Carmelite Monastery Church of the Annunciation (Hirschhorn)

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Monastery church in Hirschhorn
The monastery church is located directly below the castle, to the right of the church is the monastery building
Interior view of the monastery church

The Carmelite monastery church of the Annunciation in Hirschhorn am Neckar in the Bergstrasse district in Hesse is a late Gothic former monastery church below Hirschhorn Castle . The monastery and the church were donated by the Lords of Hirschhorn in 1406 and have had an eventful history since then.

history

The church and the neighboring monastery were donated in 1406 by Hans V. von Hirschhorn with his second wife Iland von Dhaun and his brothers Conrad and Eberhard. Conrad von Hirschhorn was canon in Mainz or Speyer and probably the driving force behind the founding of the monastery, which had already been approved by Pope Innocent VII in 1405 . The facility, which is located directly below Hirschhorn Castle , was built around 1400, presumably by the Wimpfen master builder Heinrich Isenmenger , and handed over to the Carmelites . The convent and church were expanded in the following years by further Hirschhorn foundations. The transfer of the parishes in Eppingen and Hessloch contributed to the financial security of the monastery . In 1511 an annex was added to the south side of the nave of the church, which was converted into the St. Anne's Chapel in 1515.

Between 1522 and 1529 the men appealed Hirschhorn a Protestant pastor at the church and demanded that the Carmelites, her religious habit store. The Carmelites were under the protection of Emperor Charles V from 1530 and were initially tolerated by the local rulers until Hans IX. von Hirschhorn dissolved the monastery after 1543, which after 1569 became the widow's seat of his widow Anna née. Göler von Ravensburg became. The order meanwhile sued the emperor and the Reich Chamber of Commerce for ownership of the monastery, and was awarded it in 1571 and 1596, but the building remained in the possession of the Hirschhorn family. In the church, too, they demonstrated their claim to power by removing the Anne Altar and having a family tomb built in its place around 1590.

In the Thirty Years War Friedrich III. von Hirschhorn built a new Protestant church, today's Marktkirche, from 1628, as he foresaw a gain for the Catholic powers, which then also happened with the appointment of the Catholic governor Heinrich von Metternich in the Palatinate. In 1629 Friedrich III. Finally return the monastery and the monastery church to the Carmelite Order. After his death in 1632, Hirschhorn reverted to Kurmainz , whereupon the Bishop of Mainz promoted the restitution of the monastery, from which the re-Catholicization of the surrounding communities and incorporated parishes began. From 1636 to 1732 the monastery church served as the city's Catholic parish church . In 1689 a new high altar was built. As early as 1761–1765, this was replaced by a baroque high altar created by the Heidelberg sculptor Johann Michael Düchert. After a shooting in 1799, some pipes of the organ were damaged and had to be repaired.

In 1803 the Carmelite monastery was dissolved and the church closed. The furniture was sold to the highest bidder. In 1810 the administration in Darmstadt even considered demolishing the monastery church, as the building was expensive to maintain. On March 17, 1812, Grand Duke Ludwig I gave the church to the town of Hirschhorn, which in turn was considering demolishing it. In 1840 another auction of inventory and components of the church took place, so that only the outer walls were preserved. In 1859 the community decided to preserve and renovate the church, after which it was temporarily roofed over again around 1860. In 1886 the town donated the church to the Catholic parish, which finally carried out extensive renovations by 1910. After the renovation, the church was re-consecrated as a parish church on August 8, 1910. In 1912 the historical wall paintings were refreshed a little. In 1969/70 parts of the ceiling were renovated and adapted more to the original state of construction. From 1998 onwards, another renovation took place.

description

The high altar
ornate window
Rood screen

The monastery church is a single-nave hall church with a small turret in the middle. The choir faces east. The keystone of the choir vault shows the coat of arms of the monastery donors, the Lords of Hirschhorn . On the west wall of the monastery church is a Gothic rood screen made of sandstone , which was originally located in front of the choir, but was moved to its current location in 1618 at the latest. The high altar is neo-Gothic. From the baroque high altar, created by Johann Michael Düchert in 1761–1765, some sculptures have been preserved, which are now placed individually in the church. On the south side of the church is the St. Anna chapel with a separate gable, which has two tracery windows to the south. The vaulted ceiling of the chapel shows the coats of arms of those of Hirschhorn and Handschuhsheim as well as, among other things, a portrait of Eucharius von Hirschhorn.

Some tombs and epitaphs of the Lords of Hirschhorn have been preserved in the monastery church. The historically most significant epitaph is that for the co-founder of the monastery, Hans V. von Hirschhorn († November 18, 1426) and his son Philipp I von Hirschhorn († August 16, 1436) on the south wall of the antechamber. The double graves for Melchior von Hirschhorn († 1476) and Kunigunde von Oberstein († 1457) as well as for Hans VIII. Von Hirschhorn († 1513) and Irmgard von Handschuhsheim († 1496), which each show the deceased as life-size plastic figures, are artistically significant . Under the rood screen three tombs of the sons of Hans VIII are set up: Philip II († 1522), Engelhard III. († 1529) and Georg († 1543). Another tomb with a fully plastic knight figure shows Hans IX. († 1569), a son of Engelhard III. Once there should have been significantly more epitaphs in the church.

  • Choir with altar

  • Virgin Mary statue by Johann Michael Düchert, fragment of the former high altar

  • Epitaph Melchior von Hirschhorn and Kunigunde von Oberstein

  • Epitaph Hans V and Philipp I von Hirschhorn

  • Vaulted ceiling of the St. Anna Chapel

literature

  • Carl JH Villinger: Hirschhorn and its churches . 2nd edition, Schnell & Steiner, Munich 1982.
  • Robert Irschlinger: On the history of the gentlemen von Hirschhorn , 1969
  • Ulrich Spiegelberg : Hirschhorn and its churches . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-422-02036-8 , pp. 29–56.

Web links

Commons : Klosterkirche Hirschhorn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 26 ′ 57.3 "  N , 8 ° 53 ′ 58.5"  E