Court Church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A court church is a church building . A distinction is made between the church in the courtyard and the church in the courtyard .

Church of the courtyard

A court church in this sense is a church building that - unlike bishop , parish or monastery churches - is assigned to a prince's court . It is usually part of the palace complex and houses the tombs of their royal family in the crypt .

Former Catholic court church in Dresden, since 1980 cathedral Ss. Trinity

There are Hofkirchen in the following cities:

Church in the courtyard

Courtyard view of the Hofkirche Köpenick

The word is seldom used in the topographical sense for “a church building lying in a courtyard”, as in Wroclaw . There are Protestant church rooms called Hofkirche , which were built in the inner courtyards, so they could not be seen or less clearly from the street. This type of church building occurred in areas where Protestants were tolerated from the 17th century onwards, but were not supposed to cause a stir and were also unwilling to protect themselves. That is why the churches were either built in such a way that they were integrated into the street front like the Dutch Schuilkerk and at first glance appeared to be a completely normal residential building or they were relocated to the courtyard of the complex. There was then a house facing the street that served as a rectory and / or school, while the courtyard gate led to the church. Since the churches should not be seen, they should not be heard, so that court churches usually did not have bells. Some of these court churches still exist today, for example the Neanderkirche and the Berger Church in Düsseldorf , the Mennonite Church in Krefeld and Reformed churches in Wassenberg , Kaldenkirchen , Süchteln and Erkelenz- Lövenich .

Furthermore, the Evangelical Free Church in Berlin-Köpenick calls its church, located in an inner courtyard, Hofkirche . Here, too, “disruptions during the service” at the previous location seem to have contributed to the decision to build the new church building in an inner courtyard.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hofkirche Köpenick , accessed on November 11, 2013
  2. ^ Streiflichter from the history of the community , accessed on September 15, 2014