Katharinenkirche (Fritzlar)
The Katharinenkirche is a former monastery church built around 1300 in the northern Hessian town of Fritzlar in the Schwalm-Eder district .
prehistory
The Augustinian convent Fritzlar , which was built in 1254 at the latest on the basis of a hospital for the poor that was founded in 1145, initially had a chapel , which existed before the hospital was founded and was consecrated to St. Boniface , as a place of worship. The Fritzlarer Neustadt, which was legally independent until 1464, was built around the monastery and the Marienhospital that it operated, on the southern slope below the cathedral and outside the city walls at that time . Archbishop Siegfried III. von Mainz confirmed in 1239 the transfer of the Bonifatius Chapel with its goods by the Fritzlarer Stiftskapitel to the hospital, and in 1247 the chapel received parish rights as “parochia s. Bonifacii ". In 1297, the parish boundaries of the "Neustädter Spitalspfarrei" were redefined; they now encompassed Fritzlar Neustadt and the village of Holzheim in the Ederau and reached as far as the Büraberg .
Monastery church of the Augustinian and Neustadt parish church
Towards the end of the 13th century, the monastery was so well off financially that it was able to build a new monastery church dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria . Outwardly it was a simple Gothic structure consisting of only one nave , with four bays and a choir apse . The church served the monastery and hospital as well as the parish of Fritzlarer Neustadt. When the city of Fritzlar founded the new municipal "Hospital of the Holy Spirit" on the other side of the Mühlengraben in 1308, the provost , prioress and convent of the monastery, after initial resistance, gave their consent to the autonomy of the new hospital chapel from the church and convent of Neustadt.
The general decline of the monastery and the effects of the Reformation led to the dissolution of the monastery in 1538 and the sale of its property. The monastery buildings slowly fell into disrepair, and the Katharinenkirche, although still used as a place of worship, was neglected.
Convent church of the Ursulines
In 1711 the first Ursulines came to Fritzlar. They bought the former monastery complex and began to renovate it in 1713. In the years 1713 to 1719 a new convent building was erected, which was partly attached to the west and slightly tilted to the Katharinenkirche. The church received its current roof turret in 1717 . A small sacristy with a cross vault was added to the south wall . In 1726 the renovation of the church had progressed so far that it was consecrated again as a monastery church on September 15 by the Erfurt auxiliary bishop Christoph Ignatius Gudenus . It served the Ursuline convent Fritzlar and the school run by the sisters until the monastery was dissolved in 2003.
The church has been refurbished and renovated several times over the years, such as 1858/59 (renovation and rededication), 1935 (renovation to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the order), 1960 (renovation), and 1963 (renovation).
The organ , built by the organ builder Adam Joseph Oestreich from Oberbimbach near Fulda in 1832–1834 , was sold to Großenenglis after the monastery was closed due to the Kulturkampf in 1877 , where it remained until 1973, and then spent 22 years in storage with the organ builder Bruno Döring in Neukirchen (Knüll) ; it has been in Kleinenglis since 1995. After the nuns returned in 1890, a new organ was installed by the Würzburg organ builder Balthasar Schlimbach , with a mechanical cone shutter system , two manuals and 11 stops ; it was renovated in 2002.
The nave with its stepped buttresses has three bays and is closed in the east by the octagon-shaped choir . Only the large, two-part east window in the choir has tracery , the other windows in the choir and on the north side are tall, narrow pointed arch windows . The small sacristy on the south side is covered with a simple cross vault .
Inside the church there are three notable stone sculptures . Those of the Apostle Peter and those of the Mother of God with Child date from around 1500, those of St. Catherine from the first half of the 18th century. The last of the three bells in the roof turret were cast and hung in 1725.
In the small churchyard to the east and south of the church there are a number of graves of former nuns of the Ursuline monastery, and memorial plaques with the names of other nuns are attached to the outer wall of the choir apse.
The former Ursuline monastery: on the left the original school building, in the middle the Katharinenkirche, on the right the monastery building
View from the southeast
Graves of former nuns at the Katharinenkirche
Branch church of the Fritzlar Cathedral
On August 1, 1989, the diocese of Fulda took over the entire property of the monastery, which was threatened by obsolescence and extinction, including the monastery church and school administration. The small church became a branch of Fritzlar Cathedral, and the Premonstratensians , who were called to the city in the same year, took over the church and the associated responsibility for worship and pastoral care. The Ursuline monastery, in which only four sisters lived, was closed in December 2003.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The young priest Johann Hefentreger , who was appointed pastor and confessor in the monastery in 1521 , became an advocate of the Lutheran Reformation very early on , gave Protestant sermons and in 1524 married the former nun Elisabeth Sperbelitz from the Katharinenkloster. He was expelled from Fritzlar with his wife and child in August 1525, was given the post of pastor in the city of Waldeck in 1526 and became a reformer of the county of Waldeck .
- ↑ Gottfried Rehm : The organ builder family Oestreich . In: Restoration documentation: The Johann-Markus-Oestreich-Organ (I / 10, 1799) in the Evangelical Church of Fraurombach . January 6, 2014, p. 4–10 ( online at orgelbau-schmidt.de as a PDF file; 386 kB).
- ^ The organ portrait (52): The Oestreich organ in the Ev. Parish church, Kleinenglis
literature
- Andrea Froneck-Kramer: Animus; the spirit, the mind, the courage, the heart. History of the Fritzlar Ursuline Monastery from 1711–2006 . Euregioverlag, Kassel 2007, ISBN 978-3-933617-28-6 .
- Clemens Lohmann: Cathedral and imperial city Fritzlar: Guide through history and architecture . 2nd Edition. Magistrat der Stadt Fritzlar, Fritzlar 2005, ISBN 3-925665-03-X , p. 47-48 .
- C. Alhard von Drach: The architectural and art monuments in Fritzlar; Facsimile of the curiae, churches and chapels (without cathedral) . History Association Fritzlar, Fritzlar 1989, p. 37–40 (Contributions to City History, No. 6, reprint [original 1909]).
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 47.1 ″ N , 9 ° 16 ′ 24.6 ″ E