Bartholomäikirche (Altenburg)
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The St. Bartholomäi Church is the Protestant town church of Altenburg in Thuringia. In 2011, the Gothic hall church was awarded the European Heritage Seal by a total of 22 Reformation sites nationwide, along with six others in Thuringia .
history
The beginnings of Altenburg lie in the area of today's Brühl with its triangular street market and the Bartholomäikirche. The previous building, a Romanesque basilica , a hall church with a retracted square choir , semicircular apse and a west transverse tower, was first mentioned in 1215.
The missionary work of the Sorbs in the area of what would later become Altenburg began around 950 from Zeitz by the Benedictine monk Boso von Merseburg from the St. Emmeram monastery near Regensburg . In a document from 976 it is noted that Emperor Otto II gave Altenburg to the Zeitz diocese . The location on the Reichsstrasse, which led from Lower Saxony via Halle and Leipzig to Bohemia , favored the development of Altenburg. Under Emperor Lothar III. merchants built a parish church on a rock spur above the market. They chose the apostle Bartholomew as their patron saint . Since the middle of the 12th century, Emperor Barbarossa has been expanding the Pleißenland under his control , with Altenburg Castle developing into an important royal palace . According to the deed of donation dated February 11, 1215, Frederick II handed over the patronage of the Bartholomäikirche to the Augustinian Canons .
Building history
The previous Romanesque building was a hall with the same width transverse west tower, recessed choir and apse made of sandstone blocks. In the center of the Romanesque nave was the baptismal font on a step substructure. The crypt , to which a semicircular apse adjoins to the east, was added laterally to the south wall of the choir in the second third of the 12th century. The construction of a similar crypt north of the choir began. On the north wall there are two walled round arches , which were intended as a transition to the central part of the crypt that was not built. City churches did not have a stately crypt, but collegiate and monastery churches did. Presumably the parish church should be converted into a collegiate church. Instead, the Augustinian Monastery of Our Dear Women on the Mountain in front of Altenburg was donated east of the city by Friedrich I. Of the brick building, only the two towers of St. Mary's Church remain, as symbols of the city of Altenburg.
The Bartholomäikirche, which was completed in 1443, was redesigned several times and the old two-tower western structure of the previous church was incorporated into the new building. After one of the two medieval towers collapsed, the second was also demolished and a central baroque tower was built in 1660–1669 . In 1872 the roof turret of the Bartholomäikirche was dismantled. During the Baroque, additions were built, which were removed again in 1876–1878. 1876–1878 the former sacristy in the south transept was redesigned, it was originally two-story. The former roof approach of the sacristy was lower than that of the church roof. A new gable roof gave an upper floor, which opens up to the nave with a high pointed arch . It was probably intended as a gallery for the choir . The net vault was removed from the lower room and reinstalled on the upper floor. In 1878–1881 stone galleries and portal vestibules on the north and south sides were built in neo -Gothic style.
During the reconstruction of the church between 1981 and 1989, the false ceiling in the sacristy was removed and the floor deepened in order to reach the exposed crypt. The side galleries were demolished and the baroque extensions on the south and north sides were removed, and a heating system was installed.
Building description
Nave
The three-aisled, six-bay hall church with a 5/12 choir polygon between irregular side aisles and the roof structure date from the time it was built.
tower
The baroque tower has a partly Romanesque substructure, which is provided with bosses at the corners . Above that there are three octagonal upper floors. The fourth, strongly indented floor, on which the tower keeper's apartment is located, is also octagonal and has an open walkway. The hood with a lantern rises above it . Of the four monumental angel figures on the corners of the substructure, which are supposed to symbolically support the tower with their outstretched arms, only three have survived. The octagonal, vaulted baptistery has been located on the ground floor of the tower since 1853. A new tower portal was created in 1905.
crypt
The low crypt has a groin vault and a semicircular apse. The central pillar, surrounded by four three-quarter columns, has a square core. Two of the column capitals are decorated with ornaments. The vault begins on the north and south walls above half columns , on the west wall and in the corners above consoles . The crypt was used as a burial place until the 17th century. It was later inaccessible and was not rediscovered until 1843. In 1876 the graves in the crypt and in the nave were cleared to make room for a heating system.
inner space
The three aisles are separated by deep arcades . The octagonal pillars of the nave have no fighters and no capitals . The nave has a ribbed vault , the choir a star vault . The rib approaches stand on consoles. Remnants of medieval wall paintings can still be seen in the polygon choir . In 1881 the pulpit , the baptismal font , the church stalls and the organ front were built . The stone west gallery was built for Friedrich Ladegast's organ .
window
The windows on the north and south sides are designed with simple late Gothic tracery. Most of the tracery windows on the north and east sides have been preserved in their original form; on the south side they were reconstructed in the 19th century. The tracery in the choir received lead glass windows around 1900 . In the middle window you can see the resurrection of Jesus Christ , in the north window the baptism of Jesus . The southern window in the choir room is about the Lord's Supper . The window on the south side shows Jesus with Mary and Martha .
altar
The figures of Christ crucified , Moses and John the Baptist from the old altar are still in the choir. The winged altar (around 1510/1520) from the church of St. Laurentius in Buchheim near Eisenberg, restored from 1988 to 1990, was placed in the chancel. The open shrine of the three-part, carved altarpiece has a central figure of the Virgin Mary , St. Laurentius of Rome , the patron saint of the Buchheim church and St. Lucia . The predella shows the coronation of Mary , it was once the main picture of a late Gothic altar shrine in the church in Kauern near Ronneburg . The figure of St. Bartholomew in the wing carries a knife in his hand as a sign of his martyrdom.
organ
There was a reference to an organ in the St. Bartholomäi Church around 1505. With the Reformation in Altenburg, Protestant church music had a significant boom. In 1573–1574 the church received a new one after the old organ was demolished. This was replaced by a new organ in 1770–1782. The present organ by Friedrich Ladegast has been rebuilt and expanded several times since its inauguration in 1881. It initially had 39 voices on three manuals and one pedal . In 1905/09 it was expanded with a register . The prospect pipes of the main factory , which were removed for war purposes in 1917 , were replaced by zinc pipes in 1919. In 1922, an opening was provided for the organ in the vaulted ceiling so that the music sounds like it is from far away. In 1949 the organ was rearranged . 1989–1990 it was completely overhauled and can now be played with 44 sounding registers with 2554 pipes.
Bells
The bell of the St. Bartholomäi Church consists of three bronze bells. The two older ones, which had survived the collapse of the tower in 1659, were cast in the Ulrich bell foundry in Apolda in 1817 and an additional bell was added. At the beginning of 1942, the two large bells were given for war purposes, which were found intact again after the Second World War in 1949.
literature
- Barbara Löwe: Altenburg Church of St. Bartholomäi. Altenburg 2001.
- Kati Reinhardt, Martin Gröger: Churches in East Thuringia. Altenburg 2001.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Band Thuringia. Munich 2003.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 59 ′ 12.6 ″ N , 12 ° 26 ′ 7.6 ″ E