Hospital Church (courtyard)
Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 27.9 ″ N , 11 ° 55 ′ 9.2 ″ E
The Hospitalkirche Hof after the redesign of the church forecourt in 2015
The forecourt of the Hospital Church Hof, which was redesigned in 2015
The Hospital Church from the Lower Gate (1264)
The hospital church from the suburb
The pulpit, pulpit basket 1561, pulpit lid with figures by Johann Nikolaus Knoll 1693, angels on the staircase and glass window by Helmut Ammann 1938
The middle shrine of the late Gothic Marian altar from 1511. On the left, St. Catherine (with Bible and sword), in the middle, Mary with the Christ child, on the right, St. Barbara (with chalice)
General view of the Marien Altar by Michael Heuffner .
The coat of arms of Michael Heuffner , the creator of the Marien Altar
The interior of the church from the altar step
The figure of Aaron by Johann Nikolaus Knoll in the pulpit lid
The Tower of Babel, picture from the coffered ceiling by Heinrich Andreas Lohe (1688)
The organ of the Hospital Church by the organ builder Simon from Landshut (1968)
The Hospital Church is the second oldest church in Hof (Saale) after the mother church of St. Lorenz (1214 ) . Its origins go back to the 13th century, when a pious foundation was established around 1260, through which the hospital , a retirement home and poor house for Hof citizens was built at the lower gate outside the city walls of Hof (1264/1268). From the hospital there was a separate entrance to the hospital church built for its residents . The Hof Hospital Foundation, which is now administered by the city, is still primarily dedicated to helping the elderly.
As recently as 1675 it was said: "The little church was like a poor orphan, which no one paid much attention to and which was little or not visited by the great men and women of the city."
The church owes its location to the fact that, unlike all other historical churches in Hof, it was spared the destruction caused by city fires. In 1529 she became Protestant. Today the Hospital Church is one of Hof's most important sights. It is called the “treasure chest” because of its rich furnishings. It is called “Siemakerng” by the people of Hof because their main service started at seven in the morning until a few years ago.
The Hospital Church belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Dean's Office in Hof . The northern area of the town of Hof and the municipality of Zedtwitz with the Friedenskirche, which borders on Hof to the northwest, belong to the district of the church .
history
The hospital church mid-13th century was built (after 1260), like many other Hospital- or hospital churches together with the arms hospital, which called itself the Holy Spirit Hospital and how other hospitals of the Middle Ages outside the city walls on a river, where the hall was . The name To Our Lady was added to the Hospital Church.
One of the basic ideas of the pious founders was to extend a gentle hand to the poor through works of mercy and thereby obtain forgiveness of sins and eternal happiness. On April 1, 1264, Pope Urban IV issued a letter of indulgence to the dioceses of Bamberg, Würzburg and Mainz, with which he entrusted them with the support of the Hof Poor Hospital. Bishop Berthold von Bamberg authorized the rector and the hospital brothers on May 23, 1268 to consecrate the hospital's burial place. He granted those attending the celebration an indulgence of 40 days of purgatory for deadly sins and 100 days for forgivable sins.
On January 25, 1430 the Hussites invaded Hof. On Martini 1464 the church was renewed. On September 5, 1529 , the Protestant church system in Hof began with a German mass that Magister Kaspar Löner celebrated in St. Michaelis. This also made the Hospital Church Lutheran. In 1553 the sovereign, Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades, waged war against Bamberg, Würzburg and the Burgrave of Nuremberg. He sent the war chief Heinrich Reuss von Plauen , burgrave of Meissen, with "two little flags" to the siege at Hof . The hospital church was used as a war camp. The Markgräfler then shot the church to the ground.
