Old Tower (Mettlach)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old tower, entrance side

The old tower in Mettlach is the oldest preserved sacred building and at the same time the oldest preserved upright medieval structure in the Saarland . It is the last remaining remnant of the Mettlach Abbey Church of St. Peter and Mary, which was demolished in 1819. The "Old Tower" is therefore one of the landmarks of the Saarland of national standing. The building was built around the years 990 to 994 by the then Irish abbot Lioffin (985–993) as the Ottonian burial chapel of St. Lutwinus , who founded the monastery of St. Peter and Mary in Mettlach around 675 . In terms of art history, the “Old Tower” is one of the most important achievements in German art. It is one of the few remaining Ottonian central buildings and an architectural achievement of the European Middle Ages of high standing.

Architectural role models

Old tower, look inside
Old tower of Mettlach Abbey, back side
Cologne, St. Gereon
Aachen, interior of the Carolingian octagon
Mettlach Abbey, reconstruction of the possible appearance of the abbey church with the old tower in the 18th century based on the floor plan by Johann Christian Lager (1875); The dotted lines in front of the church tower show the layout of the planned baroque church

The architectural reference of the "Old Tower" on the model of the Carolingian Aachen Cathedral - octagon is attested as early as the year 1070th The basic octagonal shape, the two-story hallway reduced to niche and walkway, the three-story structure inside with high round arches on the ground floor, triple arches above and the high window alleys speak in favor of Aachen. In addition, Aachen can be understood as a role model in terms of iconographic contexts. In contrast to Aachen, however, the octagon in Mettlach was not designed with a continuous walkway on the ground floor, but as a niche building with six semicircular niches inside. Rhenish niche buildings such as St. Gereon in Cologne or St. Heribert in Cologne- Deutz are likely to serve as models . Accordingly, circular niches probably originally formed the extension of the octagon in Mettlach. The slight inward inclination of the outer walls gives the building a certain elastic tension.

History and architecture

The Mettlach Abbey had an oratory consecrated to St. Dionysius of Paris and the Church of St. Peter and St. Mary. The location of St. Peter's and St. Mary's Church can be read from a topographical map from 1807. The Dionysius Oratory is not shown there and has not been documented by any finds to this day. Before the monastery was built, Lutwinus built the Dionysius Church in the 8th century. It probably stood where the portal of the Old Abbey rises today. The church, which was last mentioned in a document in 1664, functioned as the center of the Lutwinus pilgrimage until the turn of the first millennium. This church underwent a restoration of the roof structure in 1664, with a new altar being erected. On the occasion of the new construction of the Mettlach Abbey , the church was demolished in 1722.

In the 12th century, a church with the patronage of St. John the Baptist was also built in Mettlach outside the monastery area in the southern mountain slope ("G'hansoht") as the parish church "St. Johannes bei Mettlach ”. The Dionysius Church in Mettlach was then rededicated as a chapel. Due to dilapidation, the Johanneskirche was demolished in 1769/1770.

The three-aisled Romanesque church from the 10th century, originally only consecrated to St. Peter , had to accommodate the parish of the demolished St. John's Church at the beginning of 1790 on instructions from Trier. The Dionysius Altar of the "Old Tower" was assigned to her. After the abbey church was demolished by the owners of the newly founded Mettlach ceramics factory in 1819, the refectory of the former abbey was rededicated as the parish church service area. With the approval for the demolition of St. Peter's Church, however, the construction of a new parish church was contractually agreed. A new church was built from 1842. After its demolition, today's neo-Romanesque Lutwius Church was built in 1899 .

The two churches of the 7th and 8th centuries were excavated in 1954/55 and 1959/60 by the then state curator Martin Klewitz . The smaller St. Mary's Church was connected to the south-east of the main church of St. Peter. The facility from Liutwin's time was a hall with annexes and a rectangular choir. Under the Irish-born abbot Lioffin (985–993), a central building for the grave of the holy donor was built on the same site as a successor. The central building consisted of an octagonal central room 10.8 m wide with a three-bay nave as a vestibule - probably from the 11th century - in the west and a two-storey rectangular choir in the east. The Marien Altar stood on the upper floor and was accessible from the walkway. The other sides of the octagon were and are internally divided by niches in the 2.60 m thick ground floor wall.

