Peterskirche (Lindau)

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The Peterskirche in Lindau, south view

The Peterskirche is the oldest sacred building in the Bavarian-Swabian city of Lindau (Lake Constance) . The essentially Romanesque church, meanwhile profaned , dates back to the 11th century and is due to late Gothic wall paintings - often but unsecured Hans Holbein the Elder. Ä. attributed - of supraregional importance. It stands on the western edge of the old town on the island of Lindau and has been home to a war memorial since the 1920s .

history

North side with tower

The oldest settlement core on the island of Lindau is located around today's Peterskirche. If one believes in one of the scriptures handed down by Daniel Heider , originally dated around 1330, the Rotulus , then the "capella St. Petri", a wooden predecessor of today's church, existed even before the foundation of the Canonical Monastery . The local historical research assumes that a fishing village - hence the Peter - patron saint , the saint is the patron saint of fishermen - as an early settlement center next to a probably also before the pin founding existent second nucleus for today's market place existed. The latter received its urban character, however, after the market was moved from the mainland Aeschach to the island in 1079, as chroniclers testify. Since there was a bay near the elevated place in the area of ​​today's Paradise Square, the place was predestined for a fishing settlement.

Probably after the market was relocated, the previous building gave way to a stone church, which did justice to the increased importance of the place. Due to its location, shape and spatial relationship to the nave , the church tower suggests that it was integrated into the new building as an existing watchtower, which was built for observation and defense purposes at the point near the bank.

After the construction of St. Stephen's Church as the new parish church on the island in 1180, St. Peter's Church lost its importance as a branch church . From then on, it was used by a monastic community of beguines , consisting of women who came from the lower classes and who had dedicated themselves entirely to the care of the sick. The construction of the " Closmen ", as the building of the community was called, falls according to Boulan in the year 1264. After the Closmeresses had to reckon with the dissolution due to the ecclesiastical disapproval of such order-like communities without vows and canonical recognition, the Franciscan barefoot monks took them and secured the continued existence of the Closmen Convention by integrating them into the structures of the Minorite Order as Terziarinnen .

The church underwent its first major structural change in the first half of the 13th century when the nave was extended to the west by about six meters. A Gothic tracery window that is now walled up was used in the apse . A red chalk drawing of St. Christopher across from the portal was probably made around 1300 . Remains of figurative-ornamental painting in the choir arch and in the apse were later painted over. A tracery window was also let into the west side of the church, the entrance was moved further west into the extension part and adorned with a round window, which takes up the fisherman's motif in the form of a sun wheel composed of four fish bubbles .

The construction of the nearby theft tower in the 14th century and the backfilling of the land , which the watchtower had been used to protect, already in the 13th century , meant a loss of function for the Petersturm. In the period that followed, it almost completely disintegrated, so that rebuilding was considered in 1425. It was made possible by the rich chaplain Peter Glückhaf (f) t. Around 1485/90 the Lindau Passion was commissioned on the eastern north wall, the authorship of which is controversial. Around 1520, the eastern front wall, the apse and the eastern side of the south wall were painted. There is evidence that Mathis Miller, guild master of the Lindau smithy and sculptor, was involved.

Marble sculpture of an unknown soldier , 1928

The Reformation , which took place in Lindau in 1528, was accompanied by a gradual loss of the church's intended purpose. The Closmerinnen converted to the evangelical confession, but did not give up their way of life until the secularization of 1802. The Peterskirche was profaned in the 17th century at the latest and subsequently degenerated into a storage site. At first it was used as an arsenal - for this purpose an intermediate ceiling, which has since been removed and a supporting console still testifies, was used, then from the beginning of the 20th century as a wood and coal store, among other things . In 1811 the Petersturm was to be demolished together with the nearby Diefturm and the stones were to be used to build the harbor; however, the plan was dropped. In 1928, the Peterskirche finally found its current form of use as a war memorial. In the 1920s, under NSDAP Mayor Ludwig Siebert , the city council launched a competition for the construction of a memorial , in which the design by Munich artist Marie Feulner prevailed from a total of 95 proposals . Your marble sculpture of an Unknown Soldier was based on the dead soldier by Bernhard Bleeker in the Munich war memorial in the Hofgarten . In the Peterskirche there are also memorial plaques of the Lindau dead and missing from the Franco-German war and the two world wars. In 1981 the panels were expanded to include the 17 victims of Nazi tyranny, the majority of whom were Jews from Lindau . A purification carried out in 1921/22 with the removal of fixtures still characterizes the interior of the church today.

