Old Peterskirche (Leipzig)
The old Peterskirche was initially a Catholic , later a Protestant-Lutheran sacred building in downtown Leipzig . It was consecrated in 1507 instead of a previous building from the 10th century and, with one interruption, was used as a place of worship between 1539 and 1712 until 1885. After the completion of the (New) Peterskirche in Leipzig's Südvorstadt , the building was demolished in 1886 and a secular building was built on the property.
location
The old Peterskirche was located on the property at Petersstrasse 43 , which bordered the former city wall in the south . The nave stretched from east to west, with the entrance on the west side facing Petersstrasse . The bell tower, built in 1874, stood east of the ship. Immediately to the south-west was one of the four inner city gates of Leipzig, the Peterstor, designed by Pöppelmann .
Today the former church property is built on with a building erected in 1886/87, which is currently used by the Leipzig "Johann Sebastian Bach" music school . The Petersstrasse , which touches the property to the west , is still reminiscent of the Old Peterskirche, which once gave its name to one of Leipzig's four inner city quarters (Petersviertel) .
history
St. Petri Chapel
A Christian chapel had been located on the property of the Alte Peterskirche since the 10th century. As far as we know today, its construction coincides with the construction of the German castle urbs Lipzi on the site of the later Matthäikirchhof in the second half of the 10th century. Nothing is known about the external shape of this chapel. What is certain, however, is that it initially served as a parish church for an existing Slavic settlement ( vicus sancti Petri ), the center of which was on today's Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz . The chapel was first mentioned in a document as capella beati Petri in 1213 when it was given to the Augustinian Canons . In 1315 the chapel was named ecclesia sancti Petri apostoli .
New building and conversion as a result of the Reformation
The Peterskapelle was demolished at the beginning of the 16th century. In its place a new church was built, which the auxiliary bishop Heinrich von Honberg consecrated on March 29, 1507. Further information on the construction of the church is not available. With the introduction of the Reformation in Leipzig, the religious purpose of the building was given up in 1539. In the period that followed, the building was used as a lime barn. During the Thirty Years War it served as a barracks .
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In the course of the 16th century the buildings surrounding the church experienced increasing density. After the granary had already been built on the east wall of the church as a city warehouse in the years 1523–1529, three immediately adjacent houses were built after the building had been profaned .
Return to the original function and redesign in the 18th century
In 1704, the pastor of St. Thomas's Church at the time , Romanus Teller , suggested that the Leipzig city council renovate the building and rededicate it for religious purposes. After the latter had given his approval, the building was restored between 1710 and 1712. Among other things, prayer rooms and a sacristy were added to the choir and a two-story wooden gallery was added to the interior. The conversion cost a total of 13,006 guilders, 20 groschen and 9 pfennigs. On May 29, 1712, the first service was celebrated in the newly opened church. The sermon with the title “The New Man” was held on this day by the chief catechist and preacher Adam Bernd .
The interior of the old St. Peter's Church, with which a catechetical institution (collegium catecheticum) was connected since 1713 , was changed several times in the course of the 18th century. Most noticeable was the steady increase in the number of seats in the nave and on the galleries in 1737, 1748, 1764 and 1767. In addition, a new pulpit altar and a new organ were installed as part of a renovation in 1797/99.
Conditions leading to demolition after 1850
Around 1860 the surrounding development of the old Peterskirche was subject to strong changes. The warehouse building connected to the church and the adjacent houses on Moritzdamm , today's Schillerstrasse , were demolished. In 1860 the Peterstor was the last of the Leipzig city gates to be demolished. In view of this development, the question was raised in a contemporary travel guide in the same year, "whether St. Peter's Church will maintain its place or whether a larger church will replace it elsewhere." However, the actual development initially pointed in a different direction. In 1874 the east side of the church was redesigned according to plans by the construction manager at St. Thomas Church, S. Radloff . A bell tower and two confessional rooms were built and the existing sacristy was extended to the south.
