Holy Spirit Chapel Bruck an der Mur
The Holy Spirit Chapel , originally Trinity Church , is located in Austria , town of Bruck an der Mur , state of Styria . Its unusual triangular shape and the six-pointed star vault make it a unique architectural monument of Austrian Gothic , which is also of national importance.
history
The chapel, which is now a listed building, was built in place of a chapel of the Pest Hospital (infirmary) built in 1422 on the southern edge of the city. It was built as a thank you and memorial for surviving plagues, famine and war. In 1480 it was badly damaged during a Turkish invasion. Between 1495 and 1497, six distinguished and wealthy citizens of the city funded its restoration as a church. Its builders, including the Kornmesser, Pögl and Holzapfel families, were members of a merchant elite that emerged in the late 15th century and brought the old trading town of Bruck back to life.
Services were held here until 1783, after which the building was empty and fell into disrepair. On August 9, 1794, an application was made to the diocese of Leoben for its desecration , which was carried out by the city pastor on behalf of the bishop on October 7 of the same year. The secular church was later auctioned off to Ignaz Weigel, the postmaster from Bruck, who initially used it as a horse stable and hay barn.
In 1817 Franz Oberländer was allowed to convert the building into an inn with guest rooms. In 1921 there were further renovations. a. the tracery windows fell victim. From 1955 onwards, it was owned by the municipality and was now used as a residence for city officials. In the course of this, the interior was divided by false ceilings and walls. When the motorway junction was being built, the church was also supposed to be demolished, but that did not happen. Because of the unacceptable situation for residential purposes in the middle of the intersection of several expressways, the building has been empty since 1999.
In 2011, Philipp Harnoncourt launched an initiative who, together with his five siblings, made a call to the city of Bruck to preserve and restore the Holy Spirit Chapel. The building was given a new use as a unique monument. Among other things, it should serve as a memorial for the obligation to protect the environment.
architecture
The sacred building is a specialty of late Gothic architecture in Austria. Its unusual shape suggests its original dedication as a Holy Trinity Church . Its floor plan lies in a planned equilateral triangle with a side length of 20 fathoms with 60 feet (1 fathom = 1.88 m) with bevelled corners, which is divided inside by arcades into three trapezoidal altar niches. The hexagonal central room is divided into three on sides of 20 feet, it was closed at the top by a star rib vault. The church has three portals of equal rank with windows above them. On the southwest side, the original shoulder arch portal can still be seen under the three-part tracery window. The usual division of the church into nave and choir was retained, the central room forms the nave, the trapezoidal altar niches have choir-like triumphal doors. One altar niche points almost exactly to the north, so the other altar niches point to the southeast and southwest. To Ostung the church after the rising sun after the actual horizon became the forestation loud conversation of Marianne Kohler-Schneider (Boku Vienna) with Erwin Reidinger in relation to the Erzberg assume a deforested horizon while the current forest cover of spruce from the 19th century. and 20th century. The sunrise on Ash Wednesday 1494 ( February 12 ) intersects the SE axis. The orientation of the church on Ash Wednesday suggests a second orientation of the SE choir, i.e. a stake out four days later, which is the usual increase as the 1st Sunday of Lent (February 16, 1494). Since the altars are no longer there, or there is no evidence of an east window, or the choir niche is very short and therefore a measurement is difficult and blurred, the 1st Sunday of Lent remains unoccupied as a heavenly pointer, but probably.
In 2013, the historical building investigation revealed previously unknown decorative elements. On the wall is u. a. The mutilated foundation inscription from 1497 can still be seen, which names four citizens of Bruck and their coats of arms: Pankraz Kornmess, Michael Holzapfel, Leonhard Schierling and Albrecht Dyem.
Restoration
The renovation of the chapel was aimed at restoring the original character of the building both outside and inside. On the basis of building research, a renovation concept was developed in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Monuments Office. The work was therefore carried out in several stages and was largely completed by the end of 2017. The elements that no longer exist were redesigned by contemporary artists.
The gutting of the building began. All fixtures made after 1794 were removed. Larger wall paintings from the time the church was built were not found, only a few coats of arms and remains of inscriptions in the vault area. No remains of the original floor (wood, stone or brick?) Have been found. The roof was restored to its original shape and covered with stone shingles. Furthermore, the broken room windows were bricked up and the original portals and windows reopened. By attaching the new glass windows and doors and applying a layer of white plaster, an attempt was made to restore the original facade structure as far as possible. An architecture and art competition determined the redesign of the no longer existing elements: floor, portals, windows, lighting, surrounding space and ancillary buildings.
Project steps:
- 2012: Foundation of the association, funding for the restoration of the Holy Spirit Chapel
- 2013: gutting of the interior
- 2014: architecture competition
- 2014: Restoration of the original roof shape with stone covering
- 2015: Renovation of the facade and demolition of the stable building
- 2016: Interior renovation
- 2017: Exposure of the frescoes and renovation of the historic plaster surfaces in the interior
- 2018: Renovation of the window and door portal
- 2020: Completion of the project
“There is no such building anywhere in Europe, perhaps not even in the whole world. ... In the Middle Ages, plague, hunger and war were considered the deadly trinity of evil that could only be overcome by invoking the trinity of God. Vows were made in times of need. The citizens of Bruck built this chapel as a thank you and memorial for the population after the end of such plagues. Today the deadly plagues for the whole earth are the willful destruction of soil, water and air - gifts that the Creator has entrusted to mankind for preservation. This building should be a strong memorial in the future, reminding of the obligation to protect the environment. "
On June 7, 2020, the so-called Trinity Sunday , as Philipp Harnoncourt had wished, the completion of the restoration of the Holy Spirit Chapel in Bruck an der Mur was celebrated with a ceremony - just a few days after his death and one day after his funeral in Grundlsee . The celebration was broadcast via livestream on the website of the city of Bruck an der Mur.
literature
- Dehio Steiermark (excluding Graz) 1982 , Bruck an der Mur, Former Hl.-Geist-Kirche, page 61.
Web links
Homepage Renovation of the Holy Spirit Chapel in Bruck an der Mur
Individual evidence
- ↑ Holy Spirit Chapel in Bruck an der Mur Sunday paper, November 20, 2011
- ↑ The Harnoncourt family want to save the Bruck Chapel APA / City of Bruck / Mur, ORF-Styria, November 17, 2011
- ↑ a b c d Erwin Reidinger : The former Heiliggeistkirche in Bruck an der Mur - building analysis and archaeoastronomy. In: Günther Buchinger, Friedmund Hueber (ed.): Building research and preservation of monuments. Festschrift for Mario Schwarz. Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2015, ISBN 978-3-20579677-0 , pp. 345–368.
- ↑ Discovered unique paintings in the chapel in Bruck . In: Kleine Zeitung , January 29, 2013.
- ↑ Claudia Reiter: The slow awakening of the Holy Spirit Chapel in Bruck an der Mur . In: My district BM from August 14, 2014.
- ↑ Renovation of the Holy Spirit Chapel, Bruck an der Mur. bruckmur.at, accessed on June 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Ulf Tomaschek: Festival for Philipp Harnoncourt and the Holy Spirit Chapel . In: Kleine Zeitung , June 6, 2020, p. 16.
Coordinates: 47 ° 24 ′ 19.2 ″ N , 15 ° 17 ′ 0.6 ″ E