The tower itself, today the only remnant of this period, had the function of a double church: the lower floor was dedicated to St. Lutwinus, while the upper floor was a Lady Chapel. According to the testimony of the “Miracula sancti Lutwini”, in the Middle Ages mentally ill people who were considered possessed by demons were taken to the Old Tower to sleep . Allegedly, at the intercession of the saints, the sick are said to have calmed down and finally recovered. The current closure in the east with a niche wall comes from the repairs in the 19th century. Today, the basement presents itself to the viewer as an extensive Gothic conversion of the originally Ottonian building. The round niches were changed to trapezoidal Gothic niches with tracery windows in the 14th century . In 1247 a spiral staircase had already been added.

In place of the historically attested open roof structure, a star rib vault was built in during this time , with buttresses attached to the outside to support it . In the west, however, remains of an Ottonian round-arch frieze surrounding the outside have survived . The significantly reduced wall thickness on the upper floor can be explained by the presence of a previously closed access with barrel vaults. The three-part openings towards the central space, spanned by a blind arch, have been preserved in their original form. Only the western arcades were rebuilt after a collapse in the 19th century. Particularly noteworthy are the bulging dividing columns and their different capitals . Some of them are clearly Ottonian mushroom capitals, on the other hand they are flat-hewn leaf capitals and leaf warriors, the time of which could not yet be precisely dated. They could perhaps have come from a Carolingian building and have been reused. In the upper storey, the walls open into arched windows, which were closed with stone lattices during the restoration in the 19th century, similar to that of the Kastel Klause .

Altötting, Chapel of Grace

In the 15th century the building was raised by about one and a half meters and received a steep Gothic tent roof. The architectural cubature of this time has to be imagined as similar to that of the octagon of the Gnadenkapelle in Altötting . The so-called old tower with its Gothic porch served the parish of Mettlach as a parish church from 1770 to 1794. In connection with the new building of the abbey by the Saxon master builder Christian Kretzschmar , at the southern end of the complex, the front also to the Saar, a new monastery church was to be built, the head of which would have been the eastern part of the "Old Tower". The single-nave and cross-shaped sacred building would have reached a length of 57 m and a height of 15.50 m. In its facade design it would have been equivalent to the Paulinus Church in Trier . When Christian Kretzschmar died in 1768, the new building was still unfinished. It was continued, but came to a standstill in 1780. Of the planned courtyards, only the square cloister was completed. Only half of the main courtyard, which is 102 m deep and 50 m wide, has been completed.

The French Revolution, but above all the First Coalition War from 1792, marked the end of the Mettlach Monastery. In the years 1793/1794 the monks fled. The traditional monastery was finally abandoned in 1802. The current abbey buildings from the 18th century (Saar front: 112 m length) were declared French national property in 1802 in the course of secularization . Afterwards, the entire property was sold to the paper manufacturer Leistenschneider from Trier in 1806 . In 1809 Jean-François Boch , who belonged to the third generation of the Bochs, acquired the badly damaged building from him and repaired it. He had it partially converted into a factory. It currently serves as the headquarters of Villeroy & Boch . In 1819, the company management had the Romanesque St. Peter's Church with its ancient triumphal arch columns of Thessaloniki - marble tear, which represents a significant loss to the architectural history of the Saarland. The St. Peterskirche served as a parish church until it was demolished in 1819. The baroque cycle of apostles from the Mettlach Abbey Church is now in the All Saints Church in Wadern after the figures were donated by Jean-François Boch / Franz Boch-Buschmann . The cycle of apostles was made in 1684 by the Trier sculptor Philipp Mayer. Today's strongly colored version of the originally white statues dates from the end of the 19th century. The figures were also re-carved and re-modeled with sackcloth soaked in plaster.

For further church history of Mettlach see also:

Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the year of his visit to Mettlach in 1826, painting by Carl Begas

After the abbey was abandoned, the "Old Tower" was no longer used for church purposes and was becoming increasingly dilapidated. The roof beams were used as building material between 1806 and 1809. A hole was made in the Gothic vault, which caused the stair tower and the western upper floor to collapse in 1841 as a result of weather-related damage. The complete demolition of the old tower was also considered. The Prussian master builder Karl Friedrich Schinkel visited Mettlach in 1826 and visited the old tower, which he dated to the time of Charlemagne .

