened stones with a smooth edge. It was
partly restored and altered in 1561, when it was made a few feet higher
and its round roof was added. It is worth paying the small gratuity
required for ascending to the top. The view obtained of the city below
is magnificent. The Vestner Thurm, like the whole Imperial castle,
passed at length into the care of the town, which kept its Tower watch
here as early as the fourteenth century.[24]
[Illustration: VESTNER THURM]
The well which supplied the second plateau with water, the "Deep Well,"
_Tiefer Brunnen_, as it is called, stands in the centre, surrounded by a
wall. It is 335 feet deep, hewn out of the solid rock, and is said to
have been wrought by the hands of prisoners, and to have been the labour
of thirty years. So much we can easily believe as we lean over and count
the six seconds that elapse between the time when an object is dropped
from the top to the time when it strikes the water beneath. Passages
lead from the water's edge to the Rathaus, by which prisoners came
formerly to draw water, and to St. John's Churchyard and other points
outside the town. The system of underground passages here and in the
Castle was an important part of the defences, affording as it did a
means of communication with the outer world and as a last extremity, in
the case of a siege, a means of escape.[25]
Meanwhile, leaving the Deep Well and passing some insignificant modern
dwellings (_r_), and leaving beneath us on the left the Himmelsthor, let
us approach the summit of the rock and the buildings of the Kaiserburg
itself. As we advance to the gateway with the intention of ringing the
bell for the castellan, we notice on the left the Double Chapel,
attached to the Heidenthurm (Heathen Tower, see page 3), the lower part
of which is encrusted with what were once supposed to be Pagan images.
The Tower protrudes beyond the face of the third plateau, and its
prominence may indicate the width of a trench, now filled in, which was
once dug outside the enclosing wall of the summit of the rock. The whole
of the south side of this plateau is taken up by the _Palas_ (the vast
hall, two stories high, which, though it has been repeatedly rebuilt,
may in its original structure be traced back as far as the twelfth
century), and the _Kemnate_ or dwelling-rooms which seem to have been
without any means of defence. This plateau, like the second, is supplied
with a well. But the first object that strikes the eye on entering the
court-yard is the ruined lime-tree, the branches of which once spread
their broad and verdant shelter over the whole extent of the quadrangle.
The Empress Kunigunde planted it, says the legend, some seven hundred
years ago. For once, when King Henry was a-hunting, he came in the
pursuit of a deer to the edge of a steep precipice, and this in the heat
of the chase he did not perceive, but would have fallen headlong had not
a lime-branch, at which he grasped in his extremity, stopped and saved
him. And he, recognising the special protection of the Most High, broke
off a twig of the lime-tree in remembrance of his wonderful
preservation, and brought it to his anxious wife, who planted it at once
with her own hands in the earth, and it soon grew into a beautiful
tree.
A modern staircase leads from the court to the rooms of the Castle. They
have been much spoilt by being rebuilt in modern Gothic style by Voit
(1856) and being furnished as a royal residence. Some objects of
considerable interest, however, may still be seen here. In the great
hall and in the bedrooms will be found some magnificent old stoves by
Augustin Hirschvogel and others; whilst in the various rooms may be seen
some fine stained glass and some heraldic paintings of Albert Durer's
time. The single large spread-eagle on the ceiling of the writing-room
(which was discovered in 1833 after two other ceilings had been removed)
is especially remarkable.
The windows command splendid views of the surrounding country. There are
a few pictures in the hall of unequal interest. They are mostly copies
of Italian painters; but we may mention the Venus and Cupid by Lucas
Cranach, the Mocking of Christ by Hans Schäuffelein, Durer's favourite
pupil, and others by artists of the old Nuremberg and Flemish schools.
A narrow staircase leads from the dining-hall to the _Emperor's Chapel_
(Kaiser-kapelle). It was built in the twelfth century by one of the
Hohenstaufen emperors, very likely by Frederick Barbarossa himself, when
the growing favour with which Nuremberg was regarded gave rise to the
need of a larger and more splendid building than the primitive _St.
Margaret's Chapel_ and fort which already existed. A rebuilding and
enlarging of the Imperial castle then took place, and the beautiful
Emperor-Chapel was superimposed on the Margaret-Chapel, thus forming the
two-storied or double chapel. Romanesque in style, it is comparatively
uninjured, and resembles the Double Chapel of Eger, where the lower
chapel is also attributed to Barbarossa. The two chapels are very
different in character. The lower, which was used as a Gruftkapelle[26]
or place of sepulture, is solemn and almost gloomy in effect; the upper,
whilst harmonising with the lower, is in a much lighter and more
charming style. The plan of the lower chapel is rectangular with an
extension into the Heathen Tower in the shape of a rectangular choir,
lighted by a romanesque window.
