Lorettokapelle (Freiburg im Breisgau)

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The Loretto Chapel:
on the left the entrance to the main chapel, on the right the entrance with steps to the Joseph Chapel

The Loretto Chapel on Freiburg's Lorettoberg is one of many replicas of the Santa Casa (Holy House) inside the Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto in the Italian pilgrimage site of Loreto . (In Italian, Loreto is only written with a “t”.) The ensemble includes the Brothers House next to the chapel, the Way of the Cross, which originally came up from Lorettostraße, and the Hildaturm tower above the chapel, built in 1886 and named after the last Grand Duchess of Baden , Hilda von Nassau is named.

History of the Freiburg Chapel

Main entrance of the Marienkapelle with the cannonball from 1744 next to the round window

The reason for the construction of the chapel was the heavy fighting during the Battle of Freiburg between a Bavarian Imperial Armada under Franz von Mercy and a French army under the Duc d'Enghien towards the end of the Thirty Years War . The bitter conflicts with high losses on both sides and fluctuating fortunes of war took place on August 5, 1644 on the slopes of the Schlierberg. In the event of a victory, the citizens of Freiburg vowed to build a Lauretanian shark based on the model of the Santa Casa in Loreto for the Holy Virgin Mary instead of a Joseph chapel that was destroyed in the fighting . In fact, after losing 6,000 men at night, the French withdrew towards Breisach .

It was not until 13 years later that Christoph Mang, the guild master of the merchants, and his son Franz Xaver donated the Loretto Chapel, which was then completed in October 1657. In 1660, the Anna chapel donated by Baron Heinrich von Garnier was added. According to the will of the donors, the new chapel was under the control of the Münster parish (Our Lady Huts); the pastoral care was the responsibility of the founder's cousin, namely the Guardian of the Capuchin monastery and his successors. In the years that followed, pilgrimages to the Loretto Chapel increased so much that in 1785 the Freiburg city council banned services there on Sundays and public holidays so that the faithful could instead attend services in their local parishes.

In the Austrian War of Succession in 1744 there was another conflict between Austria and France . The French King Louis XV. chose the place in front of the chapel to watch the bombardment of Freiburg. Despite an agreement between the warring parties, the general hill Louis XV. not to shoot, who promised to spare the Freiburg Minster during the cannonade , struck a cannonball into the chapel, but missed the king. The sphere can still be seen today over the side chapel door.

Although all side chapels were abolished in 1788 by a decree of Emperor Joseph II , both the Loretto Chapel and St. Ottilien were preserved due to the protest of the citizens of Freiburg, whose magistrate sent a memorandum referring to the will of the donors to Vienna in 1788 . Another revocation resolution from 1807 by the Baden government could also be repulsed.

During the renovation work at the end of the 18th century, through which the interior of the chapel was to be adapted to the style of the time, the existing paintings were whitewashed, which had been made by Johann Caspar Brenzinger (1651–1737) according to original Loreto copper engravings . In 1902 the painter Josef Schultis restored the original wall paintings as well as possible.

Since November 2008, the chapel and the adjacent buildings and the Way of the Cross from are Regierungspräsidium Freiburg as "impersonal entity Loretto Chapel" at the local memorial book entered. The registration notice states that this monumental unit is a cultural monument of particular importance due to its high scientific, architectural and local history status and its impressive original tradition, and there is an increased public interest in its preservation.

Tradition and legend of the Santa Casa in Loreto / Italy

The “Holy House” inside the Basilica of Loreto, clad on the outside with marble reliefs from the 15th century.
Basilica of the "Holy House" in Loreto (16th century)
Meisner-Kieser: Political Treasure Chest, "Laureto in Italia", 1625

The pledge of the citizens of Freiburg and the following foundations to build the Loretto Chapel after the victory over the French troops on August 5, 1644 can only be understood against the historical and partly legendary background of the 16th and 17th centuries also in Germany Land increasing devotion to Mary in replicas of the Santa Casa of Loreto.

