Martin's Cathedral (Bratislava)

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Martin's Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Martin (Slovak Katedrála svätého Martina ) and Martin (Slovak Dóm svätého Martina called), the St. Martin of Tours , consecrated cathedral in the Slovak capital Bratislava . The hall church , built in the Gothic style, is the largest church building in the city and is located on the western edge of the old town , at the foot of the castle hill . It has been the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Bratislava since 2008 .

history

The cathedral is 69.37 m long, 22.85 m wide and 16.02 m high. It consists of a central nave and two side aisles added later.

Martin's Cathedral was built in the 13th century on the site of an earlier Romanesque church and cemetery. The time of its construction is not exactly known, but it is believed that construction began around 1221. The construction work on the central nave dragged on for decades. The church consecration took place on March 10, 1452 . This was followed by several extensions to the cathedral. Between 1461 and 1497 the existing presbytery was replaced by a larger one (probably a work by Hans Puchsbaum ). The St. Anna Chapel and the Chapel of Queen Sophia were also added in the 15th century .

Saint Martin, dressed in the uniform of a Hungarian hussar, shares his cloak with his sword and hands half of it to the beggar lying on the ground. Work by Georg Raphael Donner in Martins Cathedral in Preßburg (now Bratislava), the former coronation cathedral of the Hungarian kings.

During the first half of the 18th century, the interior of the cathedral was largely redesigned in Baroque style . The Viennese sculptor Georg Raphael Donner was responsible for the construction of the Elemosynarius Chapel from 1729 to 1732, which is dedicated to St. John the Almsgiver . In 1733 the baroque reconstruction of the cathedral began. The Gothic altars were removed, and a year later (1734) Georg Raphael Donner created the new high altar, the centerpiece of which was the statue of the patron saint and namesake of the cathedral, St. Martin. The altar was consecrated on November 5, 1735 by the (later) Bishop of Fünfkirchen Sigismund Berényi (ung. Berényi Zsigmond; 1694–1748).

Around the middle of the 19th century, on the initiative of the Bratislava city pastor, Titular Bishop Karl Heiller , the regotization of the cathedral began. The cathedral got its current appearance between 1865 and 1877, when the baroque elements were largely removed and the building returned to its supposedly original Gothic state.

In 1865 the baroque altar was dismantled, as were the former choir stalls based on Donner's designs. Two angels of the old altar, cast in lead, were acquired by the art patron Enea Grazioso Lanfranconi and later moved to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest . The choir stalls came to the Palais Kinsky in Vienna . The central statue of the old altar, St. Martin, was placed outdoors on the south side of the presbytery. It was not until 1912 that the great value of the sculpture was recognized and it was brought back inside the cathedral. Today it is at the end of the right (south) aisle.

The Viennese architect Josef Lippert was commissioned with the renovation work - according to the principles of Romanticism . The current main altar in the chancel, which rises on three steps, is made of lime and oak, gold-plated and polychrome. It represents a church, similar to medieval reliquary shrines. It was built according to Lippert's designs by the master carpenter Ignaz Karger and the painter Carl Jobst. The six figures of the saints, also carved from lime wood, are the work of the Viennese sculptor Johann Hutterer . To the left of the tabernacle these are: St. George , St. Elisabeth and St. Adalbert ; to the right of it the saints Nicholas , Katharina and Florian .

During this reconstruction work, the priest Ferdinand Knauz discovered the grave of Peter Pazman on September 12, 1859 . The body was well preserved (even the hair under the Jesuit hat and the beard was still there). He was dressed in a red cassock with simple leather shoes on his feet. On the left side of the choir is his three meter high tomb made of white marble, the work of the Pressburg sculptor Alois Rigele . The re-consecration took place in 1907 in the presence of the (later) prince-primate of Hungary János Cardinal Csernoch .

Coronation of Leopold I (1655)
Stained glass

In 2010 a new organ , the Elisabeth organ , was inaugurated. The roses on the pipe fields are a reminder of St. Elisabeth and the miracle of roses. It was built by the German organ builder Gerald Woehl .

Since 2002 the cathedral has been classified as a cultural monument of national importance.

Interior

The interior design and furnishings are largely based on the renovations from 1850 to 1865.

The main organ was rebuilt in 2010 by Gerald Woehl , with four manuals and 75 registers it is the third largest in Slovakia . The choir organ from 1867 by Karl Klöckner has 7 registers and is currently not playable for concerts.

Underworld of the cathedral (crypts)

Since the cathedral was built over an old cemetery, there are catacombs down to a depth of six meters below the Anna Chapel . They contain the graves of numerous high-ranking personalities, especially church dignitaries.

