Marienkapelle (Aachen-Burtscheid)
The Marienkapelle is a chapel in Aachen - Burtscheid consecrated to the Virgin Mary . It is located on the corner of Gregorstrasse and Berdoletstrasse and was built in 1643/1644 at the instigation of the incumbent abbess of the imperial abbey of Burtscheid , Henrietta Raitz von Frenz, and the monk Peter Kerchof in honor of the "Madonna von Scherpenheuvel". The most important part of the chapel is the newly created miraculous image of Mary, whose representation corresponds to the original in the baroque pilgrimage church consecrated to Our Lady in the Belgian pilgrimage site of Scherpenheuvel-Zichem . In the vernacular, this led to the name Klein Scherpenhövel ( small, sharp hill ) or simply chapel for the Burtscheider Marienkapelle.
history
By 1681 at the latest, a hermitage attached to the north side belonged to the chapel. The hermit's apartment was called the Petit Ermitage to distinguish it from the Grand Ermitage at Alt-Linzenshäuschen . In the 19th century the Hermitage was used as an apartment for the sexton. After 1796 the French closed the chapel, which reopened on February 2, 1807. In the post-war years of World War II , it served as an emergency church , as the parish church of St. Johann was largely destroyed.
architecture
1644
The wooden architecture of the original chapel corresponded to a saint's house in half-timbered style . The construction of the Marienkapelle, located at a crossroads between the Heißberg and the Eckenberg , was completed in 1644. Since the building had become dilapidated after around 50 years, it was replaced by a brick structure in 1697.
1697
The first new building was made of brick . The framework was made of gray-blue limestone . The dimensions of the building were 7.60 m long and 4.80 m wide. In front of the polygonal chancel there was a single-nave cross-vaulted interior.
In the years 1811 and 1812 an open pillared porch was built. The extension was built in brick on a roughly hewn square base. This vestibule consisted of four wooden pillars and a wooden gable and opened to the west. The tympanum was decorated with the monogram Maria in gold letters. In 1850 the hall was transformed into a closed building complex and as part of the interior.
1901
From 1901 to 1903 today's hexagonal building was built in neo-Romanesque style according to the plans of the cathedral builder Peter Friedrich Peters . The main wing is two-storey and merges into a single-storey, smaller in diameter and also hexagonal tower structure, the triangular gable of which ends in an attached tent roof . At the two corners of the front side, small three-storey, octagonal stair towers are built, the corners of which are emphasized by pilasters connected by round arches . The wall surfaces of the towers are each equipped with one or two narrow window hatches. In the sides of the upper floor, wheel windows and in the tower floor windows in the Romanesque style provide for the lighting of the interior. The entrance tympanum is adorned with a relief by Schumacher from 1923 with the blessing Christ, enthroned between the kneeling depictions of Mary and John the Baptist .
Inside, the hexagon is characterized both in the basement and on the upper floor by strong pillars connected with round arches. Around this inner hexagon runs a walkway provided with round arches, above which, forming the gallery, is the gallery of the upper floor, which is bordered on the inside by a wrought iron grille. The end of the round arches, both on the supporting pillars of the hexagon and in the surrounding area, is formed by striking fighters , which are decorated with monograms or symbols. The lower and upper floors are separated from each other by a strong cornice . Four frescoes and two wall paintings with Christian motifs from the veneration of Mary were installed on the side surfaces of the upper floor .
The south altar niche is a copy of the original chapel choir . This is evidenced by the inscription stone in an outer wall of the altar niche: “ THIS EXTENSION WAS EXECUTED IN THE SHAPES OF ANNO 1644 AND IN ANNO 1901 AS A CHOIR OF THE OLD MARIENKAPELLE, which was demolished in a dilapidated manner. “Joseph Assenmacher carried out the interior painting. The inauguration of today's church building took place on September 27, 1903.
After the damage in World War II , the Marienkapelle was restored in 1957 and 1962 to 1964 by the Aachen architect Peter Salm and later placed under monument protection.
