Chapel of Grace (Altötting)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Chapel of Grace in Altötting
The tour around the chapel is hung with votive pictures.

The Gnadenkapelle Altötting , also known as the Holy Chapel , is a pilgrimage chapel on Kapellplatz in Altötting in Bavaria . She was one of the most important pilgrimage destinations of their time and is called the Bavarian s national shrine considered.

Legend

The reason for Altötting's worldwide fame as a place of pilgrimage to Mary lies in an incident from the 15th century. The following miracle is said to have occurred there in 1489: A three-year-old boy fell into the Mörnbach , was carried along by the current and was thought to have drowned. The desperate mother brought the lifeless child to the chapel consecrated to the Mother of God after it was recovered and placed it on the altar. There she began to pray with other believers for the salvation of her child. After a short time, life returned to the body of the apparently dead child. Legend has it that the rescued boy was later ordained a priest.

Miraculous image

Image of grace of the chapel of grace

In the 14th century, the tall, early Gothic image of a standing Mother of God, the most important figure of Mary in southern Germany, possibly made in Burgundy or on the Upper Rhine and carved from linden wood, came to Altötting. With the advent of the pilgrimage, numerous replicas were made, for example in Nuremberg and Würzburg.

The statue of the Madonna is 64 centimeters high and contains incorporated silver plates. Neither the place of origin nor the exact time of origin could so far be determined beyond doubt by art historians. The figure is believed to have been made at the end of the 13th or early 14th century. With her black hands and blackened face, the Madonna is said to refer to models in the Auvergne . Such religious wooden sculptures from the High Middle Ages were widespread there, and the school of Clermont-Ferrand is said to have been a pioneering workshop. In Europe alone there are said to be 272 "black Madonnas"; in France, where 188 such statues are mentioned, they are known as Vierges Noires . There are famous black figures of the Virgin Mary in Altötting in Einsiedeln (Switzerland), Loreto (Italy) and Czestochowa (Poland) and Montserrat (Spain).

The black coloring of the Madonnas is often attributed to candle and incense, as well as to pollution by dust. However, an “oxidation theory” is also being discussed, according to which chemical changes darken the wood, in Altötting, for example, reactions of the inlaid silver to the humidity. In general, the color black for cult figures can be traced back to ancient models: Even the "Great Mother of Gods" Cybele and the goddess of the dead Isis were often depicted in black in ancient times. The Altöttinger Madonna has been clothed since 1518, whereby the fabrics were initially obtained from the wedding dresses of Bavarian princesses, which were donated as offerings for the "miraculous image". The Bavarian Elector Maximilian I donated the scepter and crown .

On September 11th, 2006 Pope Benedict XVI made a pilgrimage . to Altötting and put down his bishop's ring , which he had worn until his election as Pope, in front of the miraculous image. Today the ring is attached to the scepter of the statue of Our Lady.

Except from Benedict XVI. was the chapel of grace of the Popes Pius VI. and John Paul II visited.

Pilgrimage

Wooden crosses are carried around the chapel.

Many pilgrimage traditions go back to the 15th century, the "Autumn of the Middle Ages" ( Johan Huizinga ), a time of church and religious crisis immediately before the Reformation . At that time the piety not only of sovereigns, but also of "lower classes" often exhausted itself in the excessive collecting of relics, in the belief in miracles and in pilgrimages, so it generally became "more external". The sheer number (quantity) of evidence of belief became dominant. In this religious and social environment, the “Gnadenkapelle” became a center of popular piety and the “Black Madonna” became the target of intercessions, greatly encouraged by Wittelsbach princes like Maximilian I, who, in the course of the Counter Reformation, had an urgent political interest in the rise of pilgrimage and settled the Jesuits in Altötting. Countless votive tablets , which can be found on the outside walls and inside the chapel, were put up in gratitude for the miracles supposedly granted by Mary. Today there are over 2,000 votive pictures in handling. Some of the pilgrims still walk around the chapel, some kneeling, often with wooden crosses specially provided for them, and pray for help with worries and needs.

The nave of the Chapel of Grace

On August 15, 2008, the pilgrimage church of Altötting by Pope Benedict XVI. was awarded a golden rose , a high papal distinction that Joachim Cardinal Meisner presented to the pilgrimage director as a cardinal legate on the feast of the Assumption .

