Nassauer Haus

The tower stands in the Lorenzer Altstadt, opposite the Lorenzkirche, in Karolinenstraße 2.

History

The name "Nassauer Haus" is the name in use for the corner house only since the 19th century and is based on an erroneous reference to the German king Adolf von Nassau († 1298). Until then, the building was referred to (since the early 18th century) as Schlüsselfelderisches Stiftungshaus.. However, descendants of the king from the count's House of Nassau had possessions further north of the Lorenzkirche in the 15th century.

The construction method for fortified tower houses or residential towers came in the 13th century from Upper Italian cities to the German Reichsstädte trading with them. "Geschlechtertürme" were widespread in the (rather weakly fortified) trade centers to protect trade goods from raids, furthermore also as status symbols of noble families who had moved into the cities. In Regensburg, several family towers based on the Italian model are still preserved. Around 1430, about 65 are also said to have existed in Nuremberg, of which the Nassau House is the only surviving one.

The cellar (with an irregular cross-ribbed vault) and the two lower floors are dated to the 13th century. Around the 16th century, the vault of the cellar was raised, as well as that of the first floor. The hall-like cellar is used today as an inn. The two upper floors, which are clearly distinguished by regular ashlar masonry of a reddish hue from the small-scale structured masonry of the lower floors, belong to the 15th century. The original tower may have risen freestanding above the low wooden houses in the vicinity and may also have supported a wooden or half-timbered superstructure in the manner of the Amorbacher Templerhaus. At least the penultimate floor can be attributed to a reconstruction around 1422 by the then owner Jobst Haug. The top floor with its coat of arms frieze and the three pointed-helmeted corner towers was brought into the existing form around 1433 by Ulrich Ortlieb, who is also credited with the choir. The tower has a pyramid-shaped hipped roof.

The residential tower probably only became a "fortified tower" for romantic observers of the 19th century, who may have seen a uniform building in it, whereby the decorative battlement, the coat of arms frieze and the royal attribution may have contributed to this assessment. The most important external change is the installation of the round arched openings on the first floor in 1836; one of them was enlarged to a door around 1900. In the early period, the stone floors of the tower may have had only slit windows or embrasuress and a high entrance, as was customary at the time.