Coronation Altar of Mary (Stralsund)
The St. Mary's Coronation Altar is a late Gothic carving in the St. Mary's Church in Stralsund . Except for one, all figures and all decorative elements are carved from hardwood . This was done in color in the late Gothic style.
history
The high altar was made around 1440 by an unknown master. In the town of Dorow in Western Pomerania, a place "very populous" in the 15th century, the Cistercian monks who Christianized the area maintained a church (Wilhelmskirche) that contained three altars . One of these altars was the Behr 's Coronation Altar of Mary . A document from Schwerin's Bishop Konrad von Schwerin, dated June 30, 1498, shows that the altar of the Coronation of Mary was donated by a member of the Behr family. The executive master is not named, however.
After the Reformation in Pomerania (1534) Dorow was depopulated and the church fell apart; the altar for the Coronation of Mary was either erected or only temporarily stored together with the other two altars in the Andreas chapel in Nehringen ; there are no records of this. From 1596 the Deyelsdorf church was built, which was completed in 1606 under Caspar Behr. The Coronation Altar was built into this towerless church. In 1710 the late Gothic middle group of the altar was replaced by a baroque group of figures.
In 1870 the community of Deyelsdorf sold the altar to Count Ulrich von Behr-Negendank . This commissioned the Berlin brothers Hohlbein to restore the altar. The brothers designed and started the work; However, they were continued and completed by other masters from the Stralsund company Mackenthun und Sohn. This company made mistakes in the figures: Barbara stands on Hedwig's place , Maria Ägyptiaca on Barbara's place. This restoration was completed in 1878. In the course of the restoration, the original middle group was reinserted.
The altar first came to Stralsund in 1879 during an arts and crafts fair and was exhibited in the Nikolaikirche there . In 1881 the altar was brought to Semlow and in the same year it was installed in the Semlow chapel built for himself by Count Behr von Negendank .
After the end of the Second World War , the altar of the Coronation of Mary was given to the Semlow parish as property. During this time it was badly damaged by moisture. A renovation was not possible during the GDR era for cost reasons. At the urging of the parish and the Institute for the Preservation of Monuments of the GDR, the ailing altar was brought back to Stralsund on September 14, 1971 and stored in the tower of the Jakobikirche . However, the circumstances of the storage turned out to be improper. After negotiations by Pastor Johannes Seibt from 1972 onwards, the Semlow parish agreed in 1973 that the altar should be made available on permanent loan to the Stralsund parish of St. Marien. After a restoration, the altar should be placed in the choir of the Marienkirche. On October 30, 1973 the altar was put into storage in the Apollonia Chapel at St. Mary's Church.
In 1977 the Stralsund painter and restorer Hermann Lindner began the restoration, although for financial reasons the color was only solidified. It was not until 1992 that a donation from the residents of Kiel , Stralsund's twin town, made it possible to restore the predella . The donation campaign was initiated by the Kiel municipal culture senate. After the installation of the renovated predella in the high choir of the Marienkirche further donations came; the German Foundation for Monument Protection was also very involved. This enabled the altar to be set up in the choir of Stralsund's Marienkirche in 1995; in 1999 the restoration work was finally finished. On September 26, 1999, the altar was consecrated by Eduard Berger , the bishop of the Pomeranian Evangelical Church , and handed over to the community.
The altar
The altar consists of an altar shrine in the form of a triptych , which stands on a pedestal (the predella ).
Altar shrine
The altar shrine is 2.30 m high. When the side wings are open it is 5.69 m wide, when the wings are closed it is 2.84 m wide.
The central shrine shows the coronation of Mary , who sits praying between God the Father and Jesus Christ . These figures are each 1.26 m high.
On both sides of this group of three there are 24 figures arranged in two rows one above the other. These are apostles and saints. The height of these figures is 63 cm each. They are placed under keel-arched canopies with a name, but without a planned arrangement.
From the viewer's point of view from top left to bottom right, these are the Apostles Jacobus the Elder. J., Philippus, Thomas, Petrus, Simon Zelotes, Andreas, Taddäus, Jacobus the Elder Ä., Johannes, Paulus, Bartholomäus and Matthäus and the Saints Clara, Johannes Baptista, Catharina, Franziscus, Bonifacius, Bartholdus, Anthonius, Georgus, Ludovicus, Barbara, Henricus und Maria Ägyptica. Since the restorers mistook the figures during the restoration in the 19th century, Barbara incorrectly bears the name of Hedwig and Maria Ägyptica the name of Barbara.
Between the figures there were originally 21 cm high branch figures, eight of which have been lost - probably due to theft.
shrine
Predella
left wing
right wing
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Predella (altar base)
The predella is 3.77 m wide and 88 cm high. It has five ornate arched niches. The middle of the five niches is a barred shrine with a monstrance painted on a red background on the double doors . In the four remaining niches are the Latin church fathers Ambrosius, Gregorius, Hieronymus and Augustine.