Building description

Plan of the Peterskirche

Outside space

South side

Both inside and out, the church building is indebted to the Romanesque style in its epoch-typical simplicity. The Peterskirche is a single-nave hall building with a semicircular apse in front of it. The nave, which with a length of approx. 18 and a width of approx. 8 meters takes up an approximate area of ​​144 square meters, has a gable roof; the apse is closed at the top by a round tent roof . Above the entrance, the roof leaves its symmetrical shape with an overhang of around three meters. The plastered pebble and broken masonry is interrupted at the corners by smooth stone blocks. To the northeast, the five-storey tower is inserted into the church wall, the corners of which are formed by humpback blocks . It is crowned with an open neo-Gothic lantern . In the top of the tower there is a bell from the 15th century with a diameter of 53 cm, described with the first sentence of the Latin Ave Maria . The walled-up early Gothic entrance can be seen to the right of the arched portal, which was probably created during the profanation phase. The church is adjacent to a former bell foundry to the west. A stone tablet embedded in the east part of the south facade provides information about the history of St.

"Peterskirche, laying of the foundation stone around the year 1000 AD. Consecrated as a war memorial site on Sept. 23, 1928"

Forecourt and entrance area of ​​St. Peter's Church.

Interior / window

The interior of the Peterskirche.

The floor level of the interior is lower than that of the exterior; a two- or four-step staircase leads down, including two steps in the outside area. The floor of the church is made of rectangular bricks of recent date. Coming from the slightly raised Gothic extension, two more steps have to be descended. A flat beamed ceiling has been drawn in at a room height of six meters. The northern wall opposite the one entering, like the eastern side, is largely painted. In the north wall there was probably a rectangular passage from a nun's gallery, which no longer exists today, to the Closmen monastery that existed at the time. On the north side, the outer reveals of two clogged arched windows have been preserved. Since the interior painting shows no signs of damage in this area, it is reasonable to assume that the window openings were bricked up for the purpose of painting. According to the inventory of monuments from 1955, the north side was windowless according to the research at the time. This leads to the conclusion that the window frames were only discovered and exposed in the course of the renovation measures in the 1960s.

The door opening on the north side was only made in the course of the redesign in 1928. Another ogival opening leads to the basement of the tower. Its upper floors are accessible via a covered external staircase that runs along the west wall of the tower and a short corridor through the northeast area of ​​the church wall, which is partially open to the interior of the church. Four small arched windows at a height of three meters in the south wall of the nave have lost their original shape as a result of later redesign. The easternmost of these is ogival in the interior. Another window above today's portal has fish-bubble tracery in the shape of a four-snow. In the apse a south-facing, bricked-up pointed arch window with a relatively large reveal forms a visible niche. A two-lane tracery window in the shape of a pointed arch, which is set into the west wall, is of the same shape as the former window in the apse and is also opaque due to the seamlessly attached former bell foundry. The cavity behind the glass-less tracery has been illuminated indirectly since the renovation in the 1960s.

Murals

St. Christopher

St. Christopher drawing, around 1300.

The larger-than-life representation of St. Christopher in the western part of the north nave wall probably dates from the early 14th century. It is in the form of a red chalk drawing and is only preserved in fragments; the formerly colored painting is no longer recognizable apart from remains in the upper left part of the picture.

Lindau Passion

Scheme of the Lindau Passion
"Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane"

The Lindau Passion is the most significant single work in art history in the Peterskirche and among contemporary analogues it is also one of the most important in the Lake Constance area. The passion of Christ and the story of Peter are artistically processed on an area four meters high and seven meters wide . The following scenes are shown in detail in the diagram opposite:

1: Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane
2: Jesus arrested
3: Jesus is interrogated by the high priest Kajaphas
4: First interrogation of Jesus by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate
5: Flagellation of Jesus
6: Jesus crowned with thorns
7: Pilate shows the tortured Jesus in front of the people ( Ecce homo )
8: Second interrogation by Pilate, who washes his hands in innocence
9: Jesus carries the cross
10: Jesus resting on the way of the cross / preparation for the crucifixion
11: Crucifixion of Jesus
12: Descent from the Cross or Lamentation of Jesus
13: Mary Magdalene meets the risen Jesus ( Noli me tangere )
14: The risen one appears to Peter and another apostle
15–18: Presumably scenes from the life of the apostle Peter (lost)
19: Crucifixion of Peter

The Lindau Passion differs in several points from the classic sequence of images. The relatively late onset of the action with the omission of the scenes usually contained: Entry into Jerusalem , the washing of the feet and the Lord's Supper is probably also due to the expansion of the Passion cycle of Christ to include the Passion of Peter , which is probably related to the patronage of the church. With the encounter of the risen Jesus with Peter, the Christ Passion turns into a representation of scenes from Peter's life of the saints. The story ends with the crucifixion of Peter. The rest on the Way of the Cross , not handed down in the Gospel, corresponds to a devotional image motif that was widespread at the time . For the lost scenes, Lieb suspects another apparition of Christ to the apostles, a torture scene with a grate, an interior scene and the liberation of Peter from dungeon.

Above the picture fields, which are separated by red lines, a stylized leaf frieze adorns the overall picture. In the second row of pictures, the most important iconographical aspects are slopes. The composition of the picture creates an almost undulating movement: the downward-pointing staircase in Ecce homo and the hand-washing Pilate are followed by the cross, carried by Christ, the lines of which depict an upward movement. In the crucifixion scene the path in the background is directed downwards; the end is formed by an ascending diagonal, embodied by the body of Jesus. Each row of six is ​​divided into three thematically related pairs: two mounts of olives, interrogation and torture scenes each precede the judgment, cross and cross scenes in the second row. The two interrogation scenes seem composed in mirror image. There is also a connection between the Mount of Olives image and the crowning of thorns: In the first, Jesus is depicted as praying, in the latter, however, as adored. Furthermore, a connection is made between the flagellation and the crucifixion arranged directly below; the capture is also linked vertically with the route to the crossroads.

The outline drawings are applied al fresco to lime mortar plaster without a break; partly al fresco with lime and tempera paints, but mostly al secco . A grayish, thin lime paint was used for the preliminary drawing. For the coloring, the artist mainly used lime , ocher , dark ocher, vermilion , caput mortuum , copper green , copper leaf and possibly azurite . The pictures were painted with a sure style.

According to Norbert Lieb, the Lindau Passion today resembles “a 'fasting cloth' painted on canvas with tempera ” ”. This is due to the loss of parts applied by al secco. This fact no longer shows the full extent of the original color effect. The artist has chosen symbolic colors with blue for the robe of Christ, yellow for that of Judas, and red as the color of the rulers.

Apse / choir arch

The choir arch

In the middle of the choir arch, Christ as the judge of the world is depicted with sword and lily in a large halo on a gray background. The Last Judgment motif is completed by a jaw of hell devouring the sinful on the right and the saved on the left. The arched edge is ornamented with an al-secco architectural painting, a 20 centimeter wide arch with a spatial effect. However, the bow comes from a later time and probably also from another artist, possibly the Lindau painter Mathis Miller. He also created a depiction of Anna selbdritt , also integrated into an architectural painting in the Renaissance style, with the signature "MM" (Mathis Miller) "1521". The counterpart on the left side of the choir arch to Anna Selbdritt is a depiction of Peter, executed al fresco and revised al secco.

The "Coronation of Mary"

In the apse there are wall paintings from two phases. The topmost layer of paint shows the coronation of Mary in the center ; The Mother of God is crowned by the Trinity , which shows a rather conservative attitude: This form of representation was no longer common in the Renaissance. Style features that appear Nazarene are probably due to a revision in the years 1849/1850. Behind the group, two angels are holding a black cloth. Behind are clouds and suggested landscapes. The background is from the same hand as the Mariengruppe. A depiction of Hieronymus in an arched frame on the right of the choir arch is also attributed to Mathis Miller. On the left of the choir arch is an architectural painting, a column. The master of the Coronation of Mary and of the Last Judgment is unknown, although the authorship of Mathis Miller is being considered for the Coronation of Mary.

