Assumption of Mary (Allersdorf)
The pilgrimage church of the Assumption of Mary in Allersdorf is a St. Mary's church in the Lower Bavarian district of Kelheim . It is located on the summit of the Frauenberg ( 391 m above sea level ) and thus in the area of the city of Abensberg , but belongs to the Biburg parish . Until the secularization in 1803, the pilgrimage church was owned by the Biburg Monastery . At the foot of the Frauenberg the federal highway 16 runs between Regensburg and Ingolstadt and the river Abens .
history
Founding legend
According to legend, at the beginning of the 11th century, the marriage of a son of Count Babo von Abensberg remained childless for years. The countess then vowed to found a church for Mary , the mother of God . She shot an arrow from a window in Abensberg Castle; the building was to be erected where it hit the ground. So it happened; but the countess gave birth to a total of seven children in the following years.
Founding history
The church probably goes back to the "Blessed Bertha" von Ratzenhofen († 1151), also called "Blessed Bertha" von Biburg. "Blessed Bertha" is the mother of the canonized Archbishop of Salzburg , Eberhard von Sittling and Biburg, and is also considered the founder of the nearby Biburg Monastery. She must have received the building site for the church from her nephew and was probably also present during the construction work. Bishop Heinrich I of Regensburg released the church for the consecration of the monastery church in Biburg on October 28, 1140 from the district of the original parish Gögging and handed it over to the Benedictines of the newly founded abbey . Pope Innocent II and Pope Alexander III. confirmed this transfer in 1139 and 1177, as did Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa - each under the previous name Allingestorf and Allungestorf .
Another story
The church on the Frauenberg was already a popular pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages . This can be seen from the fact that the image of the grace of Mary dates back to the late Gothic period around 1510/20. After the decline of the Benedictine abbey, the Jesuit college from Ingolstadt took over the Biburg monastery and the Allersdorf pilgrimage church in 1589 . From 1598 to 1600 the church was replaced by a new building, which also received a transept . It is one of the earliest baroque churches in Bavaria - the St. Michael Institute Church in Munich had been inaugurated just three years earlier , a building that is stylistically at the transition from Renaissance to Baroque and was built under the direction of the Munich Jesuit College. Only the 13th-century Romanesque tower was retained from the previous building.
In the period that followed, the Marian pilgrimage experienced a renewed boom. As a thank you for being spared the plague , a circular path with six grottos was laid out in 1629 around the hill on which the pilgrimage church stands. These showed the secrets of Christian salvation - exclusively on the basis of votive offerings from this time. Even a small organ was donated to the church at that time, but it was replaced by a larger instrument as early as 1642. In the 1650s, the church was completely renovated for the first time and the churchyard wall was rebuilt. In 1685, clearer panes of glass created more light inside the church, and in 1692 a precious silk dress was donated for the image of the Virgin Mary . The next major and still formative renovation measures were carried out from 1710, probably by Joseph Bader from Rohr . This year the walls were whitewashed inside and the entire choir room was stuccoed . In the following year, the nave vault was also stuccoed out. In addition, in 1711 the fresco cycle was created from 52 ceiling paintings, which are distributed throughout the church. There is a report on this from 1712 - to be found in the “Litterae annuae”, the Jesuit annual report. Also in 1711, instead of the six grottos around the hill, ten chapels were built, which in 1713 were furnished with depictions from the life of Mary. Figures of Saints Joseph and Joachim are also likely to have been created in 1713 , which are likely to be identical to the side figures of today's high altar . However, this was only built in 1757, around the height of the Rococo era . In addition to the side figures from 1713, the late Gothic miraculous image was also integrated into the structure.
After the Jesuit order was abolished in 1773, the Order of Malta took over the Biburg Monastery and with it the Allersdorf pilgrimage church in 1781 . As a result of secularization, the pilgrimage church and chapels were to be demolished in 1803. However , this could be prevented by the intervention of the then Maltese Commander Count Morawitzky . In 1845 the pilgrimage priest's house that still exists today was built. The two-storey hipped roof building with segmented arched windows is designed in the Biedermeier style. In 1898 (depending on the author also in 1878) the pilgrimage church was renovated in a historicizing way. The vaulted surfaces and the stucco were highlighted in color and the ceiling paintings were partly painted over, although nothing in the motifs and the theme of the fresco cycle should have been changed. This state is still largely preserved today.
In the 1960s, the grave of the "Blessed Bertha", which was originally located in the pilgrimage church, was transferred to the monastery church in Biburg with the cover plate of the high grave . Since then, the "Berthastein" can be seen in the apse of the south aisle. In 1968 the priest house was last renovated and modernized. In the years 1973 to 1978 the outside of the pilgrimage church was renovated. After stucco ornaments fell from the ceiling in 1987 , interior repairs were planned. However, since the roof structure and the statics of the tower were also damaged, the following renovation took five years from 1990 to 1995. From 1992 to 1995 the frescoes and the stucco in the interior were completely restored and conserved . On May 21, 1995, during a service with Bishop Manfred Müller, in addition to the celebrations at the end of the renovation work, the new people's altar made of light gray limestone was also consecrated. Since 1996 the ten pilgrimage chapels have also been gradually repaired; however, this work has not yet been completed to date (as of July 2016).
