Frauenkirche (Dresden, Romanesque predecessor building)

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The Romanesque Frauenkirche is the first predecessor of the Frauenkirche in Dresden to be documented by structural remains .

prehistory

As early as 1728, Christian August Freyberg , Rector of the Dresden Annenschule , stated "that basically no news of the foundation of the church could be found" - there are still no written or pictorial records about the foundation of the earliest Frauenkirche.

In 968 the diocese of Meissen was founded, which was subordinate to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg . From Meissen, the spiritual helpers of the Meissen bishop began to evangelize the Sorbs who live in what is now the Saxon region . For this purpose, a church organization with numerous mission churches developed up to the year 1000, which were considered royal churches, but were mostly founded on the initiative of the bishops, but also the margraves. It is likely that the Frauenkirche in what was then Gau Nisan was founded by a Meißner bishop who also held the patronage of the church. At the time, the Frauenkirche was elevated near a river crossing on the left bank of the Elbe and thus on the Altstrasse that connected Dohna with Meißen . A Slavic settlement, which was later called Dresden , can only be assumed for a settlement on the right bank of the Elbe at that time, while the left bank around the Frauenkirche was largely uninhabited. At the beginning there were around 30 Sorbian villages on the right and left side of the Elbe, which were up to ten kilometers away from the church. With the Sorbian village settlement of Poppitz , which would now lie southwest of the Annenkirche , the Frauenkirche also had something that was assigned to it for material equipment when it was founded.

Foundation and possible first Frauenkirch buildings

Historians assume that the first Frauenkirche initially existed as a "mission station without a fixed Sprengel" and was located away from the center of the Burgward . Adjacent to the west were the Burgward Briesnitz with its own church and the Weißeritzburgward, which was south of the Burgward Briesnitz.

The end of the 10th century or the 11th century come into question as the construction time of the first women's churches as a Sorabian mission station . When the church ceiling was redesigned around 1580, an old year (probably 1020) was found for the “foundation” and the age was given as “in the 560th year”. A foundation of the church (around) 1020 therefore saw chroniclers of the 17th and 18th centuries as possible. According to Slavic tradition, the Church of Our Lady , which is certainly still wooden , was consecrated by Přibislav (probably the court chaplain of the Bohemian Duke Oldřich ) on September 8th, the feast day of the birth of Mary.

The archaeologist Reinhard Spehr put the year of construction of the Frauenkirche at the time "around 1060"; His excavations in 1987 on the former Frauenkirchhof uncovered grave remains, presumably from the 11th or early 12th century, which suggest an associated older church. Later excavations resulted in finds which were also dated to the end of the 10th century.

Since there are no structural remains of this church and the stone construction was still largely unknown at that time, the first Frauenkirche will have been a sacred building made of wood.

The Romanesque stone building

Announcement No. 7 in the reign of Roman King Conrad III, in the 7th year of his reign. Given at Merseburg. In 1144 after the Incarnation of the Lord.

After the death of Heinrich von Groitzsch without a male heir in 1135, the formal rights in Nisan fell back to the Bohemian duke, then Soběslav I , and after his death in 1140 to his nephew and successor Vladislav II. In 1142 a group of Moravians tried To overthrow nobleman Vladislav II, who in his distress to King Konrad III. fled to Würzburg . It is said that the relapse of the Nisan and Bautzen districts to the king was negotiated as thanks for successful military support. Around 1143, Conrad III. in a compensation over the Groitzsch inheritance the Gau Nisan to the Wettin Margrave Konrad the Great . As early as 1144, Conrad the Great was arguing with Bishop Reinward von Meißen about the building and security services of the Hochstiftsuntertanen in Nisan and about his alleged right to Naundorf west of Radebeul. The king decided that the bishop's villages would be free from the enforced services and that Naundorf would remain in the possession of the bishop, but should be given as a fief to the margrave's son. From his office, the margrave had military sovereignty over Nisan and the burgrave court had additional legal powers. The castle Dohna , the high court rights and the cereal income kept Konrad III. as in large parts of the country east of the Saale to secure royal positions. On the basis of these rights, the Hohenstaufen partisan Heinricus de Rodewa (Heinrich von Rötha ) was appointed burgrave of Dohna probably as early as 1144, but no later than 1156 . The Wettin Conrad the Great was thus able to begin with the development of Nisan from around 1143. Around 1150 he ruled two villages in Nisan. Since the Wettin margraves were the first verifiable patrons of the Frauenkirche, the Romanesque predecessor building can also be ascribed to them. Due to the development of the country, the villages belonging to the parish had grown in number and inhabitants, so that an enlargement of the presumed wooden church and the cemetery became necessary. Around the middle of the 12th century, the Wettins decided to build a stone building. The foundations of this building's wall uncovered in 1987 were 1.05 meters thick and consisted of plan slate laid in clay . It was not until the construction of the Dresden Elbe Bridge , which began around 1173, that the use of sandstone was first demonstrated, which was increasingly used for construction in the following period. This, as well as small fragments found in the building clay of the plan walls, which can roughly be dated to the 12th century, suggest that the first stone Frauenkirche was built before 1170. Foundation walls made exclusively of plan slate were also used when Dresden was founded and found in the area of ​​the city wall and the medieval castle . They date to the last quarter of the 12th century.