In the right half of the dome , in particular , remains of the first fresco painting can be seen: a kneeling winged person, holding a tape, and underneath a winged lion . At the top left of the choir arch, the symbolic representation of the four evangelists is completed with an eagle and a fragmentary bull. A landscape of columns and an outstretched hand have also been preserved in the picture of Jerome.

Research history and reception of the Lindau Passion

As the most important individual work of art in St. Peter's Church, the picture cycle called Lindau Passion is of particular art historical importance. For a long time the authorship of the Lindau Passion was completely in the dark. Although locally known and documented, the wall paintings were only made accessible to a wider art public in 1849, when the newly founded Historical Association of Neuburg and Swabia took on the discussion and publication of the pictures. The Augsburg archivist Herberger and the Augsburg painter Hundertpfund did their best to “rediscover” the pictures. Hundertpfund saw a work by Bartholomäus Zeitblom in the Lindau Passion and dated the pictures to the beginning of the 16th century. Friedrich Boulan also referred to his assessment in his urban-historical-topographical work Lindau before the old and the now. Hundred pounds is said to have restored the painting in 1850. At the beginning of the 20th century, Baron Lochner von Hüttenbach assigned the paintings as a whole to a school and limited the period of creation to a short period of time. The art expert Joachim Sighart previously ruled in 1862 that the frescoes of St. Peter were the most important of the paintings of the Swabian school, the authorship of which is unclear. For the first time in 1909 the name Holbein was associated with the frescoes. The history of the city of Lindau in Lake Constance , published by the pastor Karl Wolfart, assumes that they were "designed according to Holbein's wall drawings". The “fresh characteristics” and the good state of preservation at the time, which is unparalleled in southern Germany, were also emphasized. This laid the foundation for a scientific discourse in which Holbein's authorship tried as often as it was doubted. The Lindauer Tagblatt reported in 1925 that the Berlin-based Robert Richter made copies of the paintings on behalf of the Lindau patron Ludwig Kick. It was also spread that the signature "JH" (Johann Holbein) had been found in a picture. In the same article, however, an opposing position in the person of Heinrich Weizsäcker from Stuttgart is mentioned, which questions the attribution. Nevertheless, the Holbein thesis was widespread, for example the Greaves travel guide assumes Holbein's authorship as a fact. In a travel brochure published by the city of Lindau in 1950, Holbein the Elder is named as an artist.

As part of a restoration in 1922, the frescoes were treated inappropriately. In autumn 1965, the city council decided to restore the dirty wall paintings again, after the Bavarian inventory of monuments in 1954 had confirmed that they were in an extremely poor condition. The restoration was carried out in 1966/67 by the Mindelheim restorer Toni Mayer, the municipal building authority was responsible for other renovation measures. On the evening of June 8, 1967, the signature “HH” was exposed in the last picture of the Passion cycle. This placed the presumptions about the authorship of Hans Holbein the Elder on a new basis; for the restorers the attribution was considered certain. In the work St. Peter in Lindau , the most well-founded and comprehensive description and art-historical classification of the paintings to date, the authors support their thesis with further evidence: The artist's signature can be found in other Holbein works, such as the panel painting of the Gray Passion . Holbein's biography is also an indication of his authorship, ancestors residing in Lindau in the 14th century are attested. Above all, the "connection of the individual scenes to a thematic and compositional context" is characteristic of all Holbein works and also of the Lindau Passion, and further similarities to other established works can be recognized. For example, according to Norbert Lieb, the Mount of Olives in Lindau and that of the Gray Passion are structured according to the same basic scheme, as is the capture in Lindau and in the Kaisheim high altar . In addition, there is a compositional coherence in the Ecce homo of Lindau and that of the Dominican altar in Frankfurt , as well as in the Lindau and Kaisheim crucifixion scenes. In addition, the position of the mocking servant at the crowning of thorns coincides with the Gray Passion. Lieb lists other similarities to other works that, with their content or design echoes of the Lindau Passion, point to Hans Holbein as an artist. All in all, the Lindau Passion almost completely corresponds thematically to the Gray Passion. Holbein could have painted the frescoes when he was about 25 years old before he settled in Augsburg in 1493. From the nearby vineyard , the painting of the so-called Weingarten Altar (now in Augsburg) is documented in 1493 . Lieb also writes that the Lindau Passion played a key role in late medieval passion art, by combining the naturalism of the late Gothic with the traditional Swabian devotional tradition. With her connection of nature and reality with human, spiritually oriented seriousness, she paves the way for Albrecht Dürer's art and the attitudes of the Reformation. Horn and Meyer certify that the frescoes in St. Peter's Church are the "most valuable" that the Lindau district has to offer in terms of painting monuments.

