Civic spaces outside of the city: Shooting ranges in the Holy Roman Empire

Civic spaces outside of the city:Shooting ranges in the Holy Roman Empire

Jean-Dominique Delle Luche

LabEx HASTEC (Histoire et Anthropologie des Savoirs, Techniques et Croyances)Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris (Paris 1)

jddelleluche@gmail.com

A European phenomenon since the 14th-15th centuries

● Late medieval urban warfare : bow or crossbow as typical equipment for city defense and urban contingents

● Shooting grounds as training field for the growing use of fireweapons in cities and territories ("Military revolution")

Hartmann Schedel,Weltchronik 1492/1493

Wurtzburg

Toponymy as evidence of an European phenomenon

Schützen-/Schießhaus, Maison, jardin, clos, champ, place de l'arbalète/arquebuse

Schießwasen, -plan, -rain, Schützenwiese, Schützenmatte

Butte, Ziel, DoelenPapegai, Popinjay, Vogelstange

Festive meadows

Rosenau (Augsburg)Haller Wiese (Nuremberg)

Pfingstwiese (Leipzig)

The popinjay of Penig, Saxony in Braun & Hogenberg's

Civitates Orbis Terrarum VI20 (1617)

Topography● Flat meadows

● Unurbanized non aedificandi spaces

● Relocations rather rare in the Early Modern (cemeteries, bastions, princely residences)

● Continuous use up to the 19th century (defortification, railway stations)

The handgunners' complex in ZurichJos Murer, 1576

Limmat river

Limetrees

Sandclock at the shooting stands

Evolving places● Liability to war, fire and arson,

flooding

● Crossbowmen's fields unfit for the wider range of handguns : new shooting fields in the second half of the 15th century

● Growing differenciation wooden huts / representative stone buildings

● Lotteries for new Dutch marksmen guildhalls

Territorial city of Rottenburg (Swabia)House built ca. 1582 : 150m² x 2 floors

Cost of the house of Thann (Alsace) : 150 lb

Handgunners's house in Nuremberg (1582)(photo below)

Cost of the building : 7700 lb

Building complexes● Stand, targets or popinjay,

huts, walls,

● Sand / mechanic clocks for the crossbowmen

● House and tavern

● Lime trees

Clocktower Gate of Lauf (inner wall)

Target

Nuremberg's arquebuse house, 1582/1583

Relocation of the lime tree in Zurich

Civic spaces● Mandatory place for proofing

and using loaded weapons

● Training field of the marksmen society, festive place of the marksmen interurban contests and bowling greens

● Typical landmark of the German city for visitors (Machiavelli, Montaigne) and in urban engravings

Shooting places in the Braun-Hogenberg engraving series

Popinjays : Bardowick, Bremen, Breslau, Cracow, Görlitz, Iena, Königsberg, Luneburg, Magdeburg, Neisse, Penig, Prague, Straubing, Weimar

Shooting grounds : Basel, Dantzig, Dresden, Freiberg, Hildesheim, Kempten, Marienberg, Nördlingen, Regensburg, St. Gall, Stettin, Stade, Strasbourg, Zurich, Norwich

Actual Northern GermanySouthern Germany [+ Alsace,

Switzerland]Cities with important german

culture

Uses for not-so-quite soft power

Casus belli against neighbours

St. Gallen vs Prince-Abbot 1485 (War 1489-1490)

Free City of Cologne vs the Archbishop 1581 (War 1583-1588)

Destruction of shooting facilities as common border conflict

Diebold Schilling d. J., Luzerner Chronik fol.321vConstance vs Kreuzlingen Abbey 1509

Competition and solidarity● Contests : occasions for the

city for showing off new buildings (city house, shooting house)...

● One of the rare buildings to benefit from Swiss confederate subventions (stained glass panels)

Canton panel of Uri, ca. 1550Unknown provenience

W.Tell

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Thank you for your attentionjddelleluche@gmail.com