Jakobskirche (Braunschweig)

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Reconstructed Jakobskirche

The Church of St. James , also Jacob Chapel , is the oldest church of the city of Braunschweig and is located in the precincts of the old town , on today's egg market .

History of construction and use

The legend has it that have been (so far historically blank) established the first settlement on the territory of modern Braunschweig in 861st The Middle Low German chronicler Hermann Bote, from Braunschweig, describes this in particular in his Braunschweiger Weltchronik from around 1500 . Accordingly, the two Saxon brothers Bruno and Dankward an der Oker , possibly from the Liudolfingian-Ottonian family, decided to found a settlement, whereby Dankward had a church and the Dankwarderode castle built in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul and Bruno houses on the site built where the egg market is today, and Bruno is said to have donated a church in honor of St. Jacob - the Jacob's Church.

Excavations that have taken place since 1954, however, have not been able to unequivocally prove the history of its origins in the 9th century, rather it is assumed that the remains of the foundations are more likely to be assigned to the 11th or 12th century. The first documented reference to the church comes from 1227, the first documented mention of the Jakobskirche from 1301.

The first hall building is said to have been built in its place in the 10th century, and a second followed around 1100 with a tower , nave and apse . In the 15th century, it was converted into a Gothic hall church.

Up until the Reformation , church services took place in the Jakobskirche, which took place again from 1710, at that time the church served as a branch church to the Martini Church, which was only a few meters away .

Depiction of the Jacob's Church from 1711

According to an engraving from the 18th century, the Jakobskirche at that time resembled the nearby Michaeliskirche , i.e. That is, it had a square west tower with a western portal and a tapered tower dome.

In 1794/95 both the tower and the vaults were demolished and the remaining building was used as a two-story storage building for cloths (so-called “small Gewandhaus”) - the actual Gewandhaus is only a few meters away from the Church of St. James. In 1861 the building was used as a grain and product exchange.

Destruction and rebuilding

During the Second World War , the building was destroyed to the ground, mainly by the heavy bombing raids of 1944. It was not until 1977/78, more than 30 years after the end of the war, that it was rebuilt based on the external appearance of the 15th century, as the choir and the south wall were still preserved from this time and despite the effects of the war . Today the former Jakobskirche is used as the parish hall of the parish of St. Martini. In the basement there is an archaeological excavation site that illustrates the architectural origins of the building.

literature

Web links

Commons : St. Jakob (Braunschweig)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kimpflinger: Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany, Architectural Monuments in Lower Saxony, Volume 1.1 .: City of Braunschweig, Part 1 , p. 86
  2. ↑ a b History of the Jakobskirche on braunschweig.de


Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 43 ″  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 2 ″  E