Building

The dating of the Chapel of Grace to a period between the 8th and 10th centuries is controversial. The early Byzantine octagonal church of San Vitale (early 6th century) in Ravenna served as a model for a ducal baptistery in Altötting. The Gnadenkapelle would thus be in the same architectural tradition as the earliest construction period of the Aachen Cathedral, whose builders were also based on the octagon . In 1494, a ship and a pointed tower were added to the central building , which is essentially agilolfing . An open passage around the chapel followed in 1517. The sacristy was added in 1686.

Furnishing

Inside of the octagon

The interior was remodeled in the first half of the 17th century; the altar of grace is from 1670. The decoration of the altar of grace, which is entirely carved in silver, dates from 1670. The reveal of the altar niche is decorated with a representation of the root of Jesse . The silver work comes from the goldsmiths Balthasar Ableithner , Franz Oxner and Johann F. Fesenmayr. An important blacksmith's work is the “Silver Prince ” of the Dutch master Willem de Groff, kneeling on the right of the altar and donated by Elector Karl Albrecht in 1737 . It depicts the ten-year-old Prince Elector Maximilian III. Joseph in delicate rococo armor. The silver figure of the kneeling holy brother Konrad von Parzham , created by the Munich sculptor Prof. Georg Busch , was added to the left of the altar in the 1930s . Meanwhile, over the "Silver Prince" is also that of Benedict XVI. awarded Golden Rose attached.

Burials

Heart urn of Emperor Charles VII in the Chapel of Mercy

In the course of time, a total of three body burials (1633, 1634, 1666) took place in the Gnadenkapelle, and a total of 28 heart burials took place over a period of more than 300 years .

When Count Wilhelm von Slavata's wife died in 1633, the dean of the monastery Scheitenberger and the collegiate monastery approved the burial of Countess Lucie Otilie in the chapel of grace, which took place quite unobtrusively on the evening of May 18, 1633. Elector Maximilian I feared, not without reason, that this precedent could be imitated and that the exhalations from the corpses would have harmful effects on the health of the chapel visitors. In his response to the electoral protest letter, the dean pointed out, among other things, that the deceased was an important benefactress of the Chapel of Mercy and that health damage could not arise because the corpse was first placed in two wooden coffins and finally in a pewter coffin and was taller than a man was sunk into the earth. The elector finally decided that neither a memorial stone nor a grave slab should be placed on or above the burial site in the Chapel of Mercy, which was not done.

Most of the hearts come from members of the Wittelsbach family , so that today the hearts of an emperor, six kings, three Bavarian electors, eleven princely women, five bishops and two other princely persons are buried in the chapel of grace. 13 heart urns are walled in or buried under the paved floor and therefore not visible. 14 silver urns with a total of 15 hearts are displayed in wall niches, most of them are in wall niches on the west side of the octagon.

The urns set up in the wall niches are made exclusively of silver, some are gold-plated and decorated with precious stones. In the case of Crown Prince Rupprecht , on the orders of his son Albrecht, a gold-plated silver vessel with rock crystal was set up instead of a silver heart urn. The hearts of the mothers of Elector Karl Theodor and King Maximilian I were received in the Gnadenkapelle in 1983 at the request of the House of Wittelsbach. They are located behind the altar and are made of tin or copper and have no further decoration. In the case of the Electress Elisabeth Renata , in addition to the heart, her entrails are also buried in the Chapel of Grace.

Visibly positioned in niches:

Not visible in the chapel:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Markschies, Hubert Wolf: Places of Remembrance of Christianity . CH Beck, 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60500-0 ( google.de [accessed December 7, 2019]).
  2. ^ Joachim Hotz: Pilgrimage churches in Europe . Keyser, 1983, ISBN 978-3-87405-158-3 ( google.de [accessed December 7, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Brigitte Romankiewicz: The black Madonna: Backgrounds of a symbol figure , Ostfildern 2004. ISBN 3-491-72483-X
  4. ↑ a b c d e Heart burials in the Gnadenkapelle von Altötting. In: neueschatzkammer.de , accessed on January 8, 2013
  5. ↑ Friedrich Leeb: The Altöttinger Gnadenkapelle as the final resting place , in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken 4 (1960), pp. 20-25.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Gnadenkapelle  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Gnadenkapelle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 ′ 34.6 "  N , 12 ° 40 ′ 35.6"  E