Drüggelter chapel

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Drüggelter chapel, exterior view, entrance with vestibule.

The Drüggelter Chapel is a chapel in the municipality of Möhnesee in the Sauerland . It probably dates from the 12th century. It is a central building , its outer walls form a dodecagon .

The sacred building is located on the property of the Schulte-Drüggelte farm, about 500 m north of the Möhnesee north bank, at about 260  m above sea level. NHN between the villages of Delecke and Körbecke on a ridge in front of the main ridge of the Haar .

Description of the chapel

Inner column wreath

From the outside, the chapel looks quite inconspicuous: a polygonal central building with two visible extensions (vestibule and apse ), closed off by a slate-covered roof, crowned by a small bell tower.

When entering the chapel, the particularity of the building becomes visible. A total of 16 columns arranged in two rings support the ceiling of the twelve-sided room , which is only about 11 m in diameter . The outer column wreath consists of 12 columns. A cross vault rests on narrow pilasters and these very pillars . The inner wreath consists of two columns and two considerably thicker, brick pillars . A barrel vault is stretched between the first and the second column wreath , into which the needle caps of the cross vault cut. The four inner columns support a small domed vault in which a hatch provides access to the attic. A surrounding stone bench is built in front of the outer wall.

In the chapel floor plan, there are two extensions that break the evenness of the complex: the small entrance hall and the choir room . Both are conspicuously directed against the symmetry of the entire building. The vestibule is inherently asymmetrical, the choir clearly misses the alignment with the center of the chapel. The stone bench surrounding the outer wall shows clearly different designs on both sides in the connection area to the choir room.

What is remarkable about the otherwise largely unadorned chapel are the columns, especially the decoration and the design of the capitals . With a few exceptions, the surfaces of the Romanesque cube capitals are richly decorated.

During renovation work in the 1930s, fragmentary remains of an original painting were found, and a large dugout chest made of oak came to light under wooden fixtures. A dendrochronological examination of the chest in the early 1970s showed that the year of manufacture was around 1172.

Historical reports from the Middle Ages and early modern times

On the day of Pentecost in 1217, numerous people with rank and name met in Drüggelte ("apud Druglete") . Count Gottfried II von Arnsberg intended to move to the Holy Land and sold one of his farms because he needed money for the trip. It is reasonable to assume that at least some of those gathered wanted to participate as knights in the Damiette crusade .

In 1226/27 the chapel was mentioned as a holy grave and at the same time as an expiatory chapel. On Palm Sunday 1227 a donation to the Clarholz Abbey by Count Gottfried II took place at the Drüggelter Chapel :

" Super fluvium Moyne, iuxta Capellam Druchlete ."

In 1338 fell after the extinction of those of Drüggelte, the vassals of Arnsberg counts were, the chapel of the monastery paradises of the Dominican Sisters in Soest . The Drüggelter Höfe were subject to interest until its dissolution. Until then, the monastery also lent the Benedictum belonging to the chapel.

The historian Hermann Stangefol reported about the chapel in 1656:

“There in the very old temple, which is still standing, there was once an image of the goddess Trigla, who had three heads, to which the pagans usually fled in dire need, begging for assistance. It is plausible that this village derived its name from that very picture. This statue was completely lost in the Truchsessian War in 1583. "

In this mention of the Drüggelter Chapel, the small chapel is said to have something “pagan”, a tendency that can still be found today. Stangefol seems to mix news about the Slavic god of war Triglaw with a three-headed capital of the chapel.

Theories about the background of the formation

Drüggelter chapel, rough sketch of the floor plan

As a central building, the Drüggelter Chapel falls out of the usual nave scheme of the church and chapel building in its surroundings. It is therefore not surprising that the band gave rise to interpretations and speculations very early on. In the meantime, around 100 writings also or exclusively deal with the Drüggelter Chapel.

Interpretation as a baptistery

In 1823, the architectural historian pointed Wilhelm Tappe the chapel as a baptistery ( baptistery ), and participated in, in the middle of the central building was once a baptismal font stood. In his writing, Tappe gave further interpretations, for which he unfortunately did not provide any evidence. In the first half of the 19th century, the Drüggelter Chapel was regarded by experts as a baptistery.

Interpretation of the chapel as a replica of the "Holy Sepulcher"

In 1560 the chapel bore the patronage of the Holy Cross. Wilhelm Engelbert Giefers tried in 1853 to explain the chapel as a Holy Sepulcher Chapel: In the age of the Crusades , the chapel was built in order to be able to offer at least a replica of the holiest places in Christendom to people who did not travel to the Holy Land. Many scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries basically agree with this interpretation. Above all, the question of the period of construction remained unclear. The 12th and 13th centuries were negotiated in the serious literature of the time.

