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Besucher des Museums betrachten alte Grundmauern des Saalhofs
Museumsuferfest 2015. Führung mit Bettina Lenge-Tyazami, Die Staufer und das mittelalterliche Frankfurt CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Petra Welzel
Museumsbesucher betrachten eine Bauskulptur
Museumsuferfst 2015: Führung in der Ausstellung Stauferzeit CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Petra Welzel
Besucher des Museums betrachten alte Grundmauern des Saalhofs Museumsbesucher betrachten eine Bauskulptur

The Staufer period 800 yeas ago was especially important for the city: Back then the civic community was formed, the city was walled and it received the great privilege to hold trade fairs.

In the basement of the old Staufer Königspfalz (a temporary seat of power for the Holy Roman Emperor) the most important exhibition object is the building itself, the Staufer building. Visitors walk over a bridge through excavated walls, wells and canals and continue to the treasury where they will find crowns, sceptres and orbs. 

Das Foto zeigt den Ausschnitt aus einer Zeichnung des Stauferbaus mit der Saalhofkappelle.
Ausschnitt aus einer Zeichung des Stauferbaus: Die Saalhofkappelle. CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF
Das Foto zeigt einen Ausschnitt aus der Wand der Saalhofkappelle. Es sind Rundbögen des Fensters zu sehen.
Rundbögen an den Fenstern des Stauferbaus. CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF
Das Foto zeigt den Ausschnitt aus einer Zeichnung des Stauferbaus mit der Saalhofkappelle. Das Foto zeigt einen Ausschnitt aus der Wand der Saalhofkappelle. Es sind Rundbögen des Fensters zu sehen.

Around 1200, the Staufer building was erected in the east of the Saalhof as a two-storey residential wing with a hall-like room on the upper floor and an 18-metre-high three-storey residential tower facing the Main.

During the reign of the Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia, a chapel was built on the east of the tower from 1200 onwards. In the basement, visitors can admire the original flooring from the Staufer period. River pebbles have been added in a few places to recreate the original impression. The narrow, irregularly shaped window and the plaster in the window frame have also been preserved in their original form.

In the Staufer period, the basement of the chapel was only accessible from above through a hatch. It is therefore assumed that precious things, if not the imperial insignia themselves, were kept there. The presentation of the crown, orb and sceptre – replicas of the original coronation insignia from the early 20th century – refers to this. This also refers to the importance of the Hohenstaufen rulers for Frankfurt as a place of election and coronation. When they came to Frankfurt, the Hohenstaufen stayed in the Saalhof.


A model of the residential tower and the "Palas" (palace) from around 1200 invites visitors to explore the Staufer building. On levels 1, 2 and 3, the Collector's Museum has been integrated into the Staufer Building.

Das Foto zeigt eine Nahaufnahme des Stauferhafens
Baustelle Stauferhafen, CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Uwe Dettmar
Das Foto zeigt die Grabungsstätte des Stauferhafens im Jahr 2012
Grabungsort Stauferhafen 2012, CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Uwe Dettmar
Das Foto zeigt eine Nahaufnahme des Stauferhafens Das Foto zeigt die Grabungsstätte des Stauferhafens im Jahr 2012

Historical Life around the Staufer harbour (Stauferhafen) 

The journey to Frankfurt by boat on the Main is documented in the first written records of Frankfurt from 794 onwards. In 1149, Archbishop Albero travelled across the Main with 40 ships, including residential and kitchen ships, to attend the court day of Konrad III. Only a few years later, on 4 March 1152, the participants in Frankfurt's first royal election travelled by ship to Aachen for Barbarossa's coronation ceremony. The written sources prove this: Anyone who thought anything of himself took the ship. The goods that were traded in Frankfurt were delivered by ship.
 

The discovery of the Stauferhafen in June 2012

In June 2012, the bored pile wall for the new buildings of the HMF quarter had been completed and the excavation pit was just being dug. The excavators were standing in the south of the pit, very close to the baroque Bernuspalais. When the excavators came across a paved path that was fixed with a well-preserved wooden plank, the work stopped.

It soon became clear to the city archaeologists that this was an unusual find. Over a length of about 20 metres, this path and wooden fortification could be traced. The well-preserved pavement and its connection to the Staufer south wall allowed only one assumption: it must have been a quay of the Saalhof, which had been built at the same time as the Staufer construction of the late 12th century. The chronological determination of the wooden beam on felling dates of 1303 or 1314 was available in July 2012 and confirmed this assumption.

 

The beam was a wearing part, which had last been replaced at the beginning of the 14th century. In the middle of the 14th century, this quay had been filled in because, in the course of the city expansion authorised in 1333, the city wall at this point was moved southwards, towards the river. Thus, a unique testimony to the life of Frankfurt's Staufer city has been preserved in the HMF. Its new highlight is located directly in the entrance area. Right at the beginning of the museum visit, it is made visible: the important location of the city on the river, the ford through the Main in the immediate vicinity (Fahrtor), the resulting traffic junction, the place increasingly used and visited by kings and merchants – all this is made visible to the visitors at the start with the original quay.

In retrospect, the desire to present the highlight at the site of discovery under the best conservation conditions improved the architects' original design, even though the construction time was extended by a year due to the redesign and clarification of details. The originally planned roof between the Bernuspalais and the entrance building has been replaced by two roofed and glazed passages, with the harbour in between. On the north façade of the old building, guests in the Sonnemann Hall can step outside through the double doors and view the quay.

Das Foto zeigt ein Säulenkapitell aus Sandstein.
Säulenkapitell, Aschaffenburg, um 1200, Sandstein, CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Uwe Dettmar
Das Foto zeigt ein Staufisches Doppelkapitell aus Stein
Staufisches Doppelkapitell, um 1200, Stein, CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Uwe Dettmar
Das Foto zeigt ein Säulenkapitell aus Sandstein. Das Foto zeigt ein Staufisches Doppelkapitell aus Stein

The Staufer buildings’ delicate pillars, capitals with tendrils and flower shapes show what tastes were like around 1200.

The kings left behind their portraits on Staufer pfennigs. Only the king was permitted to mint coins. Ceramic and metal vessels and a fireplace in the palace kitchen show how people cooked 800 years ago. The emblem of the Knobloch family – three knotted garlic plants – reminds us that the Saalhof was an important place for trade and for visitors of the trade fair. Jacob Knobloch acquired the Staufer building in the 14th century from King Louis  IV. From then on it was a port of call for cloth traders offering their goods.

Ein Finger zeigt auf das interaktive Staufermodell
Museumsuferfest 2015, Bettina Lenge-Tyazami, Die Staufer und das mittelalterliche Frankfurt, CC-BY-SA 4.0: HMF, Foto: Petra Welzel
Eine Personengruppe betrachtet einen digitalen Stadtplan Frankfurts.
Besucher betrachten das interaktive Stadtmodell
Ein Finger zeigt auf das interaktive Staufermodell Eine Personengruppe betrachtet einen digitalen Stadtplan Frankfurts.

Interactive model of the Old Town

A scale model city with buildings and city walls simulates the Frankfurt of the Staufer period.

It shows the Old Town at the time when the Saalhof emerged, around 1200. In an eight-minute-long animation, visitors learn about the expansion and changes of the city on the model.