According to a legend that originated in the 15th century, angels are said to have brought the small house in Nazareth in which Mary lived in 1291 from Nazareth first to Trsat / Tersatto (today Croatia ) and then in 1294 near Recanati near Ancona / Italy . This report is a typical miracle tale for the time, written down about 170 years after this transmission by the provost at the time in Loreto, Pietro di Giorgio Tolomei from Teramo (d. 1473). Tradition also says that this is the house in Nazareth where the Virgin Mary lived when she received the message from the angel Gabriel .

The small house near Recanati with a floor plan of about 9 m × 4 m was called "Santa Casa" from Loreto after the laurel grove there . The sanctuary was protected by walls and towers very early on and a basilica was built over it from 1468 . The marble shrine with the Santa Casa found its place under the mighty dome in the center of the basilica, surrounded by thirteen chapels, which were donated and designed by different nations, including a German chapel.

During this time Loreto was the most important place of pilgrimage in Italy after Rome . Visitors included regents, popes, clergy, scholars, artists, writers, military leaders, etc., including Emperor Charles IV , and Ferdinand II , Christopher Columbus , Galileo Galilei , Miguel de Cervantes , Giambattista Tiepolo , Michel de Montaigne , Torquato Tasso , René Descartes , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Napoleon Bonaparte , but also numerous saints such as Karl Borromeo , Ignatius of Loyola , Franz Xaver , Petrus Canisius , Francis of Sales , Therese of Lisieux and many Popes, most recently John XXIII. , Paul VI. , John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

The "Holy House" in Loreto consists of three original walls, the lower part of which is made of natural stone, which does not exist in this area, while the rest of the masonry and the front wall are supplemented by bricks. The house has no foundation and is incidentally not in line with the local Italian building tradition. Inside, the brick wall sections were adorned with frescoes from the Umbrian school in the 14th and 15th centuries , only fragments of which have survived today. a. Maria with child, Bartholomäus , Antonius the Hermit , Georg and Katharina . Monumental marble cladding was built around the Marienhaus in 1507 according to plans by Bramante . In 1536 the chapel was given a vault. The copper engraving "Laureto in Italia" by Daniel Meisner from the year 1625 shows the grand total of the basilica and monastery buildings on the hill .

Historical background and new research

Archaeologists and art historians have not been satisfied with the traditional half-truths and the formation of legends, but have examined both the history of the "Holy House" in Nazareth and the pious legend of the transfer of the house to Loreto by angels . The most important sources include archaeological research from 1954 to 1960 in Nazareth and from 1962 to 1965 in Loreto. For the building in Loreto it was found that, contrary to the local building tradition, it has no foundation and is unusual in the province of Marken because of its building structure . The orientation of the chapel with the door in the north and the window in the west does not fit in with the brands, but can be explained by the previous location in Nazareth. The fourth wall in the east was not necessary in Nazareth because the small house was open to the grotto, but in Loreto it was closed by an apse.

Also of particular importance is a document found in the Vatican archives in 1900 about the donation of the “holy stones” in 1294, supplemented by the Chartularium culisanense published in 1985 , a collection of documents from the noble Angeloi family . These documents speak of a Nikephoros Angeloi who “holy stones that have been taken from the house of Notre Dame” gave his daughter Thamar as a wedding present in 1294.

Older than the legend of the angels who are said to have carried the “Holy House” through the air over the Mediterranean Sea , there are isolated reports that the transmission was carried out by people on a ship, which is evident from woodcuts and frescoes from the 15th and 17th centuries 16th century. These pictures show the “Holy House” on a ship accompanied by angels.

The excavations in Nazareth have shown that a simple stone house - without a foundation - had stood in front of the grotto that still exists today , the size of which corresponds to those of the Santa Casa in Loreto. There are indications that Jewish Christians designed this house and the grotto behind it as a place of worship and built a synagogue- style church over it. This simple structure was followed by a Byzantine basilica in the 5th century . In the 11th / 12th In the 19th century, French crusaders had an even larger cruciform basilica built, the crypt of which enveloped the House of Mary. This church was in 1263 by the governor of Sultan Baybars I. destroyed. There were pilgrim inscriptions in Greek up to 1289 that confirm this. In this context it is noticeable that after 1291 the pilgrims no longer spoke of the "House of Mary", but only of the - originally - behind it, the grotto. This grotto, carved into the rock, is still venerated today in the modern Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth as the “hostel of Mary”.

