Michael's Church (Košice)
The Michael's Church (Church of St. Michael, Slovak Kostol svätého Michala) , also Michaels Chapel called (kaplnka svätého Michala) is a single-nave Gothic church in the city of Kosice in Slovakia . It was built in the second half of the 14th century and served as the burial chapel of the adjoining St. Elisabeth Cathedral . The chapel was surrounded by a cemetery for a long time , which was abandoned in 1771 and replaced by a park . Both the dedication of the chapel to the Archangel Michael and an ossuary have been preserved since construction began. Later it was subjected to several changes and modifications. The most important of these led to considerable changes in the floor plan in the 15th and early 20th centuries . The chapel was given the title of Church after a final renovation in 2006.
The church has been a listed building since 1963 . The ensemble, which consists of the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth, St. Michael's Church and the Urban Tower , forms the center of the city of Košice and was declared a national cultural monument in 1970. In 2006, the Michaelskirche was cultural monument of the year .
location
The church is located in the east of Slovakia in the old town of Košice (Slovak: Staré mesto ), south of the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth , which forms the center of the city at the intersection of the streets Hlavná, Alžbetiná and Mlynská. The Hlavná, the main street of the city, widens at this point and takes on an elongated shape, in the middle of which there are three other buildings in addition to the St. Michael's Church: the cathedral, the Urban Tower and the State Theater .
Dimensions
Compared to the nearby cathedral, which has an area of 1200 m² and can accommodate up to 5000 people, the building is only of modest size. The interior space does not exceed 16 × 9 m and the vault height is 12 m . The church can accommodate up to 100 people.
history
construction
The building history of the chapel is closely related to that of the adjacent St. Elisabeth Cathedral . A Romanesque parish church originally stood on the site of the cathedral , which was partially destroyed by fire in 1380. This offered a good opportunity to build a new church, which should reflect the prosperity of Košice, which flourished in the late Middle Ages . In the second half of the 14th century, the construction of a cemetery chapel for the future Elizabeth Cathedral was started, in which funeral services and funeral masses were to be held. A subterranean ossuary was provided to accommodate the remains . The chapel was built in the middle of the city cemetery, which was located in the heart of the city, south of the parish church and had been in use for 70 years when construction began. The location and function of the chapel explain why it was consecrated to the Archangel Michael, who was responsible for the weighing of souls in the Last Judgment in the Middle Ages .
At the time the chapel was built, Slovakia belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary , which was ruled together with the Kingdom of Naples by the French House of Anjou . According to architects of the early 20th century such as Václav Mencl , this can also be seen in the architecture of the chapel, which shows traces of French, Neapolitan, but also Silesian architectural style elements and which is based on the influences of the Hungarian King Charles I and his son Ludwig I. . indicate.
Around 1440 the old church was demolished to make way for the pointed arches of the Elisabeth church. The parish church was therefore temporarily the chapel built at the same time and completed in 1400.
First modifications
Fundamental changes were made to the chapel in the 15th century. György Szátmary , a native of Košice and later Archbishop of Esztergom , donated a large sum of money to the city for the parish church, the forerunner of today's Elizabeth Cathedral, and for the St. Michael's Chapel . At that time, a side aisle was added to the north facade of the chapel , the area of which was almost as large as that of the chapel itself. The two naves were connected by arcades . The small sacristy on the north facade was torn down and replaced by a new one on the south facade. The chapel was named after its patron Szátmary .
Minority church
At the beginning of the 16th century, the prosperity of Košice was coming to an end. In the War of Succession that broke out in the empire after the death of King Matthias in 1490, the Polish ruler Johann I Albrecht Jagiellon besieged the city, which was attacked for the first time in its history. The Michael Chapel and the cathedral were badly damaged. In 1556 the city fell victim to a devastating fire that not only affected the chapel but also the entire south and east of the city. In the same year the cathedral fell into the hands of the Protestants , who owned it until 1604. The chapel served as a gathering place for Catholics during the Protestant rule in Košice .
In the 17th century the chapel was known as the Slovak Church as it was the only church in the city where services were celebrated in the Slovak language . Around 1771 it was decided to give up the cemetery and replace it with a park.
Neo-Gothic restoration
Interest in the building was reawakened in the 19th century and a series of renovations took place. In 1821 the towers and other structural elements were repaired. In 1864 Imre Henszlman discovered remains of frescoes in the chapel , which have been restored.
The chapel was restored again between 1902 and 1904 as part of the 100th anniversary of the Košice diocese , shortly after the great neo-Gothic restoration of the cathedral , which was completed in 1896 . In the case of the chapel, too, they returned to the Gothic beginnings and to the original design. Otto Sztehlo directed the work on the chapel and had the 15th century constructions, especially the Szátmary aisle, torn down again. In return, he had a new sacristy built on the north facade on the foundations of the former sacristy in front of the Szátmary Chapel, which were rediscovered when the chapel was demolished. At the same time, the sacristy on the south facade was removed.