The collegiate church in Wurzen - a possibly similar nave to that of the first stone Frauenkirche

The stone building had an outer width of 21 meters, which is why Spehr suspected a three-aisled basilica under construction . Even Heinrich Magirius goes architekturtypologischen considerations following, assuming that it could have been in the High Middle Frauenkirche a transept loose short Basilica, in Saxony similar among other Geithain , Rochlitz and Roetha is detected. It was longer than it was wide, assuming that the place of the triumphal arch remained the same for the subsequent building and that the width of the central nave of around eight meters was adopted, as was quite common in medieval church buildings. Central pillars cannot be proven for this sacred building, even if the side aisles in basilicas of the Middle Ages were usually separated from the central nave by arcades. The formation of the choir is not known, as the west end was destroyed by the construction of a sewer system at this point.

The building, which was reconstructed using analogies and archaeological finds, is likely to have shown a resemblance to the collegiate church of St. Marien in Wurzen, which was consecrated in 1114 : the nave of both buildings was wider than it was long; In the collegiate church, too, the aisles are separated from the central nave by two pillars with three arcades. The width of the central nave is eight meters, so that the feeling of space in the collegiate church should initially reflect that of the first Frauenkirchstein building.

In the 14th century the Romanesque Frauenkirche was rebuilt by the Gothic successor building. The Gothic building surrounded the Romanesque building like a bell.

