Vreithof

After the Reformation, the Latin school that had existed at the Patroklistift since the 12th century did not appear to the town council to meet the requirements of humanist education. A new school was therefore founded in 1533. It received its own school building in 1570, which was built on this square according to the plans of the famous master builder Laurentz von Brachum and stood here until 1821. The school, called the Archigymnasium from 1604, then moved into the former arsenal with the stables of the town hall. This wing of the town hall was rebuilt and extended several times for the Archigymnasium. In 1928, the grammar school moved to the former teacher training college on Niederbergheim Straße and the east wing became part of the town hall again. The words on the façade "to Eyndracht, Nut unde Vrede" (to harmony, benefit and peace), borrowed from the Schrae (city law book), bear witness to its purpose. The buildings surrounding the Vreithof embody all styles. In addition to half-timbered houses from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, there are also solid buildings from the Classicist, Historicist and Modernist periods. In particular, the cladding of the half-timbered houses on the east side bears witness to the end of the development of half-timbered construction and to the fact that half-timbering was no longer modern from the beginning of the 18th century and was considered a "poor man's construction method". The cladding was intended to simulate a solid construction while retaining the very inexpensive half-timbered construction method. Some of them are very elaborately carved stones.