Today the church as a place of pilgrimage no longer has the great importance it had in earlier centuries. Occasionally, however, pilgrimages still take place, e.g. For example, every year in the “month of Mary” in May, the parish processions of Abensberg and Siegenburg . The church is still often used for wedding celebrations .
description
architecture
The pilgrimage church, which is located on a hill, can be reached via stairs on its north and south sides. There is a small cemetery around the church , which is surrounded by the churchyard wall from the 17th century. The priest's house in Biedermeier style was built on the southern slope of the hill in 1845, a two-story building with a flat hipped roof. At the foot of the hill there are also ten baroque Lady Chapels, which are dedicated to various Marian celebrations and varieties of Marian veneration. They form a wreath around the pilgrimage church; only in the east and northeast, where the forest is thicker, no chapels were built. The chapels all have a kind of portico that is accessible via a round arched passage. The straight entablature, which is obligatory for a portico, is supported by massive, bevelled pillars . The actual chapel room is separated by a wrought iron grille and raised by a platform. Different scenes from the life of Mary are artistically implemented in different ways, for example by means of wall paintings or panel paintings . At the top, the chapels are closed with a gable roof , to which a tail gable with a round window is hidden on the front side .
Priest residence
Chapels of the Cross
The main door of the church is in a flight to Südtreppe. It is flanked by pillars and crowned with a triangular gable bearing the inscription “O MARIA HILF!”. The nave consists of four relatively wide bays , which are covered by a richly decorated barrel vault with stitch caps and contain simple arched windows. The yoke is separated in the interior by double pilasters . The western of the four bays is covered by a gallery with a straight parapet. The space under the gallery is separated from the rest of the church by a wrought iron grille. The eastern yoke opens up to two short transepts on both sides. They each include a yoke and have a three-sided end, each of which contains a side altar. On the west side, the cross arms each have their own portal.
To the east, the nave is adjoined by the altar house, which is strongly indented over the choir arch and completes the cross-shaped floor plan . It comprises two bays, also closes in three octagonal sides and, like the nave and transepts, is spanned by a spear cap barrel. In contrast to the nave, simple pilasters are used as the yoke structure. In the angle between the choir and the transept, the sacristy is built on the north side and the tower on the south side . Its undivided substructure dates back to the Romanesque style period, while the tower top and the dome with lantern are early baroque and can therefore be assigned to the time the church was built. The flooring in the interior consists of Solnhofen limestone , which is arranged in a rose pointed pattern .
Furnishing
The pilgrimage church Allersdorf has a very rich interior in the style of the late baroque or rococo . However, the actual miraculous image , a wooden figure of the Mother of God with the baby Jesus in a golden halo, dates from the early 16th century and is therefore older than today's church. It is attached at a central point on the four-column high altar erected in 1757. The tabernacle with rich gold-plated decorative elements - volutes and rocailles - and a silver-plated altar cross, which can be found in the rotatable tabernacle niche, is located on the altar bar . Above the tabernacle the image of grace can be seen, which is surrounded by numerous putti . In a kind of gold-plated canopy between the two central pillars, roughly at the height of the entablature, a Marian monogram can be seen, above it a dove of the Holy Spirit, also surrounded by rays, and finally, in the excerpt, God the Father on a bank of clouds. Between the two pairs of columns there is a side figure: St. Joseph on the left, St. Joachim on the right . To the side of the choir arch, two figures from 1699 are housed in niches specially designed for this purpose: St. Barbara on the left, St. Apollonia on the right .
The stone-colored marbled transept altars were built in the 1710s and were then consecrated to the saints of the Jesuit order. The altar in the north (left) transept is dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the order. The altar panel shows how Christ appeared to Ignatius and referred him to the cross. At the same time, lightning bolts emanate from Ignatius' heart and bring Satan to the ground. The apostles Peter and Paul can be seen as side figures . The southern (left) transept altar is dedicated to St. Francis Xavier , co-founder of the Jesuit order and pioneer of Christian mission in Asia . On the altarpiece you can see the saint kneeling in front of the Mother of God with the baby Jesus, who puts a wreath of white roses on Franz Xavier's head. In the foreground a putto is depicted, offering the saint a bowl of water for the baptism of the approaching Indians. The two plague cartridges Rochus and Sebastian can be seen here as side figures .
The late baroque pulpit was built around the same time as the transept altars and thus much earlier than the high altar. Nevertheless, it is like this in red-gray marbling taken . The polygonal pulpit is decorated with elaborate foliage . The sound cover, however, is likely to have been made later, possibly at the same time as the high altar. On the underside it shows a dove of the Holy Spirit in a halo, a motif that can also be found on the high altar. On the top, volutes swing up to a pedestal, which carries a small heart as a symbol of God's love.
