Lorenz Church (Erfurt)
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The Lorenzkirche is a Roman Catholic parish church in the center of the old town of Erfurt . It is located on the northern edge of the Angers and at the beginning of the Schlösserstraße .
history
The Lorenz Church was donated in 1138 by the Mainz Vitztum Giselbert in 1138. The church was built around 1140. It was consecrated by the then Erfurt provost and later Archbishop of Mainz, Adelbert II, and has been a parish church since its foundation. The original building was Romanesque , of which almost nothing has survived. A second building was probably built at the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 14th century in Gothic style, which was changed again after a fire in 1413. The previously single-nave church was converted into a two-aisled church through an extension on the north side. At the end of the 19th century, the east wall, which had been straight up until then, was broken through. Two of the original three windows were rebuilt in the newly created apse . Thus the current structural condition of the church was achieved.
The patron saints of the church are St. Laurentius , who gave the church its name, and St. Wenceslas . Their statues flank the south portal of the church.
The epitaphs on the southern outside and three large sculptures inside the church are important for the history of the Erfurt grave sculpture. In addition, there is a Gothic winged altar inside the church and figurative representations of saints from the high and late Middle Ages. a. a rare representation of Christ made of sandstone on one of the pillars.
During the air raids on Erfurt in World War II , the church suffered considerable damage to the roof and windows from bombs and air mines in the immediate vicinity. She almost fell victim to a bomb attack in the morning hours of July 20, 1944. An incendiary bomb had gone down immediately in front of the south entrance to the church . Pastor Busch extinguished the fire that broke out during the attack.
Between 1664 and 1773 the church was shared by the Jesuits who lived in the Jesuit college opposite .
In the tower there is a bell from 1445 and two from 1962.
As the first church in the GDR , ecumenical prayers for peace have been held in the Lorenz Church since 1978 . On November 9, 2019, a plaque was attached to the wall on Schlösserstraße. She reminds us that the first prayers were directed "against the introduction of military training in schools by the SED dictatorship at the time". In October 1989 the church was also the starting point for the first procession of 70 people to St. Andrew's Church , directly opposite the district administration of the Ministry for State Security (MfS). From this the Thursday demonstrations in Erfurt at the time of the Peaceful Revolution quickly developed with tens of thousands of participants.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Evi Baumeister: “Gang of the Affected. How the prayers for peace in the Erfurt Lorenzkirche gave strength to the 89ers ”. Thuringian regional newspaper, July 11, 2009
Web links
Aegidia Church | Albanikirche (†) | All Saints Church | Andreas Church | Augustinian Church | Barefoot Church | Bartholomäuskirche (T) | Benedictine Church (†) | Brunnenkirche | St. Mary's Cathedral | Gangolfi Church (†) | George's Church (T) | Gotthardt Church (†) | Hospital Church | Johanneskirche (T) | Carthusian Church | Merchant Church | Leonhardskirche (†) | Lorenz Church | Magdalenenkapelle | Outer Martini Church | Inner Martinikirche (†) | Matthias Church (†) | Michaeliskirche | Moritzkirche (†) | Neuwerkskirche | Nikolaikirche (T) | Paulskirche (T) | Peterskirche | Preacher Church | Reglerkirche | Schottenkirche | Servatius Church (†) | Severikirche | Old Thomaskirche (†) | Ursuline Church | Vitic Church (†) | Wigbertikirche
(†): Church no longer exists | (T): only the church tower still exists
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 36.8 ″ N , 11 ° 2 ′ 0 ″ E