Cathedral of the Assumption and St. Andrew

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View from the bell tower

The Cathedral of the Assumption and St. Andrew ( Polish: Bazylika Archikatedralna Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny i św. Andrzeja Apostoła ) or Frombork Cathedral is a church in Frombork (dt. Frauenburg ) and the cathedral of the Archbishop of Warmia and Basilica minor . It houses the grave of Nicolaus Copernicus .

history

View of the Domberg from the north
Interior (2016)

After the Warmia economy quickly stabilized and grew after the turmoil of the conquest until 1280, the cathedral chapter began building a permanent castle and the cathedral itself in the 14th century . The Frauenburg cathedral of the Assumption of Mary and St. Andrew , according to a uniform plan from Erected from 1329 to 1388, as a 99 m long hall church it has been largely preserved in its original architectural condition.

The cathedral was built in three stages:

  1. The elongated, straight, closed choir was built between 1329 and 1342. It uses architectural forms from the end of the 13th century and shows an elegant interior design in the classic Gothic style of Western Europe with early four-pointed star vaults (cf. Toruń , St. Jakob, after 1309) that are optically supported by the ground via service bundles .
  2. The three-aisled nave (around 1355–1380) abandons the classic Gothic design language: only on the outer walls are services supported by consoles , while the rich, eight-pointed star vaults of the central nave rest directly on the capital zones of massive, octagonal pillars .
  3. A richly designed vestibule (around 1380–1388) adjoins it from the west , which contains a large portal made of Gotland limestone and artificial stone with archivolt filled with figures of saints of inferior quality .

Similar to the Schwäbisch Gmünd Minster , the Sandomierz Cathedral and the Warsaw Cathedral , the Frauenburg Cathedral does not have a large tower . Instead, the building has four narrow corner towers. The west pediment decorated with a monumental, rising arcade n gallery as the Alps north otherwise only at the transepts of the cathedral of Tournai can be found.

The only extension built after the Gothic period is the baroque Salvator Chapel , a donation from Bishop Christoph Szembek from the 18th century. Illusionistic frescoes by Matthias Johann Meyer decorate its dome.

In 1994 the building was declared a historical monument ( pomnik historii ). The found remains of a person are assigned to the scholar Nicolaus Copernicus according to several scientific reports . After the examinations, they were buried again in the cathedral on May 22, 2010.

Furnishing

One of the three grave monuments of Nicolaus Copernicus
Middle part of the old Gothic high altar

Inside the cathedral - after it was robbed by Poland in the 15th century and by Sweden in the 17th - presents itself in a baroque style. In particular, the organ created by the Danzig master organ builder Daniel Nitrowski in 1682 is world famous. Every summer there is an organ music festival with concerts by organists from home and abroad.

The oldest piece of equipment in the cathedral is the epitaph of the canon Bartholomäus Boreschow , who died in 1426, painted as a round picture , an example of Fine Style painting under Bohemian influence. The cathedral's former high altar is also preserved from the late Middle Ages. The middle scene of this pentaptych (five-winged altar) shows Mary with the baby Jesus based on the Revelation of John (Revelation 12: 1-5). Mary, against the golden background of the sun, carries Jesus in her arms as the new or “last Adam”, the heavenly man (1 Cor 15:45). It stands on a crescent moon that shows the face of the mortal, earthly "first Adam". The coils of a snake's body are visible under the crescent moon. There are portraits of the church fathers on both sides of the altar . The altar was created by a workshop in Thorner on behalf of Bishop Lucas Watzenrode in 1504 . He is in the north aisle of the nave.

After a hail storm destroyed the cathedral's windows in 1867, the Frauenburg cathedral chapter commissioned some of the most famous glass painting workshops of the time to create new windows: Adolf Seiler ( Breslau ), Heinrich Oidtmann ( Linnich ), Adalbert Redner (Breslau) and Joseph Maria Machhausen ( Koblenz ). The new windows were gradually installed between 1868 and 1911. In World War II, almost all the windows were badly damaged. They have been gradually restored since 1995. The best pieces are now exhibited in the Copernicus Museum in Frombork.

Main organ

The main organ is in a baroque prospectus from 1685. It was rebuilt in 1935 by E. Kemper & Sohn and expanded in 1977/79 (IV / P, 49). A choir organ from 1935 is on the side gallery (II / P, 16). Both can be played together.

literature

  • Eugen Brachvogel (ed.): The cathedral in Frauenburg. Guide through the cathedral district of Frauenburg, using older guides. Warmian publishing company, Braunsberg 1926.
  • Franz Fleischer: Guide through the cathedral to Frauenburg . Willibald Zehr, Elbing 1908.
  • Werner Kreth: Kemper organs in the Frauenburg cathedral. Garbe, Reinfeld in Holstein 1935.
  • Gerhard Reifferscheid: The cathedral to Frauenburg. Warmian Cathedral above the Fresh Lagoon. Bischof-Maximilian-Kaller-Stiftung, Münster 1984 ( East Prussian Churches, Ermland 3, ZDB -ID 402699-8 ).
  • Fritz Wochnik: The west gable of the cathedral in Frauenburg. In: Journal for East Central Europe Research. 54, 2005, ISSN  0948-8294 , pp. 242-256.

Web links

Commons : Cathedral of the Assumption and St. Andrew  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Heinrich Wilhelm Teichgräber: The cathedral to Frauenburg . Eduard Pietzsch, Dresden 1839 ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 września 1994 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii (German: Decree of September 8, 1994, with which the Polish President designated the cathedral as a historical monument. ) Monitor Polski 1994, No. 50, p. 642, item 414.
  2. ^ Warmia documents, page 456, 471 of 1410, 1411 Bartholomaeus Borschow .
  3. ↑ Eugen Brachvogel: The altar shrine from 1504 . In: Zeitschrift zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ermlands , Vol. 24, S. 67-80, and The high altar of the cathedral in Frauenburg at the time of Koppernikus , in Vol. 26 of the same magazine, S. 72-94.
  4. ↑ Frauenburg stained glass , accessed on July 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ Organ in the Frauenburg Cathedral ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sacred organ @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sakralorgel.forumprofi.de
  6. ↑ Template: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available ) (Polish)

Coordinates: 54 ° 21 ′ 25.5 ″  N , 19 ° 40 ′ 54 ″  E