Martinsturm (Bregenz)
The Martinsturm is a former granary in the first courtyard of the Counts of Bregenz in the upper town . It was built in 1601 as a tower with a loggia with three arched arcades each on columns and stone parapets and is crowned by a high curved onion dome with a lantern. The tower is now one of the landmarks of the Austrian city of Bregenz on Lake Constance . From the top floor of the Martinsturm you have a comprehensive, 360 ° panoramic view of the city. In the Martinsturm there is also an exhibition on the history of Bregenz and that of the building.
location
The tower is located at Martinsgasse 3b in the Bregenz Upper Town. This lies within the roughly rectangular wall area of the city walls from the 13th to 16th centuries, most of which are still preserved today. The Martinsturm forms the northeast corner of this curtain wall. The nave of the Martinskapelle and a residential building are attached to the tower.
history
In the first half of the 13th century, immediately after the city wall was built, a low tower with a basement and two upper floors was built. The building served as a defensive noble residential tower ( fixed house ). At the beginning of the 14th century a small chapel was set up on the upper floor of this tower and painted with frescoes. In 1362 Wilhelm VII of Montfort donated the Martin's Chapel; as a result, the previous chapel corner was extended to the entire upper floor. Towards the end of the 15th century, the first floor was included in the chapel and the sacraments niche that still exists today was created with the year 1498 . The builder Benedetto Prato raised the tower by three storeys on behalf of the city between 1599 and 1601 and built the onion roof construction. Due to the onion roof, planned military use can largely be ruled out. It was much more likely that the tower was erected as a splendid building and, after the great fire in 1581, also served as a “high watch for fire inspection” by the “tower keeper”. In 1602 the covered wooden external staircase was built by the Bregenz master builder Hundertpfund . The frescoes were whitewashed in 1648 on the instructions of then mayor Johann Deuring. The nave attached to the tower was built between 1701 and 1705. This created a chapel for the local population. The painter Florus Scheel from Feldkirch exposed the frescoes again between 1910 and 1914. From 1985 to 2011 a small military history museum was set up in the Martinsturm; since the end of April 2015 it has been a city history museum with a permanent exhibition.
The Martinsturm is the first baroque building on Lake Constance and the dome is the largest onion in Central Europe.
Martin's Chapel
The St. Martin chapel initially only took up one corner, from 1362 the entire circumference of the upper floor. On the east wall in the lower row of frescoes is a donor picture of Count Wilhelm III. Received from Montfort with the year 1363. Further pictures of the donors come from various noble families, probably ministerials of the Counts of Montfort. At the end of the 15th century, the upper chapel was combined with the lower room, and in 1701 part of the adjoining house was converted into a nave. The chapel served either the Counts of Bregenz themselves or their servants as a castle chapel. The choir contains frescoes from various times, most of them from around 1362 and 1420. Among other things, they contain scenes from birth and youth as well as the story of Jesus' passion , a pregnant Mary with Joseph's dream , a depiction of holy sorrow and many other saints.
The representations in detail:
- North face
Far left, extra large:
- St. Christopher carrying the Christ child through the water
Upper register, from left to right:
- A holy king (?)
- The dream of St. Joseph with the inscription "Joseph, fili David, noli timere accipere Mariam conjugem tuam" (Mt 1.20) and to the right of it the heavily pregnant Mary on the throne ("Maria gravida")
- Crucifixion of Christ with Mary and John, on the right a Montfort count kneels with knight armor and coat of arms as a donor figure The tape he is holding is barely legible.
- Dragon fight of St. George, right in the background the virgin whom he saves.
- The holy Oswald , King of Northumbria, bringing Christianity to England. He is shown on horseback, with a lily scepter, a golden reliquary vessel and a coat of arms (the English coat of arms with the three lions).
- St. Martin shares his coat with a beggar.
Lower register, from left to right:
- Christ on the Mount of Olives (Garden of Gethsemane), the angel and the three sleeping disciples. On the right part of the picture was lost when the window was broken into.