Numerous references to Nazareth were also found in Loreto . Greek inscriptions and Christian graffiti with Hebrew letters, but no inscriptions in Latin or Italian , were found on the stones of the Santa Casa . In Loreto, under the building of the Santa Casa, two medieval coins were found, which indicate the Byzantine noble family of the Angeloi , as well as five red fabric crosses from the coats of the Crusaders, which were walled in a cavity under the so-called "angel window".

Probable history

On the basis of these facts, cross-connections and references, as well as evaluating the available specialist literature, Thaddäus Küppers u. a. reconstructed the following history:

In order to protect the “Holy House” from the threatened destruction in 1291 by the spreading Islam , it was broken up into parts and initially brought by ship to Tersatto in Illyria . The Crusaders were probably responsible for the translation, among them above all the family of Nikephorus I, named in the Vatican document, from the Byzantine noble family of the Angeloi, who lived in Epirus . The family name Angeloi , in Latin angeli means "angel". Nikephorus was the son of Michael II , whose ancestors included the Comnenes . The document shows that Nikephoros had given the “holy stones” to his daughter Thamar Angelina Komnene as a dowry on the occasion of her wedding to Philip I of Taranto, the son of King Charles II (Naples) . The wedding is said to have taken place between August and October 1294 in L'Aquila / Abruzzo.

In this way, the “holy stones” could have reached the vicinity of Recanati, today's Loreto near Ancona on the Adriatic coast, through the Angeloi (angeli = angel) and thus into the Papal States of that time. So one believes to have provided evidence with some certainty that the stones of the Santa Casa in Loreto together with the rock grotto in Nazareth once formed the so-called “House of Mary”. That could mean that this legend also has a historical core. "Whether the mother of Jesus ever lived in this house and received the preaching here is (of course) a question of faith."

Spreading the worship of the Santa Casa

The Roman Catholic Church is holding back with a final verdict. The veneration of the Santa Casa spread in Italy as early as the 15th century and in the rest of Europe from the 16th century. In Germany, especially since the church movement of the Counter Reformation, numerous replicas of the Santa Casa have been made in many chapels, as listed under the article Loreto Chapel with the respective year of foundation.

Only if you know this prehistory of the “Holy House” will you be able to understand the peculiar construction and furnishings of the Loretto Chapel in Freiburg from 1657 and thus also the many other chapels of this type in Central Europe.

Description and furnishings of the Freiburg Loretto Chapel

The assembly on Freiburg's Lorettoberg consists of three small chapels, each with a stepped roof, built next to one another, the middle chapel with a turret . The actual Loretto Chapel in the middle with an entrance on the north side was built in 1657 based on the model of the "Holy House" in the Italian Marian pilgrimage site of Loreto. On the two narrow sides, the Joseph Chapel was built in the west and the Annen chapel in the east. The Joseph Chapel on a square floor plan is a little lower and narrower than the Lady Chapel; it can be entered from the outside via steps and is connected to the Marienkapelle through a window opening. From the outside, the Annenkapelle looks like a polygonal choir extension; it is not accessible to visitors, but can be seen from the Marienkapelle.

  • Marienkapelle, back wall: Mary with saints and Byzantine cross

  • Marienkapelle, back wall: Maria and Archangel Gabriel as the rest of the historical frescoes

  • Marienkapelle, south wall: Maria, Bartholomäus, Antonius the Hermit, knight George on horseback

