Small golden hall
The Small Golden Hall is a late baroque ballroom of the former Augsburg Jesuit College St. Salvator , which is located at Jesuitengasse 12 north of the cathedral . The Small Golden Hall should not be confused with the Golden Hall in the town hall of Fuggerstadt.
architecture
In 1582 the Jesuits built the St. Salvator College in Augsburg, a building complex that was expanded in 1763 by purchasing the residential building adjacent to the Lyceum . It was only through the connection of the upper floors of these two buildings, which - following a slight bend in Jesuitengasse - had different ridge lines, that the architectural basis for the large congregation hall emerged, with the plastering of which Johann Michael Feuchtmayer was commissioned.
Ceiling fresco
Even more remarkable is the large ceiling fresco created by Matthäus Günther in 1765 . At its center is the symbolic proclamation of the birth of Jesus by the Virgin Mary according to Isaiah ( Isa 7,14 EU ).
In the upper third of the picture, the Holy Trinity appears enveloped in heavenly sounds. Gabriel kneels at the father's feet . He refers to Mary in a wreath of rays ( Rev 12,1 EU ), who outshines the center of the fresco. A bright beam of light emanates from it, which is directed by an angel with a mirror in such a way that it hits Ahaz , king of Jerusalem, in the back in the lower third of the picture. (Above right in the adjacent image section, the light beam can be clearly seen and then followed up.) Here on earth, Isaiah as God's mouthpiece confronts Ahaz at the end of the water pipe of the upper pond ( Isa 7,3 EU ) with the message: Ahaz should not fear the two fires Rezin and Pekach , who are still smoking , whose armies approaching Jerusalem can already be seen on the side of the picture. Ahaz may demand a sign of his choice from God for this - which Ahaz refuses. Thereupon God gives a sign of his own accord : the sign of the virgin conception of Immanuel - represented in the very beam of light that hits Ahaz in the back, together with the inscription ECCE VIRGO CONCIPIET - Isaias C. VII . But Ahaz still does not believe God and, for fear of those fire logs, goes into the hands of the Assyrians and thus comes from bad to worse. If you do not believe, then you do not remain is the overarching message in Isa 7,9 EU .
Four corner frescoes
At the transitions between the ceiling and the four corners of the room, separate frescoes with short Latin inscriptions (invocations from the Lauretan litany) are positioned. Here, too, the focus is on the Mother of God, which is probably due to the fact that St. Salvator has been affiliated with the Marian Congregation since 1589 .
- In the north-east (that is the front left corner of the room), the then Augsburg Prince-Bishop Joseph Ignaz Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt pays Maria as the virgo prudentissima , i.e. the so prudent virgin.
- In the south-east (i.e. front right), the City Council venerates Maria as speculum iustitiae (mirror of justice). This corner cartouche can still be seen on the lower edge of the ceiling fresco.
- In the south-west, students of the liberal arts turn to Maria as initium sapientiae , the starting point for all wisdom.
- Finally, in the north-west (see figure above), a dying person turns to the mediator of salvation for the weak ( salus infirmorum ) for help .
use
The Small Golden Hall originally served as the auditorium for the St. Salvator Jesuit College, the Catholic counterpart to the traditional Protestant grammar school near St. Anna . After Augsburg lost its imperial freedom on St. Stephen's Day in 1805, the St. Salvator grammar school was closed in July 1807. (The congregation had already been dissolved in the course of the Jesuit ban in 1776. ) The buildings were requisitioned by the Bavarian troops and the Small Golden Hall served as the crew quarters. The resulting damage and other traces of time were removed in a total of three restorations - 1832, 1949 and 2004, as evidenced by the inscription shown in the front right hall. Since reopening at the end of 2004, the hall has been used for events such as the Mozart Festival.
The gap in the Augsburg school landscape created by the closure of the Jesuit college in 1807 was closed by King Ludwig I in 1828 by founding the grammar school near St. Stephan - the school still has the right to use the hall as an auditorium free of charge.
sightseeing
The Small Golden Hall can be visited individually or with a combined ticket in combination with the Mozart House (as of April 2014) . The domiciliary rights are in the hands of the city as the representative of the Catholic Study Fund Augsburg.
swell
- Theodor Rolle: Striving for Holiness and Apostolate. History of the Marian Congregation at the Jesuit College St. Salvator and the Benedictine Gymnasium near St. Stephan in Augsburg 1589–1989 . Publishing house of St. Stephan Abbey, Augsburg, 1989.
- High school near St. Stephan: Festschrift 1828–2003 . Augsburg, 2003.
Web links
- Lecture by Prof. Weißhaar on the Small Golden Hall
- Small Golden Hall on the website of the city of Augsburg
- Small Golden Hall in the Augsburg City Lexicon
- Small Golden Hall on the website Mozartstadt.de of the cultural office of the city of Augsburg
- History of St. Stephan on the website of the high school near St. Stephan
Coordinates: 48 ° 22 '25.3 " N , 10 ° 53' 40.4" E