Erkenbert ruin

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West facade of the church ruin

The Erkenbert ruin is the remainder of the former collegiate church of St. Maria Magdalena in Frankenthal ( Rhineland-Palatinate ). It is named after the founder Erkenbert von Frankenthal . The building was built in the Romanesque era and is the city's oldest monument.

Geographical location

The Erkenbert ruins are located in the city center between the Catholic Trinity Church in the west and the Protestant Twelve Apostles Church in the east. The town hall and the Kornmarkt are connected to the south and south-west.

history

Twelve Apostles Church with the remains of an old tower. The rood screen and the connecting arch to the transept of the old church can be seen to the left of the tower
The church ruins around 1800, drawing by Johannes Ruland (1744–1830)
North wall of the aisle (left) and west facade
View into the north aisle, in front of it the main aisle, limited to the east by the rood screen
Stylized portal of the Erkenbertruine on a bank note from the city of Frankenthal, 1922

The from Worms Dating Erkenbert even corner Bert called, was a ministerial of the local bishop . 1119 he founded on its 12 km away Frankenthal Manor a Augustine canons pin with Hospital ; later a scriptorium was added. 1125 Collegiate Church by Bishop was Burchard II. Of St. Mary Magdalene ordained . In the same year, Erkenbert's wife Richlinde founded an Augustinian women's choir foundation in Frankenthal . Erkenbert was provost of the monastery until his death in 1132 and, according to his vita, was buried in the church. He is venerated as a blessed.

1140 the monastery was by Pope Innocent II. The Abbey collected in 1142 dedicated another phase of construction. In 1148, the production of the Frankenthal Bible began in the scriptorium , which after an eventful fate has been kept in London since 1720 . In 1163 Pope Viktor IV confirmed the privileges of the monastery.

In 1171 a fire destroyed large parts of the collegiate church. It was rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1181 by Bishop Konrad II . On November 21, 1291, Worms Bishop Simon von Schöneck, famous for his piety, died here and was buried in the monastery church, in front of the high altar. Around 1300 the monastery had reached its greatest extent and importance and had land, school, hospital and study house. The late Gothic rood screen in the church, which dates from the 14th century , was particularly artistically designed .

As a participant in the Worms Reichstag of 1495 , the Freising Prince-Bishop Sixtus von Tannberg died here on July 14th of this year and was transferred to Freising Cathedral .

During the Palatinate Peasants' War , the abbey was looted and damaged in 1525. The same happened to the Kirschgarten monastery in Worms, which was subordinate to him, and whose 22 canons therefore gave up their convent and permanently moved to Frankenthal. In 1562, after the Reformation , the monastery was dissolved by Elector Friedrich III. from the Palatinate ; henceforth it served as accommodation for Protestant religious refugees from Flanders and Wallonia .

In the Palatinate War of Succession , French troops burned the facility down in 1689. Only the choir and the north aisle were initially rebuilt; the choir served as a church, the aisle as a granary. In 1692 other parts were rebuilt for use as a church. The town hall was built over the former west wing in 1756.

In 1820 the choir and transept were demolished to enable the construction of a new Protestant church. The architect Johann Philipp Mattlener largely preserved the south tower, built a classicist church, which was consecrated in 1823, and integrated the historic tower into it. As a result, other parts of the ruin disappeared, only the north aisle and the west facade remained.

In 1893 the antiquity association set up the Erkenbert Museum in the former granary . Between 1910 and 1914, the museum moved to an upper floor that it shared with a large council chamber.

In 1943 during a massive bombing raid on the city during World War II , the museum and the Protestant church were also destroyed. From 1950 to 1952 the church was rebuilt as a Twelve Apostles Church according to the plans of Georg Wick . The town hall was rebuilt in 1955. In 1960 the remains of the museum were removed and the Romanesque ruins exposed, which were later converted into an atrium .

Condition and use

From the voluminous, former three-aisled pillar basilica in its largest extension with transept, choir, apse and two angled towers - only the southern tower, which is largely still preserved today - was completely executed - it is known that the main nave with six arcades was flat, while the aisles were after 1171 were arched. The following parts, which were restored in the 1990s, have been preserved:

  • the lower zone of the west facade
  • the north outer wall of the left aisle
  • the rood screen
  • the basement of the south tower up to its original height of 16.94 m in the Middle Ages (today part of the Twelve Apostles Church).

The beginnings of a vaulted vestibule can still be recognized . The pillar step portal of the west facade shows formal echoes of the north portal of the Worms Cathedral ; Fighters and archivolts on the arches show mature foliage ornaments and animal figures.