The low, round vaulting of this, the St. Margaret's Chapel, rests on two
low four-cornered pillars and on four columns, the capitals of which,
hewn from great blocks, are richly sculptured, one with four eagles, two
with foliage, and the fourth with masks. They were, according to the
manner of construction customary at Nuremberg, set up unwrought and only
carved afterwards, as may be seen from the capital of the south-west
column, which is only decorated on the two inner sides, the other two
being unfinished. From the walls spring heavy brackets to receive the
plinths of the arches which support the cross-vaulting.
The two low pillars mentioned above divide the main body of the chapel
from an irregular intermediate building adjoining the Castle.
Entrance to the upper, or Kaiser, Chapel is only possible from the lower
rooms of the Castle, whence, above the flight of steps already referred
to, a Gothic doorway now leads to the chapel, by way of a vestibule or
entrance hall. This hall is situated exactly over the western irregular
section of the lower chapel. The low stout pillars which support the
vaulting correspond in their ornamentation with that of the lower
chapel. On the hexagonal capitals of one we find four of the familiar
mediæval masks, whilst on both of them the sculptured foliage and
basket-work recall that of the Margaret Chapel.
In the wall which separates the vestibule from the Castle a small
connecting staircase leads up to a platform, which opens out in two
arches towards the chapel and probably formed the Imperial oratory. It
is in immediate connection with the upper rooms of the Castle by means
of a Gothic door which has replaced a romanesque gateway. Thus the
Emperor could easily reach his seat in the chapel from the Castle.
Ascending three steps, one arrives through a broad archway at the raised
choir, which also resembles the Margaret Chapel in its ornamentation.
But the most striking and distinctive feature of the Kaiserkapelle,
which gives it its characteristically light and graceful appearance, is
the four slender columns of white marble, with richly decorated capitals
and bases, which support the vaulting. One of the columns is built of
two pieces. An unwrought ring covers the seam. Hence arose the legend
that, at the time when the chapel was building, the Devil, who lusted
after the soul of the Castle chaplain, wagered him that he would bring
these four pillars from Milan sooner than the priest could read the
Mass. The priest, who had a glib tongue, cheerfully undertook the wager.
The Devil was quick, but the chaplain was quicker. The Devil had already
brought three columns, and the fourth was close at hand, when the nimble
priest said "Amen." So infuriated was the Devil at losing his wager that
he flung down the pillar. It fell so heavily on the floor that it broke
in two, and had to be bound together with the ring. The coloured stone
head above the choir-arch is supposed to be a memorial of this castle
chaplain, who so cleverly obtained cheap transport for the Church!
Without taking this legend altogether _au pied de la lettre_, we may
think it likely from the style and material that these pillars were
brought from some Italian building.
On the north-east wall of the chapel is an altarpiece with wings by
Wolgemut--SS. Wenceslaus and Martin, and SS. Barbara and Elizabeth on
the reverse. The carved figures in the centre of the altarpiece on the
south-east wall are by Veit Stoss, and the wings are of the school of
Wolgemut. On the south wall are two pictures by Burgkmair (?) and a
relief after designs by Adam Krafft. On the west wall are a picture by
Kulmbach and a remarkable relief by Krafft, and on the north wall two
pictures by Strigel, and one by Holbein the elder.
The quadrangular aperture,[27] which occupies the entire space between
the four pillars and allows a full view of the lower chapel, was for a
long time walled up. This was done after the chapel had been plastered
over, probably towards the end of the fifteenth century. Ably restored
in 1892 the chapel is now very much in its original state. The plaster,
repeated layers of which had covered the capitals and ornaments with a
thick crust, preventing their shape from being any longer recognisable,
has been removed. The missing parts of the ornaments have been very
skilfully replaced. The original red stone flooring was laid bare and
the aperture reopened. There is some disagreement as to the purpose of
this opening. We are usually told that it was made for a united church
service of the Emperor and Castle retainers: the Emperor taking his seat
in the upper, the retainers in the lower chapel. It may be so: but one
would rather believe that it was intended to enable the Castle
dignitaries, when the service was held in the upper chapel, still to
obtain a view of the niches where the mortal remains of their ancestors
rested, and to reflect upon the virtues and the end of their mighty
dead, remembering the while that they too were mortal.
