Christophorus Church (Dresden-Wilschdorf)
The Christophoruskirche is a Protestant village church in the Dresden district of Wilschdorf . The listed sacred building is considered the oldest church in the city .
history
The Christophoruskirche is considered to be the oldest preserved church in today's Dresden city area: a red consecration cross on a Gothic fresco inside the church was dated to the time of the first settlers. The font dates from around 1200 and was destroyed in 1945. The church was first mentioned in a document in 1243, the oldest preserved bell of the church from 1250 is also the oldest preserved bell in Dresden.
In the first half of the 15th century, the earliest known reconstructions of the church took place, which originally probably only had the character of a chapel. The interior of the church was decorated with frescoes at this time, which were only uncovered and restored between 1972 and 1985. In the course of the Reformation in 1539, the Christophorus Church became Protestant. The altar of the church was built between 1570 and 1580. The oldest surviving church accounts date from 1595 and related to repairs to the bell tower.
In the course of the Thirty Years War in 1637 Swedish troops, who also came looting through Wilschdorf, robbed the church's offering box, which has been in use again since 1967. In the 18th century, the sacred building was damaged by a lightning strike and restored in a modified manner, so it was given galleries inside. The roof turret of the church dates from 1725. From 1927 to 1928 the pulpit and altar were restored, further conservation measures were carried out in 1956 and 1967. In 1986 the village church was named Christophoruskirche after the rediscovered depiction of St. Christopher on one of the frescoes. The Wilschdorf Church has owned an organ from the Wegscheider organ workshop since 1995 .
Building description
Exterior
The plastered building is designed as a simple, rectangular hall church with a vestibule to the west. The sacristy adjoins it in the northeast, and stairs lead to the church tower in the north. The core of the church is Romanesque . Modifications in the first half of the 15th century led to today's rectangular shape.
The church has a steep gable roof . The sacred building differs from the surrounding farmsteads of the former street perimeter village Wilschdorf mainly through the eight-sided roof turret in the middle with a curved hood. It was built in 1725 and is covered with slate . The exterior of the roughly 25 meter high church was last restored in 1967.
Interior
The interior of the church is designed "very primitive" and offers space for around 120 believers. The simple wooden ceiling has no artistic decorations and is raised on the western organ gallery. On the west and north side there is a continuous simple gallery, which was built in after destruction in the 18th century when the church was restored in 1770. The galleries are divided into individual fields by pilasters , but appear "very coarse and handcrafted". The parapet fields are painted and provided with sayings in gold letters. According to the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt , the interior design dates from the second half of the 17th century.
The windows on the south side are arched windows with deep soffits . The windows on the east side were originally probably from the Romanesque period and designed as a group of three windows. Today these have been changed to simple rectangular windows with a door; the door leads to the belfry.
altar
The altar is carved out of wood and is a "rough craft". It is 200 centimeters wide and 250 centimeters high. The words “come to me!” Can be read on the continuous, flat base . The altar structure is relatively high compared to the base. Above the base close to pedestals side Doric columns , which verkröpfen is brewing. At the side of the pillars, the top of the roll-up doors , which were made from cut-out boards, close off. A broken triangular gable forms the upper end, which also has scrollwork on the side.
Between the columns there is an altar painting that genre-like depicts the Last Supper . It was created between 1570 and 1580 and probably comes from the workshop of Hans Schroer from Liège . The inscription "Jesus Christ yesterday and today and the same in eternity" can be read in the pediment above the painting.
pulpit
The hexagonal pulpit was built around 1600. Like the altar, it is made of wood. In the parapet are the four evangelists with their attributes painted in glue paint. The pulpit is closed on four sides of the hexagon and, apart from the painting, is kept simple. The sound cover is also hexagonal. It was created in 1680 by H. Christoph Zormehlen.
Baptismal font
The first font was built around 1200 and was probably made of granite. It was 104 centimeters in diameter and 85 centimeters high. The foot broke off at a height of 20 centimeters around 1900. The walls of the goblet were structured by pipes, in the upper semicircle of which there appeared to be relief depictions of lilies and pecking birds. Several of the reliefs were already unrecognizable around 1900 and broken off at the edge. Around 1900 the baptismal font was owned by the Royal Saxon Antiquities Association. During the Second World War it was stored in the Palais in the Great Garden , where it was destroyed when the building was bombed.
Today the Christophoruskirche has a simple baptismal font made of wood.
Church decorations
In 1971, while the interior of the church was being renovated, large-scale Gothic frescoes were discovered. They were created around 1425 in lime colors, when the rough plaster of the church was painted over with smooth plaster, and are the oldest Gothic frescoes in Dresden. They were painted over shortly after the Reformation and exposed from 1972 to 1985, with parts of the frescoes being covered by the galleries built around 1770. The frescoes are considered "a rarity of medieval art in sacred space".
