Miracle Cross Elspe
The miracle cross is a large crucifix that is in the church of St. Jakobus d. Ä. in Elspe , a district of Lennestadt in the Sauerland , hangs.
It was originally dated to the 12th century. Recent research shows that the body is much older and dates from the 10th century, while the cross itself can be dated to around 1175. There is also the thesis that the cross was originally made for a purpose other than Jacob's staff . It has not yet been scientifically published.
Written tradition
In honor of the cross, many pensions, inclines and donations were donated in Elspe and the surrounding area. “In a letter from 1450 there is a report of the so-called St. Cross as a miraculous image. If this cross was already a miraculous image in folk tales at that time, it naturally follows that it had to be very old even then, because only in long periods of time can the natural envelop itself in a sacred myth, the sign merging into the signified Idea with which symbols are identified. It is now possible that the picture is older than the church. The legend even allows churches to arise through such images. ”( Pastor Kayser : Parish chronicle of St. Jakobus Church in Elspe)
The Holy Cross of Elspe does not only come into light through a lost document from 1450, but already in the oldest of the parish archives, which concerns Elspe itself, from 1426. In it sell “Cord von Langenstroit de aulde Patze sin elike vrouwe and Cord and Hinrik ere sone your kotenstede with erer tobeheringe located to Meggen deme hiligen cruce to Elspe ind synem testementen halff ind the other help Nolleke Vyscher van Meggen ”( Joseph Brill : Geschichte der Pfarrei Elspe –1948). From then on, almost every document brings a confession of honor to the Holy Cross.
Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in Elspe
The Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in Elspe existed for several centuries until it was dedicated on January 16, 1496 to a Vicarie of the Cross Brotherhood at the Episcopal Official of the Archdiocese of Cologne in Werl . For this purpose, all Elsper citizens had to appear in Werl, who could not appear, were given a default judgment. The first rector of the Brotherhood of the Cross was granted special rights vis-à-vis his successors and the Church.
All properties, courtyards, fields, meadows and other things as well as movable and immovable property were recorded and sealed in the foundation deed. It was also determined that all documents, legal titles and income statements must be kept in a box with three locks. The pastor, the rector of the altar and one of the temporary agents each kept a key to this box. Nobody of the others was allowed to have access to this box or chest with the mentioned documents and prescriptions alone, but only together.
Restoration of the cross
The miracle cross, which received a lot of attention and recognition from the population in the 19th century, hung on the side of the Elsper parish church until the early 1960s. The previously colorful cross was last painted over with a simple brown paint, in line with contemporary tastes. Unlike other works, however, it was not destroyed or given away and could be saved for posterity.
During the restoration by the Münster Monument Authority, all versions (layers of paint) were carefully removed, whereby a total of seven versions became known. The oldest (7th) version was the most artistically valuable, so it was used as a model for the restoration and gives the cross its current appearance. In the meantime, the versions had become more and more simple, until the entire cross with the body was finally provided with a white primer and then painted with brown-red paint. The carved notches and smaller hollows recognized during the restoration were, since the cross was supposed to serve as an object of prayer, filled with a spatula and covered with the visible frame. According to the restoration report, it was classified around 1130.
Exhibition Monumenta Annonis
For the exhibition “Monumenta Annonis” in 1975 at the Schnütgen Museum in the Cäcilienkirche , Cologne, the cross was classified in the 12th century after comparing it with the Gero cross and other crosses from this period.
In the catalog: “In the Miracle Cross of Elspe, finally, the aggressive and expressive three-dimensional formation of the hard and linearly offset parts seems to be replaced by the gentle modeling of the entire slim body. The stillness of the form, the calmness of the outline and the delicacy of the sensation combine it with the crucifix from the Liebieghaus from the middle of the century, so that the stated determination based on the 'late Ottonian model' exactly addresses the style situation. It is related to this also through the type of the associated bar cross, which was adopted from goldsmithing . But the body has a solid strength, a more solid volume; the loincloth shows itself in great linear precision. The until now little noticed and dated to the 12th century pictorial work from the Sauerland region of Cologne and the former little ' annonian ' landscape between Grafschaft and Attendorn is at the end of the series of crucifixes gathered here , perhaps also at the end or at the turn of the century and at the same time at the beginning of the Romanesque style to which the Cologne crucifixes of the Anno period consistently led. Because the preview of the classical works of Romanesque art, as represented for example by the Alpirsbach lectern in Freudenstadt , expresses the connection with the iconographic and formal style of the 11th century in the crucifix of Elspe .
This again addresses the difficulties mentioned at the beginning in the classification of certain sculptural monuments between the 11th and 12th centuries. They are mostly explained by the continuity of the visual appearance in the differentiated, multi-level process from the different and individually determined objectivity of the 11th century to the concretization, consolidation, organization and objectification of the pictorial form in the 12th century. The Miracle Cross from Elspe does not seem to be a repetition in the tradition of Ottonian on the threshold of the Romanesque style ”. Yet another moment arises when looking at the very different characters of the crucifixes in comparison with the major works of Cologne sculpture of the 11th century, with whose style they generally belong together.
