Nordhausen Cathedral

The Nordhausen Cathedral (also called Cathedral of the Holy Cross Nordhausen ) is located in the district town of Nordhausen in the north of the state of Thuringia . Besides the Erfurt Cathedral , it is the only church in the Erfurt diocese that is officially called the Cathedral . The Nordhausen Cathedral was never a cathedral of a bishopric, but a collegiate church until secularization . He received the title To the Holy Cross from the cross relic kept there , a splinter of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cathedral has been the only Catholic church in the city of Nordhausen since the Reformation .

Nordhäuser cathedral, towers and choir

Interior panorama

Choir with crucifix and high altar

history

In 961, Queen Mathilde founded a canonical foundation. No remains of the church built at that time have come to light. Apparently, however, the building was changed in the first half of the 12th century, and probably also expanded. The substructures of the east towers and the crypt have been preserved from these modifications. In 1220 the women's monastery was converted into a canon monastery. Around 1250 the church was rebuilt again. Above all, it received a new, early Gothic choir with a cycle of donor figures.

A provost presided over the canon monastery, z. B. Otto von Harras from 1480.

In 1524 the city council decided to introduce the Reformation . In the period that followed, all parish and monastery churches in the city became Lutheran and their property was transferred to the city administration - with the only exception of the Holy Cross Monastery , which continued as a Catholic body until 1810.

With the Thirty Years War the cathedral monastery began to become impoverished, so that in 1675 the Nordhausen cross reliquary was sold to Duderstadt . It was not until the millennium of the city of Nordhausen in 1927 that the cathedral received a cross relic again.

In 1810 the monastery was abolished in the course of secularization and the associated church became a parish church.

During the British air raid on Nordhausen on April 4, 1945, the cathedral also suffered considerable structural damage due to fire destroying the pitched roof over the hall and destruction of the windows. After the end of the war it was given an emergency roof. From 1965 the pitched roof was restored in its old form.

The interior of the church was renovated in the 1970s. The building itself was repaired in the 2000s and completed in 2008.

Building

The Nordhausen Cathedral contains elements of the Romanesque and Gothic styles . Both towers and parts of the cloister are Romanesque . The crypt from around 1130 is also Romanesque. The nave and the chapter house of the cathedral monastery on the north side of the nave are Gothic in character .

The crypt measures 7.4 × 7.6 meters and has a groin vault. The architectural ornamentation points to the area around the reformed monastery Hirsau in the Black Forest. The oldest tombstone in Nordhausen, dating from 1327, is also placed in the crypt. It belonged to the grave of Friedrich von Biela .

The early Gothic choir of the cathedral was built between around 1230 and 1267 (consecration date) under the influence of the so-called Cistercian early Gothic.

The late Gothic nave was built around 1450, but not yet completely vaulted.

Furnishing

Donor figures

northern choir stalls

Around 1290 statues of the cathedral's most important donors were attached to the side walls of the choir. Are shown Henry I , his wife Mathilde , Otto I (son of Henry and Mathilde), Adelaide (wife of Otto I), Otto II. (Son of Otto I) and his wife Theophanu . Also in the choir are the oak stalls from around 1380. The high altar dates from 1726. Originally there was a Gothic winged altar here, but it was destroyed in the Thirty Years War. In the center of the altar is an image of the Last Supper , above it a statue of the Virgin Mary. Four more statues are attached to the altar depicting Mathilde, Helena , Josef and Johannes Nepomuk .

Grave slabs

Of the existing 30 stone grave slabs, 14 are in the nave and one in the crypt, 14 more are placed behind the cathedral in front of the city wall. The grave slabs belong to:

• Friedrich von Bila (in the crypt, dean, † 1327)
• Heinrich Junge (1323 mayor, † December 13, 1330)
• Johannes Zinckel (Canonic and Cantor, † October 2, 1507)
• Heinrich Zeiz von Nordheim (Canonikus, † May 6, 1515)
• Heinrich Dunde (Canonikus, † March 27, 1501)
• […] A vicar Hermann von Göttingen is mentioned in 1401
• Heinrich von Schwarzburg (Count, 1473 - August 4, 1526)
• Johann Heinrich Katzwinckel (Canonikus and Cantor, 1646 - December 8, 1702)
• Andreas Kramer (from Seesen, 1538 - January 24, 1597)
• Henning Burchard Ude († September 4, 1675), grave slab
• Hermann Pfeiffer (Canonikus, † January 31, 1530)
• Anna Magdalena Mack (1666 - March 27, 1747)
• Johannes Christophorus Sacrifice Man (priest, 1690 - May 6, 1754)
• Johannes Anton Weinrich (Canonikus, † August 24, 1793)

organ

Around 1740 there were two old organ works and a new one. In 1816 the organ was in poor condition and could not be played. In 1853/54 a mechanical organ by Johann Friedrich Schulze from Paulinzella was installed.

In 1927 the gallery was widened and the organ was rebuilt by the Kießling & Sohn organ building company from Bleicherode. The action was changed from mechanical to pneumatic.