Frescoes and stucco
The church has numerous frescoes on the ceiling and walls as well as rich stucco decorations ; Acanthus tendrils painted in color can be seen on the capitals of the pilasters . A total of 52 frescoes, arranged in a thoughtful way, can be seen in the church. A report from 1712 has been preserved about the frescoing, which precisely describes the various themes and motifs.
The frescoes in the choir and the large nave frescoes are Marian frescoes. The central choir fresco shows a representation of Maria Immaculata , who stands on the globe that is wound by a snake. At the same time, Maria is just trampling the snake's neck with her foot, an antithesis to the seduction of Eve in the garden of paradise . All around in the altar house are nine small oval pictures on which putti offer signs of devotion to Mary , for example a crown , a scepter , a laurel wreath or flowers . The three large nave frescoes also show Marian themes, from east to west: a protective cloak Madonna spreading her wide cloak over pilgrims from Abensberg and Biburg; the patronage representation of the Assumption ; Mary as the helper of all Christians , accompanied by the baby Jesus standing on the globe. Further frescoes that can be attributed to the veneration of Mary are the allegorical representations from the Lauretan litany . These can be found above the sacristy door and opposite above the door to the tower staircase, as well as in the apex of the nave vault, where they stand between the three large nave frescoes, and in the spandrels above the nave windows. Finally, the fresco above the west gallery also takes up the Marian titles. The title of this picture is: “Regina coeli laetare” (“Rejoice, you heavenly queen”).
In the stabbed caps of the nave, on the other hand, there are depictions of themes from the Old Testament . On the north side these are (from east to west): the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham ; a king from the tribe of Judah ; King David with harp ; King Ahaz with the wreath of hope. On the south side are shown (from east to west): Jacob at the foot of the ladder to heaven ; the Jesse family tree ; King Solomon as builder of the Jerusalem Temple ; King Ezechias with the sundial . On the other hand, figures from the turn of the century can be seen between the stitch caps. On the north side these are (from east to west): John the Baptist ; Joachim with Maria; Zacharias with the angel. On the south side are shown (from east to west): the evangelist John with the vision of the woman in the sun; Anna at the Immaculate Conception ; Elizabeth with John the Baptist. The choir arch fresco is also assigned to the group depicting the turn of the century. Here you can see Joseph with the baby Jesus, surrounded by numerous putti.
In the two transverse arms, finally, frescoes on the work of the Jesuit order can be seen; it was ultimately he who had the 52 frescoes created. In the left side chapel, in keeping with the theme of the side altar there, St. Ignatius of Loyola is depicted in a vision of Jesus; symbolic interpretations of the life of Ignatius all around. In the right side chapel you can see St. Francis Xavier surrounded by angels who carry a banner with the inscription "Amplius" ("even more") in a central position, consequently also corresponding to the theme of the side altar there. This is to express that the saint wanted to draw ever closer to God in his life. All around are symbols to illustrate the work of the Jesuit order.
organ
During the last church renovation from 1992 to 1995, the organ from the 1840s was dismantled and stored in the neighboring priest house; the church in Allersdorf now only has a small electronic organ . The reason for this was that it blocked the view of the baroque fresco on the back wall of the gallery, which was then exposed again . In 1998, fully mechanized was sliderchest -instrument by organ builder Wilhelm Schober from Pankofen in Plattling restored and the following year in the Organ Museum Kelheim transferred. There it is set up so that it can be played. It has nine registers on a manual and pedal . The disposition is as follows:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling : Pedal Coupler
Trivia
In 2010 the outside area of the church served as a backdrop for some scenes from the movie Trans Bavaria .
literature
- Georg Rieger: Kelheimer Heimatbuch for the city and the district of Kelheim , Kelheim (?) 1953.
- Adam Rottler, Pastor i. R .: Abensberg through the ages , self-published, Abensberg 1972.
- Hans Bleibrunner: Church and monastery Biburg near Abensberg . Self-published, Abensberg 1990.
- Sixtus Lampl : Allersdorf pilgrimage church . Schlossverlag Valley, 1999.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Lampl; Pp. 3-8.
- ↑ a b Bleibrunner; Pp. 3, 8 and 16.
- ↑ Rottler; P. 25.
- ↑ Rieger; P. 297.
- ^ Siegfried Hofmann (1991): The Jesuit pilgrimage church Allersdorf - a contribution to the exhibition "The Jesuits in Ingolstadt" . Online at www.ingolstadt.de. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- ↑ a b c Lampl, pp. 8-12.
- ↑ a b Lampl, p. 12.
- ↑ Lampl, pp. 24-26.
- ↑ a b c Lampl, pp. 14-26.
- ^ Willibald Kerschensteiner (2004): Monument organ from Allersdorf . Online at www.orgelmuseum-kelheim.de. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
Coordinates: 48 ° 48 ′ 8.8 " N , 11 ° 50 ′ 59.4" E