The frescoes show a 370 centimeter high depiction of St. Christopher on the north wall and next to it in two layers six depictions from the Passion of Christ: In the upper part, Christ with Pontius Pilate , the kiss of Judas and the sleeping disciples on the Mount of Olives are depicted, while the lower row depicts Show the flagellation of Jesus, the crowning of thorns and Jesus carrying the cross. A second fresco on the south wall, which is only partially preserved, shows the adoration of the Magi and a dragon image in the pulpit area. The frescoes are framed by friezes, with the figures standing in front of a “carpet-like ground with flowers”.
organ
The Christophorus Church had an organ from the 19th century around 1900 . In 1928 the church received a pneumatic Jahn organ, which was played until 1995. At this point the sound of the instrument had become unsatisfactory. Individual metal pipes were so badly deformed that the organ was difficult to tune. It was considered unrestorable, which is why the municipality decided to buy a new organ.
With the help of the Dussmann Foundation, a new organ was acquired from the Wegscheider organ workshop ; Organ builder Kristian Wegscheider works in neighboring Rähnitz . The organ consecration took place on October 22, 1995.
A special feature of the organ is that you can choose between two types of tuning , the medium-tone tuning and the well-tempered tuning. At the time of the organ consecration, the Wilschdorf organ was the only such instrument in the world alongside the Fisk-Nanney organ in the Stanford Memorial Church of Stanford University in California .
The disposition of the Wegscheider organ:
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- Coupling : II / I (sliding coupling); I / P.
- Tremulant
- Tuning pitch: 440 Hz for a ′
- Temperature: medium-tone and well-tempered to switch
Bells
The Christophoruskirche has three bells of different ages. The small bell was cast around 1250 and is the oldest bell in the Dresden city area. During the Second World War, the bells were removed and stored in the Hamburg bell cemetery, but not melted down. In 1948 they were brought back to Wilschdorf, but at that time they had already damaged the crowns. The bells were therefore repaired in the Lachenmeyer bell welding shop in Nördlingen from February to June 2008 .
| image | Surname | year | size | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Big bell | 15th century | 58 cm high, 66 cm lower diameter | Marked with two thread-like cords on the neck |
 |
Medium bell | 1348/49 | 51 cm high, 54 cm lower diameter | on the neck nine reliefs of the risen Christ, a tenth relief on the cloak |
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Little bell | 1250 | 40 cm high, 46 cm lower diameter | sweeping attack |
Churchyard
The churchyard of the Christophoruskirche can be entered through a round arch and a basket arch gate. It is elevated and surrounded by a stone wall. With around 1200 square meters, the churchyard is one of the smallest cemeteries in Dresden . The churchyard has been used as a cemetery since the church was founded and was closed in 1893.
Only a few graves have survived , including the baroque sandstone epitaph of pastor Johann Friedrich Gerhardt and his wife Eleonore Sophie on the southern church wall . Gerhardt worked as a parish priest in Wilschdorf from 1768 to 1781. Its epitaph is 100 centimeters wide and 220 centimeters high. There are two cartridges with illegible text on a pedestal-like base. Two more, larger and powerfully modeled cartouches can be seen above a weak cornice, which were created symmetrically to one another. An angel figure stands in the middle above both of them and appears to be holding both cartouches. An obelisk with a canopy-like finish can be seen behind the figure. The inscriptions on the upper cartouches indicate the dates of the couple's death.
A wall grave of the Schmiedgen family from around 1915 has also been preserved. The sandstone grave is in neo-baroque style and shows in an aedicule the relief of Christ knocking on a door. Between pilasters there is a relief of Mary with her child.
The parish garden with the rectory adjoins the churchyard. In the parish garden is the remnant of a round arch gate from 1612. In the southern parish garden wall, an associated seating niche portal was added in the 18th century, which was also built around 1612.
literature
- Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony . Volume 26. Meinhold, Dresden 1904, pp. 288-291.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b See history of the church.
- ↑ Kathrin Kupka-Hahn: Where the church stayed in the village . In: Sächsische Zeitung , September 21, 2013, p. 19.
- ↑ a b c d e f Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony . Volume 26. Meinhold, Dresden 1904, p. 289.
- ↑ Gurlitt incorrectly states that it is a modern painting by Carl Gottlob Schönherr. See Gurlitt, p. 289.
- ↑ Werner Pinkert: Services for the castle. Wilschdorf village structure is largely preserved / church with Gothic frescoes . In: Sächsische Zeitung , Alte Dorfkerne series , No. 36. March 7, 2002.
- ↑ Georg Dehio (ed.): Handbook of German Art Monuments. Dresden . Updated edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin 2005, p. 233.
- ↑ a b See Wegscheider organ in the Christophorus Church in Wilschdorf
- ↑ S. Rössel: The bells of the Christophoruskirche are back . In: Sächsische Zeitung , June 26, 2008.
- ↑ Cf. Marion Stein: Friedhöfe in Dresden . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 2000.
Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 19.8 ″ N , 13 ° 43 ′ 19.3 ″ E