Old Town Church (Erlangen)

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Old Town Church from the East (2013)

The Altstädter Kirche (also: Altstädter Dreifaltigkeitskirche ) is the baroque church building of the Evangelical Lutheran community in the old town of Erlangen . In addition to the Evangelical-Lutheran Neustädter Church and the Evangelical-Reformed Huguenot Church , it is one of the three large churches in Erlangen's city center, whose towers shape the cityscape to this day .

history

Historical drawing of the old town of Erlangen (around 1730)

A first church building on the site of today's church, a Marienkapelle , is attested for the year 1288. This belonged to the Martinsstift Forchheim and thus to the diocese of Bamberg . It stood in the middle of what was then the Old Town Cemetery (today's Old Town Church Square ), which was abandoned in the 17th century. In 1528 the Reformation and the first Lutheran pastor were introduced by the sovereign . In 1632, in the middle of the Thirty Years War , this first church building was burned down. In 1655 a new baroque building was built, which was already consecrated to the Holy Trinity . However, this was completely destroyed in the great fire in the old town of Erlangen in 1706.

The current baroque building was built between 1709 and 1721 according to the plans of the Bamberg master builder Wenzel Perner; Johann Georg Kannhäuser from Erlangen was also involved in the construction . The foundation stone was laid on July 29, 1709, and the consecration took place on March 2, 1721. The 55.5 meter high west tower was completed in 1726. Renovations were carried out in 1932 and 1960, among other things, whereby the glass windows acquired between 1906 and 1912 were lost. Another exterior renovation was carried out in 1978 and an interior renovation in 1986.

Group exhibition waste and void , lv Altar the light installation "ALTISSIMUM PLANETAM TERGEMINUM OBSERVAVI" by Sebastian Wanke , rv Altar the video work "R100G - Motion" by Paul Schwaderer.

In 2019, the artist group ARTISAN, led by Sebastian Hertrich and Sebastian Wanke, organized a group exhibition entitled "waste and void" in Erlanger churches, including the old town church.

description

Tower (2008)
organ

Exterior construction

The old town church is a hall building made of sandstone blocks . This includes five nave axes and a three-sided, not drawn-in end of the choir . The west facade serves as a show facade facing Martin-Luther-Platz . It is laid out on three axes, with the central axis being formed by the tower that rebounds halfway into the nave . The exterior is structured by high round arched windows and pilasters with Tuscan capitals . There are two church portals , one on the north side and one on the west side on the tower ground floor. Due to the similar time of origin and the conception of Erlangen as a planned baroque town , the old town church shows considerable parallels to the two other large inner city churches, the new town church and the Huguenot church. Like the Neustadt church, it is designed in the so-called margrave style.

Interior and equipment

The well-proportioned interior, which is also structured by pilasters, is spanned by a hollow vault with geometric stucco . This comes from Johann Georg Kannhäuser. You can see some stucco frames that were initially intended for painting; but this was never carried out. A wooden gallery extends on three sides along the side walls of the nave; the second gallery was removed in 1960. The chancel is dominated by a pulpit altar , which was created in 1720/21 by Johann David Räntz and Johann Philipp Göbel. The baptismal font , created in 1721 and attributed to Elias Räntz, is also part of the baroque interior . There are also some older pieces of equipment in the church: five small Gothic wooden figures from around 1500 and three bronze epitaphs from the 16th century. The painting of the gallery and the figures in the church originally came from Johann Jakob Gundling .

organ

On the west gallery of the old town church there is a large concert organ, which is used not only to frame church services , but also for performances by the Erlangen Bach Society and other musicians. It was founded in 1961 by EF Walcker & Cie. built in Ludwigsburg and restored in 1996/97 by Thomas Jann from Allkofen in the Straubing-Bogen district . The instrument with mechanical performance and electrical stop action comprises a total of 46 stops on three manuals and pedal . The baroque prospectus by Johann Christoph Wiegleb dates from around 1720 and was expanded from five to nine axes around 1760 by the organ builder Georg Ludwig Krämer from Bamberg as part of an organ conversion . The arrangement of the organ is as follows:

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Drone 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Pointed flute 8th'
4th octave 4 ′
5. viola 4 ′
6th Reed flute 4 ′
7th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
8th. octave 2 ′
9. Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
10. Flute III
11. Cornett V
12. Mixture IV
13. Trumpet 8th'
II upper structure C – g 3
14th Principal 8th'
15th Covered 8th'
16. Praestant 4 ′
17th Night horn 4 ′
18th Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
19th Principal 2 ′
20th third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
21st Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
22nd Cimbel III
23. Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
III Swell C – g 3
24. Covered 16 ′
25th Flute Principal 8th'
26th Lovely covered 8th'
27. Viola da gamba 8th'
28. Vox Coelestis 8th'
29 octave 4 ′
30th Coupling flute 4 ′
31. Forest flute 2 '
32. Cornett III
33. Mixture IV
34. bassoon 16 ′
35. oboe 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
36. Contrabass 32 ′
37. Principal 16 ′
38. Sub bass 16 ′
39. Octave bass 8th'
40. Gemshorn 8th'
41. Choral bass 4 ′
42. Pommer 4 ′
43. Bass flute 2 ′
44. Mixture V
45. trombone 16 ′
46. Trumpet 8th'

Bells

The old town church has a four-part bell with the tone sequence d 1 –f 1 –g 1 –b 1 . The four bells were manufactured in 1957 by the Rincker bell and art foundry in the Hessian sense .

Others

The consecration of the Trinity Church in the old town is celebrated on Trinity , i.e. on the Sunday after Pentecost . Since 1755 it has been held as a Bergkirchweih at the Altstädter Schießhaus, located at the foot of the Erlanger Burgberg . In the course of time, the festival was extended to twelve days beyond the weekend of Pentecost, so it now lasts from the Thursday before Pentecost to the Monday after Trinity, and is now one of the five largest folk festivals in Bavaria with regularly over a million visitors .

literature

Web links

Commons : Altstädter Pfarrkirche (Erlangen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Volkmar Greiselmayer: Old Town Church. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.
  2. ↑ Andreas Jakob: Old Town Cemetery. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.
  3. ↑ a b Evang.-Luth. Deanery Erlangen (ed.): Paths from church to church - The old churches in the Protestant dean's office Erlangen. Flyer.
  4. ↑ WASTE AND VOID - ARTISAN. Accessed January 2, 2020 (German).
  5. ^ Walter Opp: Organs. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.
  6. ↑ Erlangen, Germany (Bavaria) - Old Town Trinity Church . Online at orgbase.nl ; accessed on March 11, 2018.
  7. ↑ Erlangen (ER) - city center, Evang.-luth. Old town church: bells . Online at www.youtube.com ; accessed on April 15, 2018.

Coordinates: 49 ° 36 ′ 5.2 ″  N , 11 ° 0 ′ 12 ″  E