All Saints Court Church

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East and north sides of the church

The Allerheiligen-Hofkirche is a former Catholic church in the royal residence in Munich , on its eastern edge; to the north is the cabinet garden. After severe damage in the Second World War and restoration that took decades, it is now used as a concert and lecture hall . It was built in the neo-Romanesque arch style, making it the first neo-Byzantine church building in Europe.

history

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche in Munich, 1838
Interior shot before the destruction. The frescoes are by Heinrich Maria von Hess , the decorations by Joseph Schwarzmann
Today's interior view
North side with cabinet garden

The Allerheiligenhofkirche, built from 1826 to 1837, was the first church to be built in Bavaria since the secularization of 1803. During his visit to the palace chapel of Palermo in 1823, the then Crown Prince Ludwig was so impressed by the decoration of the interior that he decided on a similar church for the people of Munich Residence wish. Based on this specification, Klenze took inspiration from St. Mark's Basilica in Venice for his design.

The church was directly accessible from the residence for the king and his family. However, it was also open to the Munich population; she used the east entrance.

The church was badly damaged during World War II. Unlike the similarly destroyed residence, however, it was not restored, so that its condition finally deteriorated to such an extent that the Bavarian Ministry of Finance ordered its demolition in 1964 despite protests. The south aisle of the basilica was actually removed in favor of an outbuilding of the adjoining Residenz Theater, which has seriously affected the symmetry of the building to this day. Inside the church, however, this loss is not noticeable, as the church wings only contained side rooms to the nave.

Further protests ultimately prevented the entire church from being demolished, so that in 1972 Hans Döllgast was commissioned to preserve it. He equipped the ruin with a wooden roof in order to preserve it as a memorial to the war destruction - in line with his other reconstruction plans in Munich. After Döllgast's death at the end of the 1980s, however, the domes were restored and the renovation of the facade began. The architects Guggenbichler and Netzer were finally commissioned to convert the interior to its current form in 2000 , and it lasted until 2003. The architects' main concern was to make the necessary fixtures - sanitary facilities, cloakrooms, heating, fire protection systems - with great caution and to make changes to the to mark the original inventory as new - through the choice of material or the nature of the surfaces. The result, which clearly shows the condition of the war ruins, was awarded the City of Munich Prize for Cityscape Maintenance in 2006 .

architecture

The church building in neo-Romanesque forms with echoes of the round arch style is the work of Leo von Klenze . The three-aisled basilica has a gable roof . The entrance facade is decorated with a rose window, the gable with acanthus leaves . The eaves on the central nave and the side aisles each have two turrets on the front and back.

The church interior is only in the high central nave of the basilica, while the low side aisles have side rooms. The interior of the building is, also unlike the external appearance suggests, vaulted with domes - based on Byzantine architecture . Columns on the sides carry barrel-covered galleries . By renouncing conservation measures after the destruction in World War II , the original colored painting of the vaults in the Nazarene style , as well as the marble cladding of the walls and the marble floor, were lost, with the exception of small remains. The paintings came from Heinrich Maria von Hess and his student Joseph Schwarzmann , who, as an ornamenter, created the first of his later famous decorations. Today the walls and vaults are unplastered, the brick surfaces are untreated. For reasons of strength, the pillars were built with layers of tuff , which is now visible as a striped pattern. Places where damage from inserted bricks had to be compensated for are clearly recognizable as new by the smoother surfaces. This also applies to the other new fixtures that are made of steel, glass and concrete.

use

The Allerheiligen-Hofkirche is primarily intended as an event location for classical concerts, award ceremonies, lectures and ceremonies. Occasionally, funeral ceremonies take place in the former court church of the Bavarian kings. The Bavarian Palace Administration expressly points out that consideration must be given to its earlier use as a church. There is space for 399 people.

literature

  • Gottlieb Heinrich von Schröter : The fresco paintings of the All Saints Chapel in Munich , literary-artistic establishment, 1836 ( digitized ).
  • Nicolette Baumeister: Architecture of the New Munich. Munich building culture 1994-2004 . Verlagshaus Braun, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-935455-50-X , p. 21.
  • Gavriel D. Rosenfeld: Architecture and memory. Munich and National Socialism - Strategies for Forgetting . Dölling and Gallitz, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-935549-81-4 .

Web links

Commons : Allerheiligen-Hofkirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see points 5 (2005), No. 3, JB Bullen: Byzantium Rediscovered

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 25.5 ″  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 48 ″  E