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The Proviantmagazin (Commissary) is a classic White Elephant story.It was originally planned in 1860 as a grain storage facility and wartime bakery for the troops stationed in Mainz.In those days, it was an odds-on bet that some bunch of ratbags would front up and lay siege to the city – Romans, Huns, Swedes, French, Austrians, it’d been going on for centuries, if not millennia – and it’s always a good idea to have something in the cupboard in case someone drops by.Mum told me that.The usual military cost overruns, so instead of making it smaller, they reduced the height of the levels to 8 feet, which didn’t have a significant impact on the costs.Four years later, it’s finished.Never used, though.At least, not by the military and by no-one else seriously for the next century.The city fathers renovated it in 1966 (yes, it survived the war…) in the hope that someone would find a use for it and a mere 40 years later, it was converted to loft apartments (with an 8′ stud…?) and commercial offices with a restaurant tacked on the side.Oh, and a biergarten.Now, THAT’s what I call a useful addition…

05 Jul This entry was published on 5 July, 2008 at 13:00. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged Architecture, History. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.