Suburban tower
City of Kirchheimbolanden
The town charter that Count Heinrich II von Sponheim (reigned 1350-1393) received for his village of Kirchheim from Emperor Charles IV in 1368 was significant in several ways: it offered protection and protection for the population with the right of fortification and the possibility of economic development with the market right.
What was missing, however, was a larger surrounding area, as the county of Henry II only comprised five villages around Kirchheimbolanden. Accordingly, the inner-city marketplace [Standort 39] only required a small area.
Medieval Kirchheimbolanden was therefore a “farming town”. Although fortifications and market traffic set the town apart from its surroundings, a large proportion of the local population met their food needs by growing their own crops.
In contrast to Dannenfels, 7 kilometers away, where Heinrich’s father Philipp had made an unsuccessful attempt at urban development in 1331, Kirchheimbolanden became a Sponheim “model of success”.
The city gate
The Lower Gate (suburban tower) was the most important and therefore best protected entrance to the city. If the Upper Gate [Standort 19] remained permanently closed in times of unrest, traffic to the outside and into the city would only pass through the Lower Gate.
The gate tower has a square floor plan of 6 x 6 m and had a (now somewhat widened) passageway 3 m wide. Four storeys were built on top of the gateway, the uppermost of which offered a particularly good view of the town’s surroundings. It can also be assumed that there was a surrounding round arch frieze at the height of this storey, as is still preserved on other towers and wall sections.
The town was only accessible via a drawbridge. In front of it, at a distance of around 30 m, there was a small round tower for the guards at the barrier.
The southern entrance to the city was therefore a highly defensive structure in the medieval sense and at the same time a representative expression of urban centrality.
During the Nassau-Weilburg period in the 18th century, the gate only had a visual function, but its baroque style made it even more prominent in the townscape.
“Bolander Gates”
The medieval designation of the “suburban tower” as “Bolander Pforten” (Bolander Gate) refers to Neubolanden Castle, 3 km to the south, and the lords of Bolanden who lived there. Their feudal register (around 1190) also mentions beneficia (estates), partem frumenti et tocius iustricie (fruit rents and jurisdiction) in Kirchheim.
The fact that Count Henry II of Sponheim (reigned 1350-1393) was then able to further expand the Boland legal basis enabled him to take on a sovereign role.
The “Bolander Pforten” was therefore more than just an indication of direction, as Bolander Castle was also an imposing structure, one of the largest to be built in the Palatinate during the Hohenstaufen period. A model is on display in the “Museum im Stadtpalais” [Standort 28].
