Doberlug Monastery Church
The Doberlug Monastery Church was the sacred building of the Cistercian Abbey of the Dobrilugk Monastery . It has belonged to Doberlug Castle in Doberlug-Kirchhain in the Elbe-Elster district in the state of Brandenburg since the 17th century . Along with the Chorin monastery and the Lehnin monastery, it is considered to be one of the “most important brick buildings in the interior of northern Germany” and the “oldest preserved church of the Cistercian order in eastern Germany”. Today the church is used by the Doberlug monastery parishes in the Lower Lusatia parish of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia .
history
The exact date of construction of the church is not known. Experts believe that the monks began construction in the years after 1184 and completed it in the middle of the 13th century. Unsecured sources give the year 1228 as the date of the consecration of the church . The parish assumes that the building was completed around this time. In 1209, the wife of Conrad II , Margravine Elisabeth, was buried in the eastern part of the building . A construction seam above the ship's arcades suggests that the transept and nave were built significantly higher than the original plans. In the course of the Reformation , the convent was dissolved. The church was initially no longer used for worship and was not restored until 1602. Both the monastery and the church came into the possession of Christian I. He had the building combined with the palace to form a four-wing complex. In 1622 he broke off the two side choirs . The remains of the foundation were exposed and visible in 2015. The building was damaged in the Thirty Years' War and rebuilt as the court church of the Dukes of Saxony-Merseburg between 1673 and 1667 . In 1676 they had an additional roof turret installed on the western side of the roof. It was renewed in 1777. In the middle of the 19th century, a large part of the equipment brought in was lost in a fire. A few pieces were restored between 1852 and 1859. The last major renovation for the time being took place in the years 1905 to 1909 by the architect Carl Weber . He replaced the roof turret over the crossing with a more powerful structure. In addition, he built a vestibule on the southern arm of the cross. The biggest change, however, concerned the interior, which he had replaced with equipment from late historicism , creating a significant contrast to the otherwise rather simple buildings of the Cistercians. Between 1997 and 2011, the community renovated the facade and restored the medieval joint pattern on the apse and the west facade. The other walls were also painted red.
architecture
The building is a late Romanesque , three-aisled and cross-shaped pillar basilica . It was created from carefully layered bricks and has hardly any decorations on its facade. The usual west tower is also missing . This corresponds to the rules of the order of the Cistercians. The five-bay central nave is connected to one another from the two side aisles by massive, regular pillar arcades . This linked system creates a close spatial relationship between the ships. The fourth is eliminated, i. H. Executed in a square shape and visually separated by crossing arches and crossing piers opposite the nave, the transept arms and the choir. This has an almost square floor plan, to which a slightly indented apse adjoins to the east. The individual yokes on the nave are structured with double-stepped buttresses . In between there are two paired, Baroque enlarged, arched windows in the upper storey. This shape can also be found on the choir: The windows are, however, significantly larger and decorated with a double-stepped reveal and pilaster strips . At the transition to the roof, the builders added a cross-arched frieze to the nave and the choir . This style element can also be found on the sloping gable of the cross arm. At the southern nave still is a southern portal, with the monks who once cloistered could enter. The late Romanesque portal is three-tiered and decorated with archivolts . It was changed during the renovation between 1905 and 1909 and has since been covered by a vestibule. Furthermore, a simpler, ogival portal in the north arm of the cross was added at this time. The remains of three large portals can be seen on the west facade, which in their original state merged into a vestibule. Here, too, there is a central portal from the renovation at the beginning of the 20th century. It is made of sandstone , has the lush design language of the neo-baroque and is framed by two ornate columns. The design by Carl Weber was based on comparable portals in Braunschweig from the 17th century and was created in the Doberlug workshop of the sculptor Koppe . Above the portal, the Latin phrase Soli Deo Gloria ( honor to God alone / God alone ) is written in large, gold-colored letters. Above a cornice there are two figures and a rectangular window decorated with ornaments and a sun.
Furnishing
The original church furnishings were initially lost with the transition of the monastery to Christian I and the subsequent conversion to the palace church. With the renovation in the middle of the 19th century, craftsmen removed this equipment as well. Carl Weber, on the other hand, was guided by the formal language of the 17th century and built in an interior of late historicism . This created a remarkable contrast between the simple architecture of a Cistercian building and the colorful interior of the building. The walls are painted red and have a white network of joints. The vault caps are also painted white, from which the pear ribs and other architectural elements are set off by a red and white pattern. The side aisles can be entered from the nave via ogival arcades resting on square pillars. These are painted with a marbling paint and decorated with octagonal recesses arranged in pairs. In the transition between the pillar and the arcade arches, Weber attached strong straps that further enhance the spatial effect of the pillars. This structure can also be found in the aisles. Above the arcades there is a cycle of inscriptions which partly incorrectly reproduces the history of the monastery from its foundation to its restoration at the beginning of the 20th century.
The choir was originally withheld from the convent, while the nave was intended for the common people. A choir grille separates these two areas from each other. Here is a people's altar with a triumphal cross from the years 1905 to 1909. The painting on the altar shows Jesus Christ being crowned with thorns . Ernst Fey copied a picture from the second half of the 17th century that is in the Oliva Monastery in Poland . The triumphal cross was created by Ferdinand Riedel , who also worked as a sculptor in the Strasbourg Cathedral .
