In 1773, after the house in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had been born became too small, the entire Mozart family moved across the river to the Tanzmeisterhaus on the square then known as Hannibalplatz. The building now accommodates a museum showing the various stations of the lives of the Mozart family. The building is now commonly known as Mozarts Wohnhaus and no-one knows where Hannibalplatz is as its latter-day name is Markartplatz. The existence of the building was first documented in 1617.
On the 16th October 1944 two thirds of the house were destroyed in an air raid. The owner at the time sold the bombed section of the building to Assicurazioni Generali, who then erected an office building subsequently purchased by the International Mozarteum Foundation in 1989. The International Mozarteum Foundation had already acquired the surviving section of the Tanzmeistersaal hall for museum purposes in 1955. On the 2nd May 1994 the office building was demolished and on the 4th May reconstruction of the original house was commenced according to old structural plans. In 1996 Mozart’s Wohnhaus was reopened.
References:Château de Niort is a medieval castle in the French town of Niort. It consists of two square towers, linked by a 15th-century building and dominates the Sèvre Niortaise valley.
The two donjons are the only remaining part of the castle. The castle was started by Henry II Plantagenet in the 12th century and completed by Richard the Lionheart. It was defended by a rectangular curtain wall and was damaged during the Wars of Religion. In the 18th century, the castle served as a prison.
The present keeps were the central point of a massive fortress. The southern keep is 28m tall, reinforced with turrets. The northern tower is slightly shorter at 23m. Both are flanked with circular turrets at the corners as well as semicircular buttresses. Each of the towers has a spiral staircase serving the upper floors. The Romanesque architecture is of a high quality with the dressed stones closely jointed.