Mauritius rotunda
The Mauritius Rotunda or Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher is a single-storey round chapel east of the Konstanz Minster , with which it is connected by a cloister . It was built in the pre-Romanesque style after 940 and renewed in the Gothic around 1300. The early Gothic replica of the Holy Sepulcher (around 1260) inside the rotunda is of outstanding art-historical importance . The building is considered to be the most important church founded by St. Konrad ( Bishop of Konstanz 934–975).
architecture
The circular chapel (diameter 11.3 m) imitates the central building of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem , as it existed before its destruction in 1009, in a reduction of 1: 2 . Around 1300 the building was comprehensively renewed, extended and given a Gothic rib dome and tracery windows. The cloister , which connects it with the north choir of the minster, the vestibule of the crypt, the former cathedral school and the cathedral chapter hall , was built around this time . The room is spanned by a Gothic vault , between whose radial ribs there are decorative floral paintings. They were created in 1571 when damage caused during the Reformation was repaired.
Originally four rectangular chapels once joined the rotunda in a cross shape. Today there are only two left, one in the east (Ostkapelle) and one in the south ( Blasius - or Trinity Chapel ). Both chapel rooms have their own altars . In the Ostkapelle the plastically is from sandstone designed Epitaph of the canon Gottfried Christoph of rooms embedded († 1570) in the wall. Wall paintings to the left and right of the epitaph show the church patrons St. Konrad and St. Pelagius . The vaulted ceilings of both chapels are decorated with paintings.
The holy grave
In the middle of the chapel is the Holy Sepulcher , which represents the burial place of Christ. The twelve-sided sandstone house (diameter 2.43 m; height 4.65 m) was built around 1260 and is considered the earliest trace of Gothic in the building sculpture of the minster. It is one of the few buildings of this type that still exist in their original architectural environment. Besides the Holy Sepulcher in Magdeburg Cathedral , it is the only example of high-Gothic small buildings between monumental and micro-architecture. It replaced an existing similar structure that had existed since Bishop Konrad's time. The original is said to have been made of gold and silver or at least to have been gilded.
The small architecture of the Holy Sepulcher is decorated with stone carvings. The tracery in the French Gothic style. It features remarkable sculptures that were originally painted in color. Figures of the twelve apostles stand between the battlements of the roof parapet, which are designed in the form of eyelashes and pierced with three passes . Twelve figurative scenes from the Christmas story are depicted at eye level around the Holy Sepulcher , starting with the Annunciation. The figures are stylistically of French origin, but are considered to be influenced by the “intimate” and “cozy” Lake Constance style.
Inside the Holy Sepulcher there are three scenes from the Entombment of Christ: The first scene shows the three women buying ointment from a pharmacist for the embalming of the corpse. The pharmacist is shown wearing glasses , possibly the first ever sculptural display of glasses . The second scene shows the sleeping guards at the tomb of Jesus - three men in medieval armor - the third shows the three women to whom an angel tells of the resurrection of Jesus Christ . The wall surface facing east is provided with a door so that it can be entered for liturgical purposes. A wooden shrine has stood in the grave since 1552 , which presumably replaced a silver shrine that was destroyed during the Reformation .
Liturgical function
Bishop Konrad von Konstanz (term of office 934–975) had the Mauritius rotunda built after 940 - after his second pilgrimage to Jerusalem . On a smaller scale, the building recreated the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher , at that time the most important religious center of Christianity. Konrad himself traveled to Jerusalem three times in his life.
The rotunda was originally built as a free-standing building northeast of the minster, which at that time did not yet have a transept . The position of the rotunda northeast of the bishop's church may imitate the position of the early medieval mausoleums on St. Peter's Basilica that existed at the time . Originally, Konrad provided the Mauritius Church with twelve canons , corresponding to the number of apostles. It was thus the third collegiate church in the city after the Bischofsmünster and St. Stephen's Church . Presumably for cost reasons, however, these posts were soon abolished.
