Traditional building culture in the Altes Land region
The Altes Land region to the south-west of Hamburg is one of the most important and best-preserved cultural landscapes in northern Germany. The architecture of the region is characterised by spacious half-timbered houses with rich ornamentation, typically in warm shades of red and white. Characteristic features include the sometimes ornate brick infill, tiled gabled roofs and the gable or eaves orientation of the buildings towards the street. This building style reflects the centuries-old history of the Altes Land as a prosperous fruit-growing region.
Bürgerei Jork
In the centre of Jork, this building tradition is particularly evident in the Bürgerei, a historic street north of the church. The street was built along the former connection from Mittelkirchen to Estebrügge and was once part of the Stade-Francop country road. Today, the thoroughfare runs further north, in the area of the former Osterjorker Fleet. Along the Bürgerei, gabled and eaves-standing half-timbered houses from the 17th to 20th centuries are lined up in typical Altländer colours and have a lasting impact on the townscape. The slightly elevated cemetery area to the south with the baroque hall church and a free-standing wooden church tower provides a striking urban accent. The Jorker Bürgerei is under special protection as a group of buildings due to its coherence in terms of urban development and local historical significance.
Our panorama shows the entire south side of the Bürgerei Jork, starting on the right at the street ‘Am Fleet’, crossing the canal ‘Jorker Hauptwettern’, crossing the Arp-Schnitger-Weg (between houses 2 and 4), the street ‘Umweg’, until the Bürgerei joins Osterjork street at the left end of the picture.
The street begins at the right-hand edge of the panorama with a half-timbered house belonging to a law firm. Across the canal on the left we see a small brick house with a bookshop (Bürgerei 2).
In the centre of the panorama is the Bürgerei 4 building, a half-timbered structure consisting of two buildings. The northern, street-side part dates from the first half of the 19th century. It is a single-storey building with brick infill under a mansard roof, the gable of which projects four times. The residential and commercial building was originally built as a brewery in the 18th century. The northern extension was built on what was then the main road. The building is of particular conservation value due to its historical significance for the history of the village and as an exemplary half-timbered town house of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as its urban impact as a building on the edge of the churchyard. Today, the boutique ‘Bertha’s Tochter’ is located here under the historic ‘Hartmann’ shop sign.
To the left is the striking Bürgerei 6 house, a two-storey, half-timbered building with eaves dating from around 1660, built by Hinrich (Henricus) von Haren. The building rests on a brick plinth and has a tiled pitched roof. The upper storey protrudes slightly on the eaves side, while the gable has a quadruple projection over moulded bays and rounded infill timbers. Special decorative infill panels and the different stud axes on the ground floor and upper floor give the house an ornate appearance. It has been used as a restaurant since the middle of the 19th century at the latest. At the time the photo was taken, it was home to the Hotel Sievers and the Altstadtrestaurant. Above the ground floor, it bears the inscription ‘Hier ward drunken und nicht sapen – Hier kann jedeen reedlich slapen – Hier ward ok de Krüsche satt – Hier verdriggt sich Hoch un Platt’.
The left end of the view is formed by the Bürgerei 8 building, a single-storey, eaves-supported timber-framed building with a high brick base and tile-covered gable roof. A striking feature is the two-axis dormer set in the centre of the street-facing roof surface. The western gable protrudes twice over a gable beam and, as with the neighbouring buildings, features profiled bays and rounded infill beams. On the south side, the roof is sloped over a lower extension. The house was built in the 18th century along the former thoroughfare towards Francop. This building also has special monumental value from the perspective of the local history of an 18th century half-timbered town house. The ‘Altes Land’ estate agency is based here.
