Altstadt (old town) was the historic area that contained the medieval walled city of hanau, The grimm brother's city. West of the larger New town which was created in the 17th century.

It is the area around the former Hanau water castle, which later was the residence (Stadtschloss) . In 1303 Hanau gained its town privilege. Shortly after the city wall was built. It marks the borders of the former old town area. The old town area is the most important area of Hanau containing its oldest buildings such as the old town halls, aswell as the gothic saint mary's church. one of three former main churches in hanau. the other the saint John's church is also located in this area of the city.

The old town of Hanau had a lot of historic buildings from all epochs most notably the renaissance and early baroque, aswell as neoclassical periods, since most of it has been redesigned in the 17th century during the rule of Philipp Ludwig II.

Hanau is also most notably known as the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm, world wide famous for their fairytales. Their house however was not located inside the old town itself, but on the square called "Paradeplatz" a large square east of the old town that counts to the new town area, but is generally counted in as ensemble "Altstadt mit Paradeplatz"

It was saved from large modifications in the 19th and early 20th century. However the final fate of the old town of Hanau was tragic.

After renovated under the rule of the national socialists, the british decided to bomb the small, non industrial town at the Kinzig river. This was a horrendous loss of culture and tradition that used to be so well preserved inside this city. The air raids on Hanau on the 19th March 1945, in the last year of the second world war, were targeted deliberately on the cultural property of the city, aswell as the people whch lived in it. It was part of the "Moral Bombing campaign" and had no military use since the city suffered attacks months, and weeks earlier which destroyed also its Train station, aswell as industrial facilities around the city, even parts of the city center itself. However most of it kept intact.


The result of the indiscriminate bombing was terrible. Hanau was completely destroyed in that night, and nothing of the important cultural property of the Grimm Brother's city stood anymore. neither in the new nor the old town. What today remains of the former city are ruins, such as the ruins of the saint John's church which has no spire anymore, or also the Dutch-walloon church located in the new town.

Hanau has almost no cultural property anymore, and the city doesnt play well with what is left either, so for example the "reconstruction" of the St john's churches spire is a unworthy attempt to mix modernistic architecture with the former historic beauty that was still left. Howevery there is a spark of hope for the city since plans came up to reconstruct the historic city center at least partially.

What is still left of historic Hanau today is aside of the ruined churches and the magnificently reconstructed "Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus" aswell as the Town hall .nothing anymore.

The city was reconstructed quickly and rushed, like any other german post war city. It is filled to the brink with simple buildings, however luckily mostly from the 1950s.

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The map contains about 280 unique buildings. (Buildings contain no interior!)


Noteable locations in this map: 21.

Churches:

St. Mary's Church 60m
St. John's Church 56m

Houses:

Nordstraße 66
Altstadt-Apotheke
Bangertstraße 8
Zu den Karmelitern
Bangertstraße 14
Zum Großen Kurfürsten
Birthplace of the brothers Grimm

Other Buildings:

Kommandantur
City Theatre
Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus (Old Town Hall)
Spielhaus (First Town Hall)
Gestapo Office
Armory
Residence
New Mint

Squares:

Altstädter Markt
Paradeplatz

Streets:

Nordstraße
Erbsengasse

This map is downloadable for free, i thank you for your patience you had while i was working on it. I am happy to present you another map of mine, like the former map Gießen.

This file contains:

Hanau old Town + Paradeplatz
Hanau Texturepack (Partially mixed)

If the new town is being uploaded, this project site is going to be updated

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