Briesnitz Church
The Briesnitzer church is a historic building in the Dresden district of Briesnitz . The church, which is one of the oldest churches in the upper Elbe Valley, is a listed building.
history
First church building
The history of the Briesnitz church goes back to the 11th century. The first simple chapel was probably built around 1050 on an elevation above the banks of the Elbe and was associated with the Burgward Briesnitz. Before that there was probably a Slavic sanctuary at this point. The originally Romanesque building was one of the first early Christian churches in Saxony and played a major role in the Christianization of the Upper Elbe region. The new church was consecrated to Mary, the Mother of God . In the course of increasing settlement in the region, Briesnitz became the seat of an archdeacon in the 12th century , who was responsible for ecclesiastical administration and jurisdiction. In the Middle Ages, the church was subordinate to a total of 26 villages in the area, which also used the adjacent churchyard as a burial place.
In 1223 this church was destroyed during fighting for the Burgward. Some wall remains and foundations were incorporated into a barn construction around 1550, which existed until the 18th century. In 1993 these were uncovered during road construction work and have since been seen as a ground monument right next to the Meißner Landstrasse.
Second church building
In the middle of the 13th century, about 150 meters away, at today's location on a mountain spur, a new, larger church was built, the main features of which have been preserved to this day despite later structural changes. After the Christophoruskirche in Dresden's Wilschdorf district , it is the second oldest preserved sacred building in the city. The oldest components are in the Gothic choir, where an east window divided into three parts in the shape of a clover can be seen. The nave followed around 1470 and the tower was completed in 1502.
After the Reformation , Briesnitz lost its function as a church center. The church was converted into a Protestant church in 1539 and structurally changed. In 1602 a fire destroyed parts of the building and the tower, which was given a new look with a Renaissance gable during the reconstruction. In 1680 two galleries were built into the nave. The tower and church were popular motifs for painters and draftsmen during the Romantic era . Representations of the Briesnitz church are u. a. handed down by Adrian Zingg , Caspar David Friedrich , Ludwig Richter and Christian Friedrich Gille .
The cemetery by the chapel was probably abandoned at the time the new church was built and a churchyard was created instead. This inner cemetery , used for the 26 localities of the Parish, was expanded several times. Due to a lack of space, the outer cemetery was built away from the church at the end of the 19th century .
Remodeling in the 19th century
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In 1881/82 the parish decided to completely rebuild the church in the neo-Gothic style. The reason was significant structural defects in the roof structure and the tower. The architect Gotthilf Ludwig Möckel was won over with the renovation work . Möckel first tried to convince the community of the preservation of the historically valuable tower, but without success. Ultimately, this was partially demolished and replaced in the upper part by a new building with a gothic spire and four smaller corner turrets. The painted wooden coffered ceiling with representations from the Old Testament had to give way to the redesign of the nave. Some pictures were sold by the parish to the owner of the Tolkewitz dance hall "Donaths Neue Welt" and only returned to the Briesnitz church in 1934. In place of the old coffered ceiling, Möckel installed a brick vault, and the interior was in neo-Gothic style. In the course of this renovation, the nave was raised by 1.80 meters. The converted church was consecrated on April 16, 1882.
In 1897, the neighboring town of Cotta , and in 1912 other towns from the Briesnitz parish and formed their own parishes. Since 2006 the Briesnitz Church has belonged to the newly formed parish of Dresden-West. Extensive renovation work was carried out between 1979 and 1983 and from 2007.
Furnishing
The Briesnitz church has a number of artistically and historically valuable furnishings. The oldest is a cloverleaf-shaped choir window from the pre-Reformation period behind the altar. A Marian window (now in the sacristy) and some wooden sculptures that once adorned a Marian altar also date from around 1500. There are also paintings by former parish priests. In the tower vestibule you can see some gravestones of former Briesnitz pastors, which come from the old churchyard. A baptismal font was placed in the church in 1595. The pewter bowl in the baptismal font commemorates Pastor Dominicus Eber, who was in office from 1603 to 1647.
organ
In 1622 the church received its first organ, a work by the organ builder Salomon Schmidt from Dippoldiswalde . In 1856 this was replaced by a new building by the Jahn organ building company. In 1995 , Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden added a new organ to the historic organ prospectus from 1882 . It has 32 registers , two manuals and a pedal mechanism with mechanical action and 2,315 organ pipes.
Bells
After the church tower burned down in 1602, three new bronze bells were obtained. Two of them had to be given in 1917 for armament purposes, the third was sold to the Greifendorf parish after the war for 23,000 Reichsmarks .
From the proceeds of the sale, the parish was able to purchase three steel bells (expansion on May 24, 2017) from the Lauchhammer bell foundry in 1920 .
Previous bell
The ringing from 1920 to 2017 consisted of three chilled cast iron bells , the bell cage is made of a (steel construction). Below is a data overview of the bell:
| No. | Casting date | Caster | diameter | Dimensions | Chime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1920 | Bell foundry Lauchhammer | 1950 mm | 3015 kg | of' |
| 2 | 1920 | Bell foundry Lauchhammer | 1570 mm | 1710 kg | fes ′ |
| 3 | 1920 | Bell foundry Lauchhammer | 1270 mm | 925 kg | as ′ |
On August 28, 2017, the worn steel bells were replaced with new bronze bells after 97 years.
literature
- Jürgen Helfricht : Dresden and its churches. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3374022618
- Friedrich Böttcher, Wilhelm Liebert: The history of the village Briesnitz. (Reprint) Interest group Briesnitz, Dresden 2004 (original from 1933)
- Bernhard Uhlmann: Church Dresden-Briesnitz. Parish Dresden-Briesnitz, undated
Web links
- The Church of Dresden-Briesnitz Website of the parish
- History of the Briesnitz Church on dresdner-stadtteile.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cultural monuments on the Dresden themed city map - accessed on June 18, 2013
- ^ Friedrich Böttcher: The history of the village Briesnitz. Dresden 1933, p. 55
- ↑ The Briesnitz cemeteries. Evangelical Lutheran Parish Dresden West, accessed on November 8, 2016 .
- ↑ Soon unmistakable: Greifendorfer Church should receive more bells , in: Freie Presse , January 3, 2002
- ↑ When bells float. In: Saxon newspaper. May 26, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Briesnitz Church: Building History. (No longer available online.) Evangelical Lutheran Parish Dresden West, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 24, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Rainer Thümmel : Bells in Saxony . Sound between heaven and earth. Ed .: Evangelical Regional Church Office of Saxony . 2nd, updated and supplemented edition. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-374-02871-9 , pp. 289 (With a foreword by Jochen Bohl and photographs by Klaus-Peter Meißner).
- ↑ The last act on the sound of bells (the new bells arrive). In: Saxon newspaper. August 29, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 4 ′ 4 ″ N , 13 ° 40 ′ 21 ″ E