Türkentor (Helmstedt)
Encyclopedia
Helmstedt
Helmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. Helmstedt has 26,000 inhabitants . In former times the city was also called Helmstädt....
in Lower Saxony in Germany. The main entrance to the former St. Ludger's Abbey
St. Ludger's Abbey
St. Ludger's Abbey was a former monastery of the Benedictine Order in Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, founded by Saint Ludger around 800. Until it was secularised in 1802 it was an Imperial Abbey, with sovereignty over the whole town of Helmstedt until the 15th century.- History :Shortly before 800 the...
and a gateway to the Domänenhof, the arch was built in 1716 to celebrate the victory over the Ottomans by Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy , was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history, rising to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna. Born in Paris to aristocratic Italian parents, Eugene grew up around the French court of King Louis XIV...
at the Battle of Petrovaradin
Battle of Petrovaradin
The Battle of Petrovaradin or Battle of Peterwardein was a decisive victory for Austrian forces in the war between Austria and the Ottoman Empire , at Petrovaradin, now part of Novi Sad, Vojvodina, in Serbia.-History:...
earlier that year, in which Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Ferdinand Albert , Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, was an officer in the army of the Holy Roman Empire...
and Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg
Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg
Reichsfreiherr and Reichsgraf Marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg was a distinguished aristocrat and general of Brandenburg-Prussian descent who served in the Saxon and Venetian armies in the early eighteenth century and found a second career in retirement in Venice, as a grand...
had also been instrumental. Originally sited in line with the Taubenhaus on what is now Bundesstraße 1
Bundesstraße 1
The Bundesstraße 1 or B1 is a German federal highway running in an east-west direction from the Dutch border near Aachen to the Polish border at Küstrin-Kietz on the Oder River.-Route description:...
, it was severely damaged by bombing in the Second World War and resited to its present location in 1986.
The main pediment bears the arms of the Habsburg emperor and the side-arches bear the arms of the abbey's abbot and prior, who had the arch built in celebration of the victory, of family connections to the House of Brunswick and of links between the abbey and the emperor. The architrave also bears the Roman numerals for the year 1716 and above the double pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s on either side are a sun (symbol of the Habsburg Empire) and a crescent moon (symbol of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
).