literature

  • Manfred Kobuch : The beginnings of the Dresden Frauenkirche . In: The Dresden Frauenkirche. 2002 yearbook . Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-7400-1189-0 , pp. 47-52.
  • Reinhard Spehr : excavations in the Frauenkirche of Nisan / Dresden . In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies . Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, pp. 206-217.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian August Freyberg : History of the women's church in New Dresden . Bodenehrn, Dresden 1728, p. 1.
  2. ^ Walter Schlesinger : Church history of Saxony in the Middle Ages. Volume 1: From the beginning of church proclamation to the end of the investiture dispute. Böhlau, Cologne 1962, p. 147.
  3. ↑ Manfred Kobuch : The beginnings of the Dresden Frauenkirche . In: The Dresden Frauenkirche. 2002 yearbook . Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2002, p. 47.
  4. ↑ Current research relates this approach to the Sorbian name of the settlement dwellers "Drežďany", which contains the Old Sorbian word "drezga" (forest, thicket). The forest inhabitants can be directly related to the inhabitants of a right side of the Elbe, which was overgrown by the Dresden Heath , but not to the unwooded part of the left Elbe . Cf. Manfred Kobuch: The beginnings of the Dresden Frauenkirche . In: The Dresden Frauenkirche. 2002 yearbook . Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2002, p. 49.
  5. ^ Heinrich Magirius : The Dresden Frauenkirche by George Bähr . Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 2005, p. 12.
  6. ^ Walter Schlesinger: Church history of Saxony in the Middle Ages. Volume 1: From the beginning of church proclamation to the end of the investiture dispute. Böhlau, Cologne 1962, p. 198.
  7. ↑ Anton Weck : The Chur-Princely Saxon widely-called Residentz and Haupt-Vestung Dresden description and presentation . Joh. Hoffmann, Nürnberg 1680, p. 245 .: “ The ancestors did not record the time of the foundation; and the like report brought to posterity / so that one could decrease the actual age / but one has for almost several 90th years / when the church was ground on the ceiling / from a year = number of old people report after / removed that already at the same time in the 560th year. "
  8. ↑ Anton Weck: The Chur-Princely Saxon widely-called Residentz and Haupt-Vestung Dresden description and presentation . Joh. Hoffmann, Nürnberg 1680, p. 13 .: “So it is certain / that Dresden was already well known for quite some time before the 1000th year after the birth of Christ / in mass Dresserus in its cities = Chronicki and other authors, but especially from the Pirnischen Münche / Johann Lindnern / an = and stated that Dresden at the time of Kayser Heinrich des Voglers / and Kayser Ottens / was a patch / alda it had a Taberne or Schenckstädt / and a fortified Uberfarth on the Elbe / but is / what Ietzo mentioned / not to be understood in any other form than from the old Dresden / because New Dresden suffered damage after around 1020. Than AltDresden before that / and also from the water / from the Elbe streaks / damage. "
  9. ^ Johann Gottfried Michaelis : Dreßdnische Inscriptiones und Epitaphia . Schwencke, Alt-Dresden 1714, [p. 19/678] .: “ Only here it is difficult to determine / if this church at Sanct Marien or our dear women made the first start / or who was the foundation of it /. It would be desirable that complete news of this would not have been withdrawn from us at the same time as the farewell of their papists by the blessed Lutheran Reformation: So one could inform a well-meaning reader with better reasons about the foundation and funders. But it is probable that it may have already stood around the one thousand and twentieth year. Because at that time the people because of great water damage, which they often suffered in Alt-Dreßden from the Elbe / started to build this side of the Elbe, because the land was higher here / than in Alt-Dreßden. If one can trust the saying of old people / who once lived / when the ceiling of the church was newly ground and at that time a year was found; so the year given above must be correct. "
  10. ↑ a b c d Reinhard Spehr : Excavations in the Frauenkirche of Nisan / Dresden . In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies . Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, p. 211.
  11. ^ Society for the Promotion of the Reconstruction of the Frauenkirche Dresden eV (Ed .; Authors: Dr. Claus Fischer, Dr. Hans-Joachim Jäger, Dr. Manfred Kobusch): The Dresden Frauenkirche. From the beginning to the present. , Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-021620-6 , p. 12 .: “ Around 1000 [...] Surrounded by a cemetery with Christian burials since the end of the 10th century, the Church of Our Lady Mary (ecclesia Beate Virginis) consecrated. "
  12. ↑ Manfred Kobuch: The beginnings of the Dresden Frauenkirche . In: The Dresden Frauenkirche. 2002 yearbook . Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2002, p. 52.
  13. ^ André Thieme , Manfred Kobuch : The Nisan landscape from the 10th to 12th centuries - settlement, rule and church. In: Karlheinz Blaschke (Ed.), Uwe John: From the beginning to the end of the Thirty Years War. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-8062-1906-7 , pp. 63–88 and 645–649, here p. 78 (History of the City of Dresden, Vol. 1).
  14. ^ André Thieme, Manfred Kobuch: The Nisan landscape from the 10th to 12th centuries - settlement, rule and church. In: Karlheinz Blaschke (Ed.), Uwe John: From the beginning to the end of the Thirty Years War. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-8062-1906-7 , pp. 63–88 and 645–649, here p. 648, note 74 (History of the City of Dresden, Vol. 1).
  15. ↑ Manfred Kobuch: To determine the location of the commercial courtyards of the Hohenstaufen table goods directory in the Meissnian brand area. In: Lutz Fenske (ed.): Pfalzen, Reichsgut, Königshöfe. (= German royal palaces. Contributions to their historical and archaeological research. Volume 4) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996, pp. 308–376, here: p. 332
  16. ↑ Announcement No. 7 in the reign of the Roman King Conrad III, in the 7th year of his reign. Given at Merseburg. In 1144 after the Incarnation of the Lord. In: Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, 10001 Older documents, OU 56: “ The members of the Meißner cathedral chapter should have two villages, namely Döltzschen and the nearby Naundorf, but the bishop should have the other Naundorf, which is on the other side of the Elbe, according to the Keep the agreement made in the meantime, but in such a way that he grants it as a fiefdom to the son of the margrave, but the margrave owns the village of Gohlis at his own disposal. All villages of the Meißner church, which are located in the province of Nisan, are exempt from building obligations on the margravial castle and from the public guard duty. "
  17. ^ André Thieme, Manfred Kobuch: The Nisan landscape from the 10th to 12th centuries - settlement, rule and church. In: Karlheinz Blaschke (Ed.), Uwe John: From the beginning to the end of the Thirty Years War. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-8062-1906-7 , pp. 63–88 and 645–649, here p. 86 (History of the City of Dresden, Vol. 1).
  18. ↑ Susanne Baudisch: Local nobility in north-west Saxony. Settlement and rule structures from the late 11th to the 14th century (= history and politics in Saxony. Volume 10), Böhlau monograph on the dissertation, Cologne Weimar Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-412-02599-2 , pp. 94-103
  19. ↑ a b Reinhard Spehr: Excavations in the Frauenkirche of Nisan / Dresden . In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies . Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, p. 212.
  20. ↑ a b Heinrich Magirius: The Church “Our Dear Women” in Dresden - The predecessor of the Frauenkirche George Bährs . In: The Dresden Frauenkirche. 2002 yearbook . Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2002, p. 65.