Hygienic deficiencies
The practice of meat banks, with meanwhile 49 stalls between Fleischgasse and Austraße, took out of hand. Not least because of the strong smell of the uncooled animal carcasses in the city centre, the first complaints about the slaughterhouse were already made in the middle of the 19th century. As a solution, a meat hall was built on the slaughterhouse in 1863 in order to better organise the sale of the goods. Until the turn of the century cattle were slaughtered here and meat was sold.
Due to persistent hygienic problems, in 1904 new protests arose against the activity. hus the old slaughterhouse was taken out of service in favour of the new slaughterhouse in Lichtenhaidestraße and served only as a meat sales hall until 1928.
Later use
In the following decades, the old slaughterhouse went through a variety of uses for the city of Bamberg. Since June 1983, the building now serves the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg as a library building and seminars room. For this purpose the interior of the old slaughterhouse was completely renewed. All that remains today is the old sandstone facade with the iconic ox figure. The old sandstone building now houses the Institute of Geography.
Inscription
Above the entrance to the slaughterhouse there is a clearly visible Latin inscription referring to the figure of a cow above. It reads:
BOS PRIUS AC VITULUS PRIMAEVO NATUS AB ORTU, NASCENDI SOLITUM TRANSGREDIENDO MODUM. ARTIFICIS MANUS, ILLA FUIT PERFUNCTA PARENTIS MUNERE, NON VITULUM, SED PARIENDO BOVEM.
The artist thus describes the creation / birth of the cattle. Translated means the inscription:
A cow was born without formerly having been a calf, as it was the usual way of birth. The hand of an artist has accomplished the task of the mother, since she created not a calf, but a cow.