The high altar in the choir consists of a brick altar from the construction period with a sandstone slab. The wooden altarpiece in cartilage style shows a traditional sequence and dates from the early 16th century. Like some extensions from 1625, it was acquired from the Peter-Paul-Kirche in Senftenberg in 1905. It consists of a predella showing the adoration of the Magi . Above it is a relief with the Lord's Supper . The main characters from around 1510 show the Crescent Madonna with the Christ child and the princes of the apostles Simon Peter and Paul of Tarsus . Above the figures, the crucifixion of Christ can be seen in an aedicule , which is crowned by the ascension.
The north wall of the choir is painted with symbols from the German Empire and symbolizes secular rule. You can see the imperial eagle , the imperial image with crown and sword and the imperial orb . Furthermore the cardinal virtues justice, wisdom and strength as well as the Christian virtues faith, love and hope are shown. Fey used tempera paint for the painting in 1909 . The south wall, on the other hand, depicts central Christian themes from the Old and Testament with a tree of life : original sin , old covenant and the sacrifice of Christ, redemption and new covenant. The choir windows are stained glass by the Munich artist Carl de Bouché from 1908. Kaiser Wilhelm II donated the depiction of the birth and transfiguration of Jesus , the crucifixion and the resurrection. Furthermore, the coats of arms of the House of Hohenzollern and Brandenburg can be seen in the work. The floor in the choir is covered with different colored, medieval clay tiles, which Weber was able to restore in 1906 and 1907 with the help of remains found in the rubble. They form an ornamental pattern with a rosette.
In the crossing to the northern arm of the cross there is a neo-baroque pulpit, which also goes back to a design by Weber. The figures of the four evangelists can be found on the body , while Philipp Melanchthon and Martin Luther are depicted on the staircase . The work was created by the sculptor Camille Besserer . In the cross arm itself the hexagonal baptismal font, which dominated cuppa with allegorical decorated representations of age. The slim, three-storey wooden lid can be pulled up with a counterweight. The baptism of Jesus is depicted on Weber's design, above it a dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. There are several grave slabs on the walls of the cross arm. On the north west wall is a marble epitaph for Hermann von Kardorff (1641–1688), followed by two gravestones set into the floor. One reminds of the Magister Petrus Jähn (1652–1683), the other of Catharina Elisabeth Schaper (in), geb. Merk (in) (1662-1691). Another tomb with a rocailles frame is dedicated to Lieutenant Colonel Adam Heinrich Christoph von Pfuel (1683–1755). The central element on the north wall is a sandstone tomb for Caspar Ernst von Metzradt (1665–1732). It is decorated with putti that entwine an obelisk adorned with a coat of arms. The glass paintings above are a foundation of the Luckau district from 1908. They show the reformers Luther and Melanchthon. The eastern wall begins in the northern section with a marble epitaph and an oil painting by Casper von Willemsdorf, followed by a tombstone for Johann Meintz (en) (1650–1679), a funeral monument to Karoline Christiane Elisabeth Heun (1743–1776), mother of Writer Carl Gottlieb Samuel Heun (1771–1854) and finally a tombstone for Maria Sibylla Hanschke (in) (1677–1726).
At the entrance to the southern arm of the cross there is a royal box from the years 1673 to 1676 on a barrel vault. It was simplified in 1859 and carved and painted in the course of the renovation work in 1906. Its ceiling is painted with a cloudy sky, angels and the tools of suffering .
The sacristy in the south arm of the cross is equipped with wooden figures of Moses and John, which originally belonged to the epitaph of Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Schirnding (1753–1812), which stands between the fourth and fifth yoke on the south side of the church. The passion altar from around 1450 also comes from the Peter and Paul Church. In five passion scenes it shows the flagellation of Jesus, the scene on the Mount of Olives, Jesus before Pilate, the crowning of thorns and the carrying of the cross. The altar table with baptism and lectern comes from Herrnhut from 1964.
organ
The first organ with 17 registers was built by Christoph Junge in 1676. After a lightning strike on July 22, 1779, the burnt down organ was replaced in 1789 by a new one by Johann Christian Kayser . Wilhelm Sauer used parts of this work to build a new work from it, Opus 209, between 1874 and 1876. Hans Voit from Rathenow rebuilt the instrument in 1971 in a neo-baroque style. In 1994, however, the Sauer company restored the original condition; In 1998 a renovation was carried out by the Central German organ builder A. Voigt from Bad Liebenwerda . Christian Scheffler from Waldsieversdorf restored the original condition between 1999 and 2002. It is considered to be the region's first great romantic cone shop instrument . The organ has two manuals , 26 registers and a pedal and the following disposition :
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photos
High altar
Wall painting in the choir room
Triumphal cross
pulpit
Organ loft
Detail on the west portal
literature
- Stefanie Fink: The Doberlug monastery church. Görlitz / Zittau 2014, ISBN 978-3944560083 .
- Georg Dehio (edited by Gerhard Vinken and others): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 .
- Evangelical monastery communities Doberlug (Ed.): Cistercian monastery church Doberlug - historical tour , Doberlug-Kirchhain, 05/14, p. 8
- Andreas Hanslok: Restoration work on the monastery church Dobrilugk 1905-1909 , in: Brandenburgische Denkmalpflege , Issue 1 (1997): pp. 61–66.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Georg Dehio (arr. Gerhard Vinken et al.): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 , p. 244.
- ↑ Doberlug Evangelical Church Community (ed.): Cistercian Monastery Church Doberlug - Historical Tour , Flyer, 05/14
- ↑ Website of the church district ( Memento of the original from October 26, 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. .
- ↑ Doberlug Monastery Church , organindex website, accessed on June 24, 2015.
Coordinates: 51 ° 36 '39.9 " N , 13 ° 32" 44.2 " E