Monk's Church (Bautzen)

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Facade of the monk's church

The monk's church in Bautzen is a former Franciscan monastery church that has survived today only as a ruin .

history

The construction of the church began around 1240 together with the complex of the Franciscan monastery, several buildings and courtyards on the Burglehn south-east in front of the Ortenburg. According to local tradition, the building site was donated by members of the landed gentry. The first reliable evidence of the monastery of the Franciscan Order , founded in 1210, dates from May 6, 1248, when a papal indulgence by Pope Innocent IV was approved for the completion of the construction. This was issued at the suggestion of the Provincial Minister of the Saxon Franciscan Province ( Saxonia ), to which the monastery belonged, and the friars of Bautzen. The monk church carried the patronage of the Holy Virgin Mary consecrated.

On August 1, 1401, the Franciscan monastery burned down completely, but was rebuilt. Another fire in 1441 destroyed the church roof. The monastery was closed as a result of the Reformation in the first half of the 16th century. On July 2, 1598, the monastery and church burned down completely and were not rebuilt. The early Gothic monk church ruins with pointed arch windows and portal have been preserved.

In 1620 the removal of the monastery walls was canceled again by the city council. After the fire in 1598, but especially during the Thirty Years' War , penniless citizens settled in the church ruins in the monastery area and built the simplest houses, the so-called “ Budenstadt ” or monk church settlement . In 1893 the small settlement had 18 houses with 53 households. On February 10, 1894, at night in the twelfth hour of a fire, these small residential buildings fell victim to the flames that broke out in Haus Burglehn (cat. No. 261) and quickly spread to the entire church area.

Bautzen water tower with the ruins of the monk's church

Richard Andree describes the monk's church, which was the only brick church in Bautzen , as "the southernmost monumental brick building that extends from the north German lowlands to the mountains."

Water tower

In the western part of the old church ruins, the city had a water tank built in 1877. This had a capacity of approx. 1,000 m³. The preserved wooden paneling of the upper part of the water tower has existed since 1936. The water system was shut down in 1979. After years of non-use, extensive securing and renovation took place in 2016/2017, during which, among other things, part of the tank floor was separated so that it can be accessed and used via a staircase. As part of the old town festival Wasser-Kunst-Licht, the water tower was opened to the public for the first time from August 31, 2018 to September 2, 2018.

literature

  • Richard Reymann: History of the city of Bautzen. 1902, pp. 297-307
  • Cornelius Gurlitt : The Monk Church. In:  Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 33. Booklet: Bautzen (city) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1909, pp. 79-90.
  • Beteiligungs- und Betriebsgesellschaft Bautzen mbH (Ed.): Bautzener Geschichtspfad. - Text booklet , 7/2007, see also page on www.bautzen.de
  • Kai Wenzel: The Franciscan Monastery Church of St. Marien. In: Silke Kosbab and Kai Wenzel: Bautzen's missing churches. Bautzen 2008, pp. 52–85

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bautzen City Archives: From Budissin to Bautzen. Lusatia Verlag, Bautzen 2002, ISBN 3-929091-91-7
  2. ^ Richard Andree: Wendish wandering studies. To the customer of the Lausitz and the Sorbs turn. Stuttgart 1874, p. 16

Web links

Commons : Monk Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 55.8 "  N , 14 ° 25 ′ 18.9"  E