Neumarktkirche St. Thomae (Merseburg)
The Protestant Neumarktkirche St. Thomae Cantuariensis is a Romanesque church in Merseburg in the Saalekreis in Saxony-Anhalt . It belongs to the parish Merseburg in the parish Merseburg in the Evangelical Church in Central Germany and is a station on the Romanesque Road .
History and architecture
The construction of the Neumarktkirche began between 1173 (the year of the canonization of Thomas Becket ) and 1188 (the year the church was first mentioned in a diploma by Friedrich I. Barbarossa ). After that, the church was built in two consecutive phases from east to west. At least the eastern parts were already in use in 1188. At the beginning of the 14th century, the settlement of a canons' monastery is documented, but this was soon moved to the Sixti Church .
Originally the church was a flat-roofed, steeply proportioned basilica with alternating pillars , a choir square with an apse and two side apses on the transept and two towers on the western ends of the aisles. In the west, the church had a gallery opening onto the central nave via two arcades. The towers in the basement were also open to the side aisles. During a restoration in 1825/26, the north aisle, the south side apse and a medieval sacristy on the south side of the choir square were demolished. The southern side aisle, the southern tower and the northern side apse were no longer preserved because of the poor building ground conditions on the banks of the Saale. Because of the increased groundwater level, the site was raised by 1.5 to 2 meters, so that the building appears to have sunk.
Further restorations and restorations took place in 1912/13 and after 1945. The church was abandoned in 1973 as a worship room and used as an antiques store for the commercial coordination area. The equipment was outsourced in 1983. After a long period of neglect, the church was restored between 1991 and 1995. The floor level was lowered by 2 m to the original level by excavation.
Since 1993 the church can be used for church services again. A stop on the ecumenical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with overnight accommodation.
In 2013 the church was affected by the flooding of the Saale . The old town association Merseburg supported the renovation that was required again.
The simple exterior is made of regular quarry stone masonry. The eaves of the main apse is decorated with a spherical frieze. The plinth profile, rich on one side, is led around the portals. The west building is not structured, the arched window in the west gable alone is flanked by two monolithic four-pass windows. On the preserved north tower there are rectangular slit windows and, on the upper floor, pointed arched, coupled acoustic arcades. The tower is covered with a gable roof and has a roof turret. The two column portals on the north side, which were exchanged during the restoration in 1821, are remarkable. The current nave portal was built into the transept until then and has a set, decorated column in the style of the Königslutter church . The main portal on the transept was originally located on the north aisle and shows capitals that were renewed in the 19th century and a striking column made of four round bars knotted together. In the Middle Ages, pictorial representations of knots were attached to church buildings in numerous cases as a magical defense against demonic forces.
The building sculpture inside is related to the simultaneous parts of the collegiate church of the monastery on the Petersberg near Halle . The nave arcades have simple, relatively flat cube capitals and the windows have steep embrasures .
Furnishing
Around 1975 the furnishings consisted of a baroque altar with a group of figures by Michael Hoppenhaupt from 1695, which showed free figures of the risen Christ on the awakening Adam, accompanied by Peter and Johannes. This included depictions of God the Father, Moses and a prophet, which were placed in the apse calotte.
A wooden triumphal cross from the second quarter of the 16th century was arranged in the triumphal arch. There was also a simple wooden pulpit with pictures of the twelve apostles from the early 17th century. The church's large Romanesque baptismal font, made of red sandstone and richly decorated with figures, was implemented in Merseburg Cathedral as early as 1831 .
A life-size wooden depiction of Anna herself dates from the end of the 15th century. The organ prospectus from the end of the 17th century had already been relocated around 1975. The altar cross, the pulpit and the organ prospect were lost.
The altar and the triumphal cross are now in the town church of St. Maximi. A baptismal font is now kept in the Merseburg Cultural History Museum. Today's equipment consists of a Crucifixus in the triumphal arch and a relief of Thomas Becket by Gabriele Messerschmidt as well as a memorial Great Crucifixion Group in front of a red wall by Klaus Friedrich Messerschmidt. Finally, a seven-part group of figures Terra Ottonum by Dieter M. Weidenbach should be mentioned.
literature
- Walter May: City churches in Saxony / Anhalt. 1st edition. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1979, p. 79.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Saxony Anhalt II. Administrative districts Dessau and Halle. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-422-03065-4 , pp. 556–558.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Website of the Merseburg Old Town Association. Retrieved September 15, 2017 .
- ^ Friedrich and Helga Möbius: Ecclesia ornata . 1st edition. Union Verlag, Berlin 1974.
- ^ Marion Schmidt: On the Romanesque Road . 11th edition. Schmidt-Buch-Verlag, Wernigerode 2015, ISBN 978-3-936185-94-2 , p. 244 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 25.7 ″ N , 12 ° 0 ′ 13.5 ″ E