“We arrived in Mettlach towards dark, which consists of a large monastery building in the Jesuit style (sic!) And around which the houses of the factory workers form a small village some distance away. Mr. Buschmann, Beuth's friend, bought this enormous building and set up a stoneware factory in it. (...) We ate very nicely at night, then slept splendidly in splendid rooms and splendid buildings. (...) An old ruin, octagonal, from Charlemagne's time, but changed in the 14th century by built-in pointed arches, stands in the garden, close to the large factory building, they wanted to tear it away, we persuaded it to save it. "

Restorations

After the partial collapse, Eugen (von) Boch carefully conserved the ruins, taking advice from his friend, builder Karl August von Cohausen , from Trier . In the period that followed, the collapsed parts were rebuilt, the torn-open side of the choir was closed and the vault was protected with a flat roof covering. This restoration can be described as one of the most careful monument preservation services of the 19th century. She created the image of the "Old Tower" that is still valid today.

After minor restorations in the 1950s, the "Old Tower" was restored again in 1989 on the occasion of its thousandth anniversary. The soft sandstone had been attacked by wind and rain, water had penetrated the masonry and the roof was damaged. The German Foundation for Monument Protection contributed a considerable amount to the renovation of the Ottonian building.

literature

in alphabetic order:

  • Hans Hubert Anton: Liutwin - Bishop of Trier and founder of Mettlach, in: Journal for the history of the Saar region, 38/39. Vol., 1990/1991, Saarbrücken 1991, pp. 21-41.
  • Ruth Bauer: The old tower in Mettlach in the mirror of the preservation of monuments, on the restoration of the 19th century by Eugen von Boch and August von Cohausen, in: Journal for the history of the Saar region, 48th year, 1997/1998, Saarbrücken 2000, p 165-202.
  • Petrus Becker OSB: Mettlach , in: Friedhelm Jürgensmeier / Regina Elisabeth Schwerdtfeger (ed.): The Benedictine monasteries for men and women in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland (Germania Benedictina vol. IX), St. Ottilien 1999, 517-545.
  • August von Cohausen: The old tower at Mettlach. A polygonal church based on the model of the Aachen Minster from the end of the 20th century, Berlin 1871.
  • Carl Conrath: Mettlach, The Abbey, its founder, its history, Mettlach 1920.
  • Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland, 2nd edition, Munich / Berlin 1984, pp. 671–675.
  • Hans-Walter Herrmann : Mettlach . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 585.
  • Georg Humann: The central building in Mettlach and the buildings influenced by the Aachen Palatine Chapel, in: Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, 31st year, 1918, pp. 81–94.
  • Nikolaus Irsch: The Romanesque architecture in the Saar area, in: Journal of the Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz, 22nd year, Cologne 1929, pp. 95–111.
  • Reinhold Junge: Mettlacher churches and their patronage, in: Association for local history in the Merzig district, 10th year book, Merzig 1975, pp. 81-104.
  • Friedhelm Jürgensmeier: The male and female monasteries of the Benedictines in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, Germania Benediktina IX, St. Ottilien 1999, pp. 1–104.
  • Martin Klewitz : The excavations at the old tower. In: Keramos, 6th year Mettlach 1955, pp. 15-16.
  • Martin Klewitz: Mettlach, Alter Turm, in: Kunstchronik, 9th year, Nuremberg 1956, p. 299.
  • Martin Klewitz: News about the early days of the Mettlach Monastery, in: Keramos, 11th year, Mettlach 1960, pp. 18-19.
  • Martin Klewitz: On the construction history of the Benedictine abbey Mettlach, in: Mettlach municipal administration (ed.): 1300 years Mettlach, Merzig 1976, pp. 81–93.
  • Martin Klewitz: Mettlach, Former Benedictine Abbey, in: Große Baudenkmäler, Issue 173, 3rd edition, Munich, Berlin 1977, pp. 2-10.
  • Martin Klewitz: Mettlach an der Saarschleife, Rheinische Kunststätten, Saarland, issue 164, 3rd revised edition, Cologne 1994.
  • Roman Koll: Mettlach in its sanctuaries from old and new times, 2nd expanded edition of the 1923 edition, Mettlach 1948.