  • Marienkapelle, north wall: Two angels as the rest of the historical frescoes

According to tradition, the Marienkapelle has brick walls and a barrel vault above . The oil painting on the east wall behind the altar was created by the Constance painter Johann Christoph Storer in 1659; it shows the proclamation of the Lord and the birth of Jesus as well as God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the midst of a host of angels. In the middle of the wall is a sculpture of the Madonna and Child by the Freiburg sculptor Franz Anton Xaver Hauser (1739–1819) based on a design by Johann Christian Wentzinger (1784). The frescoes by the Freiburg painter and councilor Johann Caspar Brenzinger (1651–1737), which Joseph Schultis restored in 1902, have been preserved on the walls. On the back wall in the west are shown (from bottom left): Remains of the Annunciation scene with Mary and the Archangel Gabriel (with staff as a symbol of God's power), Mary with child on the throne with supplicant and above two adoring angels, next to a nun with a nun Halo . In the middle (above the barred window to the Joseph Chapel) Christ on the cross and on the side crutches of the cross the mourning figures of Mary and the apostle John . On the right side Mary with child sitting on a bench and facing the middle, above another Mary with child, facing the hermit Antonius standing next to her (with rope stick and bell); at the very bottom the head of a saint as a remnant of the original painting. The south wall shows (from the left): Mary with a tablet (as an erroneous addition to missing parts) and a supplicant, next to her Bartholomäus (here without knife) as well as Antonius the Hermit (with book and bell) and the knight George on horseback (in front of him his shield with the George coat of arms). Although the north wall was also painted in Loreto, only two angel heads can be seen there in Freiburg. Both the painters of the Freiburg murals and the restorers who worked on them later obviously tried not to fill in the numerous gaps in the templates with their own figures, but rather to faithfully reproduce the damaged original condition of the Loreto murals if possible.

  • Joseph Chapel: Foundation inscription from 1657

  • Joseph's Chapel: Escape into Egypt, stained glass window from 1909

  • Joseph's Chapel: Joseph's death, stained glass window from 1909

  • Old offering box

The Joseph chapel has a groin vault with baroque stucco decoration . Above the simple altar is another painting by Johann Christoph Storer (1659) with the Annunciation to Mary and her marriage to Joseph. A barred window in the east wall allows a view into the Marienkapelle. On the inner entrance wall above the portal there is a stucco-decorated foundation inscription ; then the chapel and altar in honor of St. Josef was donated in 1657 by the Freiburg law professor Johann Augustin Wild and his wife Anna Maria Harnist; Professor Wild was buried in the university chapel of the Freiburg Minster in 1669. In the center of the vault you can see the abbreviation of the patron saint of the chapel (S * IS * PH). The two stained glass windows with the Flight into Egypt and the death of St. Josef von Nazaret come from the Freiburg workshop Merzweiler and Jennes (1909).

The Annenkapelle , with groined vaults and baroque stucco decoration, now serves as the sacristy. The altarpiece was probably also painted by Johann Christoph Storer; depicted are Maria with child and her relative Elisabeth with son Johannes (the lamb as his attribute ) and her husband Joachim (according to another interpretation Maria is depicted with her parents Anna and Joachim ); in the background a prince (or king?) with a sword in his right hand and a model of a chapel in his left; Above the scene the dove of the Holy Spirit appears in the open sky with a host of angels. On the walls next to the altar are baroque figures of St. Anna with Mary and Jesus and St. Joachim.

  • Altar of the Joseph Chapel

  • Altar of the main chapel, dedicated to Mary

  • Altar of the Anne and Joachim chapel

  • Annenkapelle: stucco ceiling with alliance coat of arms

  • Annenkapelle: Mother Anna with Maria and Jesus

  • Anne's Chapel: St. Joachim

When comparing the motifs of the murals in the Marienkapelle and the arrangement of these Freiburg pictures with the murals in the “Holy House” of Loreto, which were preserved until the middle of the 17th century, it turned out that the Freiburg murals are actually reproductions of Loreto . The templates used for Freiburg probably go back to copies that were made in Loreto in 1625, before the destruction in Loreto "at the instigation of some German princes", by specially selected painters before the originals. In this way, at least parts of what was destroyed in Loreto have been preserved in Freiburg.

The 63 kg bell from 1882 comes from the Freiburg bell foundry in Koch and is tuned to the G sharp tone .

Pictures of the Santa Casa flyover

Since the 14th century there have been artistic representations of the two strands of the legend of the transfer of the “Holy House” from Nazareth across the Mediterranean, namely either carried through the air by angels or transported by ship accompanied by angels the most important of which should be mentioned here:

  • Two angels carry the Holy House, fresco in the Church of San Marco in Jesi near Ancona (around 1350)

  • Transfer of the Holy House, probably Bruges, 1st half of the 16th century.

