Monastery church Clus

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Clus Monastery; in front of the west wing of the convent building, behind it the tower and portal of the monastery church (around 1900)

The former monastery church Clus was built in 1127-1159 as a three-aisled basilica and is located in the Clus district of the city of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony . In 1485 the Gothic choir was built. The three wings of the former convent building form a closed square with the church.

Exterior construction

The monastery church is essentially a Romanesque basilica with a three-aisled nave , transept and Gothic 5/8 choir closure. The stone-facing exterior consists mainly of limestone , but also features sandstone elements . Remains of the Romanesque outer structure have been preserved, such as B. paired arched windows, arched friezes and half columns .
The church is flanked on the north side by the square tower with a tent roof . The asymmetrical position of the tower on the side of the entrance portal is explained by the fact that the church used to have a double tower facade. The south tower was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century.

inner space

The entrance portal leads into a barrel-vaulted hall, which is in front of the nave in the west. The upper floor contains the organ gallery.
The three-aisled nave has a flat roof. The cross arms were originally square, they were reduced in size during a restoration in 1848-52.
In the arcades between the main nave and side aisles, pillars and columns replace each other ( Rheinischer pillar change ). The columns rest on Attic bases , their capitals show two-line tongue leaf ornaments. The consoles that used to carry stucco figures are still present in the arcade cornice.
In contrast to the Romanesque nave, the raised choir is built in the Gothic style. Like the crossing , it has a groin vault and large ogival tracery windows .

Furnishing

The Gothic carved altar from 1487 shows the coronation of Mary

altar

The gothic carved altar in the choir comes from Lübeck. Under Abbot Wedego it was acquired for the monastery in 1487.
It shows the Coronation of Mary in the central shrine , surrounded by the busts of the twelve apostles . The scene is flanked by four saints: Pope Innocent I and Benedict of Nursia above and Cosmas and Damian below. Four evangelist symbols fit into the representation . Scenes from the life of Mary are depicted in the wings of the altar.

Wooden sculptures

On consoles on the choir walls are four approx. 45 cm high busts made of oak from the 15th century. They originally belonged to the predella of the altar and are probably made by the same master as the altar. It is not proven which people are represented. But the social position can be read from the clothing and the attributes .

history

Monastery church Clus (here with the accented German name Clauss) as a Merian engraving around 1654

The church was in the presence of the abbess of the June 17, 1127 pin Gandersheim I. Bertha and the Bishop of Hildesheim Berthold I consecrated. The first abbot of Clus was Heinrich, cousin of Richenza , the wife of King Lothar III. ; this initially equipped the monastery with goods in Dankelsheim and united it in 1134 with the Brunshausen monastery .

After further construction work, a second consecration took place in 1159 by Gerold , Bishop of Oldenburg . In 1430 the abbot Johannes Dederoth took over this Benedictine monastery and three years later also the Bursfelde monastery . The choir of the church was enlarged in the 15th century in the Gothic style, equipped with a carved altar and the walls painted. The Lutheran Reformation was carried out in the middle of the 16th century . However, the monastery continued to exist as a corporation and until 1810 belonged to the territory of the imperial-free Gandersheim monastery.

A copper engraving of the building in 1709 can be found in the Chronik Antiquitates Gandersheimenses by Johann Georg Leuckfeld . The books of the monastery, including a gospel book from the 10th century, had to be handed over to the Helmstedt University Library in 1624 .

In 1810 the Clus Church came into the possession of the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , and in 1955 the Regional Church of Braunschweig became the owner. The former convent buildings are privately owned.

literature

  • Hans Goetting : The founding of the Benedictine monastery Clus . In: Braunschweiger Jahrbuch , Vol. 40 (1959) pp. 17–39.
  • Hermann Herbst : The Benedictine monastery Klus near Gandersheim and the Bursfeld reform. Teubner, Leipzig & Berlin 1932, Reprint 1973 ISBN 3-8067-0147-4 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Georg Dehio : Editing Gerd Weiß: Handbook of German Art Monuments, Bremen, Lower Saxony , revision 1992, p. 366 f, ISBN 3-422-03022-0

Web links

Commons : Klosterkirche Clus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments, Bremen, Lower Saxony , p. 366 f
  2. Hans Goetting: The foundation of the Benedictine monastery Clus . In: Braunschweiger Jahrbuch , Vol. 40 (1959) pp. 17–39.

Coordinates: 51 ° 52 ′ 59.8 "  N , 10 ° 0 ′ 31.1"  E