Dominican Church (Bozen)
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The Dominican Church with its former monastery is one of the most important buildings in terms of art history in the South Tyrolean capital of Bolzano . The Roman Catholic Church, which serves the pastoral care of the Italian-speaking population and is consecrated to St. Dominic , is located at Dominikanerplatz 1 in the center of Bozner Boden-Rentsch . In terms of art history, the monk's choir is one of the earliest examples of Gothic sacred architecture in Tyrol . The Gothic wall paintings in the church and cloister between 1320 and 1520 are the most important of their kind in Bolzano, while the altarpiece of Guercino in the nave is a high-level example of the Italian Baroque.
history
The order of the Dominicans is mentioned for the first time in 1272 in Bolzano, where it settled south of the city wall near the Eisack . The monks probably came from the convent of San Lorenzo in Trento and carried a letter of recommendation from Bishop Leo Thundorfer of Regensburg from 1273 with them. The first prior of the monastery was in all probability Heinrich von Burgeis , who also emerged as the author of the poetic confession and penance sermon Der Seele Rat . In 1276 the first church dedicated to the Savior is mentioned in a document. In 1287, a convent was first mentioned in connection with the settlement of the Dominicans , when Meinhard II granted customs exemption for food and clothing.
Around 1300 the construction of the new, today's church began, in which Anna of Bohemia , the first wife of the Tyrolean sovereign Heinrich , was buried in 1313. Only a little later, Giovannino de 'Rossi, whose father had come to Bozen from Florence, had the St. John's Chapel built west of the choir , in which he was also buried in 1324. His son, who called himself Botsch , commissioned the painting of the chapel with frescoes and the erection of the tower over the northern Kapellenjoch. Around this time, the sacristy , chapter house and cloister were also built to the west of the Johanneskapelle . The chapels on the east wall of the nave, which were built around 1350, were removed in the 19th century. In the second half of the 15th century, the nobility and bourgeoisie raised the financial means to vault the nave and the cloister. This work was carried out under the direction of Hans Hueber from Villach . From 1488 there is evidence of a separate St. Sebastian brotherhood at the Dominican Convent, whose members were among the most important Bolzano patrician families such as the Kiesfelder, Lantramer or Truefer.
In the 16th century, the decline of the monastery progressed so far that the governor of Tyrol proposed in 1600 that it be given to the Jesuits . But as early as 1643 the Dominicans established a philosophical and theological college here. At that time there were 24 friars. At that time, the late Gothic pillars in the nave and the arches to the side chapels were provided with baroque stucco capitals. In 1730/40 the choir was renewed in the Rococo style.
On February 19, 1784, the monastery was closed by Emperor Joseph II . Works of art, books and archive materials were sold or even destroyed, and the buildings themselves were initially used as barracks. In the course of the 19th century, the monastery successively served as a military magazine, military bakery and school. During the First World War , a military hospital was housed here, in which the important doctor Lorenz Böhler worked and gained fundamental new knowledge in trauma surgery. A memorial plaque reminds of this.
After 1918, the new Italian administration planned to use the former Dominican church for cult purposes again through the Trento Monuments Office. Due to a lack of funds, however, the corresponding work could only be started in 1935, which progressed only slowly. Before the work was finished, American aerial bombs destroyed the church building and the tower in 1944. After the choir and Johanneskapelle had been poorly secured, the nave and tower were not rebuilt until 1960–1962. The rest of the restoration work was completed in 2008. Part of the monastery is now used as the Claudio Monteverdi Music Conservatory , where the internationally renowned Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition takes place. The city gallery is housed in another part.
Building description
Exterior
The facade of the north side of the church is now directly on Dominikanerplatz; originally it was in a walled forecourt. At the corners there are two buttresses, in the middle is the main portal, protected by a canopy, and above it a late Gothic rose window . To the right of the gate is a fresco depicting the death of the Virgin Mary from the 3rd quarter of the 15th century, which is attributed to Leonhard von Brixen . Frescoes above with a coronation of Mary and to the left of the gate, which represented three saints, have been lost except for meager remains.
A high pointed arch can be seen on the facade on the east side, which led to the former St. Nicholas' Chapel. Two pointed arch windows and a small remnant of the late Gothic network of joints that originally covered the facade are also visible. A small extension dates from 1972.
The choir side has buttresses and eight pointed arch windows from the early 14th century. Among them is the window in the central axis, which has three panels and particularly fine tracery .
inner space
The nave is lower than street level and is accessed through the main portal created by Igino Legnaghi in 2008 via newer steps. The three-aisled hall church is structured by two rows of four octagonal pillars each, which together with two half-pillars in the north and consoles on the long sides support the vault . The red painted ribs are designed symmetrically. On the third pillar on the right you can see the year 1468 on the coat of arms of Anton Minnig; this date marks the beginning of the late Gothic renovation of the church. In the south, a reconstructed rood screen with four small chapels closes the nave from the choir. In front of it, on the east wall, is the arch to the former St. Thomas Chapel, behind which there is now an extension from 1972.