  • Johann Christian Lager: Documented history of the Mettlach Abbey, Trier 1875.
  • Ferdinand Pauly: Settlement and parish organization in the old Archdiocese of Trier, Das Landkapitel Merzig (= publication of the Diocese archive Trier 15), Trier 1967, pp. 82–93.
  • Ferdinand Pauly: The Benedictine Abbey of St. Petrus and Paulus in Mettlach, in: From the history of the Diocese of Trier, Part 1, From the late Roman period to the 12th century, Trier 1968, pp. 82–84.
  • Theo Raach: Mettlach Monastery / Saar and its property, studies on the early history and manorial rule of the former Benedictine abbey in the Middle Ages (sources and treatises on the history of the Middle Rhine church 19), ed. from the Society for Middle Rhine Church History, Mainz 1974.
  • Hildegard Schmal: The foundation of the Mettlach monastery and the "Old Tower" (73rd publication by the Department of Architectural History of the Art History Institute of the University of Cologne), Cologne 2000.
  • Christian Wilhelm Schmidt: Die Kapelle zu Mettlach, in: Architectural monuments of the Roman period and the Middle Ages in Trier and its surroundings, 3rd edition, Trier 1841, p. 8, plate 4.
  • Georg Skalecki: The so-called "Old Tower" in Mettlach, an Ottonian St. Mary's Church - art history and preservation of monuments, in: The Preservation of Monuments (= 28th report of the State Preservation of Monuments), 56th year, 1998, pp. 26–39.
  • Albert Verbeek: The old tower in Mettlach, its position in the Ottonian art of the Rhineland, in: Trier magazine, 12th year, Trier 1937, pp. 65–80.
  • Peter Volkelt: The building sculpture and interior design of the early and high Middle Ages in Saarland, Saarbrücken 1969, p. 21–37, fig. 21–37.
  • Walter Zimmermann: Kloster Mettlach, in: Trier, a center of occidental culture, Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz, 34th year Cologne 1952, pp. 123–141.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland, 2nd edition, Munich / Berlin 1984, pp. 675-676.
  2. ↑ Clemens Jöckle: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church St. Lutwinus Mettlach (art guide Schnell and Steiner, No. 2558), Regensburg 2004, p. 4.
  3. ↑ Information on the parish church of St. Lutwinus at: www.kunstlexikonsaar.de, accessed on December 25, 2012
  4. ^ Clemens Jöckle: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church St. Lutwinus Mettlach (art guide Schnell and Steiner, No. 2558), Regensburg 2004, p. 6.
  5. ↑ Clemens Jöckle: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church of St. Lutwinus Mettlach (art guide Schnell and Steiner, No. 2558), Regensburg 2004.
  6. ↑ Johann Christian Lager: Documentary History of the Mettlach Abbey, Trier 1875, p. 218.
  7. ↑ Reconstruction of the shape of the old tower: Karl Conrath: A cathedral to the 12 apostles on the Saar, in: Saarländische Volkszeitung, No. 11, 1953, January 14, 1953.
  8. ^ Clemens Jöckle: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church St. Lutwinus Mettlach (art guide Schnell and Steiner, No. 2558), Regensburg 2004, p. 6.
  9. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland, 2nd edition, Munich / Berlin 1984, pp. 667-677.
  10. ↑ Parish of Allerheiligen Wadern (Ed.): 200 years of the parish church of Allerheiligen Wadern, Wadern 2017, pp. 58–71
  11. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland, 2nd edition, Munich / Berlin 1984, pp. 675-676.
  12. ↑ Karl Friedrich Schinkel's diary notes about a trip from Mettlach to Saarbrücken from April 23 to 25, 1826, printed by: Peter Keuth: Schinkel als Retter des “Alten Turm” in Mettlach, in: Saarheimat 4, 1957, p. 24.
  13. ^ Johann Franz Nikolaus Boch-Buschmann, founder of today's Villeroy & Boch plants
  14. ^ Friend of Schinkel and Boch-Buschmann; made a contribution to the promotion of Prussian industry.
  15. ↑ Herbert Brunner a. a. (Ed.): Reclams Kunstführer Deutschland, Volume VI, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-15-010286-3 , p. 294.
  16. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland, 2nd edition, Munich / Berlin 1984, pp. 675-676.
  17. ↑ https://www.denkmalschutz.de/denkmal/Alter-Turm.html , accessed on March 7, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Old Tower  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 35.6 "  N , 6 ° 35 ′ 38.3"  E