Nikolaikapelle (Hildesheim)

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The Nikolaikapelle is a former parish church in the city center of Hildesheim , Hinterer Brühl 13.

location

Nikolaikapelle - view from the southeast.

The Nikolaikapelle is located in the south of the Hildesheim city center, at the confluence of the street Hinterer Brühl in the Godehardsplatz. Around it are half-timbered houses from the 17th to 19th centuries, immediately to the south of it is the hospital for the five wounds from 1770. Opposite is the St. Godehard Church .

history

The Nikolaikapelle was built in the 12th century at the same time as the St. Godehard monastery church and consecrated in 1146 by Bishop Heinrich von Minden . The then bishop of Hildesheim, Bernhard I , was unable to carry out the inauguration himself because he was blind. The Nikolaikapelle served as the parish church of St. Nikolai; one of their pastors was named in a document in 1295.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the church was rebuilt in the late Gothic style and received the pointed, high and narrow windows typical of this period. As was found in architectural studies in connection with the reconstruction after 1945, they were over 6 m high.

After the introduction of the Reformation in Hildesheim, the St. Nikolai Church was awarded to Protestants in 1542 , who initially did not need it. The church temporarily served as a cattle shed, from 1549 religious services were held in it again. It then stood empty until 1557 and was supposed to be demolished because the city administration wanted to use its stones to expand the city fortifications. Due to the protest of the Godehardi monastery, it was transferred to the monastery, in whose possession it remained until the secularization in 1803. After the Godehardikloster was dissolved, the Nikolaikapelle was sold to private property in 1814, was rebuilt and then served as a residential building. The altar , the organ and the Pietà came to the Church of St. Catharina in Asel , where they are still located today.

During the Second World War , the Nikolaikapelle was slightly damaged in an air raid on February 22, 1945. On March 22, 1945, it was hit by fire bombs during the heaviest air raid on Hildesheim, burned down completely, and only the surrounding walls remained, while all the half-timbered houses in the area survived the war almost unscathed.

In the summer of 1964, the first plans for a reconstruction were made. It was completed in 1967, and it was possible to restore the original condition before the destruction in 1945 with three apartments. Today the Nikolaikapelle is once again used exclusively for residential purposes.

architecture

The Nikolaikapelle was originally built in the Romanesque style in an east-west direction and redesigned around 1400 in the late Gothic style. A 1653 by Merian -built copper engraving shows the chapel as a rectangular hall church with Gothic windows, a gable roof and a no longer existing roof skylights .

Further renovations took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. The high and typically Gothic windows were redesigned in such a way that, while maintaining the lateral boundary and at the same time installing horizontal lintels, two new rectangular, smaller windows were created from a high, ogival window for two storeys on top of one another. The dimensions of the Gothic windows became apparent during the reconstruction after 1945, when a bricked-up window from the early 15th century was discovered in the area of ​​the south wall.

On the south side of the building an extension can be seen with the year 1714 engraved in stone, which may refer to a major renovation and conversion into a residential building. Parts of the cornice and base of a previously demolished part of the building are used in the extension and are also visible from the outside. The former choir apse with a tent roof in the east of the building has also been preserved. It still shows the original function of the building as a chapel today.

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 45.2 ″  N , 9 ° 56 ′ 58.2 ″  E

Web links

Commons : Saint Nicholas Chapel (Hildesheim)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christiane Segers-Glocke: Architectural monuments in Lower Saxony. Hameln 2007, p. 145.
  2. ↑ Maike Kozok: A special setting - the Nikolaikirche in Brühl. In: Hildesheim Calendar 2012 - Yearbook for History and Culture. Hildesheim 2011, p. 33.
  3. ^ Christiane Segers-Glocke: Architectural monuments in Lower Saxony. Hameln 2007, p. 146.
  4. ↑ Hermann Seeland: Destruction and fall of old Hildesheim. Hildesheim 1947, p. 10.
  5. ↑ Herrmann Seeland: Churches and welfare institutions in the Diocese of Hildesheim that were destroyed in the World War. Hildesheim 1948, p. 37.
  6. ↑ Maike Kozok: A special setting - the Nikolaikirche in Brühl. In: Hildesheim Calendar 2012 - Yearbook for History and Culture. Hildesheim 2011, p. 32.
  7. ↑ Maike Kozok: A special setting - the Nikolaikirche in Brühl. In: Hildesheim Calendar 2012 - Yearbook for History and Culture. Hildesheim 2011, p. 34.
  8. ↑ Maike Kozok: A special setting - the Nikolaikirche in Brühl. In: Hildesheim Calendar 2012 - Yearbook for History and Culture. Hildesheim 2011, p. 33.