Holy Cross Church (Aschersleben)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Holy Cross Church in Aschersleben

The Holy Cross Church in Aschersleben, formerly the Franciscan Monastery Church, is the Catholic Church in Aschersleben . It is the seat of the parish Saint Michael in the deanery Egeln of the diocese of Magdeburg .

Location and facilities

Interior view of the Holy Cross Church in Aschersleben

The church is located in the middle of the old town of Aschersleben directly on the market square, which is why it is also called the market church.

The church is a single-nave, vaulted building of classic simplicity and a completely symmetrical structure without an apse and without a tower template. The forms are early Gothic. The walls are made of rubble stones , pillars ramps and belts are hewn sandstone. The church is divided into five equal bays , which are covered with cross vaults. The cross straps sit on simple wall pillars that start at a height of two meters. Thanks to the organ gallery and the construction of a partition wall, only three bays are manageable.

The keystones are simple and painted with different motifs around 1700, for example. B. with elector's hat, rose, Brandenburg eagle and the coat of arms of Aschersleben. The interior of the church is simple, nothing has survived from the time of the monastery, only remains of old ceiling paintings were found under the whitewash of the vaulted gussets. The beginnings of the vaults are divided by horizontal lines at a height of two meters, from where late-Gothic bouquets of flowers rise.

The old pulpit, side gallery and organ (1702–1768) were baroque and had simple, pleasing shapes. The old organ was built between 1737 and 1738 and had an openwork carving. The galleries from 1702 rested on twisted columns. The sacrament implement from 1708 has a silver chalice and paten and was donated by the Prussian king. 1919 was a new Röver - organ installed. On the east wall there is a memorial for Lieutenant Colonel Louis de Feyrac , who died in 1724 and is buried on the right behind the altar, his epitaph is now in the parish room.

history

The founding year of the church, which was built as part of a Franciscan monastery, is unknown. The shapes point to the middle of the 13th century. The oldest document of the monastery dates from 1311. Initially, the monastery, which belonged to the Saxon Franciscan Province ( Saxonia ) in the Franciscan Order founded in 1210, enjoyed a certain reputation in the city and the surrounding area, so that noble lords also joined the order, so z. B. 1361 the Count of Mansfeld . The brothers of the monastery were later hated and became even more so when they became hostile to the Reformation . During the Peasants' War in 1525, the Franciscans fled from the black peasants from the monastery, which soon served as a refuge for the nuns of the burned down St. Mary's Monastery. The religious men who had fled moved to the monastery in Zerbst , which was soon closed. They never came back into possession of the property in Aschersleben.

In 1533 the elector Albrecht von Brandenburg , also Bishop of Halberstadt, gave permission to use the abandoned and devastated church as he pleased. Between 1625 and 1631 monks again moved into the monastery after the imperial general Caraboni had given the occasion.

In 1644 the church was converted into a horse stable and in 1668 the old adjoining monastery buildings were demolished.

In 1698 the church was restored in order to serve as a place of worship for the Reformed congregation, which had come into being from the Anhalt region through the arrival of Reformed people. It was inaugurated on April 2, 1697. At the same time it also served the Protestant community as a place of worship until 1820. In 1723 Catholic Christians celebrated the first church service in Aschersleben after the Reformation. Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I had made Aschersleben a garrison town and promised the Catholic soldiers that they would celebrate their services. These were then carried out in the Holy Cross Church from 1733 and the church became a garrison church for the local cuirassier regiment .

In 1903 the church was extensively renovated by the Reformed community. With the exception of minor changes, such as the construction of the bell tower in 1909 by city building officer Hans Heckner , the monastery church is largely in its original state. From 1976 until his appointment as provost of Magdeburg in 1982, Theodor Stolpe (1932-2016), who later became the first vicar general of the newly founded diocese of Magdeburg, worked as a pastor at the church. In 1976 the Catholic parish bought the church and consecrated the church in 1979 as the "Holy Cross Church". Today the parish of St. Michael also includes the churches of St. Elisabeth in Alsleben (Saale) and the Immaculate Conception in Güsten .

Peal

The bell was cast in Halberstadt in 1704 .

literature

  • Achim Todenhöfer: The Franciscan Church (market church) in Aschersleben In: Churches of the mendicant orders. The architecture of the Dominicans and Franciscans in Saxony-Anhalt , Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2010, pp. 33–43, ISBN 978-3-496-01396-9
  • Achim Todenhöfer: Signs of rule. On the importance of the reduced two-tower motif on the west facades of Anhalt and Brandenburg mendicant and Cistercian churches in the 13th century In: 1259. Altenberg and the building culture in the 13th century , ed. from Altenberger Dom-Verein eV (publications of the Alterberger Dom-Verein, 10), Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2010, pp. 281-300, ISBN 978-3-7954-2357-5
  • Adolf Brinkmann : Architectural and art monuments of the province of Saxony , Verlag von Otto Haendel, Halle (Saale) 1904,
  • Editor (ed.): Architectural and art monuments of the province of Saxony , Naumburger Verlagsanstalt, Naumburg 2000, ISBN 3-86156-043-7

Web links

Commons : Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (Aschersleben)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 21.8 ″  N , 11 ° 27 ′ 24 ″  E