In 1557 the church was renovated and received its late Gothic St. Mary's altar, which was originally carved for the first chapel of Michaeliskirche, but was vacated by the Reformation. It is the most important work of art in the city of Hof. The Creator was unknown for a long time. Until 2007, it was puzzled who the initials "MH" in the coat of arms on the left and right of the predella should be assigned to. Rudolf Strößner found the decisive reference to the artist in Zwickau Cathedral (Marienkirche) when looking at the Holy Sepulcher there with a coat of arms of Michael Heuffner , a contemporary of Peter Breuer (1472–1541). He created the altar of the Hospital Church in 1511 at the height of his work. In the same year he is said to have died in Zwickau at the age of only 28.
The altar shrine contains three figures: Mary with the Christ child in the middle, St. Catherine on the left and St. Barbara on the right as seen from the viewer. The two altar wings contain motifs from the Christmas story .
The coffered ceiling of the church is particularly remarkable . It consists of 90 panels that the Hof painter Heinrich Andreas Lohe designed at the suggestion of the pastor Nikolaus Meyer. The illustrations of stories from the Old and New Testament are closely based on the pictures of Matthäus Merian the Elder (Merian Bible) and one with engravings of the Dutchman Cornelis Visscher provided Osianderbibel of 1665 on. The paintings were completed within a year from July 1688 to August 1689. The work was so well received that in the same year the painter was commissioned to decorate the organ choir with pictures of angels playing music and the upper gallery with scenes from the Passion story . In 1693 the pulpit received the carved sound cover with figures by Johann Nikolaus Knoll .
The pictures on the lower gallery come from the history painter Anton Bischof from Weißenhorn , who painted them on the occasion of the renovation of the church in 1905. They are not as well preserved as the other pictures in the church, as modern lacquer paints have already been used. In 1938, the artist Helmut Ammann (1907–2001) from Munich painted the windows on the east side with stained glass. In the same year, the pulpit got a new staircase, at the foot of which there are two angels, also created by Helmut Ammann. In 1947 the parish of Hof with the main church of St. Michaelis was divided into individual parishes . This is how the independent parish Hof-Hospitalkirche came into being. The altar, pulpit cover and epitaph pool of Bethesda were cleaned and restored in 2005. In 2007 the two gunmetal chandeliers from 1710 and 1711 and the wall lights on the galleries followed. Four new lighting fixtures have been illuminating the ceiling since then. In 2013 the tower of the church was restored. The poor condition of the wooden structure made a replica based on the historical model of the old tower from 1836 necessary. In 2015 the forecourt of the church, which belongs to the Hof Hospital Foundation, was redesigned.
organ
With the installation of a music gallery, the Hospital Church received an organ positive around 1550 , which was donated by a parishioner. In 1608 the instrument was replaced by a new building. On February 27, 1680, an organ built for 125 Reichsthalers by Severin Hollbeck from Denmark , who had taken over the Leube workshop in Zwickau , was consecrated. In 1851 the church received a new organ from the Hof organ builder Heidenreich at a price of 1180 guilders. Three years earlier, the city council had decided to set up a separate organist position at the Hospital Church. In 1905 an instrument was purchased from GF Steinmeyer & Co. from Öttingen, which had previously built an organ in Hof's St. Marien town church .
Today's organ from 1968 has 1187 pipes and 17 registers and comes from the organ builder Simon from Landshut . In 2005 it was restored by the company Benedikt Friedrich from Oberasbach and given a Zimbelstern donated by city and dean's cantor Georg Stanek .
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Playing aids : Coupling I / P, II / P, II / I. A free combination . Tongue holder.
literature
- Rudolf Brecheis: The Hospital Church in Hof - A walk through the church and its history (PDF; 2.7 MB)
- August Gebeßler : City and District of Hof . The Art Monuments of Bavaria , Brief Inventories , Volume VII . German art publisher . Munich 1960. pp. 15-17.
- Michael Krauss, Rudolf Brecheis, Johannes Taig: The Hospital Church in Hof
- Ludger Stühlmeyer : The old inner city churches and their organs. In: The music history of the city of Hof . Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Bamberg 2010, pp. 181-224, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ludger Stühlmeyer : Curia sonans. The music history of the city of Hof. Bamberg 2010, pp. 213-215.