The chapel was consecrated to St. Mauritius , who was considered the patron saint of the Ottonian kings and who had been worshiped in the Holy Roman Empire since the 5th century . The building is therefore also considered a political declaration of loyalty by the bishop to the ruling Liudolfingers . Relics of the imperial saint came from the Reichenau monastery to Constance via the Augsburg bishop Ulrich I (923–973) .
First and foremost, the Mauritius Chapel must be seen as a liturgical place which, within the cathedral liturgy, played an important role as a station in processions and was also the seat of the canons of St. Mauritius. The altar was provided with regular income. The chapel is not to be understood as a baptistery, although it is variously associated with the walk to the baptismal font in literature.
At Easter liturgical Easter games took place here, in which the construction of the Holy Sepulcher was included in the liturgy . The stations of the resurrection were staged in front of the audience: the visit of the three women at the grave, the race of the disciples to the grave, the apparition of the risen One. The roles were taken on by clergymen and spoken in Latin. This would make the Mauritius rotunda the “oldest preserved post-ancient stage ”. The "Constance Easter Game" is purely liturgical in its basic form and classification in the cathedral liturgy and was celebrated in camera. In terms of its furnishings and function, the Holy Sepulcher is in close connection with its facility in the former chapter cemetery and with the cloister, which was equipped with depictions of the instruments of suffering and the passion of Christ himself. The holy grave and the Mauritius rotunda are still an integral part of the festival liturgy and are still used as Easter graves during Holy Week.
For centuries, the Mauritius rotunda was a destination for pilgrimages . The numerous pilgrims - especially believers from the surrounding area who could not afford the long journey to the Holy Land - circled the Holy Sepulcher three times. A small stone walled in in the Holy Sepulcher supposedly comes from the grave of Christ and is said to have been brought by Konrad himself from his pilgrimages. An indulgence was pronounced for pilgrims to visit the Constance Minster and its Holy Grave. Even today, the chapel is a station on three sections of the Camino de Santiago : the Upper Swabian Way of Saint James and the Via Beuronensis serves the Mauritius Chapel as the target point, the Schwabenweg as a starting point to nearby Switzerland. Bishop Konrad von Konstanz himself was buried on the outer wall of the chapel, where his grave probably became a destination for pilgrims shortly after his death . Konrad's canonization in 1123 increased the existing veneration. A small chapel room was built over his presumed grave at the time of the canonization or earlier, which connects to the west of the base of the Mauritius rotunda, but is only accessible from the crypt of the minster. The Konradikapelle has an artistically excellent equipment with the so-called Bockstorffer Altar (15th century) and the wall painting in the Byzantine style designed by Beuron monks (see Konstanzer Münster # Konradikapelle ).
Inscription board
For a long time, a stone tablet (1.63 × 0.74 m) with a Roman inscription from 294 was embedded in the south wall of the rotunda. It came as a fragment of a larger panel from the Roman fort Vitudurum (today in the area of the Winterthur district of Oberwinterthur ) and was brought to Constance in the early Middle Ages - perhaps by Bishop Konrad himself. (It has been in the town hall of Winterthur since 1965 ; there is only one copy in the Mauritius rotunda.) The text of the inscription reads as follows:
- "[I] MP (erator) CAES (ar) C (aius) AURE (lius) VAL (erius) DIOCLETIAN [US PONT (ifex) MAX (imus) GER (manicus) MAX (imus) II]
- SAR (maticus) MAX (imus) PERS (icus) MAX (imus) TRIB (unicia) POT (estate) XI IM [P (erator) X CO (n) S (ul) VP (ater) P (atriae) PROCO ( n) S (ul) ET]
- IMP (erator) CAES (ar) M (arcus) AUR (elius) VAL (erius) MAX {si} IMIA [NUS PONT (ifex) MAX (imus) GER (manicus) MAX (imus) SAR (maticus)]
- MAX (imus) PERS (icus) MAX (imus) TRIB (unicia) POT (estate) X IMP (erator) VIIII CO (n) [S (ul) IIII P (ater) P (atriae) PROCO (n) S ( ul) P (ii) F (elices) INV (icti) AUGG (usti)]