* * * * *
On leaving the Castle we find ourselves in the Burgstrasse, called in
the old days Unter der Veste, which was probably the High Street of the
old town. Off both sides of this street and of the Bergstrasse ran
narrow crooked little alleys lined with wooden houses of which time and
fire have left scarcely any trace.
As you wander round the city tracing the line of the old walls, you are
struck by the general air of splendour. Most of the houses are large and
of a massive style of architecture, adorned with fanciful gables and
bearing the impress of the period when every inhabitant was a merchant,
and every merchant was lodged like a king. The houses of the merchant
princes, richly carved both inside and out, tell of the wealth and
splendour of Nuremberg in her proudest days. But you will also come upon
a hundred crooked little streets and narrow alleys, which, though
entrancingly picturesque, tell of yet other days and other conditions.
They tell of those early mediæval days when the houses were almost all
of wood and roofed with straw-thatching or wooden tiles; when the
chimneys and bridges alike were built of wood. Only here and there a
stone house roofed with brick could then be seen. The streets were
narrow and crooked, and even in the fifteenth century mostly unpaved. In
wet weather they were filled with unfathomable mud, and even though in
the lower part of the town trenches were dug to drain the streets, they
remained mere swamps and morasses. In dry weather the dust was even a
worse plague than the mud. Pig-styes stood in front of the houses; and
the streets were covered with heaps of filth and manure and with rotting
corpses of animals, over which the pigs wandered at will. Street police
in fact was practically non-existent. Mediævalism is undoubtedly better
when survived.
As to the original extent of the city walls there are many theories.
Most likely they embraced a very small district. According to Mummenhoff
the first town wall ran from the west side of the Castle in a southerly
direction over the modern Weinmarkt. (To reach it go straight down the
Albert Durer Strasse, starting from Durer's house.) Further on the wall
struck eastwards (_l_) to the river, either leaving the swampy
meadowland near the river free, or, as others hold, coming right down to
the river banks. Then, leaving the river again near the Spitalplatz, it
stretched northward, apparently from the Malerthor which was then in
existence, to the Romer Tower in the Tetzelgasse.[28] This tower was
probably not actually part of the wall but a fortified house, such as
may be seen in many German and Italian towns, built by the dwellers in
it for their own especial protection. A noble family of the name of
Romer lived there in early times and gave their name to the house. But
popular tradition has forgotten this fact and asserts that the tower
dates back from Roman times.
From this spot the wall made a distinct bend to the east, ran over the
Ægidien hill through the Wolfsgasse, where we may perhaps still
recognise in one of the houses an old tower of the wall, and so on to
the Fröschturm, or Frog's Tower near the Maxthor of to-day.
A glance at the map will show us that Nuremberg, as we know it, is
divided into two almost equal divisions. They are called after the names
of the principal churches the St. Lorenz, and the St. Sebald-quarter.
The original wall which we have just described included, it will be
seen, only a small portion of the northern or St. Sebald division. With
the growth of the town an extension of the walls and an increase of
fortification followed as a matter of course. It became necessary to
carry the wall over the Pegnitz in order to protect the Lorenzkirche and
the suburb which was springing up around it. The precise date of this
extension of the fortifications cannot be fixed. The chronicles
attribute it to the twelfth century, in the reign of the first
Hohenstaufen, Konrad III. No trace of a twelfth-century wall remains;
but the chroniclers may, for all that, have been not very wide of the
mark. The mud and wood which supplied the material of the wall may have
given place to stone in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. However
that may be, it will be remembered that the lower part of the White
Tower, which is the oldest fragment of building we can certainly point
to dates from the thirteenth century. All other portions of the second
wall clearly indicate the fourteenth century, or later, as the time of
their origin. What, then, was the course along which ran this second
line of fortifications?
