Blumenthal Church (Bratislava)
The Blumenthaler Kirche in Bratislava (Pressburg) is a Roman Catholic parish church dedicated to the Assumption of the Immaculate Virgin Mary . It is located in the Staré Mesto district ( Okres Bratislava I ) and is a protected cultural monument.
History of the three churches
The Blumenthal (also known as 'Blumental') was once a suburb of Pressburg , the number of its inhabitants was around 8000 at that time. In 1740, at the beginning of Maria Theresa's reign, it was administratively attached to the city of Pressburg.
This rapidly developing suburb had neither a Catholic nor a Protestant church when it was founded. The faithful had to move into the city center if they wanted to attend church services. And so, at the suggestion of Empress Maria Theresa, on August 12, 1769, the city of Preßburg passed a resolution by the municipal authorities, according to which a new Catholic parish was to be founded in the eastern suburbs and a church was to be built.
First Blumenthal church
Since money was already very scarce at that time, the first Blumenthal church was built from a granary at the end of Landstrasse, which belonged to the O'Nell family, who had died out. The tobacco factory was later built on this site. This first church, an undemanding purpose-built structure, had very modest dimensions of only 9.0 × 7.2 m and was only intended to satisfy the basic needs of the Catholic population for worship services. It had a wooden tower with two bells. The interior held 300 worshipers and had two altars. On January 1st, 1770 this first church opened its doors to the faithful, its first pastor was Franz Ujházy.
Image of grace of the Mother of God of good advice
The Pressburg citizen Joseph Jankó brought a copy of the miraculous image " Madonna del Buon Consiglio ", the "Mother of God of Good Counsel", to Pressburg in 1767 from Genazzano, Italy . The original of the picture, a fresco that dates back to 1464, was rediscovered during renovation work on the Augustinian church in Genazzano (near Rome). As a miraculous image of the Augustinian order , it spread in numerous copies in Europe. Elek Jordánszky, who at the time was a seminarian at the Catholic seminary (in the Pressburg Castle) , made the Pressburg image of grace, which depicts a bust of the Mother of God with baby Jesus and only 45 × 35 cm in size , known. In 1834 he also wrote a short history of the miraculous image. In 1768 the picture was consecrated by the Augustinian Father Gregor Rasi; It was so revered among the faithful that the parish priest at the time, with the consent of the bishop, had the picture put up above the side altar in the Blumenthal church in 1774. As a result, the Blumenthal Church also developed into a pilgrimage church . According to old reports, 137 votive plaques were placed around the picture at this time. The then Prince-Primate of Hungary and Archbishop of Gran , Joseph Graf Batthyány, visited the miraculous image on the occasion of a canonical visitation in 1783. The cardinal established the miraculous effect of the miraculous image by noting that the blind citizen of Bratislava, the master builder Johannes Lehner who was praying in front of the miraculous image on July 26, 1777, suddenly saw.
Second Blumenthal Church
It soon became clear that the first place of worship was too small in the long run for the needs of the steadily growing community. And so, after thirteen years, in 1783, the construction of the second Blumental Church began. This new church was built in the dimensions of 20.0 × 9.0 m and had a height of 7.0 m. The construction costs amounted to 19,688 guilders . However, this church was initially only equipped with a wooden tower (actually it was a roof turret ), in which there were three bells. Three altars were erected inside, and this church already had a gallery with an organ prospect . The church was solemnly consecrated on May 16, 1784 by Bishop Rauscher in concelebration with cathedral provost and archdeacon in the cathedral of St. Martin , Carl Dujardin, in the name of "Assumption of Mary". She served the ward for 104 years. The parish priest at the time, Matthias Joseph Klobuschitzky, made lasting contributions to the construction of this second church.
In this second church, too, the image of the grace of the “Mother of God of good counsel” was given a central meaning. When the church was consecrated , it was solemnly transferred from the old church to the new building and placed above the main altar .
After the completion of the new (third) Blumenthaler church, the second church, which was originally located on the corner of Landstrasse and Pálffygasse, is now part of the Roman Catholic Church. The parish of the Blumenthal parish has been rebuilt. The roof turret was removed, and the pharmacy "Zum Heiligen Geist" was set up on the ground floor of the converted building in 1901 next to the rectory. In the immediate vicinity of the new rectory in Pálffygasse were the two Roman Catholic. Primary schools for boys and girls. On Landstrasse (between today's church and rectory) the three-story building, donated by one of the benefactresses of Pressburg, the wealthy Katharina Schiffbeck , was built in 1899, and it went down in the city's annals as the “maid's home”.