Interior
The oldest and most important work of art in the Marienkapelle is the miraculous image of Mary, the representation of which corresponds to that of a comparable work in Scherpenheuvel. It shows Mary with child as the queen of heaven in a long, wide cloak floating in front of an oak tree. She holds the child in her left arm and the scepter in her right hand. In the background the Burtscheid Abbey is shown on the left and the Marienkapelle on the right. The engraved Latin inscription symbolizes both a quick prayer to Mother Mary and a memory of Petrus Kerchhof, the confessor of the Burtscheid Abbey. He belonged to the monks of the Val-Dieu monastery , who had taken over the pastoral care of the Burtscheider nuns on the instructions of the father abbot of the Clairveaux monastery . He died in 1645 and was buried in Burtscheid. On September 20, 1983, the artwork was stolen. The Aachen artist Jupp Kuckartz was then commissioned to make a replica .
Other important components of the interior of the chapel are the oak vestry cupboard from the 17th century, the richly decorated wooden rococo altar piece that surrounds the silver tabernacle , the brass-driven , 60 cm high lavabo from around 1700 and a glass painting from Ferber from the period around 1850 with the depiction of Mary and St. Joseph .
The Marienkapelle has housed a wooden crucifixion altar since 1977, which was given to her as a gift from the Christian Sisters on the occasion of the dissolution of her mother house and the chapel there in Aureliusstrasse.
In addition, the chapel has three bells, one from 1663 with a diameter of 25 cm and a height of 23 cm, a bell from 1672 that Franz von Trier cast, and a bell from 1819.
The Seven Burtscheider Footfalls
From the beginning seven wayside shrines and finally an erected pilgrim cross under a protective roof lined the path from Burtscheid Abbey to the Marienkapelle, known as the Seven Footfalls of Burtscheid. Analogous to the memory of Mary's pains , these reliefs symbolize the seven pains of Mary. In the 18th century, the wayside shrines were placed around the area of the chapel as stone chapels with picture niches and knee benches in front. It was not until the mayor of Burtscheid, Barto von Löwenigh , that the panels were put up again in 1832 after a thorough renovation along the then promenade , in the area of today's Kapellenstrasse. After they were expanded in 1862, the reliefs were moved to the wall of the hot mountain cemetery , where they remained until 1970. At the request of the parish of St. Johann, they were restored again and then embedded in the round of the chapel. After the Marienkapelle itself had to be renovated from 1990 onwards, the pictures were temporarily stored in the tower of St. Johann before they were finally returned to their place in the chapel in mid-2014.
monument
The entry in the list of monuments reads:
- “Marienkapelle Berdoletstr. Corner of Gregorstrasse
- 1901-1903 (Peters);
- neo-Romanesque octagonal central building, with two-storey access and stair turrets on both sides of the entrance, plastered, ashlar structure "
literature
- Karl Faymonville u. a. revised: The art monuments of the city of Aachen. II. The churches of the city of Aachen . Schwann, Düsseldorf, 1922, pp. 291 / 563-295 / 567.
- Karl Jünger: The seven Burtscheider footfalls , published by the parish of St. Gregor von Burtscheid, Aachen 2014
Web links
- Catholic parish of St. Gregor von Burtscheid
- Klein Scherpenheuvel
- History of the Marienkapelle Burtscheid ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ The French name Montaigu used earlier for Scherpenheuvel is derived from the Latin mons acutus = pointed mountain or sharp hill .
- ↑ Inscription catalog DI 32, City of Aachen, No. 166 † (Helga Giersiepen), in: www.inschriften.net
- ↑ Works by the regional artist belong to the Trude and Peter Lacroix collection in the Suermondt Ludwig Museum ( Another collection - Peter and Trude Lacroix ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). Jupp Kuckartz worked as an art teacher at the Patternhof secondary school and as a graphic artist and painter as well as a founding member of the Aachen Group 65 .
- ↑ In 1858 an Eberhard Ferber (painter and sculptor) lived at Münsterplatz 5; 1877 Beekstrasse 17; 1887 as a landscape and portrait painter at Lothringer Strasse 29 and 1899 at Beekstrasse 23. Aachen address book.
- ↑ The Marienkapelle in Burtscheid and the neo-Gothic altar shrine , on the website of the city of Aachen on the occasion of the Open Monument Day in 2012
- ^ Message from the Catholic parish of St. Gregory
- ↑ State Conservator Rhineland Monuments Directory. "1.2 Aachen, other parts of the city." With the help of Hans Königs, edited by Volker Osteneck. Status: 1974–1977. Rhineland Cologne, 1978, p. 33.
Coordinates: 50 ° 45 ′ 35 " N , 6 ° 5 ′ 32.3" E