Katharinenkirche (Zwickau)

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Katharinenkirche Zwickau
South aisle from the southeast

The Katharinenkirche in Zwickau is a late Gothic hall church in the northeast of the Zwickau old town. It belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Nicolai Parish of Zwickau in the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Saxony . Thomas Müntzer worked as a Protestant preacher at this church in 1520/21.

Building history

The existing late Gothic church building had a previous building from the 12th century, which has only been preserved in the form of sparse remains in the existing building. Parts of the western building of this church were preserved until the 19th century; they were removed during a purifying restoration from 1852 to 1856. The first Gothic change to this church building was the erection of the west tower that still exists today. The octagonal sacristy, which still exists today, was added to the choir of the first church around 1300 , and the interior has been preserved in almost its original form. Before the middle of the 14th century, the choir was built with a straight east end. After the town fire of 1403, the nave of that time was replaced by today's late Gothic hall church, which was completed by around 1480. It was richly furnished in the 16th and 17th centuries and received wooden galleries in the 18th century, which, however, together with most of the baroque furnishings, were removed again in 1834/35. A major restoration of the Katharinenkirche took place from 1885 to 1891 by Oskar Mothes . During a restoration after the Second World War until 1967, most of the fixtures and fittings from the 19th century were removed. The most recent restoration took place in 1989, in the course of which late Gothic frescoes were uncovered in the western part of the south aisle.

architecture

Katharinenkirche from the southwest

The three-bay, rectangular, single-nave choir is connected to the north with the octagonal sacristy building, which was fully integrated into the late Gothic new building of the three-bay, three-aisled nave. The small Einstützenraum which is closed with a dense mesh screen vaulted over a central pillar, is an independent High Gothic space creation, located on polygonal chapter houses reminiscent of English Gothic. A polygonally closing fourth yoke is attached to the south aisle, which connects to the older choir to the south. All that remains of the older west building is the roughly square tower, which stands asymmetrically in front of the hall. A vestibule to the north and south adjoin the nave. The hall construction is completed by a large gable roof, hipped to the east, to which the smaller choir roof connects to the east. The west tower has a pointed helmet; A high ridge turret rises from the gable roof . The exterior of the choir looks simple, while the nave has rich late Gothic tracery windows. A turret with a pointed helmet is attached to the north-west corner of the nave.

While the choir is still closed with simple ribbed vaults, the interior of the nave shows numerous, sometimes virtuoso, vault shapes above slender octagonal pillars with wide separating arches. The central nave was closed with a parallel rib vault; the north aisle shows rich star vaults , while in the south aisle a particularly elaborate vault shape was chosen, which forms a tracery-decorated cross made of curved ribs in a central diamond of each yoke. This vault shape is related to the tracery vaults of the Altenburg Castle Church (after 1444) and the burial chapel in front of the west portal of the Meissen Cathedral (1443–46).

Furnishing

Look into the choir

The winged altar in the choir comes from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and was given away in 1518 by Elector Friedrich the Wise and his brother Duke Johann to the Calendar Brotherhood of St. Mary's Church in Zwickau . It is unusual for the main image to be the washing of the feet of the disciples by Jesus. The donors with their patron saints are depicted on the wings. The closed altar shows two Passion paintings in the center; Saint Kunigunde with her husband Emperor Heinrich II is depicted on the inactive wings . In the predella the adoration of the Magi is depicted.

A figure of the risen Christ with the victory flag from 1497/98 is the work of the late Gothic carver Peter Breuer from Zwickau . A leather antependium from 1661 with rich ornamentation depicts the Lord's Supper in both forms . A baroque panel with the Transfiguration of Christ from 1660 was created for an epitaph of the mayor Johann Gebhard († 1663).

The pulpit is a work by Paul Speck from 1538. It shows plant reliefs in the fields of the parapet of the basket separated by balusters . The sounding board is an addition from 1894, only the crowning figure of Christ is of 1663. The massive octagonal baptismal font of porphyry in cup form is on the cuppa with tracery decorated and lily sprouts. The organ in a historicizing prospectus is a work by Jehmlich Orgelbau from 1967 and has 19 stops on two manuals and a pedal.

Peal

The bell consists of four bronze bells, the bell cage is made of oak and was renewed in 2012, as were the yokes. The following is a data overview of the bell:

No. Casting date Caster diameter Dimensions Chime
1 1482 Bell foundry O. Hilliger 1693 mm 2810 kg h °
2 2012 A. Bachert bell foundry 1329 mm 1351 kg dis ′
3 2012 A. Bachert bell foundry 1191 mm 1218 kg f sharp ′
4th 1951 Bell foundry S. Schilling 1020 mm 750 kg g sharp ′

literature

Web links

Commons : Katharinenkirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information about the organ on orgbase.nl. Retrieved July 11, 2019 .
  2. ^ Rainer Thümmel: Bells in Saxony . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig: ISBN 978-3-374-02871-9 : p. 374

Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 12.3 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 57.4"  E