- ET VAL (erius) CONSTANTIUS ET GAL (erius) VAL (erius) [MAXIMIANUS NOBILISSIMI]
- [C] AESS (ares) MURUM VITUDURENSEM AS [OLO SUMPTU SUO FECERUNT]
- AURELIO PROCULO V (iro) P (erfectissimo) PR [AES (ide) PROV (inciae) CURANTE] "
- “The Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , Pontifex Maximus , for the second time the greatest German winner , greatest Sarmatian winner , greatest Persian winner , in the eleventh year of his tribunician power , proclaimed emperor for the tenth time , consul , father of the fatherland, proconsul , and
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus , Pontifex Maximus, greatest German winner, greatest Sarmatian winner, greatest Persian winner , in the tenth year of his tribunician power , proclaimed emperor for the ninth time, consul for the fourth time , father of the fatherland, proconsul , the pious, happy, victorious emperors ,
and Valerius Constantius and Galerius Valerius Maximianus , the most noble
sub-emperors, had the fort wall of Vitudurum built from scratch at their expense
under the direction of Aurelius Proculus, the illustrious provincial governor. "
In Constance, the tablet was considered a valuable document in the Middle Ages, as it records the name of the Roman emperor Constantius I , who is considered to be the namesake of the city. The stone was hewn in such a way that the name of the alleged city founder was placed in the middle. The late medieval Constance citizens took the mention as proof that the city was founded by the Romans. Although the episcopal church actually stands on a Roman fort from the 4th century AD, the inscription text refers to Vitudurum .
The inscription was revered as a healing by the common people . Believers touched the stone and then brushed their faces with their hands. Both the Italian humanist Leonardo Bruni , who attended the Council of Constance , and Hartmann Schedel's World Chronicle of 1493 report on this custom.However, Schedel scoffs at this form of popular piety that, out of naivety, it applies not to Christian saints but to those who persecute Christians:
- “Little Costnitzer would read the same board. the gemain volck thinks the same board is a heylthumb. the frewlein and the other unfarn people, with touching irer hend and with smearing irer face, erased the same letters yetzo almost completely from the table. wiwol the names of holy cristi are not written there. sunder the persecutor of christian glawbes. ”(CCXLI).
Footnotes
- ^ Kurmann 1985
- ↑ Jezler 1985; reported and cited by Maurer 1989
- ↑ Flemming 2002
- ↑ CIL 13, 05249
- ^ Translation quoted from Maurer 1989, p. 71, but here significantly amended and changed.
- ↑ Transcript and further references: Franz Xaver Kraus (Ed.): Die Kunstdenkmäler des Großherzogthums Baden (Volume 1): Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Konstanz . Freiburg i. Br. 1924, p. 84 digitized version ( memento of the original dated November 13, 2013 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.
literature
- Gabriele Ulrike Flemming: The Constance Easter Game. A literary and cultural historical investigation. Konstanz 2001 (University of Konstanz, Master's thesis, 2002).
- Peter Jezler: Was there an Ottonian Easter game in Constance? The Mauritius rotunda and its cultic function as Sepulchrum Domini. In: Adolf Reinle (Ed.): Variorum mvnera florvm. Latinity as a formative force of medieval culture . Festschrift for Hans F. Haefele on his 60th birthday. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1985, ISBN 3-7995-7035-7 , pp. 91-128.
- Peter Kurmann: The Holy Grave in Constance, shape and function. In: Documentation - Conference of Cathedral Builders, Minster Builders, Hüttenmeister. 10-14 September 1985 in Constance. = Documentation of the cathedral master builder conference. State Building and University Building Authority, Constance 1985.
- Helmut Maurer : Constance in the Middle Ages. Volume 1: From the beginning to the council. Stadler, Konstanz 1989, ISBN 3-7977-0182-9 ( History of the City of Konstanz 1).
- Heribert Reiners : The Minster of Our Lady of Constance. Thorbecke, Konstanz 1955 ( The art monuments of South Baden 1).
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 39 '47.9 " N , 9 ° 10' 36.3" E