Bartholomäus chapel (Paderborn)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bartholomew Chapel
Bartholomäus chapel (interior view)

The Bartholomäus chapel in Paderborn was built around 1017 and is considered the oldest known hall church north of the Alps .

The St. The chapel consecrated to Apostle Bartholomäus is located in the center of Paderborn city center on the north side of Paderborn Cathedral , to which it is attached. The museum in the Kaiserpfalz is also in the immediate vicinity .

As a palatine chapel, the Bartholomäus chapel was part of the new building of the imperial palace . The Paderborn bishop Meinwerk (1009-1036) had it built around 1017 based on the Byzantine style by Byzantine builders who created the unique vaults with hanging domes and the columns supporting them . The column capitals are considered to be significant evidence of Ottonian architecture, the chapel itself as the most important art-historical building in Paderborn.

This hall is unique in its time and has not found any direct successors.

history

The Vita Meinwerci , a biography of Bishop Meinwerk from the 12th century, reports that Meinwerk had the Bartholomäus chapel built by Greek builders. The Vita Meinwerci inserts the news of the construction into events around the year 1017, but the date remains uncertain. Excavations have shown that the chapel was integrated into the imperial palace that Meinwerk built for Heinrich II . The purpose of the chapel cannot be determined with certainty. Manfred Balzer suspects that it was used to dress the king in liturgical clothing before entering the cathedral church.

Over time, curiae were built around the chapel . At the end of the 16th century, the Jesuits came to Paderborn and purchased the land and buildings that surrounded the Bartholomäus chapel; In 1591 Prince-Bishop Dietrich von Fürstenberg gave them the Bartholomew beneficion. In the first half of the 17th century they sold their property to the cathedral chapter, but kept the benefit. After the Jesuit order was abolished in 1773, the administration of the chapel fell to the newly established Paderborn Study Fund, which in turn was administered by the Prussian state from 1802 onwards. In 1818 or 1819 a blacksmith bought the homestead by the chapel and also rented the curia next to it. His lodger, a slater, used the Bartholomäus chapel as a workshop.

From 1824 the newly founded Paderborn Antiquities Association campaigned for the preservation of the chapel. 1825-1828 Friedrich Wilhelm III. renovate the chapel. In the course of the work, the Meinwerk's grave slab was walled into the east wall of the north aisle. Until 1850, further isolated conservation measures were carried out on a private initiative. On July 9, 1857, the chapel became the property of the cathedral chapter, although the corresponding land register entry was not made until 1883. From 1858 the cathedral chapter had the Bartholomäus chapel renovated by the then master builder Arnold Güldenpfennig . From around 1862 the chapel served as a place of worship for the newly founded daughter's school of Johanna Pelizaeus and from 1891 for the "Marian Congregation of Young Merchants". Renovation work took place again from 1896 to 1909, during which the surrounding curia and the extensions were largely demolished. In 1912 Meinwerk's grave slab was moved to the Vicariate General.

From 1920 the Paderborn Quickborn group (created in 1915) celebrated Holy Mass first monthly, then weekly in the Bartholomäus chapel; from 1922 the group of the “crusaders” had a mass there once a month. In 1923 the altar from Meinwerk's time was demolished and replaced with a new one. Six large wooden candlesticks were made, some of which are still used today in the chapel's services. In 1926 the new altar was consecrated and masses were again celebrated in the chapel. During National Socialism, the chapel eked a shadowy existence, but even during this time it was used by Catholic youth and home vacationers for communal services. From 1940, Polish forced laborers celebrated Sunday mass here.

The Bartholomäuskapelle survived the Second World War with little damage. The Dombauhütte, which was founded for the reconstruction of Paderborn Cathedral, made makeshift repairs to it. Shortly after the end of the war, regular youth services were celebrated again. From 1955 the chapel was extensively renovated. The sculptor Heinrich Gerhard Bücker created new windows in 1963 and the large bronze entrance door in 1978. At the end of the 1960s, the service life in the chapel melted more and more together, among other things because there was a lack of offspring for the youth group.

architecture

The architecture of the Bartholomäuskapelle is extremely extraordinary in several ways. Apparently it already appeared in need of explanation in the 12th century, since the author of the Vita Meinwerci states that it was built by Greek builders. Byzantine builders who Meinwerk might have met on his travels to Rome were usually understood by this. However, since no direct models for the Bartholomew Chapel can be found in the Byzantine region, the statement was finally questioned. Only the Byzantine origin of the hanging domes was finally accepted, which the builders from Byzantium could have built into a church interior of western style. On the other hand, it could be asserted that it was not the building typology but the dimensions that formed the direct point of reference for a reference to a specific Byzantine building, namely the Myrelaion Church in Constantinople , built before 922 by Emperor Romanos I as his own Court chapel. Although it was built as a Byzantine cross-domed church, its dimensions exactly match those of the Bartholomew Chapel, while the characteristic hanging domes can be found in the cistern that is built under the neighboring palace. Together with the Meinwerk palace auditorium, the Bartholomew Chapel thus connotes the imperial seat of power in Constantinople. In the same way, Bishop Meinwerk sent to Jerusalem in 1033 in order to obtain the dimensions of the local Church of the Holy Sepulcher as a basis for his Paderborn Busdorf Church in the east and called monks from Cluny for the Abdinghof monastery he founded in the west of the city. The Bartholomäus chapel thus became part of a sacred topography, the center of which was the new Meinwerk cathedral.

The Bartholomäus chapel has a rectangular floor plan with an apse in the east. She is a vaulted hall church , by six columns in three equal ships is divided. It is the first example of a three-aisled vaulted church. The shape of the vaults is also unusual, as they are designed as so-called hanging domes . The columns are also very noticeable, as they are extremely slim and have what is known as entasis . While the capitals of the eastern and western pair of columns are designed as stylized Corinthian capitals , the middle pair of columns shows a further development of the basic type.