The arch of the rood screen leads to the choir, whose narrow and high design with three yokes and a 5/8 end reveals the late Gothic proportions. The entire surface was reshaped in the Rococo style, i.e. the ribs of the vault were removed and replaced with rich stucco decorations and stucco capitals were built on pillars instead of the consoles. The stucco decorations are attributed to Hannibal Bittner from Carinthia and the paintings to Giacomo Antonio Delai. During the restoration between 1935 and 1943, it was decided not to return the choir to its late Gothic state, a procedure that was rather unusual at the time. Only the bricked up tracery of the windows was exposed again. Since the vault was smashed by a bomb in 1944, the stucco decorations were reconstructed in 1986/87, two of the destroyed ceiling paintings were repainted by Robert Scherer in 2004.
In the choir is the Renaissance epitaph (1530) of the Tyrolean governor Leonhard von Völs and his third wife Ursula von Montfort .
Furnishing
The original equipment was largely destroyed by the abolition of the monastery and the war damage. In the choir hangs a silver crucifix by Igino Legnaghi from around 1965 above the altar table. The popular altar is in the nave in front of the rood screen and was created in 2008 by Paul de Doss Moroder from Ortisei in Val Gardena . An important piece of equipment is the altar from the former mercantile chapel in the extension on the east side. It was created in 1641 by the architect Mattia Pezzi out of marble with four columns and a blown segmented gable. The 1655 altarpiece by Guercino depicts the miraculous apparition of St. Dominic in Soriano . In 1684 Domenico Tomezzoli produced the sculptures Faith and Hope as well as two angels and the reliefs with the arms of the mercantile magistrate. Further to the north on the east wall are two wooden sculptures of Mary and St. Anthony of Padua from Val Gardena, in between the picture by Giuseppe Tortelli from 1720, which also depicts Mary with child and St. Anthony. On the north wall there are two baroque tombstones by Hans Kramer in 1706 and Johannes Schaitter in 1661.
The nave of the church was almost entirely frescoed. Despite the devastation of the war, some of them have survived. The remains of a twelve-part cycle about Antonius Eremita and a great Christophorus around 1500 can still be seen on the north wall , while the cycle by the Paduan painter Guariento di Arpo has been almost completely destroyed. On the west wall, four saints ( Laurentius , an unknown woman, Margaretha and Oswald ) from around 1400 are shown in the first image field . This is followed by an enthroned Madonna, donated by one of the lords of Castelbarco and created by a Veronese painter in 1379. The next image is in three parts and shows a seated Madonna, in front of whom a donor kneels in full armor, the Volto Santo of Lucca with the clothed Christ on the cross, who has placed one of his shoes on the altar for the minstrel Genesius, and the dragon fight of St. . Georg . In the last picture you can see Saints Anthony, Barbara and George, who recommended the knight Blasius of Castelnuovo to the Mother of God; it was painted by Hans Stotzinger in 1404. Fragments of the rood screen in the second chapel, including a St. Mary Magdalene , and in the fourth chapel three apostles from the master of the urban legend. Finally, on the east side, busts of apostles and saints from around 1330 can be seen.
Johanneskapelle
The Johanneskapelle is the most valuable part of the whole complex, its wall paintings are of national importance beyond South Tyrol. The chapel has retained its early 14th century appearance. The long and narrow room, which is spanned by ribbed vaults over three bays , receives its light through a high pointed arch window in the south. The keystones of the cross ribs and the wall brackets bear animal and human heads, but also ornaments. Three gravestones have been preserved on the floor, namely for Volkmar von Niederthor († 1347), who was the brother-in-law of the Botsch who had the chapel painted; for Leonhard von Völs-Colonna († 1530), who was Governor of Tyrol, and for Karl von Völs-Colonna († 1585).