Recent investigations of the miracle cross
In 2006, new examinations were carried out on the Miracle Cross using today's technical methods. A C14-carbon dating was discarded because one would this bring a small core hole in the cross must. Since the cross on the side is only 14-18 mm thick, tilting the drill could have damaged the cross. An examination using magnetic resonance imaging was not considered because the cross had metal parts. Therefore, non-destructive examinations in a computer tomograph (CT) should be used. X-rays from Cologne University Hospital did not achieve the required resolution.
Investigations in a technical CT machine at the Aalen University of Applied Sciences
The FH Aalen turned to study a "technical CT device" is available. In contrast to a medical CT device, the patient is not pushed into a tube and the recording head of the X-ray device moves around him, but here the part to be examined is clamped on a turntable and rotates around its own axis. The recording head of the X-ray device remains firmly in the same place. One advantage of the device is that it is possible to work with a very high level of X-ray radiation since the entire system is in its own secure room.
The virtual section generated here with the highest resolution was examined by the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Department of Prehistory and Early History / Dendrochronological Laboratory at the University of Frankfurt .
The dendrochronological examination
During the dendrochronological examination , a tree ring table was made from this section and compared with the known results. The wood of the body then had 62 annual rings and can be classified between 907 and 968. According to the report, the felling date would be around / after 989.
The period from 978 to 1154 falls on the oak wood of the cross beam with at least 177 annual rings over a width of 18 cm, i.e. with very narrow increments. This tree would have been felled around / after 1175.
Comparative investigations by the dendrochronological laboratories of the DAI Berlin and the laboratory of the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office, Hemmenhofen office, have confirmed the results.
Result of the report
The fact that the body was manufactured around / after 989 and the cross bar around / after 1175 allows the conclusion that there is a difference of 186 years between the two, that the cross and the body do not match in time. The cross (corpus) can be classified according to stylistic comparisons with the Gero cross in Cologne or the cross in Benninghausen , although it is considerably smaller. The two were only joined together much later. The cross could also be used as an astronomical surveying device without the body as such. At what point in time they both met can only be speculated.
It is interesting to note that the cross was cut off at all four ends, perhaps to make it unusable as an astronomical device. In the case of the Gero cross, the report assumes that the tree of the cross beam was felled in a period from 971 to 1012, that of the body around / after 965.
It may have been the same artist or comes from the same workshop, as not only the stylistic comparisons allow this, but also the proximity to the felling date, as there are only 24 years between the two. This can only bring a comparison of the two test results.
The miracle cross as an astronomical instrument
A hypothesis about the suitability of the miracle cross as a Jacob's staff arose due to the notches and hollows on the longitudinal and transverse beams, which are not exactly symmetrical. The extensive investigations based on an exact replica showed that the dimensions of the cross corresponded to astronomical data. However, the theses have not yet been scientifically published .
Detailed investigation
Archival material
- Land registry office Olpe: original land register from 1831
- Parish of St James the Elder Ä. Elspe: Church chronicle Elspe
Printed sources and literature
- Robert Boerger: History of Elspe
- Joseph Brill: Elspe: History of the Parish of Elspe –1948
- Barry Cunliffe: The Celts , Lübbe
- Hannsferdinand Döbler: The Teutons
- Hans Friebertshäuser: Ländlicher Raum im Wandel , Frankfurt am Main, Insel-Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-458-16521-5
- Heinz Griese: Pictures, stories and history from a village in the Sauerland
- Heimatblätter, magazine of the Heimatvereine of the Olpe district
- Voices from the Olpe district
- Albert K. Hömberg : Olpe: home chronicle of the district of Olpe
- Albert K. Hömberg: Olpe: Church and secular national organization in the original parishes
- Simon James: The Age of the Celts
- Franz Kaiser: Elspe: Elspe - An old village in the Sauerland , 1993
- Otto Lucas: Olpe: The Olper Land
- Anton Legner (Ed.): Monumenta Annonis: Cologne and Siegburg; Worldview and art in the high Middle Ages; an exhibition of the Schnütgen Museum of the City of Cologne in the Cäcilienkirche from April 30 to July 27, 1975 , Schnütgen Museum, Cologne, 1975
- Anton Overmann: The church monuments of the Olpe iW district , 1940
Others
- Günter Röttger: Restoration report: manuscript, executive restorer in the workshop of the Westphalian Office for Monument Preservation
- X-rays from Cologne University Hospital
- CT images from Cologne University Hospital
- Friedrich Klein: CT images of the metal casting working group at the Steinbeis Transfer Center at Aalen University of Applied Sciences
- Thorsten Westphal: Expert opinion from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt / Main at the seminar for prehistory and early history for the dendrochronological examination and age determination
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pastoral Association Oene-Elspe-Tal - St. Jakobus Elspe. In: pv-oeneelspetal.de. Retrieved October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ From the Chronicle of St. Peter and Paul Halberbracht. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 12, 2008 ; Retrieved October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ Marc Dressler: Computed tomographic information about a remarkable wooden cross. In: idw-online.de. FH Aalen, January 17, 2006, accessed October 6, 2014 .