Assuming that the reader has accompanied us on our short circuit of the
imaginary first town wall--(there is no better way of acquainting
oneself with the topography of the place and of coming upon the most
picturesque bits of old Nuremberg than to work round the three lines of
fortifications sketched here)--we will start again from the Maxthor, the
nineteenth-century gateway on the north side of the town. From the
Froschturm, which is near at hand, the wall ran alongside of the seven
rows of houses (Zeilen) which were built by the Council in 1488 (on the
old moat which had been filled in) for the immigrating Swabian weavers;
and then from the Webersplatz by the Landauerkloster (used at the
present time as a polytechnic school) straight down to the
Lauferschlagturm. This tower, also called the inner Lauferturm, dates in
its present form from the fifteenth century and in part from the
sixteenth century. It derives its name from the striking clock which was
put up in 1478, at a period when clocks with bells to mark the hours
were still rare. Proceeding past the Lauferschlagturm we can trace
clearly enough the shooting-trench, which was assigned to the
cross-bowmen in 1485 and runs on to the former foundry of the
coppersmiths "Auf dem Sand." Presently before reaching the Pegnitz the
wall made a sharp turn to the west: it is uncertain whether the present
Neuegasse (which we must follow) ran inside or outside of it; at any
rate the Mohler or Mahler Thor (Müllerthor) stood at the spot where the
Heugässchen and Neuegasse run into the Spitalplatz. Leaving the
Mohlerthor the wall crossed the Spitalplatz (_l_) and ran in a straight
line, strongly protected by towers, across the two arms of the Pegnitz
which encircle the Schütt Island. In the northern arm of the river, near
the Synagogue (_l_), you may still distinguish a bit of ruined wall
overgrown by alders, rising out of the water. This is the remains of the
pier which once buttressed the town-wall against the current of the
Pegnitz. On the island there are still two towers, the larger of the
two being the Schuldturm or Debtor's Tower for men (Männereisen) which
bears the date 1323. Originally a corresponding tower for female debtors
stood on the south bank of the river. But this, together with the
connecting walls and the arch over the Pegnitz, was demolished in 1812.
The bridge, which joined the two debtors' towers, was called the
Schuldbrücke, and the whole probably resembled the Henkersteg group at
which we shall presently arrive. At any rate it is recorded that towards
the end of the fifteenth century "they built dwellings for the
townspeople on the old arch by the Debtors' Towers, through which the
Pegnitz formerly flowed into the town."
We have now reached the South or Lorenz-quarter of the town. From the
river the wall ran straight on along the Nonnen-gasse to the inner
Frauenthor, which was destroyed in 1499. Cross the Lorenzer Platz and go
down the Theatergasse opposite. Behind the theatre there is still a
piece of open ditch--the old Lorenzer shooting-trench, and near the old
_inner_ Frauenthor is the entrance to the Herrenkeller, which goes under
the Königstrasse to beneath the Great Hall. The old moat was converted
into this cellar, which is 447 feet long, and supported by twenty-six
pillars. Over it the architect Hans Behaim erected the Neue Kornhaus and
the Great Hall or Grosse Wage, a deep-roofed building, also called the
Mauthaus, because it is now used as a Custom House. Going straight on
down the north side of this hall we come to the Frauengässlein, a
fascinating old street, which stretches behind the old arsenals (_r_)
(now used as storehouses for hops) to the Färbergasse, and marks the
further course of the walls, which, from the arsenals to the White Tower
(Weissturm) is easily traced. For a considerable part of the old moat
(Färbergraben) and a piece of the old wall, with its large curved
blocks of sandstone black with age, are still visible. At the end of
the Frauengasse turn first to the right and then to the left into the
Breitegasse, when the White Tower will confront you. The lower portion
of the White Tower, or inner Spittlerthurm as it used to be called (a
name, like that of the modern Spittlerthor, derived from the St.
Elizabethspital), is, as we have noted, thirteenth-century work. The
tower was renovated in the fifteenth century and fitted, like the
Lauferschlagturm, with a chiming clock. The outer gate (Vorthor) is
still preserved. Keeping on the inside of the White Tower cross the
Ludwig Strasse and go down the Waisen Strasse, which brings you to the
Brewery. Keep on down the same street with first the Brewery and then
the Unschlitthaus on the right till you reach the river.
Beyond the White Tower the moat was long ago filled up, but the section
of it opposite the Unschlittplatz remained open for a longer period than
the rest, and was called the Klettengraben, because of the burdocks
which took root there. Hereabouts, on a part of the moat, the
Waizenbräuhaus was built in 1671, which is now the famous Freiherrlich
von Tuchersche Brewery. Here, too, the Unschlitthaus was built at the
end of the fifteenth century as a granary. It has since been turned into
a school.