Third Blumenthal Church
Due to further rapid population growth as a result of the industrialization of this area, the second church also turned out to be too small. After the canon and parish priest Joseph Poeck took over the parish of Blumenthal in 1857 , he tried to build a new building right from the start. For a full thirty years he collected donations for the construction of a new church. Poeck did not shy away from asking for donations for "his" church , even in Heurigen restaurants in Pressburg ( Buschenschänken ) - with a piggy bank in hand. After twenty years, in 1877, he finally had enough money to buy the land of the former Jeszenák Meierhof for the construction of today's church. Shortly afterwards, the architect Friedrich Rumpelmayer , who was born in Pressburg and who works in Vienna, was commissioned to draw up the plans. Rumpelmayer designed the church building in the style of the French cathedrals of the late Romanesque .
The evening paper of the Preßburger Zeitung reports on the groundbreaking ceremony on April 20, 1885 as follows: “This morning, Se. Revered Bishop Heiller, in the presence of the entire church building commission, the first groundbreaking ceremony for the building of the Blumenthal church. Immediately after this ceremony, the foundation of the church began. ” On May 26th of the same year, in the presence of many believers, also by the parish priest, Bishop Karl Heiller, the foundation stone - with an inlaid capsule - was laid below the later main altar for the new church . The document written in Latin in the capsule of the foundation stone is reproduced here in German translation:
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. For the honor of the Triune God, to increase his glory and for the salvation of the believers, the construction, which was dedicated to the Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Virgin Mary, began. The building is during the glorious pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. , during the reign of Franz Joseph I , Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and the term of office of Archbishop of Gran, the Prince-Primate of Hungary, János Cardinal Simor and during the priesthood of Pastor Joseph Poeck, who also initiated this work was realized. "
The construction work was carried out by the well-known Pressburg master builder Ignaz Feigler the Elder. J. executed. The neo-Romanesque building, in the form of a cross, has a total length of 57 m, the width is 18 m, the transept is 30 m wide. The building is 25 m high and the tower is 76 m high. The first painting was done by the Engel company and modeled after old Romanesque church buildings. Originally the church had four altars with numerous statues of saints made by the Leimer company in Vienna. The high altar was donated by Baroness Barbara Stummer-Tavarnok as a votive offering . In the north transept the altar with the miraculous image of the "Mother of God of Good Counsel", which was already present in the first church, was set up. After Pastor Poeck's death, one of his successors, the Papal Chamberlain Evarist Ritter von Czaykowszki , made lasting contributions to the further internal development and decoration of the church.
Although the Blumenthal is not rich in important works of art, the exception here confirms the rule. And this exception is the famous crucifix in the Blumenthal church. It is an outstanding work by the Bratislava sculptor Johann Fadrusz , who has achieved international artistic recognition as a sculptor.
Many donors participated in the decoration of the church. The middle window in the presbytery, an "Assunta" (Assumption of Mary), was donated by Pastor Poeck, the two side windows, depicting St. Stephen of Hungary and St. Ladislaus , were donated by the workers of the brush factory and the tobacco factory. The tower clock was a gift from the (Protestant) Grüneberg brothers. Johann Ludwig donated 100,000 bricks for the construction and Katharina Schiffbeck 15,000 guilders. In addition, many other well-known Pressburg families (e.g. Palugyay, Manderla) were involved as donors. The baroque choir stalls come from St. Martin's Cathedral and were repaired by the Bratislava master carpenter Ruttner and restored for use in the Blumenthal church. The original locksmith work (candelabra, grille) comes from the Pressburg company Marton.
The first organ was built by the Johann Kaufmann company in Vienna . It only had two manuals and 14 registers . However, this organ turned out to be too small for the large church interior. Therefore, in 1941, the Rieger company replaced this instrument with a larger organ with three manuals and 33 registers.
