Church of St. John of Kronstadt in Hamburg
The Church of St. John of Kronstadt in Hamburg , the former Evangelical Lutheran Church of Grace in Hamburg, is a sacred building belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church in the St. Pauli district . It was consecrated on May 30, 2007 according to the Orthodox tradition .
history
Build as a church of grace
With the strong growth of their community in the area of the Karolinenviertel at the end of the 19th century, the possibilities of the St. Pauli Church could soon no longer keep up. In 1904, planning began for a branch church in the immediate vicinity of residential areas and important industrial areas such as the slaughterhouse .
Construction began on July 8, 1906 with the laying of the foundation stone and was under the direction of the architect Fernando Lorenzen . He created a central building based on the principles of the Wiesbaden program , which he designed in a neo-Romanesque style based on Rhenish-Staufer forms. As a result, the church - according to contemporary criticism - already appeared “not only outdated at the time of construction [...], but also completely atypical for Hamburg”. The exterior view is dominated by a massive octagonal tower - an octagon - around which several chapel-like additions and transepts are formed. The interior is also divided into an octagon and is elliptical with the main axis in north-south direction. Lorenzen resumed the tradition of the baroque church interior focused on the pulpit altar . He positioned the organ built by Paul Rother directly above the pulpit and altar, which meant that word and music should also be architecturally connected as focal points of the liturgy . For the lateral apses on the gallery, Carl Otto Czeschka created two triptychs "The Creation" and "The Birth of Christ" (1911–1919). At that time Werner von Melle was chairman of the church council.
On December 1, 1907, the church was consecrated and dedicated to the grace of God, a deliberate reference to its location between the courts and Holstenglacis prison . The first pastors of the Gnadenkirche were Johannes Walter Kärner, Dr. Hermann Theodor Strasosky, Franz Eduard Alexander Tügel and Gustav Max Kunze. The Gnadenkirche was later shaped by the pastors Hartmut Winde and Dirk Römmer. The building was so badly damaged during the bombing raids on Hamburg in World War II that it could not be used again until 1947. The windows and a large part of the nave were destroyed. In 1957 the organ was restored by the Walcker company . In the following years, changes in the population in the catchment area apparently led to a decrease in visitor numbers, and the rather isolated location on a traffic island probably also meant that the church lost its identification with the neighboring residential areas. The building was increasingly used for non-sacred purposes and is known in Hamburg as the “art church”. Nevertheless, the parish could no longer exist independently and merged in 2002 with the parish of the St. Pauli Church . In order to keep the building as a place of worship, it was handed over to a Hamburg parish of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2004 . Since then it has been named after Saint John of Kronstadt , an archpriest, preacher and spiritual writer.
Conversion to the Church of St. John of Kronstadt
The Russian Orthodox Congregation of St. John of Kronstadt in Hamburg was founded in January 2001. In 2010 it had around 2000 members.
The interior was extensively rebuilt after the acquisition, as the new liturgy had completely different requirements. The benches were moved from the middle to the walls of the nave, the pulpit was placed on the left side of the iconostasis . The old sandstone altar of the evangelical predecessor parish is now in the St. Pauli Church, the organ was removed. The existing partition between the sacristy and the main room became the basis of the iconostasis. Except for the use of orthodox crosses on the towers, little changed in terms of appearance .
A building from 1881 in the immediate vicinity was originally intended as a parish hall, but so badly infested with pests that it had to be demolished in 2012. A new building designed by the Berlin architect Jörg Springer was built in its place.
architecture
A Greek cross forms the floor plan of the church . Executed in the style of historicism , the central building is inspired by sacred buildings from the Eastern Church, especially the Georgian churches. The architecture, which is unusual for Central European architecture, with its round shape and certain elements from the Romanesque and Gothic, is reminiscent of the architectural style of the Byzantine churches . In its current appearance with five onion-roof turrets and Orthodox crosses, the church building takes up the classic construction of Eastern European Orthodox churches.
Furnishing
The icons are executed in a technique of painting on stone, which is rarely used today , which makes this project unique in Europe today.
The iconostasis contains u. a. Works related to the German cultural area, including three representatives who were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Prokop von Ustjug , St. Elisabeth and St. Ansgar , who was found in the Eastern Church as well as in Central and Eastern Europe Northern Europe is particularly revered.
Church cemetery and subsidiary church of the Holy Myron Bearers
Since 2014 there has been a burial place for the main Russian Orthodox community in the Hamburg district of Bahrenfeld in the Altona district ; a branch church was built for this purpose, which, in addition to its function as a burial chapel, is also used for prayer and music events.
Photographs and map
Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 27 " N , 9 ° 58 ′ 34" E
As in 2007, to the right of the church still with an old parish hall
Aerial view of the church (right behind the higher regional court)
Tower Cross 2013
Southwest tower as an example of the neo-Romanesque architectural style
literature
- Ralf Lange : Architecture in Hamburg . Junius Verlag , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88506-586-9 , p. 76 f .
- Matthias Gretzschel : Hamburg's churches: history, architecture, offers . Axel Springer Verlag , Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86370-116-1 , p. 220-225 .
- Friedhelm Grundmann, Thomas Helms: When stones preach . Medien Verlag Schubert, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-929229-14-5 , p. 106-108 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Ralf Lange : Architecture in Hamburg . Junius Verlag , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88506-586-9 , p. 77 .
- ↑ a b Historical disposition of the organ in the organ database orgbasse.nl . Retrieved July 3, 2014.
- ↑ Gnadenkirche Hamburg 1907–1987. Festschrift for the 80th anniversary
- ↑ Description of the changes in usage on www.hamburg.de . Retrieved July 3, 2014.
- ↑ a b Parish of St. John of Kronstadt
- ↑ https://www.hamburg-hram.de/prihod
- ^ Carsten Vitt: demolition in February . In: Elbe-Wochenblatt Eimsbüttel . January 10, 2012 ( online [accessed July 3, 2014]). online ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Homepage of the community
- Description on www.hamburg.de .