We have now reached one of the most charming and picturesque bits of
Nuremberg. Once more we have to cross the Pegnitz, whose banks are
overhung by quaint old houses. Their projecting roofs and high gables,
their varied chimneys and overhanging balconies from which trail rich
masses of creepers, make an entrancing foreground to the towers and the
arches of the Henkersteg. The wall was carried on arches over the
southern arm of the Pegnitz to the point of the Saumarkt (or
Trödelmarkt) island which here divides the river, and thence in like
manner over the northern arm. The latter portion of it alone survives
and comprises a large tower on the north bank called the Wasserthurm,
which was intended to break the force of the stream; a bridge supported
by two arches over the stream, which was the Henkersteg, the habitation
of the hangman or _Löb_ as he was called, of whom and of whose duties we
shall have to speak in the next chapter; and on the island itself a
smaller tower, which formed the point of support for the original,
southern pair of arches, which joined the Unschlitthaus, but were so
badly damaged in 1595 by a high flood that they were demolished and
replaced by a wooden, and later by an iron bridge.
After the great Wasserthurm, all trace of the old wall is lost. Probably
it stretched in a straight line across the Weintraubengässlein, along
the back of the houses of the Karlstrasse, and across the Irrergasse to
the Lammsgasse. Mummenhoff fancies that he can recognise one of the
towers of it in an exceptionally high house on the north side of this
latter street. There too stood the _inner_ Neuthor. The houses at the
back of Albrecht-Dürerstrasse show pretty clearly the further course of
the wall until at the Thiergärtnerthurm it finally joined the
fortifications of the Castle.
Thus we have completed the second circuit of the old Imperial town as it
was in the thirteenth and most of the first half of the fourteenth
centuries. It was then a city of no mean size for the middle ages, but
it was far from having attained its full development. New monasteries
and churches and new suburbs sprang up outside the new line of
fortification. As usually happens, the majority of the dwellers outside
the walls were of the lower class: but, besides their houses, there
were, especially towards the east, splendid gardens and properties
belonging to the patrician families and also several large buildings,
including the Katherine and Clara Convents, the Mary Hospital, and the
Carthusian Monastery (now part of the German Museum). Buildings of this
kind, close to and outside of the gates of the old town, would, if they
fell into the hands of an enemy, be a continual menace to the peace and
safety of the burghers. Hardly, therefore, was the second line of
fortifications completed when it became necessary to protect the new
suburbs with wall and ditch like the old town. It may be noted that even
when the new enceinte, that is the _third_ or outer town wall, was
finished, the second wall was still carefully preserved as a second line
of defence. This was directly contrary to the advice of Macchiavelli
"not to establish within the circuit of a city fortifications which may
serve as a retreat to troops who have been driven back from the first
line of entrenchments ... for there is no greater danger for a fortress
than rear-fortifications whither troops can retire in case of a reverse;
for once a soldier knows that he has a secure retreat after he has
abandoned the first post, he does, in fact, abandon it and so causes the
loss of the entire fortress." The Nurembergers, however, never favoured
any policy that could even remotely suggest that of burning their boats.
For a long time they kept their second line of defence. Thus in 1509 it
came to the notice of the authorities that "the inner moat near the
arsenals and granaries were filled up with dirt and rubbish, which at
some future time might do harm to the town, and the neighbours were
forbidden to empty any more rubbish into the moat, and the town
architect was ordered to see to it that what had been thrown into it was
either levelled or taken out and that the parapet was renewed."
Similarly and in the same year the inhabitants of the neighbourhood of
St. Katherinagraben (the present Peter Vischerstrasse) were refused
leave to build a bridge over the existing moat.
That part of the town which lay between the second and third lines of
fortification continued for a long time to retain something of a
suburban character. People of small fortunes who came to settle in
Nuremberg were at first admitted only into the district outside the
older wall and were only allowed to move into the inner town after they
had been domiciled in the outer town for several years. The suburban
character of the outer town was and is still in some degree apparent
also from the large open spaces there and, especially on the eastern
side, from the extensive farms and gardens belonging to the richer
citizens, such as the Holzschuhers, the Volkamers and the Tuchers.
