Priest Houses
The Priest Houses in Zwickau: A unique mirror of history and architecture.
The priest houses are situated as the last row of houses of the medieval development around the cathedral St. Marien at Domhof 5 – 8. The original group of 12 houses were built for cleric and other servants from the opposite situated Marien Church. The structure goes back to the 13th century; so that the four still today existing houses is one of Saxony's oldest preserved residential buildings. Examinations of used wooden ceiling building parts at the house Domhof 7 (dendrochronology) revealed felling dates from 1237 to 1264.
The priest houses were not used as residences in the common sense; they were used until the reformation as official residence for the lower worldly clergy (priesthood) of the Marien Church. Apart from clerics also school servants as well as bell ringers and organists lived in the houses from the 15th century onwards. All residents of the priest houses had one thing in common: they were all educated people who contributed decisively to the cultural development of the town Zwickau.
The houses changed hands from church to town in the year to the 1880.
At the end of the 19th century many of the »cleric or priest houses« had to give way to new constructions.