The organ was destroyed in the air raids on Nordhausen in 1945.

the Klais organ on the west wall

Today there is a Klais organ at the west end . It was consecrated in the cathedral on November 30, 1996. The organ from the Kassel town hall was built there as a concert hall organ during the organ movement in 1964. In order to give the specific organ sound more fullness and power for the acoustic conditions in the cathedral, the Praestant 16 ′ register was added. The disposition consists of a total of 56 registers ; the instrument has 4923 organ pipes .

From the Gothic choir stalls the mighty organ case grows up with its projecting central projection in front of the west wall. The design language and the colors of the prospectus, based on the idea of ​​Josef Schäfer († 1981), were retained, only supplemented by the new, large pipes of the Praestant 16 ′ of the main work, covering the blinds of the swell. The height limitation of the outer pedal fields is on the same level as the base of the vaulting, the middle field penetrates here: The organ is subordinate to the room in its entirety - with certainty, but also with simplicity and calm in the lines.

Bells

A total of four bells hang in the towers of the cathedral. In the south tower there is the Benigna (Marienglocke) from 1496 as well as a not ringing, but pure chime bell from 1477. In the north tower hang the Marien- und Emergency Helper Bell and the Mathilden Bell , both cast in 1961 in the bell foundry in Apolda .

Overview of the bells of the Nordhausen Cathedral

No.	Surname	Casting year	Foundry, casting location	Diameter (mm)	Mass (kg)	Nominal ( HT - 1 / 16 )
1	Benigna (Mary's Bell)	1496	Claus Misner	1460	around 2000	cis 1 -2
2	Mathilde	1961	Schilling brothers, Apolda	1260	around 1200	e 1 -8
3	Mary and helpers in need	1961	Schilling brothers, Apolda	990	about 600	g sharp 1 -2
4th	Chime bell	1477	unknown	640	about 120	~ f 2

literature

Under the roof of the cathedral

• Carla Buhl: Cathedral of the Holy Cross Nordhausen , leaflet from 2007
• Peter Bühner: On the dating of the two western yokes of the choir vault and the donor figures in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Nordhausen , in: Contributions to the story from the city and district of Nordhausen 37 (2012), pp. 35–39
• Eugen Duval: Nordhausen's medieval grave monuments . Nordhausen: Nordhäuser Section des Harzverein, Theodor Perschmann, 1880, pp. 42–53, digitized version on geschichtsportal-nordhausen.de
• Antje Middeldorf-Kosegarten: The donor statues in Nordhausen , in: Journal of the German Association for Art Research 63.2009 (2010), pp. 65-102
• Johannes Schäfer: Nordhäuser Orgelchronik - History of the organ works in the thousand-year-old town of Nordhausen am Harz in Max Schneider (Hrsg.): Contributions to music research , Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses GmbH Halle / Saale Berlin, 1939
• The architectural and art monuments of the city of Nordhausen , ed. by Julius Schmidt (BKD; Vol. XI), Halle / Saale 1887
• Dirk Suckow: The donor figures in Nordhausen Cathedral , Weimar: VDG 2011, ISBN 978-3-89739-710-1
• Dirk Suckow: Memoria under the sign of the crisis. The donor figure cycle in Nordhausen Cathedral and the relationship between the imperial monastery and the imperial city . In: Dieter Pötschke / Wilhelm Brauneder / Gerhard Lingelbach (ed.): City rights, arbitrariness and police regulations (Part I). Goslar and Wernigerode. Berlin 2017, pp. 198-214, ISBN 978-3867322669
• Thuringia. Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler , Munich: DKV 1998, pp. 903–907, ISBN 3-422-03050-6
• Ingeborg Vorbrodt: The choir stalls in the cathedral to Nordhausen , in: Harz-Zeitschrift 12 (1960), pp. 103-116
• Arno Wand : The Mother of God with the Columbine. A 15th century image of the grace of Mary in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Nordhausen; Symbol language and statement of belief , Leipzig: St. Benno-Verlag 1991
• Arno Wand: The choir stalls in the Nordhausen Cathedral , Munich: DKV 1992
• Arno Wand: The Catholic Reichsstift zum Heiligen Kreuz in Nordhausen and its examination of the Protestant imperial city 1648-1802 , Leipzig: St. Benno-Verlag 1996, ISBN 3-7462-1170-0
• Arno wall: The Reichsstift "Zum Heiligen Kreuz" in Nordhausen and its importance for the imperial city 961-1810 , Heiligenstadt: Eichsfeld Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-935782-08-X

Web links

Commons : Nordhäuser Dom  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Page about the cathedral on the website of the Catholic parish Dom zum Heiligen Kreuz Nordhausen

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Nordhausen" by Rudolf Zießler, in "Fates of German Architectural Monuments in World War II", Ed. Götz Eckardt, Henschel-Verlag Berlin, 1978. Volume 2, p. 489
2. ↑ More information about the cathedral organ on the website of the parish at the cathedral , accessed on August 27, 2020

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 15 ″  N , 10 ° 47 ′ 25 ″  E