Kreuzherrenkirche (Düsseldorf)

Kreuzherrenkirche

Church of the Brothers of the Cross with Chapel of Our Lady (demolished in 1811), drawing by F. Custodis

Designed in 1900 by the architect Pickel for reconstruction as a garrison church

The Kreuzherrenkirche was initially a monastery church of the Order of the Cross in the old city center of Düsseldorf . The Kreuzherrenkirche is located on Ursulinengasse, at the corner of Ratinger Strasse .

history

Düsseldorf around 1288 at the time of its city elevation: e. Our Lady Chapel and Inn

Already around 950 to at the site of the present church building, then outside the mounting and before the "Our Lady Thor" area, a chapel have stood, the "Lady Chapel" to their much verehrtem image "our lieven frauwen vam hemelryke" pilgrimages were made that up reached their heyday in the middle of the 14th century. The landowners in the area where the chapel stood were in the second half of the 13th century the Lords of Ellner . Next to the chapel they built the “Zur Heiligen Anna” hospital, where pilgrims, the poor and the sick were cared for. The Cross Brothers took over the hospital in 1407. In 1443 Duke Gerhard I transferred the care of the Marian pilgrimage chapel and the hospital to the new Düsseldorf branch of the Order of the Cross. In 1445, the chapel and the secular building were given to the Lords of the Cross by the Duke.

In 1443, the year it was founded, the Brothers of the Cross had already started building a church; In 1445 the construction was partially completed. The chapel was built over and was part of the south wing. However, the sources on the scope of construction are contradictory. According to other sources, a church with a nave was added to the chapel first. It was only later in the same century that the church is said to have been expanded according to this source and the second nave was built above the chapel. The church originally had the same name as the successor to the Liebfrauenkapelle . In a document from 1467 it is called "Liewer Frauwen Church". In addition to the church, a monastery building was also built. The inn and hospital for the poor of St. Anna moved into a new building in 1449 at the intersection of Flingerstrasse and the corner of Bergerstrasse and was refurbished in 1709 under a name change as " St. Hubertus Hospital " in the new urban area in the area of what later became Kasernenstrasse .

In 1597 Jakobe von Baden was buried in the church. The part of the former Marienkapelle was removed during a renovation of the church in 1661/65 and a new chapel, called Liebfrauenkapelle, was built on Ratinger Strasse. At the beginning of the 19th century (1811) this new chapel was demolished to widen Ratinger Straße.

Virgin Mary statue from the Chapel of Our Lady

The monastery was secularized and abolished in 1803 . After that, the Rosary Brotherhood took over the religious business until May 1, 1812 . In the same year the church was profaned and used for various purposes, such as a horse stable or tobacco store for the customs authorities. The building was then heavily built up, suspended ceilings were put in and converted into an ammunition depot. The equipment ended up in various churches in the area. The valuable baroque pulpit is now in the Leichlingen parish church of St. Johannes Baptist . A triptych donated by the Rosary Brotherhood in 1679 , like the statue of the Virgin from the Chapel of Our Lady , was transferred to St. Lambertus and has been installed there since 1811/1812. In 1820 the remains of the Duchess Jakobe were also transferred there.

Around 1900 there were plans by the architect Pickel at the instigation of the military administration to restore the church as a garrison church. However, the plans were never carried out. In the post-war period, the building was home to the tax office until 1957. In 1958 the church was returned to the Archdiocese of Cologne. From 1960 to 1968, the 19th century fixtures were removed and the windows were reconstructed in their original form. The late Gothic frescoes were saved during a further restoration. In 1990 the church was consecrated again and now serves as a school church and auditorium for the St. Ursula High School .

In 2011, during canal construction work in the area of Ursulinengasse and Ritterstraße, human bones were found in an underground vault next to the remains of the first city wall (parts of the fortifications of Düsseldorf at the time of the city elevation in 1288) . A number of indications suggest that the vault belonged to the former Kreuzherrenkloster.

description

The church building shows simple forms. It is a brick shell with a little sandstone used. The simple brick building is structured externally through the large tracery windows and the stepped buttresses. A tower was built between the two ends of the choir, which received two new free projectiles in the 17th century. A curved dome was erected on top, crowned by a lantern.

The inside consists of a high two-aisled hall with five bays and two choirs with 5/8 keys . There are five slender octagonal pillars between the two naves, from which the separating arches emerge seamlessly. The services in front of the pillars are three-quarters round and have leaf capitals. The ribbed vaults rest on it . The two-aisle structure is explained by the double function of the church, both as a parish church and as a pilgrimage church.

organ

The organ comes from the Rotterdam Cathedral. It was built around 1850 by the organ builder FA Loret (Neu-Mechelen), and in 1990 it was rebuilt and renovated by the organ builder Seifert (Kevelaer). The slider chest instrument has 10 stops on a manual and pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.

I Hauptwerk C – g ³
1.	Prestant	8th'
2.	Salisional	8th'
3.	Bourdon	8th'
4th	Octaaf	4 ′
5.	Quint	3 ′
6th	Roerfluit	4 ′
7th	Night horn	2 ′
8th.	Basson (B)	8th'
9.	Hautbois (D)	8th'

Pedal C – f ¹
10.	Sub bass	16 ′

Coupling : Pedal Coupler

Kreuzherrenkirche, interior choir view
Kreuzherrenkirche, floor plan

literature

Architects and Engineers Association of Düsseldorf (ed.): Düsseldorf and its buildings. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1904, pp. 104-106.
Roland Kanz, Jürgen Wiener (ed.): Architectural guide Düsseldorf. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-496-01232-3 , p. 8, object no. 8 - Kreuzherrenkirche, Ursulinengasse 6, after 1443.

Individual evidence

^ Ludwig Küppers: History of the Catholic community in Düsseldorf . In: Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): History of the city of Düsseldorf. Commemorative publication for the 600th anniversary. Düsseldorf 1888, p. 67 and p. [372] 355. Digitized edition of the ULB Düsseldorf
↑ Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein ; in: Volume 3, 1888, p. [71] 67.
↑ Accordingly, we see one of the oldest and most famous brotherhoods, the Brotherhood of the Holy Rosary, introduced in the hospital in 1407 ... , Joseph Bücheler, in: Das Gasthaus der Stadt Düsseldorf or the St. Hubertus Hospital, 1849, p. 12] 6
^ ^A ^b Alfons Houben: Düsseldorf. How it was then - how it is today. WI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-88785-006-9 , p. 182.
^ Digitized edition of the ULB Düsseldorf In: Festschrift for the 600th anniversary. 1888, p. 363.
^ Digitized edition of the ULB Düsseldorf p. [20] 15.
↑ Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein ; in: Volume 3, 1888, p. [76] 72.
^ Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein: Festschrift for the 600th anniversary. 1888, p. [381] 364. Digitized edition of the ULB Düsseldorf
↑ Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein ; in: Volume 3, 1888, p. [100] 96.
↑ Michael Brockhoff: During canal work: Old town: grave vault discovered , on Rheinische Post, from March 3, 2011, accessed on July 13, 2016
↑ More information about the organ

annotation

↑ Depending on the source, the information about the nature and beginning of the activities of the Cross Brothers differ. H. Ferber makes other statements in the book "Verlag C. Kraus, 1889, Part I, p. 35", which are probably partially incorrect. The first phase of construction for the church between 1443 and 1445 and the end of construction work including the monastery buildings by around 1480 are indisputable.