Domshof

The buildings around the Domshof are relatively uniform in construction, being made of sandstone (e.g. Bremer Bank) and dark red or clinker brick (e.g. the town hall and the Landesbank).

The cathedral was built at the highest point of the Bremen sandbank, and was more than 5.5 m (18 ft) higher than the other end of the square in the Middle Ages.

During this time, the Domshof was also used as a tourney field - a grand festive joust took place at Pentecost in 1335 on the occasion of the rediscovery of the relics of Saints Cosmas and Damian under Prince-Archbishop Burchard Grelle.

Until the Reformation it was the Catholic Prince-Archbishop, then the Lutheran Administrator regnant of the Prince-Archbishopric, then Swedish Bremen-Verden from 1648, then Electoral Hanover from 1715 to 1719, finally becoming part of the City of Bremen in 1803.

In the agreement of 1654 which ended the First Swedish War on Bremen, only usage regulations were established with respect to the Domshof and the Domsheide.

The unclear usage regulations meant that the houses on the Domshof that were owned by the church and then the Swedish Crown fell into disrepair.

Johann Daniel Heinbach's plan of 1730 shows a large stack of timber in the northern part of the square from about 70 trees.

Johann Christian Danckwerth listed 160 buildings belonging to the Electorate of Hanover, of which eight houses and five shabby stalls by the cathedral were in the "Great Doms Hof".

The question of sovereignty over the Domshof (whether the square was fundus regis or part of the free city) remained "in suspenso".

When stalls were set out for the Freimarkt, both the Mayor of Bremen and the Hanoverian alderman approved them and Hanover collected the rental fee.

Some 60 or 70 new linden trees were planted in two groups, bordered by 69 sandstone pillars and 195 m (640 ft) of chain, so that a tree-lined avenue ran through the middle of the square.

The Gothic palace which dated from 1293 was largely in disrepair by 1816 and a Stadthaus was built on its location by 1818, according to the plans of Nicolaus Blohm.

In 1823 the building inspector Friedrich Moritz Stamm submitted a design for the complete remodelling of the square, which was accepted.

The location encouraged the erection of hotels including Stadt Frankfurt and Zum Lindenhof as well as pubs like Börsenhalle, Shaers Kaffeehaus, and Stehely & Josty and the restaurant Quinat & Ritsert.

A spitting stone in unworked basalt with an engraved cross serves as a memorial to this, the last public execution in Bremen.

Other assemblies and marches took place in the square in 1848 when volunteers came to join the war against Denmark, in 1849 on the anniversary of the Revolution, in 1851 by protesting supporters of the pastor Rudolph Dulon, in 1865 for the Second German National Shooting Competition, in 1871 to celebrate victory in the Franco-Prussian War and in 1913 to celebrate the centenary of the Battle of Leipzig.

These celebrations included military parades, musters, free markets through 1913, daily changes of the guard, and memorial days.

In 1891 the Deutsche Bank built their historicising branch in red sandstone, which they expanded in the 1980s with a new building connected to the old by a passageway.

The orphanage beside the cathedral and the neighbouring houses had to make way for the Bremer Bank erected in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1906, which was also substantially expanded in the 1980s.

The New Town Hall was built in its place according to the plan of the Munich architect Gabriel von Seidl in the Neo-Renaissance style and was completed in 1913.

The Baroque Caesarian House at Number 21, named after councilman Dr Gerhard Caesar and dating back to 1768 was demolished in 1960.

A six-story office building designed by Herbert Anker replaced it, long the location of the Bremer Treuhand.

After a rather unsuccessful design competition in 1984, the square was thoroughly renovated in 1990, with new granite paving, some trees and raised flower beds, sandstone slabs on the footpaths, the installation of a tram stop, the Neptune Fountain (1991), the Global Fountain in front of the Deutsche Bank, and an expensive public toilet.