Falkenhaus, Würzburg

The Haus zum Falken, also called Falkenhaus, is a building on the market square in downtown Würzburg.

The original building bore the name "Hof zur Burgpfarre" served from 1338 to accommodate the cathedral priest The house was bought by the innkeeper Franz Thomas Meißner in 1735 and operated as the inn "Zum Falken". Meißner's widow had the three-gabled rococo facade decorated with stucco built in 1751. Until the 19th century, the three-story Falkenhaus housed Würzburg's only concert and dance hall.

The house was bought by the city of Würzburg in 1939. During World War II, the house burned out completely during the bombing of Würzburg on March 16, 1945, and parts of the facade collapsed. Due to the prominent location of the destroyed building on the upper market, the Würzburg government architect Rudolf Schlick advocated reconstruction in 1947 for reasons of monument preservation, but this was initially delayed. At the beginning of the 1950s, it was then carried out by the Würzburg municipal structural engineering office based on old photographs. The reconstruction of the facade is considered exemplary according to the Dehio art manual, but the interior organization of the building was adapted to contemporary purposes. Since 1952, the building has been in its present state and houses the tourist information office and the central public library of the city of Würzburg.

Decades later, the integration of the building into a department store complex was discussed. Here, the replicated rococo facade would have remained only as a "pre-faced pane". From 1993 onwards, the municipal library in the Falkenhaus was rebuilt and extended. In the process, the Falkenhof, which had housed a youth center since 1972, and the former Falken or central halls of the Falkenhaus, which were accessible via Marienplatz, were demolished. The house is adjacent to the Marienkapelle on one side and the Kaufhof department store on the other.