Nikolaikirche (Freiberg)
The Nikolaikirche is the second oldest church building in Freiberg . It has been owned by the city since it was desecrated in 1975.
history
The Nikolaikirche was built between 1185 and 1190 in Romanesque style. It was probably badly damaged in city fires in 1375, 1386 and 1471. It was almost completely destroyed on June 21, 1484 when a fire broke out in the house of a coppersmith next to the horse stable of the Dominican monastery on today's Prüferstrasse at 4 p.m. Large parts of the city fell victim to the flames, of the Nikolaikirche only the two towers and the side walls remained. As a result, the papal nuncio granted indulgences to all those who participated in the restoration of the Nikolaikirche. During the reconstruction, the church received its two bells. They were manufactured in 1487 and 1498 in the famous Hilliger bell foundry . In order to secure the financing of the work, Bishop Johann VI. von Meißen began collecting collections in June 1512 . Most of the church was restored in 1518, but by 1578 the nave had been renewed as a Gothic hall church . 1630 took place an increase in the West Towers and from 1750 to 1753 a baroque reconstruction of the church under the direction of Johann Christoph Knöffel and Johann Gottlieb Ohndorff . In the course of the construction work, Johann Gottfried Stecher created a baptism in 1753, which was consecrated on January 25, 1754.
An organ was built by Johann Gottlob Mende between 1842 and 1845. It has two manuals and 28 stops . In 1888 the organ was rebuilt by the Jehmlich company in Dresden .
Dedication of the church in 1975
The Saxon State Church sold in 1975 the dilapidated church for 28,000 East German marks , to be paid in ten annual installments, to the city of Freiberg. The organ, altar, pulpit and baptismal font as well as the bells and the belfry were excluded from this sale. The church was used for a short time as a fruit store and later as a prop room for the theater opposite; structural maintenance did not take place. After the Mende organ , built in 1845, was sold to the Nikolaikirche in Wismar for 20,000 GDR marks at the end of January 1976 , the church council of the Petri-Nikolai congregation waived the inventory on January 31, 1976. The bells and the belfry were not included in this waiver and are still the property of the Petri-Nikolai congregation today. The sale made it possible to restore and expand the Petrikirche into a community center with funds from a program run by the state-owned foreign trade company Limex .
The chairman of the district council, Heinz Arnold , wrote to the city council on November 18, 1975: “I have received information that the above-mentioned object is being used in a politically unacceptable manner and that it is very likely that it will be photo-documentary Notice by a citizen of West Berlin ”. The state authorities had insisted on removing the inventory. Only the bells were excluded from the waiver. The baptismal font was later given to the Frauenkirche in Dresden, where it can be viewed today. Contrary to their announcements, the state authorities did not intend to preserve the Nikolaikirche. On March 31, 1975, Mayor Ullmann ( LDPD ) wrote: "The structural condition, location, architectural and cultural or monument-worthy condition in no way justify fundamentally maintaining this building". He further emphasizes “that with the continuation of the building activity in the city of Freiberg, it is very likely that this area will be declared a development area around the mid-1980s. Then the transfer of the property to public ownership will hardly be avoidable, but will be associated with higher replacement costs than the current purchase price to be achieved ”.
After the political change , the church was completely renovated. It has been used as a concert and event hall since then and can be rented from the Office for Culture - City - Marketing of the Freiberg City Administration. Of the original Romanesque building, only the double tower facade is preserved today. For a number of years, people have been thinking about purchasing a new organ.
gallery
Rear view from the direction of Wasserturmstrasse
entrance
historical city arms above the entrance
Nave
altar
pulpit
Gallery
Prospectus of the Mende organ sold to Wismar
Rectory ...
… behind the …
... Nikolaikirche
Literature (selection)
- Richard Friedrich: The St.Nikolai Church in Freiberg. In: Messages from the Freiberg Antiquities Association. Volume 24, 1887, pp. 1-48.
- Mathias Haenchen, Martin Ziermann: Comments on the Romanesque church of St. Nikolai in Freiberg / Saxony. In: Stefan Amt (Hrsg.): Festschrift for Günther Kokkelink . (= Writings of the Institute for the History of Architecture and Art at the University of Hanover ). Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-931585-09-3 , pp. 21-30.
- R. Steche: Nicolaikirche. In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Third booklet: Amtshauptmannschaft Freiberg. Dresden 1884, p. 67 ff. (1999, ISBN 3-89557-118-0 )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nikolaikirche. City of Freiberg - Office for City of Culture Marketing, accessed on February 10, 2015 .
- ^ Hubert Ermisch : Walks through the city of Freiberg in the Middle Ages. In: New archive for Saxon history and antiquity . Volume 12, 1891, pp. 86–162, here p. 132 (digitized version )
- ^ Mecklenburgisches Orgelmuseum Wismar, Protestant St. Nikolaikirche. Mecklenburgisches Orgelmuseum, accessed on February 10, 2015 .
- ^ Freiberg City Archives ZAR 9128 Parcel No. 529, Nikolaikirche (1974–1984)
Web links
- Nikolaikirche Freiberg - Website of the city marketing Freiberg
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 6.1 ″ N , 13 ° 20 ′ 45.3 ″ E