User:Acorntree144/Haus zur Goldenen Waage (Frankfurt am Main) 2

Second floor


In its structure the second floor was essentially indetical with floor below although the rooms north and south of the hallway were already seperated by intermediate walls during Hamel's time, sodass four doors leading to four rooms in this part of the building.

In the end of the seventeenth century, when the house was owned by the Barckhausen family, additional furnishing was obviously added here. In doing so, a rather simble stucco ceiling was built in the north-eastern room. It was devided in panels and showed a pelican feeding its fledglings in the middle – an indication that the room was used as a nursery. The pelican was also the crest of the Barckhausen family's coat-of-arms. Additionally, a big double door leading to the north-western room had been integrated (as can be seen in the image), flanked by detailed Corinthian order pillars.

The remaining rooms of the floor were decorated far more plainly than the previous floors and included little decor originating from the earlier times of the house. Through the centuries they were used as a bed-chamber or an office under different owners. The museum furnished them as an office, a music room, a kitchen and the chambers of a male resident, using much of the original decor according to its presumed purpose.

The third intermediate floor above the vestibule of the Alte Hölle could be seen on the western side back in the stairwell on the way to the roof. Although in contrast to the preceding intermediate floors the western wall was open-worked here and lead via a staircase to the slightly lower situated second floor above the storeroom of the Alte Hölle. In this area of the house, which was described as a workshop in an inventory in 1635, Hamel had once arranged cauldrons, pans and stoves for his original business. Via a staircase you could reach the attic of the Alte Hölle from this point. The attic was also called "chamber slightly above" during the inventory. Alongside hints from the stock /furniture that a meager sleeping area was arranged here for Hamel's apprentices, the attic was mostly used for storing the ingredients for the workshop below it. The rooms, as well as both upper top floors of the Goldene Waage are now mostly used for the museum administration. Im ausgebauten Dachboden der Alten Hölle befand sich die Wohnung des Hausverwalters.

Further following the staircase, the stone steps became wodden ones and the timber-framed character of the stair tower revealed itself on the walls. On the southern side a wooden hatch with an elevating construction could also be seen, allowing the transport of delivered goods and supplies from the courtyard to the attic.