Bend

Axial bend of the parish church of St. Peter im Moos in Lower Austria

Floor plan with axis bend of the parish church St. Peter im Moos

Floor plan of St. Petri Cathedral in Bautzen with axis kink

The bend in the axis in Romanesque and Gothic church buildings means that the longitudinal axes of the nave and choir are separated from one another in time to the rising sun on the locally given horizon. The kink point was usually set where the nave and choir meet, at the triumphal gate between the nave and choir.

The nave corresponded to the earthly area and the choir to the heavenly area, in which, in accordance with the canonical requirements, when the church floor plan was staked out, the nave and then the choir were staked out first. The days between the two staking processes can be calculated from the strength of the kink. Since an increase in the height of the festive day was observed, as well as the thematic backgrounds of the patronage and the bishop determined the festive days , the year of the foundation of the church and, in some cases, the associated city foundation or city expansion can be determined using the axis bend, which represents a time mark .

The interdisciplinary observance of scientific methods of measurement, the knowledge of the working technique of the time with groma and measuring chain, the knowledge of the usual forms of division with fathoms , the calculated knowledge of the position of the sun to the locally measured horizon based on the probable years on the one hand as the observance of the festive days according to liturgy and patronage and the chronological increase of the festive days, i.e. with historical and theological reasons on the other hand, are provided by the staking days and the year of foundation. The obligation to orientate towards the rising sun was lifted at the Council of Trent (1545–1563).

However, kinks in building axes also occur in non-medieval architecture, for example in the rock grave of Nefertari or the parish church of Liesing (referred to there as the “broken main axis”). They are traced back to very different causes (curved afterlife in Egyptian mythology or better use of building space).

Examples

St Martin's Church, Cwmyoy , Wales

The St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna: The axis of the nave is the sunrise on Boxing Day oriented December 26, 1137, the axis of the choir at sunrise on the following Sunday, January 2, 1138th

The Romanesque cathedral of Wiener Neustadt : Here the axis of the nave points to sunrise on Pentecost Sunday , May 24th 1192, the day of the enfeoffment of Duke Leopold V by Emperor Heinrich VI. with Styria . The axis of the Romanesque choir points to the sunrise on Pentecost Sunday, May 16, 1193.

The Gothic parish church of St. Margareta in Marchegg as the founding of King Přemysl Ottokar II of Bohemia: Her nave axis points to sunrise on Maundy Thursday , April 5, 1268 and the axis of the choir points to sunrise on Easter Sunday , April 8, 1268.

Further examples are the parish church of Laa an der Thaya, the orientation days of which correspond to Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday of the year 1207, and in the earlier church floor plans of the monastery churches Stift Heiligenkreuz and Stift Göttweig there is a bend in the axis, but no longer recognizable: in these churches the Romanesque choir later replaced by a new Gothic building that has no bend in the axis. At the parish church of Unterloiben the bend in the axis can also be clearly seen in the course of the roof.

The thesis about the origin of the axle kink and its evidence were initially developed using examples from Eastern Austria. Examples from other areas are the Brixen Cathedral , St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, Mont St. Michel , Southwark Cathedral and Passau Cathedral , as well as Speyer Cathedral, Caorle Cathedral in Italy and Notre Dame de Cathedral Vitré in France. The further explanatory approach to justify the bent church axis with the inclined head of Christ on the cross is described by Reidinger as a misinterpretation. Further reasons for an axis kink are irregularities in the building site that were discovered later (e.g. a less stable ground area) or a change of patronage (possibly after a long construction period), after which a church axis was realigned.

Further examples:

• Klein-Mariazell basilica
• Stadtpfarrkirche Hall in Tirol (here the reason for the kink was a spatial circumstance of the extension of the building)
• St. Petri Cathedral (Bautzen)
• Saint-Corentin Cathedral
• St Martin's Church (Cwmyoy) (due to the unstable subsurface, the parts of the building lean in different directions, which is why St Martin is considered the "most crooked church in Great Britain")
• Whitby Abbey

literature

• Erwin Reidinger : Planning or coincidence. Wiener Neustadt 1192. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-205-99339-X .
• Erwin Reidinger: Medieval town planning using the example of Linz. General rules of medieval town planning - Medieval Linz with planning and implementation of the city expansion - Linz main square - City gates and towers - Linz parish church ; Archive of the City of Linz , Historical Yearbook of the City of Linz 2001.
• Gottfried Kiesow : The sun and the bend in the axis. Four theses on the axis shift in church construction. Using the example of Bautzen Cathedral . In: Monuments Online. Magazine of the German Foundation for Monument Protection . March 2005.
• Erwin Reidinger: Urban planning in the high Middle Ages: Wiener Neustadt - Marchegg - Vienna. In: Ferdinand Opll , Christoph Sonnlechner: European cities in the Middle Ages. In the series: research and contributions to the history of the city of Vienna. Edited by the Association for the History of the City of Vienna. Volume 52, Vienna 2010. StudienVerlag Innsbruck-Vienna-Bozen. ZDB -ID 716753-2 , pp. 155-176, ISBN 978-3-7065-4856-4 .
• Erwin Reidinger: Orientation of medieval churches . In: Office of the Lower Austrian State Government (Ed.): Gestalte (n). The magazine for building, architecture and design . N ° 139, March 2013, p. 43–47 ( noe-gestalten.at [accessed on September 21, 2014]). ZDB ID 2708987-3
• Erwin Reidinger: 1027: Foundation of the Speyer Cathedral. Sun – orientation – axis bend – date of foundation – Archangel Michael . In the series: Writings of the Diözesan-Archiv Speyer Volume 46. Speyer 2014. Pilger Verlag Annweiler. ISBN 978-3-942133-76-0 .
• Christian Wiltsch: The principle of heliometry in the site plan of medieval churches. Proof of the alignment of church axes according to the position of the sun at the church fair and patronage festival and the consequences for urban planning. Dissertation at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule RWTH Aachen . In the series: Reports from the science of history. Shaker Publishing House . Aachen 2014. ISBN 978-3-8440-2812-6 .

Remarks

1. ↑ This year specification follows the calendar of the 20th / 21st Century. At that time, however, December 25th was used as the beginning of the year (according to the so-called " Christmas style ") , so that both dates originally fell in the year 1138. See also Reidinger: Urban Planning , p. 173, footnote 37.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Erwin Reidinger: St. Stephan: location, orientation and bend in the axis, a comparison with the temple complex in Jerusalem. . In: Karin Domany, Johann Hisch (ed.): The St. Stephen's Cathedral. Orientation and symbolism. Wiener Dom-Verlag, Vienna 2010. ISBN 978-3-85351-216-6 . P. 85.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Erwin Reidinger: The collegiate church of Heiligenkreuz. Axle kink and orientation days. Answers from the foundation planning. First published in: sancta crux . Journal of the Heiligenkreuz Abbey. 70th year 2010 number 126. ZDB -ID 302220-1 p. 37.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Erwin Reidinger: Urban planning. Pp. 159-174.
4. ↑ City Church Marchegg ( Memento from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ Reidinger: Orientation . Pp. 46-47.
6. ^ Reidinger: Speyer Cathedral. P. 53.
7. ^ Reidinger: Speyer Cathedral. P. 111
8. ^ Reidinger: Speyer Cathedral. P. 54.
9. ↑ Gottfried Kiesow: The sun and the kink of the axis. Four theses on the axis shift in church construction. 2005.