The Erkenbert ruins, which are reminiscent of an inner courtyard, are mainly used for open-air events. These are theater and film performances or concerts , e.g. B. as part of the two-week summer festival that takes place annually in July / August. In the winter of 2008/09 there was an ice rink in the atrium for the first time .

  • Close-up of the main portal

  • The rood screen

  • Vault of the rood screen

literature

  • Volker Christmann: Frankenthal. A lost cityscape . Darmstadt 2005.
  • City of Frankenthal: information boards on the ruins .
  • Ottheinrich Schindler: The Frankenthal Minster . Mainz 1951. (Philosophical Faculty, dissertation from January 16, 1953).
  • Elmar Worgull : From Frankenthal's Romanesque monastery basilica to the Erkenbert ruins . New insights into their medieval construction phases and the formation of the vaults in the aisles. In: Pfälzer Heimat (=  journal of the Palatinate Society for the Promotion of Science in connection with the Historical Association of the Palatinate and the Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research ). Issue 2 (2016). Publishing house of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science Speyer, Speyer 2016, p. 87–102 ( dedicated to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Habil. Hartmut Hofrichter ).
  • Elmar Worgull: Frankenthal's Romanesque monastery basilica and its national significance . Latest knowledge of the history of architecture and art. In: Stadt Worms (ed.): Der Wormsgau (=  scientific journal of the city of Worms and the Worms antiquity association ). tape 31 (2014/15) . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft , Worms 2015, p. 19–32 ( dedicated to Prof. Dr. Dr. Otto Böcher ).
  • Elmar Worgull: Frankenthal's Romanesque monastery basilica in the context of the reform architecture of Cluny and Hirsau . Insights into their building history from the Middle Ages to the present. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-343-5 .
  • Elmar Worgull: Numbers, compasses, rulers. Arithmetic and geometry in medieval sacred buildings and their evidence in Frankenthal's former church of the Augustinian Canons' Monastery . In: Edgar J. Hürkey (Ed.): Treasures from Parchment. Medieval manuscripts from Frankenthal . Erkenbert-Museum Frankenthal, Frankenthal 2007, p. 81 ff .
  • Elmar Worgull: Stone Geometry. The equilateral triangle as a construction principle for the Romanesque church of the Augustinian Canons in Frankenthal . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2005, ISBN 3-88462-214-5 .
  • Elmar Worgull: The architectural sculpture of the Frankenthaler Erkenbertruine in contradiction to the history of art . In: Frankenthal then and now . Frankenthal 1989, p. 71 ff .
  • Elmar Worgull: The medieval vestibule of Frankenthal's former monastery church of the Augustinian Canons. Theses on its building history as a contribution to the 900-year laying of the foundation stone of the basilica . In: Pfälzer Heimat (=  journal of the Palatinate Society for the Promotion of Science in connection with the Historical Association of the Palatinate and the Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research ). Issue 1 (2020). Publishing house of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science Speyer, Speyer 2020, p. 33–43 (A page was lost when going to press).

Web links

Commons : Frankenthal Abbey Ruins (Pfalz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the footsteps of Erkenbert. City of Frankenthal, accessed on March 24, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Edgar J. Hürkey: The Frankenthaler Bible - twelve images from the manuscript mss. Harley 2803-2804 in the British Library, London. Catalog. kunstportal-pfalz.de, 2001, accessed on October 17, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Jakob Obersteiner: Die Bischöfe von Gurk , Volume 1, p. 251, Verlag des Geschichtsvereines für Kärnten, 1969; (Detail scan)
  4. ↑ Elmar Worgull : Frankenthals Romanische Klosterbasilika , 2013, p. 128 ff.
  5. ↑ Elmar Worgull: The medieval vestibule at Frankenthal's former monastery church of the Augustinian Canons. Theses on its building history as a contribution to the 900-year laying of the foundation stone of the basilica. In: Palatinate home. Journal of the Palatinate Society for the Promotion of Science in conjunction with the Historical Association of the Palatinate and the Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research. Publishing house of the Palatinate Society for the Promotion of Science Speyer, Speyer 2020. Issue 1 (2020), pp. 33–43 (A page was lost when going to press.).
  6. ↑ Summer in the city . In: Frankenthal local . Volume 29, Issue 3, June 2008, p. 4th f .

Coordinates: 49 ° 32 ′ 7.3 "  N , 8 ° 21 ′ 18.3"  E