Somewhere in the second half of the fourteenth century, then, in the
reign of Karl IV., they began to build the outer enceinte, which,
although destroyed at many places and broken through by modern gates and
entrances,[29] is still fairly well preserved, and secures to Nuremberg
the reputation of presenting most faithfully of all the larger German
towns the characteristics of a mediæval town. The fortifications seem to
have been thrown up somewhat carelessly at first, but dread of the
Hussites soon inspired the citizens to make themselves as secure as
possible. In times of war and rumours of war all the peasants within a
radius of two miles of the town were called upon to help in the
construction of barriers and ramparts. The whole circle of walls,
towers, and ditches was practically finished by 1452, when with
pardonable pride Tucher wrote, "In this year was completed the ditch
round the town. It took twenty-six years to build, and it will cost an
enemy a good deal of trouble to cross it." Part of the ditch had been
made and perhaps revetted as early as 1407, but it was not till twenty
years later that it began to be dug to the enormous breadth and depth
which it boasts to-day. The size of it was always a source of pride to
the Nurembergers, and it was perhaps due to this reason that up till as
recently as 1869 it was left perfectly intact. On the average it is
about 100 feet broad. It was always intended to be a dry ditch, and, so
far from there being any arrangements for flooding it, precautions were
taken to carry the little Fischbach, which formerly entered the town
near the modern Sternthor, across the ditch in a trough. The
construction of the ditch was provided for by an order of the Council in
1427, to the effect that all householders, whether male or female, must
work at the ditch one day in the year with their children of over twelve
years of age, and with all their servants, male or female. Those who
were not able to work had to pay a substitute. Subsequently this order
was changed to the effect that every one who could or would not work
must pay ten pfennige (one penny). There were no exemptions from this
liturgy, whether in favour of councillor, official, or lady. The order
remained ten years in force, though the amount of the payment was
gradually reduced.
Whilst the enceinte was in course of erection the Burggraf Frederic VI.
sold (1428) to the town the ruins of his castle. Steps were immediately
taken therefore to fortify the whole of the Castle grounds with ditch
and large revetted circular bastions. Paul Stromer was the director of
the works. At this time we first find distinct mention of the Vestner
Thor, and the Vestnerthorbrücke. The other main gates, the Neue Thor,
the Spittler Thor, the Frauen Thor, and the Laufer Thor had begun to be
built about 1380.
[Illustration: WALLS AND DITCH]
The Wührderthürlein and the Hallerthürlein were constructed probably
about the same time as the Vestnerthor--_i.e._ circ. 1430. It was
against the gates that the main attacks of the enemy were usually
delivered, and they were therefore provided with the most elaborate
means of defence. Each principal gate in fact was an individual castle,
a separate keep: for it was defended by one of those huge round towers
which still help to give to Nuremberg its characteristic appearance. The
Laufer, Spittel, and Frauen towers, and the tower near the new gate were
built in the above order in their present cylindrical shape (1555-1559)
by the architect George Unger, on the site of four quadrilateral towers
that already existed. The towers are about 60 yards in diameter. They
are furnished on the ground story with one or two gun-casemates, which
would command the parapet wall if that were taken. Above, beneath the
flat roof, is fixed a platform blinded with wood relieved by embrasures
capable of receiving a considerable number of cannon. Guns indeed were
in position here as recently as 1796, when together with all the
contents of the arsenal they were removed by the Austrians.
At the time of the construction of these and the other lofty towers it
was still thought that the raising of batteries as much as possible
would increase their effect. In practice the plunging fire from
platforms at the height of some eighty feet above the level of the
parapets of the town wall can hardly have been capable of producing any
great effect, more especially if the besieging force succeeded in
establishing itself on the crest of the counterscarp of the ditches,
since from that point the swell of the bastions masked the towers. But
there was another use for these lofty towers. The fact is that the
Nuremberg engineers, at the time that they were built, had not yet
adopted a complete system of flank-works, and not having as yet applied
with all its consequences the axiom that _that which defends should
itself be defended_, they wanted to see and command their external
defences from within the body of the place, as, a century before, the
baron could see from the top of his donjon whatever was going on round
the walls of his castle, and send up his support to any point of attack.
The great round towers of Nuremberg are more properly, in fact, detached
keeps than portions of a combined system, rather observatories than
effective defences.[30]
They were perhaps the last of their kind. Tradition has quite
incorrectly ascribed them to Albert Durer. Not only were they built
thirty years after his death, but they are in principle entirely opposed
to the views expounded in his book on the "Fortification of Towns." This
book, which appeared in 1527, broke completely with the old mediæval art
of fortification (the theory of which may be said roughly to have
consisted in an extensive use of towers), and recommended the
construction of such bastions as the Köcherts-zwinger, or that in the
neighbourhood of the Laufer Thor (1527) which form the starting-point of
modern fortification.
The round towers, however, were not the sole defences of the gates.
