Capuchin Church St. Elisabeth (Aschaffenburg)
The Capuchin Church and the St. Elisabeth Monastery were the branch and convent of the Capuchin Order in Aschaffenburg from 1626 to 2010 .
history
When Elector Archbishop Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg , the builder of the new Johannisburg Palace , called the Capuchins to Aschaffenburg almost 400 years ago to "give new impulses to religious and moral life", he gave them the "Auf den Schutz" area in the palace gardens . The foundation stone for a monastery was laid there in 1626 and a church was built a year later. After the battle of Hanau , at the Napoleon on 30./31. In October 1813 an Austrian-Bavarian army was defeated near Hanau ( Wars of Liberation 1813–1815), and the monastery became a military hospital. Due to careless nurses who handled the open light, broke on the night of 7/8. November 1813 a fire broke out and destroyed the monastery and church. The wounded could all be saved, the library with more than 4,000 volumes fell into flames. Tearing down the neighboring houses prevented the fire (town fire) from spreading. In 1814 the monastery and church were rebuilt, but the consecration could not take place until 1847, and in the war of 1866 it was again a hospital.
According to the plans of the architect Privy Councilor Friedrich Ritter von Thiersch , a new church was built in 1908/09. Including the old church (the north-south nave is the choir), the new nave runs in an east-west direction. The sacristy was set up in the former choir, above it the so-called brother choir (access via the enclosure), opposite two confessional rooms and above it a visitor gallery (accessible via the monastery gate). Four lower vaulted chapels are set up on either side of the nave. The church had the following dimensions: length including the choir 42 m, width including the side chapels 20 m, height 12 m. The architectural style of the new church: neo-Romanesque, partly neo-baroque, partly painted. Above the old entrance on the north side a figure of St. Elisabeth , handing a drink to a beggar, in a housing made of green sandstone, created around 1627 by Zacharias Junker the Elder. Ä. , Sculptor from Miltenberg .
The high altar, based on examples of early Romanesque art in southern France, was planned by Thiersch, designed by the sculptor Jakob Hoffmann from Munich and made of gray natural stone by Steinmetz Steiger. On the back wall of the altar are four angels with the tools of Christ's Passion in bas-relief, above them a wooden sculpture of St. Elisabeth in a niche surrounded by cassettes, taken from the old church by Munich professor Josef Knabl. In small gabled houses there are St. Veronica Giuliani on the left, St. Clare of Assisi on the right , stone seated figures. The silver tabernacle with structure, "slender, semicircular columns that support an openwork spherical vault above an architrave " , was made by the Würzburg silversmith Josef Amberg.
There are two side altars on the triumphal arch. Its structure (fluted columns "each crowned with a shell protruding to the front") was made by the Aschaffenburg art carpenter Max Häuser. The altar sheet on the left, the so-called “Schnitzelbaumer Altarpiece” 1854/55, which was created for the previous building by the Munich history painter Ludwig Schnitzelbaumer, shows St. Francis of Assisi , to the right and left of it the Blessed. Kreszentia von Kaufbeuren and St. Louis of France , accompanying figures by the sculptor Wilhelm Heider. The altar panel on the right shows St. Anthony of Padua and, as accompanying figures, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen and St. Laurentius of Brindisi .
In the side chapels: one altar shows the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the other is the Face of Christ altar with St. Veronica , whose altar sheet was created by Adalbert Hock , the wooden superstructures are by Jakob Voit, Munich. Two other altars, namely St. Monika , represented with her son (St. Augustine ), and St. Barbara , also by Adalbert Hock; the wooden structures here were created by Max Häuser. Emilie Brentano donated a pietà for the holy grave altar . The pulpit was made in Max Häuser's cabinet-making workshop. The triumphal arch was painted, in the middle of the birth of Christ “The Adoration of the Divine Child”, floating angels escort Franciscan saints to the manger. The painting came from Leonhard Thoma from Munich.
The church was badly damaged in the air raid on November 21, 1944, the entrance area was destroyed and the roof torn off. On January 3, 1945 the monastery was hit by bombs, two priests took our lives.
Reconstruction after 1945
After the war, the reconstruction began, the barrel vault was replaced by a simple wooden ceiling. The altars in the chapels were never re-erected and replaced with confessionals. A large round window was inserted above the entrance. The artist Karl Jung from Donauwörth created the angel gate for the stairway to the organ loft, depicting angels making music and St. Cäcilia , the patroness of church music. Jung also created the Way of the Cross, which was controversial, initially rejected and perceived as "unreligious", placed above the side chapels. During the extensive roof renovation, a roof turret was also added. A bell (St. Elisabeth), cast by the Rudolf Perner bell foundry in Passau , rings in it with the inscription "Elisabeth du Gute, hear us from Himmelshöh'n"
In 1975 the post-conciliar redesign of the choir took place, the floor was raised, the Aschaffenburg artist and sculptor Hermann Kröckel and the art caster Jorg Grundhöfer created the altar table, triumphal cross, ambo and priest's seat in cast aluminum. The Way of the Cross, whose artistic value had meanwhile been recognized, was rearranged at eye level between the confessionals. The figures of saints on the side altars were removed and placed in the niche to the right of the Antonius altar. The Pieta from the Holy Sepulcher Altar was given a place to the left of the Franciscan Altar. In their place, the crucifixion group in the style of the Mainz Baroque, which had previously stood unprotected next to the monastery entrance, was brought into the church. The organ loft received a new parapet, also a work of the artist community Kröckel / Grundhöfer.