Jerusalem was a center of Christianity as the place of the death and resurrection of Jesus . The hill Golgotha , which had supported the Church of the Holy Sepulcher since the 4th century , was particularly venerated . This center of the Christian world has been the most important destination for Christian pilgrims from an early age.

Around 1033, Bishop Meinwerk von Paderborn sent Abbot Wino von Helmarshausen to Jerusalem with the task of taking the dimensions, i.e. the construction plan, of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was probably a pilgrimage that Abbot Wino undertook on behalf of Bishop Meinwerk. According to Wino, the so-called Jerusalem Church was built in Paderborn on the Busdorf , but its actual similarity remained minimal due to the central building, high dome and cones .

The second successor to Bishop Meinwerk was Heinrich II von Werl . He had another Jerusalem church built on the Krukenburg near Helmarshausen - obviously according to the plans of Abbot Wino . He is also said to have initiated replicas of Jerusalem conditions on the Externsteine .

Another Holy Sepulcher Chapel in Drüggelte, donated by Count Heinrich I von Arnsberg (1145–1195), would be conceivable in this context. Heinrich let his brother Friedrich starve to death in the dungeon of Arnsberg Castle in the course of inheritance disputes . As atonement for this act, he founded the Premonstratensian Abbey in Wedinghausen around 1173 . The orders of the Cistercians , Premonstratensians and the Knightly Orders, which were established in the 12th century, particularly cultivated the veneration of the cross and the Drüggelter Chapel is also dedicated to the Holy Cross . The historical dating of the chapel by Uwe Lobbedey and the dendrochronological classification of the dugout chest in the chapel to the year 1172 +/- 5 years suggest a connection. In the Middle Ages, a Jerusalem pilgrimage was considered to be a common penance to atone for a killing, so the construction of a Holy Sepulcher Chapel in Drüggelte could represent a penance.

Gustav Dalmann contradicted the holy grave thesis in 1922 in his large compilation of holy grave buildings. Instead, he assumes that another central building in the Holy Land, most likely the Dome of the Rock , served as an architectural model here. The Dome of the Rock was a Christian church when the Drüggelter Chapel was presumably built (around 1172) (Saladin conquered Jerusalem in 1187).

The classification of the Drüggelter Chapel in major architectural and historical contexts was made in 1989 by Matthias Untermann . He examined almost all medieval central buildings in Europe and listed over 600 buildings in a register. He also joined the interpretation of Drüggeltes as a Holy Sepulcher Chapel. He concluded that popular opinion about the pagan past of the central buildings was "certainly developed and preserved independently of the ancient architectural theory of the Renaissance."

Interpretations of the chapel as a pagan building

The assumption that the chapel was originally a pagan building or was at least built as a Christian successor on the site of a pre-Christian sanctuary (cult site continuity) has persisted into modern literature. The assumption of some kind of pagan past of the Drüggelter Chapel, which has been repeatedly expressed, was particularly emphasized during the National Socialist era .

In 1937 Werner Müller saw a Germanic temple in the chapel for "sun tracking", deliberately ignoring the clearly Romanesque building fabric. At least one Germanic cultic predecessor of the chapel is assumed to be at that time.

After the war, Georg Wagner , for example, also agreed with this opinion and assigned the Drüggelter Chapel to the places with "Cross worship at formerly pagan places of worship". However, he also mentioned for the first time the Jerusalem church, which was only discovered in 1937 during excavations in Paderborn, by Bishop Meinwerks am Busdorf - a central building clearly based on the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem - as a comparison. This interesting building was only rarely included in the examination of the Drüggelter Chapel.

In 1978 Karl Thiell tried to trace the name Drüggelte back to H. Stangefol's goddess Trigla. In his eyes, Drüggelte symbolized "that the fighting virtues of the Germanic peoples were rediscovered and mobilized for the crusades."

The Drüggelter Chapel was also mentioned by Heinz Kaminski . In a chapel floor plan, he indicates a radiesthetic radiation point that dowsers and commuters want to have identified.

In 1988 Dieter Kestermann tried to trace the path of the Drüggelter Chapel "from the pagan temple to the Christian chapel" . He translated the place name "Drüggelte" with "thing tree of the community", interpreted the later extension as an apse and saw a connection to Scandinavian round buildings. He dated the building before the Christianization of the area, i.e. in the middle of the 8th century, and concluded that there was a cult of the summer and winter solstice in Drüggelte.