Outside each one of them was a kind of fence of pointed beams after the
manner of a chevaux-de-frise, whilst outside the ditch and close to the
bridge stood a barrier, by the side of which was a guard-house. Though
it was not till 1598 that all the main gates were fitted with
drawbridges, the wooden bridges that served before that could doubtless
easily be destroyed in cases of emergency. Double-folding doors and
portcullises protected the gateways themselves. Once past there, the
enemy was far from being in the town, for the road led through
extensive advanced works, presenting, as in the case of the Laufer Thor
outwork, a regular _place d'armes_. Further, the road was so engineered
as not to lead in a straight line from the outer main gates to the inner
ones, but rather so as to pursue a circuitous course. Thus the enemy in
passing through from the one to the other were exposed as long as
possible to the shots and projectiles of the defenders, who were
stationed all round the walls and towers flanking the advanced tambour.
This arrangement may be traced very clearly at the Frauen Thor to-day.
The position of the round tower, it will be observed, was an excellent
one for commanding the road from the outer to the inner gate.
The entrance and exit of the Pegnitz were two weak spots, calling
equally with the gates for special measures of defence. They were
completely barred by "Schossgatter" as they were termed--strong oak
piles covered with iron--set beneath the arches that spanned the river.
Strong iron chains were stretched in front of them, forming a boom to
prevent the approach of boats. The tower at the exit of the Pegnitz was
erected, we know, in 1422. It is mentioned by sixteenth-century
chroniclers as the Schlayerturm, and, though it has lost its former
height, it serves to-day in conjunction with the adjoining building over
the water as a jail.
The most vulnerable points were thus provided for. The rest of the
enceinte consisted of the ditch and walls and towers. There were two
lines of walls and towers enclosing a space which in peace-time served
as a game-park. Celtes in his poem in praise of Nuremberg boasts of the
rich turf growing there, upon which grazed splendid herds of deer. The
Tiergärtner Thor, however, did not derive its name from this game-park
(Tiergärten), but from another earlier one belonging to the Burggrafs.
The interior line of walls was the first to be built. It was made about
three feet thick and twenty-two feet high. Originally there were no
buttresses to it (as one may gather from the short length of old wall,
north of the Spittler Thor, where the inside of the wall is plain), but
afterwards buttresses were added along the whole of it, at a distance of
eighteen feet or so from centre to centre. About four feet broad, they
projected some two feet beyond the actual wall. They are joined by
circular arches, the coins of which are walled up. The blinded galleries
thus formed are still frequently used as workshops.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE WALLS]
The top of the wall is about three yards broad, thanks to a coping stone
which projects on each side. Along the outer edge of the coping stone
runs a crenelated wall, only a foot and a half thick. Seeing that it was
already at the time of construction exposed to artillery, the thinness
of this wall is somewhat surprising. Probably the Nurembergers knew that
the neighbouring nobility could not afford a heavy and expensive
siege-train. A roof, composed, according to the poet Celtes, of tiles
partly glazed, was erected over the crenelated wall and thus formed a
covered way. The crenelles were furnished with hanging shutters, which
had a hole pierced in them and were adapted therefore either to the fire
of small pieces or of arquebuses.
At intervals of every 120 or 150 feet the interior wall is broken by
quadrilateral towers. Some eighty-three of these, including the gate
towers, can still be traced. What the number was originally we do not
know. It is the sort of subject on which chroniclers have no manner of
conscience. The Hartmann Schedel Chronicle, for instance, gives
Nuremberg 365 towers in all. The fact that there are 365 days in the
year is of course sufficient proof of this assertion! The towers, which
rise two or even three stories above the wall, communicated on both
sides with the covered way. They are now used as dwelling-houses. On
some of them there can still be seen, projecting near the roof, two
little machicoulis turrets, which served as guard-rooms for observing
the enemy, and also, by overhanging the base of the tower, enabled the
garrison to hurl down on their assailants at the foot of the wall a
hurricane of projectiles of every sort. Like the wall the towers are
built almost entirely of sandstone, but on the side facing the town they
are usually faced with brick. The shapes of the roofs vary from flat to
pointed, but the towers themselves are simple and almost austere in form
in comparison with those generally found in North Germany, where fantasy
runs riot in red brick. The Nuremberg towers were obviously intended in
the first place for use rather than for ornament.
Parallel with the interior town wall there ran an exterior lower one,
which, together with the former, enclosed a space, to which we have
already referred, varying from fifty to twenty feet in breadth. We know
very little about the _original_ height and form of this exterior wall.