The wall painting was discovered in 1915 and almost completely exposed from 1935 onwards. The friezes with plant patterns in the window and door reveals date from the time the chapel was built. Around 1320, a Madonna and Child was created on the east wall. Around 1330, the complete floor-to-ceiling painting was commissioned by Giovannino de 'Rossi's son. A starry sky with round medallions of the symbols of the evangelists, the church fathers and the prophets can be seen on the ceiling. On the narrow south wall the Man of Sorrows is depicted in the middle, on both sides John the Baptist and John the Evangelist , who recommend the kneeling donors. The long walls are each divided into three fields by painted columns. There are six scenes from the life of John the Baptist and nine scenes from the life of Mary on the west wall, six scenes from the life of St. Nicholas and eight scenes from the life of John the Evangelist on the east wall. The narrow north wall depicts the Annunciation to Mary and the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew . The earthquake of 1348 may have caused damage that led to new paintings, namely a Man of Sorrows above the door of the east wall and six scenes from the life of St. Sebastian on the corner of the east and north walls. The wall paintings are the work of four or five painters from the Veneto . They process influences from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua by Giotto di Bondone and his successors from Verona . With the realistic and room-filling representation, they changed the previous linear early Gothic painting in South Tyrol and contributed to the heyday of Gothic wall painting in the Bolzano area.
Cloister
To the west of the Johanneskapelle lies the cloister, mentioned in 1308, which was partially painted before it was vaulted. The oldest surviving picture fragments are in the east wing north of the door to the Johanneskapelle and show the Man of Sorrows with St. Dominic, the handkerchief of Veronica and two donor figures from 1329. The depictions of the order's founder Dominikus above the door to the chapter house also come from the first painting , commanding silence with her finger at her mouth, next to Thomas Aquinas , a holy bishop and St. Catherine , recommending a donor to Our Lady.
In the late 15th century the cloister was vaulted. The pointed arch openings to the inner courtyard were also built at that time. Three sides of the cloister were repainted, the north side remained free. The 15 painted arcades show scenes from the life of Mary and from the Passion of Christ. In each arcade a large lunette picture can be seen with two or four smaller pictures on the vaulted areas, each with scenes or texts from the Old Testament, which typologically correspond to the main picture. Six arcades painted by Friedrich Pacher , which he created from 1496, are particularly important . Further arcades are by Sylvester Müller, whose painting leads on to the South German Renaissance . All frescoes were only uncovered in 1950.
Chapter House
The chapter house is located south of the cloister and can be reached from its eighth arcade. The square room originally had a flat roof and was given the vault at the end of the 15th century, which is supported by a central column. Some remains of the original painting from 1340 have been preserved, such as a St. Thomas Aquinas on the east side, a crucifix on the south side and the martyrdom of St. Catherine on the west side.
Catherine Chapel
Also very remarkable frescoes can be found in the Katharinenkapelle, which lies west of the chapter house and south of the cloister. During the period of secularization, the polygonal apse was torn down in the 19th century, but was reconstructed again in 1967. In the second quarter of the 14th century, two different Paduan painters created the magnificent murals depicting the Childhood and Passion of Christ, scenes from the life of St. Catherine and the Last Judgment. The painter of the Last Judgment and the Christological scenes is closely based on the model of Giotto, the painter of the Katharinenszenen follows the model of the Johanneskapelle. Some scenes on the west wall by Sylvester Müller, which also show scenes from the life of St. Catherine, were created after the vaulting shortly after 1500.
literature
- Helmut Gritsch: On the creation of the Dominican monastery in Bozen . In: Der Schlern 53, 1979, pp. 326–338.
- Hannes Obermair : Bozen South - Bolzano North. Written form and documentary tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500 . tape 2 . City of Bozen, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-901870-1-8 .
- Silvia Spada Pintarelli, Helmut Stampfer (ed.): Dominicans in Bozen - exhibition catalog of the city gallery, March 20–20. June 2010 (= booklets on the history of Bolzano 2 ). City archive Bozen , Bozen 2010 ( PDF file ( Memento from February 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ); 26.9 MB).
- Helmut Stampfer: Dominican Church Bozen. Art guide No. 2786. Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-6915-3 .
Web links
- Dominican monastery Bolzano
- Entry in the monument browser on the website of the South Tyrolean Monuments Office
Individual evidence
- ↑ Max Siller: The ministerials from Burgeis and the poet Heinrich von Burgeis. Prolegomena for the interpretation of the "soul council." In: Elisabeth De Felip-Jaud, Max Siller (Ed.): Heinrich von Burgeis: The soul council. Symposium on a high medieval preacher monk. Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2017, ISBN 978-3-7030-0947-1 , pp. 15–132.
- ↑ Information from Obermair, p. 199, no. 1245.
- ^ Hannes Obermair: Leonhard von Völs d. Ä. (1458 / 9–1530) - a 16th century warlord? 1517–2017: 500 years of Leonhard von Völs. Symposium at Castle Prösels. In: Academia.edu . August 17, 2017, accessed on August 6, 2020 (with sketch and illustration).
Coordinates: 46 ° 29 ′ 51.2 ″ N , 11 ° 21 ′ 7.4 ″ E