Pounded as a meeting place for the Cathars

In 1964 Gisela Jacobi-Büsing interpreted the chapel as a meeting place for the Cathar sect . The chapel floor plan, but above all the capital sculptures, were designed by the builders in such a way that "with their simple means and possibilities, they tell of the path to salvation, of the world full of light and the dark."

She assumed it was built in the 13th century and imagined Gottfried II von Arnsberg as a possible patron of the Cathars. She assumed herself that the construction of the chapel "in the middle of a forest, very quiet area, far from Soest and Arnsberg (...) completely unnoticed by the public" have taken place - although the chapel located on the route between Soest and Arnsberg , the then most important centers in the region.

Paul Derks published his examination of the existing literature in 1989 and vigorously contradicted the opinions of Jacobi-Büsing, Thiell, Kestermann and Kaminski, without putting his own interpretations against them.

The chapel in fiction

The writer Friedel Thiekötter turns the band into the scene of a crime in his novel 'Cembalist am Glockenseil' from 1994.

Frank Mattern settled essential parts of a Nibelungen parody around the construction of the Drüggelter Chapel.

Todays use

Services are still held in the chapel. The chapel is also used as a performance location during the music festival “Drüggelter Kunst-Stückchen” on Whitsun. Chamber concerts, organized by the Heimatverein Möhnesee, take place there in summer and autumn. Guided tours are possible after registration. The chapel is a listed building and in May 2000 was Monument of the Month of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association . It is usually open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

literature

Web links

Commons : Drüggelter Kapelle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Humpert: Repairs in the Drüggelter Chapel. In: Westphalia. Vol. 20, 1935, pp. 356-359.
  2. Ernst Hollstein ; Uwe Lobbedey: Tree ring chronology of the Drüggelte tree trunk. In: Westphalia. Vol. 50, 1972, pp. 95-101.
  3. ^ Westphalian document book. Regensberg, Münster 1908, Vol. 7, No. 143 ( online )
  4. a b Albert Ludorff : The architectural and art monuments of the Soest district. (= Architectural and art monuments of Westphalia , Volume 16.) Schöningh, Münster / Paderborn 1905, page 33.
  5. ^ Document book by Johann Suibert Seibertz , quoted from Karl Féaux de Lacroix : Geschichte Arnsbergs. 1895
  6. ^ Hermann Stangefol: Opus Chronologicum Et Historicum Circuli Wephalici [sic!] In quatuor libros congestum. 1656
  7. ^ Wilhelm Tappe: The antiquities of German architecture in the city of Soest. Bädeker, Essen 1823.
  8. ^ A b Matthias Untermann: The central building in the Middle Ages. Form, function, distribution. 1989, ISBN 978-3-534-10267-9
  9. Wilhelm E. Giefers: Three strange chapels in Westphalia, to Paderborn, Externstein and Drüggelte . Paderborn 1854 ( online )
  10. Gustav Dalmann: The grave of Christ in Germany Leipzig, 1922
  11. Werner Müller: The Chapel of Drüggelte near Soest. In: Germania. Vol. 9, No. 4/5, 1937, pp. 103-110; 137-142.
  12. Georg Wagner: Popular devotion to the cross in Westphalia from the beginnings to the break of medieval religious unity. Writings of the Folklore Commission of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association, Issue 11, Münster: Aschendorff, 1960
  13. Karl Thiell: Mysterious Drüggelter chapel. An insight into the prehistoric past. In: Soest Heimatkalender, 1978
  14. Heinz Kaminski: The gods of the country Vestfalen: the Wormbach zodiac, key to the Celtic-Germanic cult site. 1988, ISBN 978-3-922659-38-9
  15. Dieter Kestermann: The chapel on the Drüggelter Höfe: from the pagan temple to the Christian chapel; the oldest building in Westphalia . Horn 1994, ISBN 3-88080-060-X
  16. Gisela Jacobi-Büsing: The Drüggelter Chapel: An attempt to interpret their cultic determination. Soest 1964 (Soest scientific articles; 25)
  17. Paul Derks: Trigla Dea and her comrades. 1989
  18. Friedel Thiekötter: harpsichordist on the bell rope. 1994, ISBN 978-3-920591-25-4
  19. Frank Mattern: Hagen vom Northof. Historical novel. 2005, ISBN 3-8334-0638-0
  20. page tourism information community Möhnesee

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 35 ″  N , 8 ° 5 ′ 51 ″  E