  • Tiepolo: Flight of the Marienhaus to Loreto, draft for the ceiling fresco of the church of Santa Maria degli Scalzi in Venice, 1743

Views from the Loretto Chapel in Freiburg

A painting by Carl Friedrich Lessing from 1860, which is now in the Haus der Kunst in Burscheid , shows the Loretto Chapel near Freiburg. Depiction of the view from the Loretto Chapel in a drawing by R. Püttner in the article Freiburg im Breisgau in issue 42 of the magazine " Die Gartenlaube " from 1875.

  • View of Freiburg with the Loretto Chapel, around 1840, drawn by L. Mayer, steel engraving by Le Keux

  • The Loretto Chapel Steel engraving by J. Umbach, drawn by R. Höfle approx. 1850. I, background the Freiburg Minster

  • Chapel on the Upper Rhine (The Loretto Chapel near Freiburg i.Br.) . Painting by Carl Friedrich Lessing, oil on canvas, 136 cm × 205 cm, from 1860

  • The view from the Loretto Chapel near Freiburg im Breisgau. Woodcut by Richard Püttner (1875)

Way of the Cross

In 1885, the Way of the Cross along the Bergleweg was equipped with new Stations of the Cross, which were moved in 1902 to a semicircle west of the church where they are today. The 14 sculptures of the Way of the Cross at the chapel were created by the Freiburg sculptor Wilhelm Walliser ; they are also entered in the monument book. The crucifix in front of the chapel dates from 1718.

and display information about the image
The individual stations of the Way of the Cross

Lookout point

In the summer of 2017, two of the historic lines of sight from Lorettoberg were cut open again in the forest cover of the surrounding villa gardens, one pointing to the former Günterstal monastery , the other to Freiburg's old town and the Roßkopf . In October 2017, further lines of sight north of the chapel were exposed to complete the overall historical picture; one points to the Freiburg Minster, the other also to the historic old town. The leaseholder of the café and Werner Semmler, the owner of the Queen-Auguste-Victoria-Park, acted as gardening consultant. They were supported in their work by the "Queen-Auguste-Victoria-Park" association, which also collected donations to plant 20,000 daffodils that emphasize the visual axes and remind them to keep them free in the future. An important line of sight in the direction of the Blackberry Head could not be cut because the owner, unlike the other private owners, does not cooperate. The association and Mr. Semmler hope that the lines of sight can be protected and thus preserved for the future. The area to the west of the Lorettoberg could also gain a lot from clearing. A view of the historical outlook can be seen in the woodcut by R. Püttner from 1875.

  • View towards Günterstal on the former monastery

  • View of Freiburg

  • view on the city

  • View of the Münster and Schlossberg

Brother house and hospitality

The listed ensemble of chapel and restaurant

Next to the three chapels was the “Bruderhäusle” for the sacristan . In addition to the sacristan service, he also provided food and drink to pilgrims and pilgrims who also came from Alsace. There was a break in visitors during the Enlightenment, when even the chapels were supposed to be closed. In the 19th century the number of visitors increased again significantly, because the Bruderhaus was a popular excursion destination because of the beautiful view, even before the first renovation work. In the course of time it developed more and more into a garden and restaurant. When these became too small for the number of visitors, the current building "Zum Bruderhaus Loretto" was built between 1903 and 1905 on the foundations of the old building. Its style is based on the German Renaissance and Art Nouveau. The design comes from the diocesan master builder Raimund Jeblinger , who also designed the office building and the Haslach Michaelskirche . The restaurant was later renamed “Wappen von Freiburg” and is now called “Schloss-Café”. A stone arch from the old brother's house has been preserved in the buffet room.

The castle café is connected to the chapel building by a high, covered corridor. The café is owned by the church foundation Breisgau Catholic Religious Fund.