It suffered many changes and can no longer be traced in its original
shape. Experts hold diametrically opposite views both as to the use and
the height of it. But that is the way of experts. We shall probably not
be far wrong in concluding that this wall was originally a mere
crenelated crowning[31] of the escarp of the ditch; that catapults were
worked from the space enclosed by the two walls; and that the chief
object of the outer wall and the enclosure was to prevent the enemy from
working at the main, or inner, wall and towers with his rams and
moveable turrets. Later, when the use and effectiveness of artillery
developed and guns supplanted catapults in vigour as well as in fact,
some time at the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth
century, we may suppose that this old crenelated wall was removed, and
the escarp wall of the ditch was raised and strengthened and provided
with embrasures for large cannon, and rounded off on the outside so as
to neutralise the effect of shot striking the face of the walls. In this
form the exterior wall is well preserved, and can be seen at many places
in the course of a walk round the outside of the town. At many points in
the circumference, but chiefly where the fortifications are accessible
(_e.g._ near the Frauen Thor) the parapets of this curtain-wall present
a somewhat remarkable arrangement. The parapets, pierced with embrasures
for cannon, are surmounted by timber hoards or filled in with brick and
mortar, like the old English half-timbered houses. In these hoards
(wooden galleries roofed in with tiles) arquebusiers and even archers,
who were still employed at that period, might be placed. Pieces in
battery were covered by these hoards just in the same way as pieces in
the "'tween decks" of a man-of-war. The crenelles of the hoards were
closed by shutters opening on the inside, in such a way as to present
an obstacle to the balls or arrows fired by the assailants placed on the
top of the glacis.
The outer, like the inner wall was provided with towers. These were
thicker in construction but lower and less numerous than the interior
ones. They were placed at intervals of 200 to 250 feet and amounted in
all to forty or thereabouts. The chief purpose of them was to flank and
command the ditch and thus to prevent the enemy from building a dam
across it. With this object they projected some distance into the ditch.
Simultaneously with the alterations of the exterior wall small
bastion-like towers were also constructed, chiefly at places where the
wall formed an angle, and where the enemy could not therefore advance in
line. From these towers a searching fire could be maintained in all
directions, sweeping both the ditch and the ground in front. The strong,
low, semi-circular tower at the Haller Thor is supposed to be the oldest
work of this description.
Lastly, in the second half of the sixteenth century, the large bastions
which bring us in touch with modern ideas of fortification were built.
We may instance the bastion adjoining the Neue Thor, called the Doktors
Zwinger because the doctors had their summer garden there. And in 1613
the Vöhrderthor-Zwinger was added to the old town-wall. It was designed
by Meinhard von Schönberg, and built by Jakob Wolf, the younger. But in
1871 this magnificent structure, with the armorial devices which
decorated the four corners of it, was enclosed in the Vestner Thor
Zwinger.
An account of the fortifications of Nuremberg would be incomplete if no
mention were made of the _Landwehr_--a continuous line of defence which
was thrown up at some little distance from the town about the middle of
the fifteenth century, in the time of the first Marggravian war. The
_Landwehr_ was a ditch with an earthen parapet strengthened by
stockades, barricaded at the crossings of the roads with obstacles and
moveable barriers, and defended by blockhouses in which guards were
always kept. The main object of this fortification was to afford shelter
to the country people, and to secure them and their goods and cattle
from the raids of the enemy. Only the merest fragment of the
"Land-ditch" remains, viz., the Landgraben, running through the
Lichtenhof meadow.
It will be gathered from these dry details that the chief note struck by
the fortifications of Nuremberg is that of picturesque variety. The
defences have been built at different times and form no stereotyped
pattern. Walls, towers, and bastions of varying types and shapes,
suggesting the ideas of different ages, succeed each other in pleasant
confusion. The walls themselves, now high, now low, now with, now
without roofing, here crenelated with narrow loopholes and arrow-slits,
there fitted with broad embrasures for heavy guns, seem to be typical of
the place and to suggest to us the recollection of her chequered career.
At the end of our long perambulations of the walls it will be a grateful
relief to sit for a while at one of the _Restaurations_ or restaurants
on the walls. There, beneath the shade of acacias in the daytime, or in
the evening by the white light of the incandescent gas, you may sit and
watch the groups of men, women, and children all drinking from their
tall glasses of beer, and you may listen to the whirr and ting-tang of
the electric cars, where the challenge of the sentinel or the cry of the
night-watchman was once the most frequent sound. Or, if you have grown
tired of the Horn- and the Schloss-zwinger, cross the ditch on the west
side of the town and make your way to the Rosenau, in the
Fürtherstrasse. The Rosenau is a garden of trees and roses not lacking
in chairs and tables, in bowers, benches, and a band. There, too, you
will see the good burgher with his family drinking beer, eating
sausages, and smoking contentedly.