Franciscan monastery Zittau

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General view of the monastery complex
Monastery church from the southeast
Box extensions on the south side

The Franziskanerkloster Zittau is a building complex in the old town of Zittau in Saxony , which is used partly as a church and partly by the city museum of the city of Zittau. The monastery consists of the monastery church of St. Petri and Pauli, the Heffter building and the remains of the cloister with adjoining monastery rooms and the cemetery.

Monastery church

The monastery church of St. Peter and Paul occupies the south wing of the monastery complex and, with its distinctive tower, forms an important landmark in the cityscape of Zittau. It is used by the Protestant parish of Zittau. The choir was separated by a transparent wall.

history

The chapel of St. Nicholas , possibly built in 1244 by brothers of the Franciscan order , founded in 1210, is probably identical to today's sacristy , the former St. Nicholas chapel in the south. It is possible that the Franciscans, who belonged to the Saxon Franciscan Province ( Saxonia ), founded a monastery in Zittau in the 1260s . A Franciscan convent was first mentioned in 1283, when the guardian of the monastery, Father Werner, was named as a witness. The main altar in the Gothic choir of the monastery church was consecrated in 1293. In 1407 the provincial chapter of Saxonia met in the monastery in Zittau, which must have been large enough to accommodate numerous brothers from abroad.

In 1480 the church was significantly expanded to the west and the tower was added. The originally lower aisle in the south was brought to the same height as the main nave and a row of pillars was installed. As a result of the Reformation , the monastery was dissolved; the last Franciscan died in 1554, and in that year the city of Zittau took over the entire convent building.

In the years 1652–1658 the dilapidated church was rebuilt by Martin Pötzsch from Bautzen, whereby the structure was completely plastered. After 1662 the church formed the second town church of Zittau. The church was restored in 1881/82 and 1976.

architecture

Northern ship
Interior view of the choir with altar

The monastery church is a two-aisled hall church with a single-nave choir made of plastered sandstone with a high gable roof. The choir is roughly in the axis of the northern nave, is just closed and shows a group of three lancet windows in the east wall . On the north side of the choir is a chapel consecrated to St. Catherine from the 15th century, on the south side the sacristy in the rooms of the former Nikolauskapelle. This is followed by the slender tower from the 15th century , which is square in plan and merges into an octagon in the upper half . It is completed by a hood with a lantern and a curved tip from 1758 by Johann Andreas Hünigen . There are three pointed arched windows on the north wall of the nave. On the south wall there are two pointed arched windows, two round windows and two basket arched windows as well as the Noack prayer room. This is a small baroque building from 1696 with a segmented gable on which two reclining female figures are arranged. A baroque box from 1747 is built between the second and fifth buttresses, and a memorial to the fallen of the First World War is on the tower.

The interior of the five-bay, two-aisled hall church is closed off with ribbed vaults and a reticulated vault in the yoke at the transition to the four-bay choir. The choir adjoins via a lower, wide segment arch with diamond blocks , is closed with cross vaults and ends with a rectangular choir closure. The two-bay sacristy is closed by a cross vault on delicate early Gothic consoles from the second quarter of the 13th century, the room above with a flat ceiling from the 17th century. The consoles of the vault beginners on the north wall are provided with stucco ornamentation, on the middle console there is a representation of animals and on the one to the west a human head. The Gothic pillars were plastered in the 17th century. Simple wooden galleries are built into the north, south and west of the ship. In the choir, wooden galleries supported by richly decorated console cornices are attached to the north and south walls.

Furnishing

the pulpit
Organ prospectus

The main piece of equipment is the richly decorated baroque altar with gilded carvings from the years 1668/69. The two wooden figures of Peter and Paul on the side of the altarpiece with the depiction of Christ probably come from the formerly Gothic altar and are each framed by two columns. Above the cornice with side pediments on which angels sit is a structure with the painting of the Savior, above is a blown gable with the wooden figures of God the Father and two angels. The two paintings are works by Johann Wilhelm Schober from Dresden from 1675.