However, the population of the southern suburb of Leipzig had increased sharply in the second half of the 19th century. As early as 1871, around 20,000 people lived there, and in 1876 they were grouped together to form the Peterskirche parish. Since the old Peterskirche was hardly suitable for the pastoral care of such a large congregation, the church council decided in 1877 to build a new church on the square reserved for this purpose in the southern suburb, which has been named after the reform pedagogue Hugo Gaudig since 2011 . After the completion of the (New) St. Peter's Church , the demolition of the Old St. Peter's Church began on January 2, 1886. Immediately after the demolition, the Reichsbank headquarters in Leipzig was built on its property by 1887 according to plans by the architect Max Hasak .
The foundation stone of the Alte Peterskirche, dating from 1507, is the property of the Leipzig City History Museum and can be viewed on loan in the baptistery of the Neue Peterskirche; some wrought iron window grilles in the fund of the Museum of Applied Arts .
Contemporary assessment of the demolition
The abandonment of the Alte Peterskirche in favor of a larger new building was a factual necessity in view of the size of the community. At the same time, however, the decision to demolish the traditional building was in line with the zeitgeist of the late 19th century, which also included numerous other centuries-old buildings in Leipzig city center Victims fell. In 1886 there was no doubt about the correctness of the decision. Nonetheless, it was stated as early as 1895 that the "strong, simple architecture, the Protestant spirit that asserts itself in it ... elevated the church to a significant monument of the time."
building
Outward appearance
The old Peterskirche was a single-nave hall church with five bays , buttresses and a steep hipped roof . The choir was given a three-eighth closing. Since the renovation at the beginning of the 18th century, there have been 20 prayer rooms and several staircases on the long sides and the choir side. These extensions were inserted between the buttresses but were deeper than the pillars. In the design of the prayer rooms, great importance was attached to a uniform appearance, so that the entire building achieved an impressive rhythm. Each prayer room had an entrance flanked by two windows on the ground floor and three windows on the upper floor.
After the reopening, the church had four arched windows on each side wall. These replaced the originally existing tracery windows, three of which were let into each side wall.
The bell tower, built in 1874, had a pointed dome and was generally of a simple shape. Due to its low height, the free-standing building did not protrude from the church roof.
Interior fittings
The interior of the Old St. Peter's Church was covered by a rhombic net vault. It was divided into two parts by a choir arch installed after the third yoke. The prayer rooms built on the outer walls were glazed towards the interior. In front of them there were two-storey wooden galleries on three sides, the lower floors of which were supported by Tuscan columns and the upper floors by Ionic columns .
The simple pulpit altar at the east end of the church was formed by two Ionic columns. These were flanked by the glass windows of the prayer rooms built on the east side. The pillars supported a modestly executed choir of singers.
From the redesign of the interior in 1797/99 to the demolition of the church, a 20-part organ built by the Trampeli brothers played inside . Parts of the instrument came from an organ built by Thayßner in the Nikolaikirche , which was demolished in 1786. Before the demolition, this organ was sold to Alterode , where its track was lost in the first half of the 20th century.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Magirius / Fiedler, Sacral Buildings , p. 4 ff.
- ↑ a b Gurlitt, Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler , p. 150.
- ↑ See Riedel, Stadtlexikon , pp. 315, 376.
- ↑ See the names of the individual master craftsmen Magirius / Fiedler, Sakralbauten , p. 476.
- ^ Weidinger, Leipzig , p. 135.
- ^ Pasch, Churches in Leipzig and Surroundings , p. 13.
- ↑ So Gurlitt, Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler , p. 151.
- ↑ Magirius / Fiedler, Sacral Buildings , p. 480.
swell
- Cornelius Gurlitt : Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Volume 17/18: City of Leipzig. Meinhold, Dresden 1895.
- Heinrich Magirius ; Hanna-Lore Fiedler: The architectural and art monuments of Saxony. City of Leipzig. The sacred buildings. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1995. ISBN 3-422-00568-4 .
- Gerhart Pasch: Churches in Leipzig and the surrounding area. Schmidt-Römhild, Leipzig 1996. ISBN 3-7950-3903-7 .
- Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 .
- Carl Weidinger: Leipzig. A guide to the city and its surroundings. Verlagbuchhandlung JJ Weber, Leipzig 1860, 1989 (repr.), ISBN 3-350-00310-9 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 12.9 ″ N , 12 ° 22 ′ 31.4 ″ E