Finally, the third order hall was set up in a new building, converted into a prayer room and painted with the “ Canticle of the Sun ” of St. Francis. The artist was Erich Horndasch from Stammham (am Inn) .
On April 18, 2010 the Capuchins left Aschaffenburg. They had to give up the monastery due to a lack of young people. The diocese of Würzburg has taken over the church and monastery and left them to the " Fraternità Francescana di Betania " to look after the Italian community COMUNITÀ CATTOLICA ITALIANA UNTERMAIN. In the course of this transfer, the SBW-Bauträger- und Verwaltungs-GmbH was commissioned with extensive renovation work on the monastery.
Refurbishment and modernization from 2011 to 2015
The renovation and expansion of the listed monastery began in June 2011 and was carried out in 3 construction phases. The structure of the building was largely preserved. The stairwells have been renewed and stand out as new steel and glass elements in the facades. In the entrance area, the ceilings were removed so that a spacious reception area opens up to the roof. A dining room, recreation areas, kitchen and office space were created on the ground floor. New steel and glass elements open up the common areas to the monastery garden. The existing monastery structure was completely retained on the upper floor. This is where the future 15 brothers and sisters will be located. In addition, 13 guest rooms were created. The construction work was completed in 2015 and the new rooms were consecrated by Friedhelm Hofmann on June 6, 2015 . Since March 21, 2013, two fathers, a brother and five sisters have been living in the partially renovated apartment block of the monastery; since 2015 there are three brothers and seven sisters.
organ
Started in 1977 by the Stumpf organ builder, taken over by August Laukhuff from Weikersheim and completed by Orgelbau Vleugels from Hardheim , the organ was inaugurated on June 16, 1978 by Provincial P. Kosmas Wührer from Munich. Roland Büchner played the organ, which has the following disposition :
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The instrument has mechanical slide drawers . The stop action is electric. On the gaming table, which is attached to the Rückpositiv , there are 5 normal couplings, 3 free combinations and a swell step for the swell . The organ front on the back wall of the gallery consists of seven fields of different heights with metal pipes, another three-part organ front, arranged in the middle of the gallery railing, was created by the artists' association Kröckel / Grundhöfer. The organ case was built around the round window (3 m in diameter) "Burning Bush" created in 1976 by the Aschaffenburg artists Helmut Albert and Willibald Blum in the Schurk glazier.
Individual evidence
- ^ The deed of donation dated May 5, 1620 is in the archive of the Capuchin Monastery of St. Joseph, Munich
- ^ Felix Mader The Art Monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria Lower Franconia XIX City of Aschaffenburg , Munich 1918
- ↑ Correspondence in the monastery archive
- ↑ Alois Grimm: Aschaffenburg house book . Volume V: … Treibgasse and Agathaplatz,… edited by Monika Ebert and Ernst Holleber. History and Art Association V., Aschaffenburg 2001, ISBN 3-87965-084-5 .
- ↑ monastery archive
- ↑ Alois Stadtmüller - Aschaffenburg in World War II - bombing raids, siege, handover of publications by the History and Art Association Aschaffenburg iK Paul Pattloch Verlag Aschaffenburg 1970
- ↑ Main-Echo No. 30 of February 6, 1976
- ↑ Main-Echo of December 21, 1957
- ↑ Main-Echo No. 226 of October 1, 1983
- ^ Burkard Vogt: Blessing of the Aschaffenburg Monastery , accessed on August 31, 2015.
- ^ Hermann Fischer: Organs of the Bavarian Lower Main region. History and Art Association V., Aschaffenburg 2004, ISBN 3-87965-099-3 .
- ↑ Maria Lapinski - Church and monastery of the Capuchins in Aschaffenburg see literature
literature
- Maria Lapinski - Church and Monastery of the Capuchins in Aschaffenburg Diocesan of Würzburg - History sheets 61st volume, Diocese of Würzburg 1999 ISSN 0342-3093
Web links
- After 400 years - Capuchins leave Aschaffenburg FAZ January 10, 2010
- Fraternità Francescana di Betania (Italian)
- Franciscan Community of Bethanien Würzburg / Aschaffenburg
- Refurbishment and modernization by 2014
Coordinates: 49 ° 58 ′ 40.1 ″ N , 9 ° 8 ′ 24.4 ″ E