The hexagonal pulpit by Georg Bahns and Hans Bubenick from 1668/69 is richly decorated with fruit hangings, three-quarter columns and volutes, and on the pulpit basket there is wooden reliefs depicting Christ and the evangelists. In 1889 the old version was painted over and restored in 1974. The pulpit stands in front of a stone staircase with diamond ashlar that extends to the galleries and bears a curved gable with volutes and three obelisks.

The organ is a work by Orgelbau A. Schuster & Sohn from 1882 in a brochure by Johann Valentin Engler from the years 1788–1791. A confessional below the west gallery dates from the first half of the 17th century. A richly decorated door from the second half of the 17th century is attached to the stairs to the south choir gallery. The choir stalls with remains of ornamental painting date from the 15th century. Next to the altar are four well-designed baroque epitaphs .

Heffterbau with gable
Monastery building with cloister

Peal

The bell consists of three bronze bells, the bell cage is made of oak, as are the yokes. The following is a data overview of the bell:

No. Casting date Caster diameter Dimensions Chime
1 1922 Bell foundry Gebr. Ulrich 848 mm 415 kg a ′
2 1920 Bell foundry Gebr. Ulrich 810 mm 319 kg H'
3 1761 Bell foundry Fr. Körner 782 mm 296 kg cis ″

Heffterbau

North-west of the church is the late Gothic building named after Mayor Heinrich von Heffter , which was furnished with the splendid early baroque north gable by master builder Martin Pötzsch in the years 1652–62. The building has been restored since 1990. The Heffterbau is a three-story building on a rectangular floor plan, the upper floors of which are accessed through a stair tower on the west side. The artistically valuable north gable is divided into three storeys with lateral volutes , each with an obelisk . The windows are structured by half-columns and cranked cornices.

Inside, the two lower floors are closed off with wooden beam ceilings. On the upper floor there is a large hall with pilasters in the attic zone from 1709. On the ceiling are paintings with stucco frames and allegorical and mythological representations by Nikolaus Prescher. In the center is the idea of Pandora through Jupiter ; In the medallions on the side there are representations of truth, hygiene , justice and religion.

Cloister

To the north-east of the church are six bays of the former cloister with cross-ribbed vaults, to which the chapter house and anteroom adjoin to the east , which are closed with rich vaults made of three-beam figures each over a central pillar. On the upper floor, the original spatial structure of the monastery with a central aisle with blind arcades and cells extending to the side is largely preserved.

graveyard

In the courtyard of the monastery complex is the cemetery with numerous magnificent tombs from the period between 1675 and 1725. The crypt for Johann Karl Kühn on the southwest corner from 1723 is particularly elaborate. The broadly proportioned building has a flat arch portal in the middle, tendrils in the spandrels and two pillars on each side with composite capitals that support a cranked cornice. Above this is a curved gable, which is crowned by a vase and two angels and is flanked by two female figures above a balustrade .

Immediately next to it is the crypt for Johann Friedrich Jung from 1718. It shows a large basket arch opening in the middle with a strong keystone . A Corinthian column and a Corinthian pilaster are arranged on each side, two niches with the allegories of love and envy in the spaces in between. Above that is a cranked cornice, which is closed by a segmented arched gable with two angel figures.

literature

Web links

Commons : Klosterkirche Zittau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter Berg : Saxonia Franciscanja. Contributions to the history of the Saxon Franciscan Province. Werl 1999, p.43.75.143.
  2. ^ Dieter Berg: Saxonia Franciscanja. Contributions to the history of the Saxon Franciscan Province. Werl 1999, p. 301.
  3. ^ Rainer Thümmel: Bells in Saxony; Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig: ISBN 978-3-374-02871-9 : p. 373
  4. ^ Rainer Thümmel: Bells in Saxony; Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig: ISBN 978-3-374-02871-9 : p. 373

Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 51.5 "  N , 14 ° 48 ′ 27.6"  E