- Above the left window, at the same time as this: A kneeling knight (donor) prays with his writing tape (illegible?) To the enthroned Mary in the upper register.
- To the right of this is a remnant of the older fresco that was destroyed through the window: the head of a man with a Jewish hat. Another scene from the Passion of Christ was shown.
- Capture of Christ with Judas kiss
- Flagellation of Christ
- Christ crowned with thorns
- Above the middle window: leaf ornament
- Christ carrying the cross
- Crucifixion of Christ with Mary. On the right part of the picture (presumably St. John) was lost when the window was broken into.
- In the right reveal of the right window: St. Christophorus, who carries the Christ child through the water, from a later time
- Right of the window: Resurrection of Christ, also partially destroyed by the window
- East wall
Upper register: mainly scenes from the childhood of Jesus, from left to right:
- Annunciation of the Lord (Mary and the Archangel Gabriel)
- Visitation of the Virgin Mary
- Birth of Christ
- Adoration of the baby Jesus by St. three kings, in the background the star of Bethlehem
- Presentation of the Lord in the temple (the upper part destroyed by a roof beam)
- The twelve year old Jesus in the temple
- Mary and Christ, presumably the apparition of the risen One
- Above the window: two scenes with donors kneeling. - A monk or abbot in a dark robe, with a staff and a book
Middle register, from left to right:
- The Rhine cruise of St. Ursula with her virgins
- Entombment of Christ, the cross stands in the background
- Last supper. Mary Magdalene dries Christ's feet with her hair; anachronistically, St. Paul part (designated by name by an inscription).
- Nine saints, including John the Baptist, Sigismund, Antonius the Abbot, Leonhard, Stephanus, Georg and Katharina. The right part was destroyed by the window.
- In the window reveal: above a figure (angel?) With tape, on the right Christ as the Man of Sorrows (the hands already with the wounds of the crucifixion, a man in a Jewish hat presses the crown of thorns on his head)
Lower register (fragments only), from left to right:
- Two founder pictures with long banners. The inscription above begins with the above-mentioned date: "anno dni (...)".
- Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows
- Heraldic shield
- Next to the window: a standing and a kneeling (?) Figure, maybe another Annunciation
- South wall
Upper register:
- Three scenes from the life of St. Eligius are grouped under a continuous arcade, from left to right: (1) The enthroned saint holds a large chalice in his left hand and his blacksmith's tongs in his right. On the right the devil stands before him in the form of a woman with bird's feet. The saint pinches his long nose with a pair of pliers. - (2) The legend of St. Eligius as a farrier. - (3) The saint in episcopal regalia.
- St. Catherine of Alexandria and a holy bishop
- A sleeping saint dreams of a ladder to heaven on which Christ descends. Under the ladder three crowned figures.
- Maria with child and the hll. Catherine of Alexandria and Anthony the Abbot
- "St. Sorrow "(Wilgefortis). The blood from the wound on the right foot is collected in a goblet.
Lower register (fragments only), from left to right:
- A saint, badly damaged, in the background his attribute: a pair of pliers. Once again St. Eligius?
- St. Leonhard with chain
- A saint Bishop, in the background a tree or bush, badly damaged
- Between the windows, above the wall tabernacle: a female figure with a nimbus, a branch (olive or blossom branch?) And a large container (jug?)
- West wall, only one picture has been preserved
- Dragon fight of St. George
Individual evidence
- ↑ R. Koch: Historical building study on Martinsturm in Bregenz . In Austria. Zschr. Für Kunst und Denkmalpflege 59, 2005, Issue 2, pp. 173–183 (extended online version)
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ according to ULMER, 1936, p. 148
- ^ Dehio-Handbuch Vorarlberg, 1983, pp. 59–60.
Web links
literature
- Gert Ammann (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch Vorarlberg . Schroll, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-7031-0585-2
- Austrian Journal for Art and Monument Preservation 59, 2 (2005), ISSN 0029-9626
Coordinates: 47 ° 30 ′ 3.7 " N , 9 ° 44 ′ 57.3" E