Monument protection and last restoration
In 1970 the building was declared a national cultural monument together with the Elisabeth Cathedral and the Urban Tower opposite . After the end of the Second World War , the chapel was only open on St. Michaelis Day (29 September) until 1986 . It later served as a temporary storage facility for the altar paintings of Elisabeth Cathedral, the sanctuary of which was renovated and temporarily closed to the public. During the renovation work on the chapel, the roof of the bell tower was struck by lightning in 2002 ; one of the two stone crosses on the roof top was replaced by a copy. After completing the ten-year renovation work, the chapel was given the title Church in 2006 and was opened to the public again. In 2012, five services were held weekly - three weekly and two on Sundays, including one by a university pastor and one in English .
description
Exterior construction
The west facade is framed by two buttresses that accommodate a pointed arch spanning the entire width of the facade. This carries the two-storey bell tower rising in the middle . This protrudes from the steep chapel roof, which is covered with two buttress arches on the west facade. The tower's gable roof is perpendicular to the building axis. The main entrance is decorated with a relief with the Archangel Michael fighting a dragon and depictions of the Archangels Raphael and Gabriel . On both sides of the portal there are statues of Simon Peter and Paul , which were placed during the restoration at the beginning of the 20th century; A small rose window appears above the portal .
The southern flank is very simple. Three high windows closed with a pointed arch alternate with buttresses . The choir head in the east has the same structure as the south facade. Windows and buttresses follow one another in three facets and enclose a polygonal apse . 17 gravestones of the former cemetery are walled into the outer wall of the south facade, the choir head and the north facade . Small openings above the floor allow a view of the ossuary below the church.
The north side towards the cathedral was reconstructed in 1903 after the Szátmary side aisle was demolished and, in contrast to the south and east facades, has no larger windows. The sacristy between the two eastern buttresses is a replica of that of the original building. A small closed corridor on an arch between three buttresses connects the sacristy with a small round tower on one of the buttresses. A narrow spiral staircase leads to the roof structure and the rectangular bell tower.
inner space
The interior consists of a single nave. The main entrance is surmounted by a rood screen on two columns with ornate capitals . At the level of the north wall, to the left of the choir , there are traces of late medieval wall paintings and below are imprecise copies dated to the 19th century. There is also the entrance to the sacristy with the oldest coat of arms of the city of Košice, which is carved into the railing of the grandstand above the sacristy. Behind the altar is a reredos with the Archangel Michael in the middle, the Archangels Gabriel and Raphael on the sides and the Virgin Mary with Child above. A tabernacle carved in stone rises on a plinth between the reredos and the entrance to the sacristy . This extends several meters up to the height of the capitals of the columns that support the arches of the church. The south wall with three sedile niches is decorated with floral motifs.
The church windows are richly decorated with wattle . Most of them date from the late Middle Ages, with the exception of the very fragile rose window which was replaced several times.
The basement, which is only accessible through a door in the north facade, serves as an ossuary. It is built of stone masonry and is divided into two parts by a wall with round arches and pillars . The burial niches were created at the end of the 18th century to accommodate the bones from the last 1.5 meter thick layer that was exposed during the removal of the cemetery.
See also
Web links
- An article about Michaels Church (Slovak)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Číslo ÚZPF 1117/2 in the Pamiatkový úrad database accessed on December 7, 2012
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Helena Haberlandová: Kaplnka svätého Michala v Košiciach. (No longer available online.) Technick-a-industrilne.obnova.sk, November 1, 2001, archived from the original on May 1, 2015 ; Retrieved October 20, 2012 (Slovak). 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.
- ↑ Kaplnka sv. Michala v Košiciach: Diery v jej múre narobili bosorky. www.cas.sk, December 8, 2008, accessed October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
- ↑ a b c Tina Markušová: Kaplnka sv. Michala. Retrieved October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
- ↑ Václav Mencl: Gotická architektúra Košíc . In: Vlastivedný časopis . XV, No. I, 1966, pp. 3–25 (Slovak).
- ^ Szatmári, György. (No longer available online.) Www.memo.fr, archived from the original on November 8, 2012 ; Retrieved October 20, 2012 (French). 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.
- ↑ Košice: Z History Košíc - 15. a 16. storočie. (No longer available online.) Www.kosice.sk, archived from the original on June 25, 2007 ; Retrieved October 20, 2012 (Slovak). 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.
- ↑ a b c Milan Kolcun: Kaplnka sv. Michala. Retrieved October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
- ↑ Urbanova veža. www.cassovia.sk, accessed on October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
- ↑ Obnova kostola sv. Michala trvala desať rokov. December 8, 2006, accessed October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
- ↑ Kaplnku ocenili Fénixom. korzar.sme.sk, November 2, 2007, accessed October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
- ↑ Kaplnka sv. Michala. Admissam, občianske združenie, June 9, 2012, accessed October 20, 2012 (in Slovak).
- ↑ a b c d Kaplnka sv. Michala. Retrieved October 20, 2012 (Slovak).
Coordinates: 48 ° 43 ′ 12 ″ N , 21 ° 15 ′ 30 ″ E