The hall inside is intended as an architectural idea in this form and not due to technical reasons - for example through the rooms above. It was not until the 12th century that the hall appeared more frequently as an architectural principle in individual, widely spaced landscapes, in Regensburg, the Upper Palatinate, in the Poitou in France and in Westphalia. The slender, almost fragile-looking columns have no relation to the rest of the German architecture of this time and clearly come from the Byzantine area. The wreath of high-lying windows is important: The light falling from there makes the room appear weightless together with the graceful columns - very much in contrast to the massive construction of the German area at that time.

The chapel has survived all trials and tribulations in the course of its time, including the Second World War , in which the Paderborn Cathedral was badly damaged, almost unaffected. Its windows were restored to their original form in 1955 and given the current glazing in 1963. In 1978 the chapel received an artistically designed bronze door, which is intended to give the viewer an insight into the time and thinking of Bishop Meinwerk.

Acoustics

Thanks to its excellent acoustics, which can be attributed to the hanging domes , the Bartholomäuskapelle is popular for both singing and instrumental music.

Todays use

Services are not regularly celebrated in the Bartholomäus chapel today. The Catholic University Congregation has been using it for Rora offices during the Advent season since the 1980s. Otherwise it is used for individual church services of various kinds. It is also an attraction for tourists and - because of its excellent acoustics - for singers and instrumentalists.

In 2017, the Paderborn Cathedral Chapter celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the Bartholomäus Chapel, combined with the 950th consecration of the Imad Cathedral in 2018, with a festival program.

See also

literature

  • Johann Josef Böker : Per Grecos Operarios: The Bartholomäuskapelle in Paderborn and its Byzantine model , in: Low German contributions to art history 46, 1997, pp. 8-27.
  • Norbert Börste, Stefan Kopp (eds.): 1000 years of the Bartholomäuskapelle Paderborn. History - liturgy - preservation of monuments. Petersberg 2018.
  • Hermann Busen : The Bartholomäuskapelle in Paderborn , in: Westfalen 41, Münster 1963, pp. 273-312.
  • Theodor Fockele: The Bartholomäuskapelle zu Paderborn, the Catholic life in it and its friends , o. O. 1988.
  • Dorothea Kluge: The Bartholomäuskapelle in Paderborn , in: Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments , Volume 20: Paderborner Hochfläche, Paderborn, Büren, Salzkotten, Mainz am Rhein 1971, p. 172ff.
  • Uwe Lobbedey: The Paderborn Cathedral. Prehistory, construction and survival of a Westphalian bishop's church , Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1990.
  • Uwe Lobbedey: The church buildings Bishop Meinwerk. In: Meinwerk von Paderborn 1009-1036. A bishop in his time . Exhibition catalog, ed. by Hans Leo Drewes , Paderborn 1986, pp. 42-58.
  • Josef Meyer zu Schlochtern , Matthias Wemhoff : The Bartholomäuskapelle Paderborn . Bonifatius, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-89710-010-X .

prose

Web links

Commons : Bartholomäuskapelle  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Balzer: Evidence for the self-image of Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn . In: Norbert Kamp and Joachim Wollasch (eds.): Tradition as a historical force. Interdisciplinary research on the history of the early Middle Ages . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1982, pp. 267-296.
  2. ↑ Fockele, Theodor: The Bartholomäuskapelle zu Paderborn, the Catholic life in her and her friends , o. O. 1988, pp. 1-4.
  3. ^ Schmitz, Karl Josef: The Bartholomäuskapelle in Paderborn, first object of the preservation of monuments in Westphalia 1825 . In: Westfälische Zeitschrift 124/125, 1974/1975, pp. 115–118. Digitized
  4. ↑ Fockele, Theodor: The Bartholomäuskapelle zu Paderborn, the Catholic life in her and her friends , o. O. 1988, pp. 5–10.
  5. ↑ Fockele, Theodor: The Bartholomäuskapelle zu Paderborn, the Catholic life in her and her friends , o. O. 1988, pp. 11-20.
  6. ↑ Fockele, Theodor: The Bartholomäuskapelle zu Paderborn, the Catholic life in her and her friends , o. O. 1988, pp. 20-22.
  7. ↑ Lobbedey. Uwe: The church buildings Bishop Meinwerk , in: Meinwerk von Paderborn 1009-1036. A bishop in his time. Exhibition catalog, ed. by Hans Leo Drewes, Paderborn 1986, pp. 51-52.
  8. ^ Lobbedey, Uwe: The Paderborn Cathedral. Prehistory, construction and survival of a Westphalian bishop's church , Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1990, p. 26.
  9. ^ Gabriele Mietke: The building activity of Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn and the early Christian and Byzantine architecture. Paderborn, 1991, p. 110f.
  10. ↑ Johann Josef Böker : Per Grecos Operarios: The Bartholomäuskapelle in Paderborn and their Byzantine model , in: Low German contributions to art history 46, 1997, pp. 8-27.
  11. ↑ Erich Herzog : The Ottonian city. The beginnings of medieval urban architecture in Germany (Frankfurt Research on Architectural History 2). Berlin 1964, pp. 102-115.
  12. ^ Lobbedey, Uwe: The Paderborn Cathedral. Prehistory, construction and survival of a Westphalian bishop's church , Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1990, pp. 23–26.
  13. ↑ Protected and thoughtful , website of the anniversary “1000 years of Bartholomew's Chapel - 950 years of Imad Cathedral”, Paderborn 2017 (as of July 26, 2017).

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 ′ 9.3 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 20"  E