Pastor Poeck had the original four church bells cast by Karl Föhr, a bell founder from Pressburg, in 1887. They were consecrated on August 10, 1888 (before the church consecration) and pulled up on the tower. Unfortunately, three of the four bells were requisitioned during the First World War . Only the second largest (No. 2; tone f sharp °), the bell consecrated to the Mother of God, remained (inscription: “FUSA PER CAROLUM FÖHR POSONII 1887” ). In 1921, Pastor Peter Haverla (1892–1924) had the large bell (No. 1; tone e °) with a weight of 1443 kg re-cast by the Hiller company in Brno, Moravia . The two smallest bells (No. 3 and 4) were borrowed from the city of Pressburg. No. 3 (tone g sharp¹ ) bears the interesting inscription: "GOSS ME IN PRESBURG ANNO 1739 IOHANN ERNEST KRIESTLI" No. 4 (tone e²) is the "death bell" and has a lower diameter of only 30 cm.
Construction was completed on October 28, 1888; the Preßburger Zeitung headlined: “Great God, we praise you!” The solemn consecration was carried out by the Archbishop of Gran and Prince Primas of Hungary, János Cardinal Simor - with the participation of the high clergy. The representatives of the city, the aristocracy and high nobility took part in the church festival. Archduke Friedrich represented the Viennese court at the festivities . Around 30,000 (!) Believers were present, a huge crowd if you consider that Pressburg only had 60,000 inhabitants at that time. The building also devoured the enormous sum of approx. 200,000 guilders, which thanks to the willingness of the population to make sacrifices, could be raised mainly from donations.
At the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th century, the Blumenthal parish was characterized by an extraordinarily lively community life. In 1921, at the suggestion of Pastor Peter Haverla, the well-known Blumenthal church choir was founded, which was one of the most important church music choirs in the city along with the venerable and nationally known Pressburg church music association St. Martin , which was founded in 1833 . The retired postal director August Lacika became the choirmaster. The Blumenthal church choir framed the Holy Masses musically with works by important composers and also organized concerts. After the Second World War , when the time of church persecution began in communist Czechoslovakia , the church choir felt compelled to cease its activities.
In 1938, a Saint Florian column was erected in front of the main portal of the Blumental Church , which used to stand in front of the Lorenz Gate .
Directory of the parish priests of the Blumenthaler Church (until 1990)
- 1770–1775 Franz Ujházy (* 1727, † 1775)
- 1775–1789 Matthias Joseph Klobuschitzky (* 1740, † 1817)
- 1790–1803 Paul Kalovino (* 1757, † 1804)
- 1803–1819 Georg Kestler (* 1760, † 1819)
- 1819–1857 Baron Joseph Metzburg (* 1780, † 1857)
- 1857–1889 Joseph Poeck (* 1823, † 1895)
- 1889–1899 Vincent Havlicsek (* 1849, † 1922)
- 1899-1901 vacancy; Pastoral position not occupied
- 1901–1920 Evarist Ritter von Czaykowszki (* 1858, † 1934)
- 1920–1924 Peter Haverla (* 1892, † 1924)
- 1924–1934 vacancy; Pastoral position not occupied
- 1934–1949 Augustin Pozdech (* 1895, † 1960)
- 1949–1951 vacancy; Pastoral position not occupied
- 1951–1973 Ladislav Mogyoróssy (* 1905, † 1973)
- 1973–1990 Ján Zabák (* 1933)
- 1990–? Štefan Herényi (* 1948)
literature
- Augustin Pozdech : Ako žila naša farnosť v minulosti (Slovak; "How our parish lived in the past"), Bratislava 1948
- Anton Klipp: Pressburg. New views on an old city. Karpatendeutsches Kulturwerk, Karlsruhe 2010, ISBN 978-3-927020-15-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry in the list of monuments .
- ^ Anton Klipp: Pressburg ..., p. 116f.
- ^ A b Anton Klipp: Pressburg ... , pp. 116 to 122
- ^ Preßburger Zeitung, evening paper of April 20, 1885
- ↑ a b Original text in the archive of the Roman Catholic. Parish of Bratislava - Nové mesto
- ^ Preßburger Zeitung of October 28, 1888
- ↑ Order of the priests 1770-1949 in Anton Klipp: Preßburg ..., p. 122ff. See also the Lexicon katolických kňažských osobností Slovenska (Lexicon of Catholic Priests in Slovakia). Also proven in Augustin Pozdech.
- ↑ a b c Biographical information from the archive material of the parish office of the Blumenthal Church (Rím.-kat. Fasrký úrad Bratislava Nové-mesto).
Coordinates: 48 ° 9 '10.7 " N , 17 ° 7' 8.5" E