Although the content was basically conclusive, the argument was also received negatively. The Dehio-Kunstführer Bayerisch-Schwaben (2008) writes, “The attribution to Hans Holbein the Elder. (...) [is] unbearable . “The DuMont -Kunstführer Bodensee (1998) assumes the authorship as probable. The Lindau City and Art Guide (1984) also dares to make a “definitive” ascription. The weak point of any line of argument that puts the signature as evidence in the foreground is the lack of consideration for a later revision. Even if earlier authors assumed the attribution to Hans Holbein the Elder to be certain, this is controversial today; Holbein's authorship cannot be regarded as one hundred percent secured.

literature

  • Isolde Rieger, Toni Mayer, Norbert Lieb: St. Peter in Lindau. Wall paintings by Hans Holbei d.Ä. In: Hugo Schnell (Ed.): Großer Kunstführer , Volume 57, Schnell & Steiner, Munich / Zurich 1969
  • Adam Horn, Werner Meyer et al .: The art monuments of Lindau (Lake Constance). Lindau 1955, p. 60 ff. (Special print from: Horn, Meyer: Stadt und Landkreis Lindau. In: Die Kunstdenkmäler von Bayern . Oldenbourg , Munich 1954)

Web links

Commons : Peterskirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Alexander von Reitzenstein , however, assumes the year St. Stephen's Church was built (1180) for the relocation of the market. Manfred Ott sees in the Historical Atlas of Bavaria (Part Swabia, Series I, Issue 5: Lindau, Munich 1968, p. 105 f. Digitized , accessed on May 5, 2015) with reference to Reitzenstein, however, no reason to doubt the year 1097.
  2. ↑ Alexander von Reitzenstein : Historical introduction. In: Horn / Meyer: The art monuments of Lindau (Lake Constance). P. 1 ff.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Isolde Rieger: On the history of St. Peter's Church and its wall paintings. In: St. Peter in Lindau , pp. 4–7
  4. ↑ The word is etymologically probably derived from mhd. Klôsene from Latin claudere (to close) or the subsidiary form cludere ( PPP clusum ) and stands for an enclosed space, especially a hermitage or a monastery cell. The name “Closmerin” is related to mhd. Klôsenærinne (Klausnerin). (see entry Klosmeren in the Appenzeller name book / ortsnames.ch and Duden dictionary of origin 1989, keyword Klause )
  5. ^ Friedrich Boulan: Lindau before the old and now . Commissionsverlag by J. Th. Stettner, Lindau 1870, p. 452 (facsimile edition from Antiqua Verlag, Lindau 1980, ISBN 3-88210-058-3 )
  6. ↑ a b Christine Riedl-Valder: Lindau, Terziarinnen (Closmerinnen). Project Monasteries in Bavaria , House of Bavarian History (PDF), accessed on May 3, 2015
  7. ↑ In the literature, including the Dehio manual and the Bavarian list of monuments, there are incorrect dates regarding the expansion period. The extension cannot have taken place in the 15th century, as the Christophorus drawing - unanimously dated around 1300 - is in the extension part. The widespread misinformation is probably based on incorrect numbers in the legend of a floor plan in the Horn / Meyer monument inventory. In contrast, the coherent data can be found in the running text.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Adam Horn, Werner Meyer et al .: Die Kunstdenkmäler von Lindau (Bodensee). P. 60 ff.
  9. ↑ a b c d Sina Setzer: The wall paintings of the picture fields on the north wall in the former Peterskirche in Lindau on Lake Constance (PDF), p. 12 ff. Diploma thesis, TU Munich , submitted on September 3, 2013, accessed on May 1 2015
  10. ↑ a b c Friedrich Boulan: Lindau before the old and now . Commission publishing by J. Th. Stettner, