Holy Spirit Chapel (Bad Sooden-Allendorf)
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The Protestant Heilig-Geist-Kapelle , a single-nave hall church in the district of Allendorf in the municipality of Bad Sooden-Allendorf in the Werra-Meißner district of the state of Hesse , is a listed building .
history
In the Middle Ages , hospitals were established in cities that were not near any monastery . The hospitals were built outside the city walls , they were mainly used for the hygienic separation of lepers and plague sufferers . In front of the Waldistor outside the town of Allendorf in the direction of Wahlhausen, the Heilig-Geist-Hospital was established as a foundation , as there were enough wealthy residents in the town. There is no proof of establishment of the hospital foundation. The oldest surviving document dates from 1363, when the mayor donated an altar for the chapel in honor of St. Elizabeth , the founder of the hospital system in the region. Dendrochronological studies of some rafters showed the year 1339. In later times, the hospital was used to take in needy people from the city and as an old people's home for its citizens.
Building description
The property is surrounded by a stone wall that was originally higher than the current one to protect the rest of the population from the sick. The surrounding wall on the street has a pointed arch portal with a wrought iron gate.
The entrance to the plastered field stone chapel is a Gothic portal with an old oak door. The wall niche to the right of the entrance was probably used to erect a statue of St. Elisabeth. A few steps lead down into the interior of the chapel. On the south side, opposite the entrance portal, in front of the walled-up north portal is the epitaph of an Erfurt mayor who was buried in the hospital cemetery in 1371.
A ridge turret on the gable roof was removed in 1716 because it was dilapidated. A gable dormer is now formed on the entrance side . A previously added choir with an apse on the east side of the chapel was demolished in the 15th century. Today the area is framed by the former pointed triumphal arch . The opposite ogival opening is the access to the attached hospital. From this breakthrough, the sick were able to participate in the worship service separately from the community area . The wall projections on the two longitudinal walls probably served as an abutment for a barrel vault , today the nave has a flat ceiling.
Frescoes
The inside of the chapel is painted all around with frescoes . They come from three periods, the first around 1350 and the second and third in the 15th century . The frescoes were preserved because Landgrave Moritz removed all statues and pictures from the churches and had all frescoes whitewashed after he had turned to the Reformed doctrine and its strict ban on pictures . So the frescoes survived fire and water. They were exposed and restored in the early 1950s.
Around 1350 the fresco with the parable of the clever and foolish virgins was created on the north wall . There is a consecration cross above both groups of five . On the east and west walls there are further remains of the wall painting from this period.
Most of the frescoes date from the 15th century. A crucifixion group is depicted on the east wall , to the left of which Jesus is the Man of Sorrows . Saint Martin is depicted to the left of the chapel entrance on the south wall, on the other side Jesus can be seen in the garden of Gethsemani . Next to it, Elisabeth praying can be seen in a window niche, while her husband, Landgrave Ludwig , is sleeping next door . In further pictures, Alexius von Edessa , Jakobus the Elder and the Frankish prince Jodokus follow together with Bartholomäus . The image of the wafer mill on the other side of the west wall symbolically explains the Lord's Supper to people . The martyrs Barbara and Katharina are depicted on the north wall and Elisabeth and Michael on the south wall . The coat of arms of a donor completes the series of pictures on the lower wall level. In the upper area of the walls the pictures are only partially preserved, e.g. B. the representation of the Last Judgment .
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments, Hessen . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1966
- Adolf Reccius, Horst Schütt: History of the city of Allendorf in the Sooden. Bad Sooden-Allendorf 2000.
- KKV: City Guide Bad Sooden-Allendorf. Nordhausen 2001.
- Eberhard Kretschmann: Chapel and Hospital for the Holy Spirit in Bad Sooden-Allendorf. Bad Sooden-Allendorf 2011.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 31.1 ″ N , 9 ° 58 ′ 15 ″ E