Bridge chapel
A bridge chapel or bridge church is a church building that was built for the divine protection of bridges and travelers. Bridge chapels and churches were particularly widespread in the Middle Ages , when many bridges over large rivers were equipped with a small chapel on one side of the river.
In 1883 there were about 25 bridge chapels and churches in Germany.
There are bridge chapels at the
- Drusus Bridge over the Nahe near Bingen ,
- Nikolausbrücke in Calw
- Werra Bridge Creuzburg ( Liborius Chapel ),
- Inner bridge Esslingen, Nikolauskapelle
- old Main Bridge in Frankfurt am Main ,
- Lahn Bridge in Limburg .
- Heilig Hüsli at the bridgehead of the wooden bridge Rapperswil – Hurden in Rapperswil
Bridgehead churches
A special form of the bridge chapels or churches are the Erfurt bridgehead churches , one of which is still preserved, the Agidienkirche on the Krämerbrücke on the right of the Gera . The Benediktikirche on the Krämerbrücke left and right of the Gera and the Vitikirche on the Lange Brücke were demolished. Only the tower of the Nikolaikirche on the Lehmannsbrücke is still standing. The churches were also used as regular parish churches.
Individual evidence
- ^ F. Abraham, in: Jahresberichte der Geschichtswwissenschaft, 1883, II, p. 99