Page - 255 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

15 Human Impact onHydrology 255 Fig. 8: Tübingen and theNeckar River fromsouth. Close to theStifts- kircheare thebuild- ingsof theuniver- sity. Left of the Neckar bridge, timber rafts are visible. heim, where a castle and amarket were established to control the river crossing. In 1276 the bridge ismentioned for the first time.26 Withintheclosesurroundingsof towns, transportationofconsumergoodstowardsthetown increased.With somepossible exceptions in specific topographical situations, suchas indelta areas or coastal lowlands,27 this traffic relied on roads and streets, and only to a lesser degree on local waterways. This is especially true for landscapes in Southern Germany, where most agrarianproductionareaswerenot close towater courses. However, the transportationof firewoodand timber, oftenover longdistances,was carried outbyfloatingordrifting.Thesupplyof townswithtimber thereforeaffectedurbanarchitecture and topography. Market places for timber can often be found at a situation easily accessible from the river, close to a towngate, sometimes outside the oldest urban centrewithin an area of later urbanexpansion. The importance of timber rafting is visible in the town of Tübingen and its surroundings. The nearby Schönbuch forest has been intensively used at least since the 10th/11thcenturies, when iron production and pottery kilns needed large quantities of firewood. It is not possible to calculate howmuch forest has been cleared. In the LateMiddle Ages, however, some areas were left in theneighbourhoodofBebenhausenmonastery,whereahermitagewas founded. In other parts, however, clearing caused soil erosion and gullying in the 14th century. In the 15th century, therewas evenaglass factory in theSchönbuch forest, requiringwood for energy andpotash.28 Timber forhouseconstruction inTübingenwasthusrare.WhenHerzogEberhardvonWürt- temberg intended toestablish theUniversityofTübingen in 1477,he first had to solve theprob- lemof timber supply.He signeda treatywithneighbouring territories toopen theNeckarRiver for floating.BuildingssuchastheStiftskircheandthefirstuniversitybuilding(Fig.8)werebuilt with long tree trunks, imported from the Black Forest on the Neckar river. Researchers have discovered theholes for joining together thesingle logs to large rafts inmany latemedievaland earlymodernbuildings. The treatyof 1475wasnot the first one related to raftingon theNeckar 26 Schwarz 1989, 71f. 27 E.g.Gawronski –Veerkamp2017. 28 Schreg 2018.