A separate crypt was built for the members of the Pálffy family (some of whom were members of the family chiefs of the Bratislava county ), the entrance to which is on the north outer side of the cathedral. The last burial in this tomb took place in 1845. One of the most important representatives of the family, the Imperial Field Marshal Count Nikolaus II. Pálffy de Erdőd , was the first to be buried in it. His widow Maria Magdalena Fugger was also buried here in 1646 - according to her own wishes. Other members of the Pálffy family followed. When the crypt was last opened (in the first years of the 21st century), twenty coffins were found. Their examination revealed that they were all empty. The investigative commission could not clarify where the bones of the deceased were taken ...

On Easter Monday, March 29, 1598, Nicholas II Pálffy, together with Adolf von Schwarzenberg, liberated the city of Raab from the Turks . In 1601, Pálffy's widow had a life-size marble monument erected by the Augsburg sculptor Paul Mayr, which today stands in the third yoke of the north aisle.

The Archbishop's Crypt is located under the Johannes Elemosynarius Chapel (not open to the public). Four archbishops are buried in magnificent sarcophagi : Emmerich Esterházy (1725–1745), Nikolaus Csáky (1751–1757), Franz Barkóczy (1761–1765) and Cardinal Joseph Batthyány (1776–1799).

tower

The cathedral tower is now 87 meters high. It has been rebuilt several times over the centuries. The tower originally formed part of the city fortifications. The main portal could therefore not be built into the west facade, but had to be located on the north side of the main nave. In an engraving from 1572 the tower shows bay windows for defense.

In 1760 the tower was struck by lightning, which is why it was replaced by a new building. The new building was 13  cubits higher than its predecessor. At that time, a Hungarian St. Stephen's crown resting on a cushion was attached to the top .

On June 13, 1833, lightning struck again and the ensuing fire destroyed the tower. At 1 a.m. the tower helmet collapsed, but the bells and clock remained intact. The Palatine of Hungary, Archduke Joseph , also appeared at the fire and directed the fire-fighting work until the early hours of the morning. The reconstruction dragged on until 1846. A gold-plated parade cushion (120 × 120 cm) with a replica of the Hungarian crown of St. Stephen (164 cm high) was placed at the top of the church tower to commemorate the role of St. Martin's as the coronation church. The crown, also gold-plated, has a diameter of around one meter. A total of around 8 kg of gold were used for the pillow and the crown. Inside the crown was a soldered copper capsule with contemporary documents. On November 25, 1846, after a solemn thanksgiving service, the crown of St. Stephen was pulled onto the top of the new cathedral tower. The building ensemble was made by the Pressburg coppersmiths Carl Mayer (Krone) and Johann Gschnatl (pillow). The appearance of the tower with the typical helmet has not changed since this renovation.

In 1905 the crown was removed from the tower for restoration work. The restoration was carried out by the Pressburg jewelry company Moritz Weinstabl. The valuable documents inside the crown (including a parchment from the time of Maria Theresa ) were recovered. The jeweler Weinstabl placed a handwritten document, sheets of the Pressburger Zeitung and the Hungarian Híradó in the crossbar of the cross . On August 25, 1905, the 167 kg crown was moved to its original place at the top of the church tower. The crown was last renovated in 2010.

Gothic choir stalls

Bells

The cathedral has nine bells . The largest bell is the so-called Wederin . It was cast by Balthasar Herold in 1674 from the material of old cannons. It bears reliefs of Our Lady , Saint Martin and the crucified. Its inscription reads: VIRTVS DIVINA PELLAT FVLMINA (May the power of God drive away the lightning).

In the holy year 2000, the five bells that had been missing since the First World War were cast again. These were the twelve from 1807 (1,358 kg), the quarter from 1821 (833 kg), an unnamed bell (465 kg), the Josefin (262 kg) and the fire bell from 1679 (133 kg); the train bell (25 kg) has been preserved. Also new are two smaller bells that serve as clock strikes and are hung in the tower lantern. The seven new bells were cast by the Tomášková-Dytrychová bell foundry in Brodek u Přerova and inaugurated on St. Martin's Day of the same year. The wooden bell cage and the existing Wederin were renovated beforehand, whereby their original manual bell technology was retained.

