Monastery Church (Cottbus)
The monastery church of the former Franciscan monastery in Cottbus , later called "Wendish Church", is the oldest preserved sacred building in the city. It was built in its current form in the 15th century in the Gothic style . The church is located in the northwest of the old town between Klosterstrasse and Münzstrasse in the Wendish quarter.
History of the monastery and church
Building history
The monastery church of the Franciscan monastery, founded around 1300, is located between Klosterstrasse and Münzstrasse in the north-west of the old town. The south side with the main entrances and tower faces the city, while north to the city wall was the former convent building with enclosure , which comprised an east and a west wing, connected by a cloister ; the east wing connected to the choir of the church. However, the last authentic traces have disappeared through plastering or new veneering. The last remnant of the east wing is the sacristy in the far east on the north side of the church. It originally protruded a little over the east wall and was only shortened in 1832. In 1443 the bathing rooms of the monastery and in 1577 the rented cloister vault are mentioned. In the church there were also altars from Cottbus trades; an altar of the brewers is mentioned in 1526, which indicates that memorial foundations of the guilds also existed at the Cottbus monastery .
The niche in its current form from 1936 is located in the middle of the north wall and marks the earlier transition from the church to the cloister. The last remainder of the monastery buildings is said to have been removed only in 1852. Parts of the cemetery wall existed in the area of the current monastery square until 1729.
Use since the Reformation
When the Franciscans had to leave their monastery as a result of the Reformation, the right of patronage over the church remained with the sovereign. The monastery church, called "Wendish Church", became the parish church for the Wendish (Sorbian) population, in whose language the service was held. The parish district included the villages of Sandow , Brunschwig , Ostrow , Schmellwitz and Döbbrick (half), and from the beginning of the 17th century also Branitz , Dissenchen, Merzdorf, Lakoma, Willmersdorf, all of Döbbrick, Maiberg , Skadow, Saspow, Zahsow and Stöbitz. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Wendish preaching and singing were used here.
Today the former monastery church is the parish church of the Evangelical monastery parish in the Cottbus parish of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia . It includes the villages of Schmellwitz, Willmersdorf, Saspow, Skadow, Döbbrick, Maiberg, Ströbitz and Zahsow.
Church building
The church is a 55.22 meter long rectangular brick building. The exterior of the church is kept simple as a mendicant order church and consists of an elongated and vaulted main nave with a continuous gable roof and a narrow asymmetrical aisle with a parallel gable roof attached in the middle of the south side. In the southeast corner there is a slender tower on a square substructure and the sacristy in the eastern north side.
The external appearance of the church is the result of multiple expansions up to the end of the Middle Ages, after which changes were made, especially inside. The clarification of the building history is made more difficult by overmolding and sources that are not very informative. The oldest part of the church is the east part of the main nave (probably at the beginning of the 14th century). The main nave was extended in the 14th century, but there are hardly any differences to the eastern part. The construction of the tower may also belong to this phase because, like the central and western parts of the main nave, lawn iron stone was used in the runner-runner-truss association .
The aisle was then added during the 15th century. The walls of the extension are made of bricks in a runner-truss-runner-truss bond . The roof structures of the church, which have been preserved to this day, were built in the course of restoration after the town fire in 1671. In 1804 the church was whitewashed; At the latest by that time, the north side of the tower substructure was also removed in order to improve the light guidance for the south east window. The sacristy was shortened by a yoke in 1832 and no longer protrudes beyond the east wall of the main nave. In 1835 the old south portal was walled up and a new entrance was created in the westernmost yoke.
In the years 1907/08 the first comprehensive, uniform, principles following church renewal for centuries took place. The construction program included the installation of new galleries and chairs, steam heating and electrical lighting. In the course of these measures, the galleries in the west and in the aisle, the organ, stalls, doors, vestibules and flooring were newly created . The color of the altar and the pulpit were adapted to the renovated room, and the pulpit was also moved to the north side of the main nave. Finally, the exterior masonry was repaired: new grouting, replacement of weathered stones, additions to the architectural decoration. The renovation of the north side took place in 1936/37, when the masonry was faced again.
The church survived the Second World War without major damage. In the 1950s, parts of the roofs were re-covered and air heating was installed.
The last restoration of the exterior took place in 1991/92. The spire, the parapet, the window frames and panels were plastered white.
Furnishing
altar
The altar came to the monastery church in 1750. It is made entirely of wood. A new version of the altar is from 1908. In 1960 a complete cleaning was carried out. The altar is a high wooden aedicule structure with a Corinthian column position . The entire east wall of the church is filled with arched passages. On pillars and free columns with pieces of entablature are angel figures with a cross and a chalice. The paintings from 1908 of the Last Supper in the predella , the crucifixion in the main field and the Ascension of Christ in the excerpt are framed by volutes .
crucifix
The impressive modesty of the wooden crucifix from 1320 is a work of art from the late Gothic period. This larger-than-life carving, around 2.5 meters high, is one of the highest quality of its kind in the state of Brandenburg. Despite the depiction of the suffering (vivid drops of blood worked out), the expression of the crucifix is restrained. There is a small gold reliquary cross on the chest. As early as the 19th century, the branch-shaped, curved cross was attached to the vertical beam on the north side (perhaps to be inserted into the floor beam as a triumphal cross).
