To be privately owned
ResidenceMainz
Palais Haus zum Stein
The Haus zum Stein is a Romanesque residential tower built at the end of the 12th century in Mainz. Today, the building is located on Weintorstraße, in the southern old town. With its partially original building fabric from the mid-13th century, the Haus zum Stein is at its core the oldest still preserved and inhabited building in Mainz.
The Haus zum Stein was built towards the end of the 12th century at the southeastern end of the city area, directly on the city wall ring, as a three-story residential tower in the Romanesque style. The builder probably belonged to the noble patrician family of Judd vom Stein (also Judeus de Lapide or de Lapide), mentioned around 1250 in the Konstanz Armorial. This formerly Jewish family, which converted to Christianity by the mid-13th century at the latest, was very wealthy and a member of the tournament society "Zum Esel". For 1250, Eberhardus de Lapide is named as the owner of the Haus zum Stein. After alterations and an unauthorized raising of the residential tower, he came into dispute with the Archbishop of Mainz, Christian II von Bolanden. To prevent a possible demolition of the residential tower, Eberhardus promised the Archbishop to leave the Haus zum Stein to the Mainz Cathedral Chapter after his death.
Despite this promise, the house remained in the possession of the Judd vom Stein family until the family died out around 1500. Structural adaptations such as the breaking of window openings into the ground floor or additions and enlargements of the entire property are verifiable for the following decades. For the year 1657, Philipp Erwein von Schönborn, brother of the Elector of Mainz Johann Philipp von Schönborn, is attested as owner. At that time, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the Welschnonnen, whose monastery was under construction, lived in the now extensive property around the Haus zum Stein.
In the 18th century, the Haus zum Stein was in bourgeois possession. During the Siege of Mainz in 1793, the upper part of the tower was destroyed and subsequently completed with a half-timbered floor and a gabled roof. The entire gable front on the previously undeveloped west and south sides was clad with slate, visually losing the tower character of the house.
During restoration work, especially in the 1970s, well-preserved original building components from the Romanesque phase came to light. From 1981 to 1983, the tower was renovated and partially reconstructed with historical building fabric.
Description+
The Haus zum Stein is a more than 20 m high three-story tower with a rectangular floor plan of 11.2 × 16.3 m. The floor heights vary between 4 and over 5 m. From the Romanesque period, slit windows on the ground floor and coupled window arcades, which have been preserved on the upper floor of the north wall, originate. These are windows with two double arcades coupled over a pillar, with a double column arrangement and imposts ending in rolls. The cube-shaped capitals show different patterns, such as spiral patterns. These windows also served as a model for the windows reconstructed on the entire building in the 1980s.
Reconstruction+
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Haus zum Stein was still in private ownership but was in urgent need of renovation. In the course of the old town renovation in Mainz, the building was declared a renovation object by the city in 1972. During structural engineering work in 1974, the aforementioned Romanesque building remains were discovered, and the structural-historical significance of the building was recognized. In 1979, the owner transferred the Haus zum Stein to the trust property of the city of Mainz.
During the reconstruction of the building, which lasted from 1981 to 1983, the monument preservation staff oriented themselves on the lower part of the building and the north wall with its slightly later Romanesque twin windows. Original building fabric from the mid-13th century was still present here. Following this model, the upper floors were reconstructed in the same way. Since there was no historical tradition or illustration of the roof termination, it was freely reconstructed as a flat roof.
During the reconstruction of the building, there were substantive differences between monument preservation and the city administration. The latter insisted on a total reconstruction of the tower and on some structural adjustments regarding the planned use of the Haus zum Stein as a residential building. Monument preservation staff, however, argued that too little original building fabric was preserved for a total reconstruction of the building and that there were no pictorial representations of the building from earlier times that could be consulted. The renovation committee of the city of Mainz then decided to limit the reconstruction to the outer sides of the residential tower and a smooth roof termination that externally conceals the roof gable. In its current reconstructed form, the Haus zum Stein resembles similar buildings such as the Baumburger Turm in Regensburg or the Frankenturm in Trier.
Despite these differences, the city of Mainz received a special prize in 1984 within the framework of the federal competition "Building and Living in Old Surroundings" for the reconstruction and modernization of the Haus zum Stein.
Current Use+
Since 2000, the Haus zum Stein has been in private ownership of several Mainz families. The majority of the building consists of rented or privately owned maisonette apartments. Until 2007, a gallery was located on the ground floor of the tower. Today, an apartment in private ownership is also located there.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: http://schloesserrundschau.de/pfalz/schloesser/mainz10.html
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
Location: 49.9965, 8.2760