The ringing consists of the following bells:

  1. Wederin , weight 2,513 kg, diameter 1,557 mm, strike note c sharp 1
  2. Maria-Theresa , weight 2,200 kg, diameter 1,504 mm, strike tone d 1
  3. Margaretha , weight 850 kg, diameter 1,140 mm, chime ice 1
  4. John Paul II , weight 500 kg, diameter 940 mm, strike note a 1
  5. Adalbert , weight 340 kg, diameter 840 mm, strike note h 1
  6. Wladimir , weight 290 kg, diameter 630 mm, strike note c sharp 2
  7. Train bell , weight 25 kg
  8. Josef (hour bell, in the lantern), weight 100 kg, diameter 560 mm, strike sound f sharp 2
  9. Seven Pains of Mary (quarter-hour bell, in the lantern), weight 75 kg, diameter 520 mm, strike tone G sharp 2

The capitals of all neighboring countries of the Slovak Republic donated a bell for the new bell of the cathedral as a sign of solidarity:

Coronations

From 1563, St. Martin's Cathedral was the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary . It replaced the royal basilica in Székesfehérvár , as this city had been conquered by the Ottoman Empire twenty years earlier . On September 8, 1563, Maximilian II was the first Hungarian king to be crowned here. In total, the coronations of eleven kings and eight queens took place in St. Martin's Cathedral by 1830 .

A plaque (410 × 270 cm) on the north wall of the choir commemorates the coronation celebrations. The table, framed with vines, was made by the former Archbishop of Gran and Primate of Hungary János Cardinal Simor at his own expense. It was created in 1866 by the Viennese painter Carl Jobst . At the top left is the crown of St. Stephen , which is held by two floating angels. Above the row of names of the rulers crowned here is the Latin heading:

"IN HOC DIVI MARTINI TURON: TEMPLO SOLEMNIA CORONATIONIS ACTA SUNT HUNGARIAE REGNUM ET REGINARUM"
(The celebrations of the coronation of the Hungarian kings and queens took place in this church of St. Martin of Tours)

List of kings and their wives crowned here, with dates in brackets:

List of Hungarian rulers crowned in Martin's Cathedral.

Surroundings

In 1893, just below the cathedral, an imposing synagogue of the Jewish-neological community was built in Moorish style. It was demolished in 1967 when the driveway to the New Bridge was being built. Today an urban motorway runs a few meters past the cathedral.

See also

literature

  • Emil Portisch: History of the City of Preßburg - Bratislava, Preßburg 1932/1933, 2 volumes
  • Karl Benyovszky : Bratislava - Pressburg in words and pictures, Bratislava - Pressburg 1938
  • Štefan Holčík, Pozsonyi koronázási ünnepségek 1563-1830, (Hungarian; German: "The Pressburg Coronation Celebrations 1563-1830), Budapest 1986 ISBN 963-07-4218-7
  • Žáry / Bagin / Rusina / Toranová: Dóm Sv. Martina v Bratislave, (Slovak), Bratislava 1990 ISBN 80-222-0173-1
  • Jozef Haľko , Štefan Komorný,  Dóm - Katedrála sv. Martina v Bratislave , (Slovak; German: "Dom-The Cathedral of St. Martin in Bratislava), LÚČ, Bratislava, 2010,  ISBN 978-80-7114-805-0

Web links

Commons : Martinsdom in Bratislava  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The work of art was created in 1734 in the Pressburg summer residence of the Primate of Hungary. Only the legs of the horse and the feet of the beggar are solidly cast; the remaining parts are assembled and chiselled over an iron framework made of lead plates filled with plaster. (quoted from Benyovszky: Bratislava-Pressburg ..., p. 97)
  2. ^ Karl Benyovszky: Bratislava-Pressburg ..., p. 97
  3. ^ Lippert von Granberg, Josef Erwin (1826-1902), architect. Austrian Biographical Lexicon (OeBL), accessed on July 30, 2018 .
  4. ^ Hutterer, Johann (1835-1907), sculptor. Austrian Biographical Lexicon (OeBL), accessed on July 30, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Jozef Haľko: Dóm ..., p. 62f
  6. ↑ Jozef Halko: Pázmán v dome sv. Martina , in the Zs. Impulz, 1/2010 (Slovak).
  7. ↑ Elisabeth organ in the cathedral of St. Martin in Bratislava on Radio Slovakia International on January 12, 2011, accessed on April 5, 2011
  8. ↑ cit. after Haľko: Dóm ... p. 216
  9. ↑ Halko: Dóm ..., p 215
  10. ↑ Cf. Anton Klipp: Preßburg, p. 58
  11. ↑ Portisch: History of the City of Preßburg, Vol. 2, p. 437
  12. ↑ Jozef Haľko: Dóm ..., p. 169
  13. ↑ Sound rehearsal from bells 2 to 6
  14. ↑ Mária Poráziková: The bells of St. Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava . Bratislava 2010.
  15. ↑ According to other information on July 16, cf. Anton Klipp: Pressburg. New views on an old city . Karpatendeutsches Kulturwerk, Karlsruhe 2010, ISBN 978-3-927020-15-3 , p. 58; also Holčík: Pozsonyi ... p. 12.
  16. ↑ Uhorskí králi a královné korunované v Bratislave ( Hungarian kings and queens crowned in Bratislava . Slow.)

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 31.3 "  N , 17 ° 6 ′ 17.9"  E