Evangelical town church (Giengen)

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Evangelical town church with the rest of the town wall from the 13th century.

The Evangelical City Church is a Protestant church building in Giengen an der Brenz and with its two unequal towers a landmark of the city. The church has style and construction elements from the Romanesque to Gothic , Renaissance and Baroque to Art Nouveau .

history

During a renovation of the church in 1986, the uncovering of foundations under the floor revealed information about the Romanesque predecessor building from the 13th century. This considerably smaller three-aisled pillar basilica from the Hohenstaufen era was 7.50 meters wide and had three apses. The six pillars and arches of the south wall of the central nave and the main portal in the west, which was moved north when the church was enlarged in the 15th century, still come from her. The south aisle corresponds to the Romanesque building, but was later raised.

The Church of Our Lady was first mentioned in 1374 .

The Gothic vaulted choir and sacristy were built between 1356 and 1402. Before 1432 the nave in the north was widened to more than twice the width. This created an extraordinarily wide and relatively low central nave with a new north side. The five Gothic pointed arches on the north wall of the central nave come from this conversion.

The northern wind tower, at the lower part of the Romanesque still humpback square from the Staufer period can be seen, was originally a guard tower at the city wall and not part of the church. A remnant of this medieval city wall still stands a few meters north of the church and a hundred meters east of it as the north facade of Planiestraße 18. When the church was enlarged in the 15th century, the wind tower was integrated as a north-west tower. At the same time, a gothic southwest tower was built to house the bells. During the Renaissance period , the upper part of the Bläserturm was redesigned in 1579. The tower blower, who guarded the city, struck the hours and rang the storm bell in case of danger, once lived on this tower, under whose tiled tower dome with a lantern runs a gallery. Traditionally, the wind instruments can be heard from the wind tower on Sunday at 9:15 am and on Wednesday at 12 noon.

In the course of the Reformation , the city council appointed Martin Rauber as preacher in 1531. He came from the Ulm area, where the citizens had already decided in favor of the Protestant faith in 1530, and is considered the reformer Giengens. In 1537 the Württemberg church order was introduced and in 1556 the Reformation was finally sealed. After that, Giengen was a predominantly Protestant city for centuries. There was no iconoclasm in Giengen, as the council resisted the destruction of the pictures and altars.

After the battle of Nördlingen in 1634 , the church was destroyed with the exception of the remains of a wall during the great fire in the Thirty Years' War . Only the Gothic sacristy remained intact. During the reconstruction between 1650 and 1655, the upper wall was created with early baroque pilasters and ox-eye windows. The central nave was given a flat hollow ceiling with stitch caps, the side aisles were covered flat with belt arches. The mighty roof was led over the aisle on the north side and basilically redesigned on the south side . The northern wind tower could be repaired after the city fire. The only thing left to do with the badly damaged southern Gothic bell tower was demolition. It was rebuilt in its current form in 1710 in the Baroque style.

The late Gothic heraldic plate by the Ramminger brothers was created around 1475. The early Baroque interior is unusually extensive for a Protestant church. The pulpit from 1654 comes from Hans Nübling from Ulm. The high altar is from 1659. The altar table is from 1677. The Last Supper painting is by Andreas Schuch after Rubens, the triumphal arch crucifix by the Ulm sculptor Braun (1661). The painted epitaphs in carved frames date from the 17th / 18th centuries. Century, partly with reliefs. In the sacristy there are portraits of preachers from the 16th to 18th centuries.

During the renovation in 1821, the choir was given a flat plaster ceiling and the nave a flat barrel vault with stitch caps. The renovation from 1904 to 1906 restored the arching of the choir and added Art Nouveau elements with the organ front, painting of the choir, colored glass windows to the right and left of the altar, two wheel lights and new chairs .

It is a special feature of this church that different styles outside and inside are combined in a north-south contrast and with the predominantly baroque and Art Nouveau furnishings, the Gothic choir and the Art Nouveau organ, nevertheless lead to a harmonious overall impression:

  • Towers: Romanesque / Renaissance in the north, Baroque in the south
  • Central nave walls: Gothic in the north, Romanesque in the south
  • Outer front: in the north a staggered hall , in the south a basilica

The church and the remains of the city wall have been sights on Staufer Street since 1997 .

gallery

  • Southern then Gothic bell tower (in front) and northern wind tower in Renaissance style (1585)

  • City church with Matthäus Merian (before 1634)

  • Today's baroque bell tower (in front) and wind tower

  • Romanesque south nave wall

  • Gothic choir, Art Nouveau chandelier

  • Gothic north nave wall

  • Organ gallery with Art Nouveau organ

  • Postcard (1905) with the basilica south side

organ

The church has an important organ . The Art Nouveau instrument stands on the west gallery and was built in 1906 by the Giengen organ manufacturer Gebr. Link . The instrument is a listed building. It has remained largely unchanged to this day and is the only large organ in southern Germany from the late Romantic period. The organ has an orchestral sound and has a large number of different flute registers and strings (e.g. gamba, violone, aeoline). The instrument has 51 stops on three manual works and a pedal . In 2015 Christian Barthen was appointed organist.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Principal 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Stentor flute 8th'
4th Stentor viol 8th'
5. Gemshorn 8th'
6th Quintatön 8th'
7th Double covered 8th'
8th. Dolce 8th'
9. Octave 4 ′
10. flute 4 ′
11. Quint 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
12. Super octave 2 ′
13. Mixture V
14th Tuba mirabilis 8th'
15th Clarine 4 ′
II. Manuals C – g 3
16. Salicional 16 ′
17th Principal 8th'
18th viola 8th'
19th Concert flute 8th'
20th Reed flute 8th'
21st Salicional 8th'
22nd Fugara 4 ′
23. Dolce 4 ′
24. Forest flute 2 ′
25th Cornett III
26th Trumpet harm. 8th'
III. Manuals C – g 3
27. Bourdon 16 ′
28. Violin principal 8th'
29 Lovely covered 8th'
30th Hollow flute 8th'
31. Gamba 8th'
32. Aeoline 8th'
33. Voix celeste 8th'
34. Prestant 4 ′
35. Transverse flute 4 ′
36. Piccolo 2 ′
37. Harmonia aetheria III
38. Clarinet 8th'
39. Vox humana 8th'
Tremolo (for No. 39)
Pedals C – g 1
40. Principal bass 32 ′
41. Principal bass 16 ′
42. Sub bass 16 ′
43. Violon bass 16 ′
44. Salicetbass 16 ′
45. Quintbass 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′
46. Violon bass 8th'
47. cello 8th'
48. Octave 4 ′
49. trombone 16 ′
50. Trumpet 8th'
51. Clarine 4 ′
  • Coupling : II / I (also as super octave coupling), III / I, III / II, III / III (super octave coupling), I / P, II / P, III / P

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Stadtkirche (Giengen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Hellwig / Ludwig Kreh / Johanna Hartmann: Ev. City church Giengen an der Brenz . Schell Art Guide No. 2378, Regensburg 1999, pp. 3–8.
  2. ↑ a b c Giengen on the Brenz at LEO-BW. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ Tower blowers on giengen-evangelisch.de. Retrieved July 9, 2016
  4. ↑ City Church - Giengen's landmark on giengen.de. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  5. ↑ Straße der Staufer on stauferstelen.de. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ Information about the organ on the municipality's website
  7. ↑ Information on the organ

Coordinates: 48 ° 37 ′ 18.7 "  N , 10 ° 14 ′ 42.8"  E