Friedrichskirche (Gotha)
The Protestant Friedrichskirche , also called Siechhofskirche , is the smallest church building in the city of Gotha . It is considered the oldest baroque central building in Thuringia .
history
As early as 1347 , a hospital for lepers (the Leprosorum , also known as Sonderhof or Siechhof) with a chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas was mentioned on the Schlichte field east of the city , on the road to Erfurt . However, the Romanesque building was demolished in 1715 in order to build today's Friedrichskirche on its foundation walls. The commissioner and namesake was Duke Friedrich II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg , who had the new church built by the Gothic master builder Johann Erhard Straßburger in gratitude for an illness he had overcome . On July 19, 1715, the foundation stone was laid for the church, which was consecrated in December of the same year.
Architecture and equipment
The floor plan of the church is a Greek cross with four equally short arms, the corners are designed as quarter-circle niches. The building consists of plastered quarry stone walls, only the building corners and the window and door frames are made of hewn sandstone. The roof, covered with red beaver tails, is crowned by a roof turret covered with gray slate, the cross-section of which also has the shape of a Greek cross.
The floor of the plain interior, originally in white and blue, is covered with brown-red brick. In the arms of the cross there are simply held galleries. Above the unadorned altar is the baroque pulpit gallery with a shield showing the name of Frederick II with a crown.
In 1976 the church received a new organ from the Gotha organ builder Rudolf Böhm . It has 1 manual and dependent pedal and 5 registers .
On the south facade of the church is a belfry with a bell.
Others
At the time of its construction and well into the 20th century, the church was called the Friedrichskapelle (based on the St. Nicholas Chapel that used to stand here). The official name today is Friedrichskirche, but the colloquial name Siechhofskirche is still known and in use in the vernacular.
Above the entrance to the church there is a sandstone plaque with the Latin inscription A. (NNO) O. (RBIS) R. (EDEMPTI) / CICICCCXV / DIRUTO VETERI / SACELLVM NOVUM / F. (IERI) F. (ECIT) / FIDELIS SERVUS / FIDELI DOMINO / VITAEQVE RESTITVTORI / SVPERATO MORBO / PERICVLOSISS. (IMO) / GRATVM ANIMVM / PROBATVRVS. ( In the year of the redeemed world / 1715 / the loyal servant / his loyal master / and restorer of his life / after overcoming, highly dangerous illness / as evidence of his grateful disposition / after the destruction of the old / a new small sanctuary / built. ) The In 2000, thanks to a donation from a Gotha woman, a plaque was created to replace a marble plaque with this text from the time the church was built, which had disappeared over decades.
The church is looked after by the Evangelical Lutheran parish in Gotha, which regularly holds services there. The church is a listed building.
literature
- Walther Volkland: The poor house and the Friedrichskapelle. In: Gotha. The book of a German city, vol. 2, p. 44f., Gotha 1938
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans-Jürgen Hinrichs: Latin and Greek inscriptions in Gotha and the surrounding area , Part II, Gotha and Fulda, Ulenspiegel, 1999; P. 304ff.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 49.9 ″ N , 10 ° 43 ′ 15.4 ″ E