Baptismal font
The baptismal font was formed around 1500 from a late Gothic stone canopy and column stump. A sinuous column serves as the foot, and an inverted, offset, square canopy with rich tracery decoration (finials and corner pinnacles removed) as the basin. Around 1908 the coats of arms, which can be seen on two sides, and the cell vaulting inside the baptismal bowl were also created.
pulpit
The pulpit was probably not built until 1617 after the town fire. At the suggestion of the provincial curator and church architect Büttner, the pulpit stairs could also be used unchanged by using a wall niche. The wood was painted in color and richly decorated in the late Renaissance form. The pulpit consists of an octagonal (octagonal) basket on a square foot, a parapet with fittings and small pillars in front of the corners, above are angel heads in the entablature area and oil paintings from the 19th century (Christ, the four evangelists and Paul) in the parapet fields; There are damaged hanging cartridges at the bottom. The sound cover with attachment has the shape of a volute crown.
organ
The organ from 1908 was built as Opus 1019 by Wilhelm Sauer from Frankfurt (Oder). It is the only surviving Sauer organ in Cottbus. In 1922, the prospect pipes that were handed in in 1917 were renewed and a sill was installed, followed by restoration in 2000. The previous instrument came from Schröther from Sonnewalde (1848). The purely pneumatic cone chest instrument has 24 registers , divided into two manuals and a pedal . The disposition is as follows:
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
- Playing aids : piano, mezzoforte, forte, tutti, crescendo roller
Further equipment
The bronze bell from 1927 comes from the Schilling Apolda foundry, two more bells were handed in during the Second World War.
On the parapet of the west gallery, numerous paintings with floral decorations, beatitudes and Bible verses in Sorbian can be seen. These are the oldest Sorbian biblical quotations in a Lower Lusatian church.
The south pore was rebuilt in 1908 in place of an older gallery that receded behind the pillars; instead, the north gallery obstructing the main nave was removed. The painting of the parapet with Beatitudes, floral decorations and Bible verses in German is evidence of the implementation of bilingualism in the Wendish church.
Half of the box stalls were made in 1908 by the Cottbus company Otto Rost and the master carpenter Richard Mittag from Spremberg. The doors and vestibule are decorated with rich fittings in baroque shapes, as are the wall cupboard and door of the sacristy.
Funerary monuments
In and on the monastery church there are several grave monuments:
- Grave monument for Fredehelm von Cottbus († 1307) and his wife Adelheid von Colditz († 1319); 2.22 m high, 1.05 m wide sandstone slab with high relief with a framing inscription. You can see pillows under the heads of both figures and lions under their feet. Fredehelm in knightly outfit with sword and shield. The family's crab coat of arms, which later became the city's coat of arms, can be seen on the chest and shield. The marital bond is expressed by putting his right arm around Adelheid's shoulders. Adelheid is depicted in a pleated coat with hands raised in prayer, the crab coat of arms on the right shoulder, the family coat of arms on the left shoulder. The plate probably belonged to a free-standing donor's grave and was later set into the ground in the central part of the church; underneath was a grave vault. The grave was opened in 1753 and built over with stalls, the slab was moved to the outer wall. In 1908 the tombstone was placed inside in a niche on the north wall.
- Grave monument for Berthold von Madelsloh († 1580); damaged, sandstone bas-relief. The deceased is shown standing in profile. Coats of arms are depicted on the four corners of the relief. It is located on the walled up former main portal on the south side of the church.
- Grave monument for Christian Gadegast (1592–1664); Deacon of the upper church. The sandstone slab was set by his widow in 1665. The plate was originally housed in the upper church, later outside. It was found again in 1906 in a garden by the city wall and moved outside to the north side of the sacristy of the monastery church.
- Funerary monument on the north side of the church; Sandstone from the second half of the 18th century. It is a piece of column on a plinth with an imitation of rock, on the cornice at the top there is an urn with cloth, and on the shaft there is an inscription that is no longer legible.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . Founded by the Day for Monument Preservation 1900, continued by Ernst Gall , revised by the Dehio Association and the Association of State Monument Preservationists in the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by: Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum. Brandenburg: edited by Gerhard Vinken and others, 2000, Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, ISBN 3-422-03054-9 .
- Irmgard Ackermann, Marcus Cante, Antje Mues and others: Monuments in Brandenburg, City of Cottbus, Part 1. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms am Rhein, 2001, ISBN 3-88462-176-9
Web links
- Entry in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg
- Website of the monastery parish
- The Lords of Cottbus and their Lausitzer Rundschau monastery on December 28, 2007, on the history of the monastery
Individual evidence
- ↑ [Information about the organ]
- ↑ Katja Atanasov, Alfred Roggan, Simon Alfred Roggan: Lower Sorbian / Wendish lettering in Lower Lusatia. In: Lětopis 58 (2011) 2, pp. 3–35, Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina, Budyšin 2011
Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 41.8 " N , 14 ° 20 ′ 0.4" E