A ray of hope for the leg house in habfurt
It still looks a bit shabby, the leg house in habfurt. No wonder: for centuries it was more or less left to its own devices, a few touch-ups here and there from time to time. Now the over 500-year-old building is to be spruced up and turned into a documentation center for the neighboring knight's chapel.
"The old fabric of the building will be preserved as much as possible", says dag schroder, the schweinfurt architect who was also responsible for the multi-million dollar renovation of the knights' chapel (completed in 2010), which took about four years to complete.
Limestone out, concrete in
Not an easy undertaking, because the substantial damage is considerable, according to schroder. Yesterday, friday, the architect came to the construction site to see the renovation work in progress. Together with habfurt's mayor rudi eck (no party affiliation) and representatives of the building authority, the church and the construction company, he took a look around the construction site. The floor in the basement already looks quite tidy: the old limestone slabs have been removed, the ground is now level and filled with concrete.
In addition, soon the warm insulation, screed, underfloor heating and finally brick material, which should make the flat then visually matching the historic face of the building to appear. The upper floor, where the st. The chapel of st. Michael is currently inaccessible because a wooden staircase (of non-historic value, of course) has been torn out.
Glass and steel
Something is also happening outside the tower. In the coming weeks, the foundation for the extension will be laid. The modern glass and steel annex will be the extended entrance to the future documentation center. With a reception room, toilets, seating and an elevator that connects the two floors of the leg house.
The mixture of old and new is, as can be seen from the architect's documents, coordinated in such a way that a contrast is created, but in the end a harmonious overall picture can be expected. Visitors will be able to see for themselves at the end of this year whether this will be the case, because the renovation should be completed by then.
By the way, there is a special feature under the ground where the foundation for the new building is to be laid: architect schroder suspects that there are medieval graves there. "They should be left untouched as much as possible", he says.
Why not open? "Christian graves have no ornaments", he continues. Not that schroder was after the material value of that jewelry. Rather, such objects were interesting from a historical point of view, in order to conduct research into contemporary history. But the dead, who presumably rest in the earth under the land, are spared that.
Cost: 750.000 euro
The renovation of the leg house will cost 750,000 euros, of which 306,000 euros will come from the city's urban development program and 30,000 euros from the state foundation for the protection of historical monuments. The rest is paid by the builder, the city of habfurt.
