Chapel of St. Leo IX.

Chapel of St. Leo IX. (right); left the castle, in the foreground the Leo fountain

Inside of the chapel

The chapel of St. Leo IX. (French Chapelle Saint-Léon IX ) is a Roman Catholic chapel in the Alsatian town of Egisheim in the Haut-Rhin department . It was built from 1888 to 1894 in the neo-Romanesque style and lavishly painted. The building, which has been in municipal ownership since 1972, is in its original condition after extensive restorations.

history

The castle Egisheim in the town center was in the 19th century as the birthplace of Bruno's Egisheim, the future Pope and Holy Leo IX. (1002-1054). Against the background of the Renouveau catholique , the desire arose to visibly venerate the saint in the place. As early as the 1830s, a family from Egisheim donated a statue of Leo with the papal tiara for the fountain in front of the castle wall .

Charles Winkler, plan drawing for the redesign of Egisheim Castle and the addition of the chapel (1886)

In 1881, Peter Paul Stumpf from Egisheim became coadjutor and designated successor to the Bishop of Strasbourg . Since then he has been running the project to acquire the castle district for the diocese of Strasbourg and use it as a home with a chapel in honor of St. To expand Leo. The purchase took place in 1885. In the period that followed, the small remains of the keep were demolished and, from 1888, the chapel was built in its place.

Charles Winkler (1834–1908), leading architect of historicism in Alsace , received the planning contract . He inserted the chapel into the wall octagon of the castle in such a way that the altar wall coincides with the northwest side of the octagon and the apse protrudes beyond it. He replaced a first smaller draft with the larger one, which was realized later, in which the chapel extends into the middle of the octagon and partially covers the castle building.

The painting was done by the German church painter Martin , the picture windows by Colmar's Jean Weyh , the altar, the holy water stoup and the doors by Colmar's Théophile Klem . The church was consecrated on May 17, 1894 .

architecture

The architecture and furnishings take up forms of pre-Romanesque from the time of Leo IX. on. The chapel of reddish Vosges - Sandstone is a dreijochiger hall building with gabled roof , half high round apse and narthex . In each yoke there is a round arch double window on both sides, above a round window. Stitch caps cut into the flat barrel vault of the interior from the windows . The gable above the narthex is designed with blind arches , the narthex itself with a portal risalit , on the upper floor in a large niche a statue of St. Leo is standing.

Furnishing

The apse fresco shows the Majestas Domini with the apostles Peter and Paul and the four evangelist symbols . In the two apse windows angels carry banners with the Gloria Patri . Below is the altar with the tabernacle in front of painted draperies . On the left of the apse is a statue of Leo with a gesture of blessing , on the right the reliquary with his skull relic .