  • The brother house in 1902

  • The new building of the Bruderhaus in 1907

  • Today's "Castle Café"

literature

  • August Schnezler: Badisches sagas book . Vol. 1, Karlsruhe 1846, p. 386 ( digitized version ).
  • Gebhard Kresser: The truth about Loreto: According to the latest excavations and research with plans and historical Loreto pictures . Styria, Graz 1926.
  • Josef Dotter: The wall paintings in the Freiburg Loreto Chapel are traced back to their origins . In: Schau-ins-Land 54/55, 1929, pp. 19-25 ( digitized version ).
  • Franz Laubenberger: The Freiburg Lorettoberg . In: Alemannisches Jahrbuch, vol. 1973/75, pp. 572-589.
  • Giuseppe Santarelli: Loreto in Faith, History and Art , Pescara 1990.
  • Thaddäus Küppers: The Holy House of Loreto . Regensburg 1994 (with further references).
  • Handbook of German Art Monuments , Baden-Württemberg II. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 1997, p. 218.
  • Michael Hesemann: Maria von Nazareth - history, archeology, legends . Sankt Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2012, pp. 89–112.

Web links

Commons : Lorettokapelle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Sanct Loretto  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: The Gunner of Freiburg  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Foundation of the Loretto Chapel  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Kopf : Christoph Anton Graf von Schauenburg (1717–1787). Rise and fall of the district chief in Breisgau . Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, ISBN 3-7930-0343-4 , p. 11.
  2. ↑ Lorettokapelle on the Lorettoberg Freiburg-Dreisamtal.de, accessed June 17, 2017.
  3. ↑ Schloss-Café und Kapelle wird Denkmal , Badische Zeitung of November 26, 2008, accessed on June 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ https://www.glaubenswege.ch/Loreto.html
  5. ^ Karl Suso Frank in: Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK), Volume 6, Freiburg 2006, Sp. 1052f.
  6. ↑ Photo of the Bethlehem Grotto on lastampa.it, accessed on January 15, 2018.
  7. ↑ Daniel Meisner / Eberhard Kieser: Thesaurus philopoliticus or Political Treasure Chest , facsimile reprint of the editions Frankfurt a. M. 1625-1626 and 1627-1631 by Klaus Eymann, Unterschneidheim 1972, Volume 1, IV, 28.
  8. ↑ a b Michael Hesemann: Maria von Nazareth - History, Archeology, Legends , Augsburg 2012, p. 108 ff.
  9. ↑ Michael Hesemann: Maria von Nazareth - history, archeology, legends , Augsburg 2012, p. 97 f. and 110.
  10. ^ Thaddäus Küppers: The Holy House of Loreto , Regensburg 1994, p. 3 with further references
  11. ↑ Andreas Schlueter: It's not always easy with angels . In: FAZ August 11, 2005.
  12. ^ Karl Suso Frank in: Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK), Freiburg 2006, Volume 6, Sp. 1052 f.
  13. ↑ Handbook of German Art Monuments, Baden-Württemberg II, Berlin 1997, p. 218.
  14. ↑ Dagmar Kicherer: A professor's life in the 17th century. The Freiburg lawyer Johann Augustin Wild and his family . In: Freiburger Universitätsblätter Heft 144 (1999).
  15. ↑ Josef Dotter: The wall paintings of the Freiburg Loreto Chapel traced back to their origin . In: Schau-ins-Land 54/55, 1929, pp. 19-25 with further references
  16. ^ Carl Friedrich Lessing - Romantic and Rebel . Bremen 2000. p. 112.
  17. ↑ Michael Klant: Forgotten sculptors. In: Sculpture in Freiburg. 19th century art in public space , Freiburg 2000, ISBN 3-922675-77-8 , pp. 164–172, here p. 168.
  18. ↑ a b Chapel on the "Bergle" - one of the "Wiehremer forest sanctuaries" Freiburg-Dreisamtal.de, accessed June 17, 2017.
  19. ↑ New lines of sight enable new views from Lorettoberg , Jelka Louisa Beule, Badische Zeitung, April 14, 2018, accessed April 14, 2018
  20. ↑ Queen-Auguste-Victoria-Park - curtain up for the Bellevue in Freiburg: landscape pictures from Lorettoberg for eye pleasure. - Lorettoberg Freiburg. Retrieved October 5, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Schloss-café Badische Seiten, accessed June 17, 2017.

Coordinates: 47 ° 58 ′ 52.6 ″  N , 7 ° 50 ′ 19 ″  E