VIDEO | Wasteland behind Narva City Hall reveals its secrets: pastor’s house

2023-07-13 13:00:32

NEWS OF NARV ARCHEOLOGY

For several months, active archaeological excavations were going on at the site of the future Stockholm Square in Narva.

What interesting things did the archaeologists find during the excavations? We tell you about this in our stories under the heading “News of Narva archeology”, prepared together with Narva archaeologist Ilya Davydov. Start here.

The absolute “highlight” of this site south of the town hall is the house on Tour 12, also known as the house of pastor Michael Scholbach. As a monument of antiquity, it was taken under state protection even before the Second World War. This building is notable for the fact that it was built before the great fire of 1659 and had architectural elements not quite characteristic of Narva. In that fire, the house thoroughly burned down, and then it was repeatedly completed and rebuilt.

In architectural terms, says Ilya Davydov, the house is interesting for its layout. His inspection – of course, connecting the imagination, we started from the hall on the first floor of this once two-story building. The hall was quite spacious, two stories high, with stone slabs on the floor. In the corner of the room we notice the remains of a huge open stove – this is a hearth not only in the literal, but also in a figurative sense: the whole life of the inhabitants of the house was built around it. From the hall it was possible to climb a wooden staircase to the second floor, the premises of which were interconnected by means of a wooden gallery hanging on iron hooks. It is known that such a layout of residential buildings was typical for medieval merchant houses in the cities of Northern Germany.

Pastor Sholboh’s house. Photo from Carling’s 1936 book

Albertus Tretzel, the owner of the Turu 12 house, is mentioned in historical sources in connection with some extraordinary event. After the capture of Narva in 1704, it became known that Tsar Peter I was going to visit it in November. The magistrate of the city was extremely concerned about organizing the reception and refreshments of the tsar, since the burghers of the city, which had recently survived the siege and assault, refused him their help under all sorts of pretexts. Nevertheless, the manager of the Narva customs and ratman Albertus Tretzel volunteered to brew beer for the king.

Six buckets of intoxicating foamy drink brewed in the house on Tura, as well as a cold appetizer (the magistrate made inquiries about the tsar’s gastronomic preferences in advance) turned out to be very useful at the solemn feast in the town hall. It is known from the correspondence of the magistrate that, having accepted the traditional offerings from the magistrate, the king went to the meeting room of the town hall, where a dinner was held, which lasted until half past two in the morning. Everyone was in a good mood, when the toasts were announced in honor of the august guest, cannons were fired on the city ramparts.

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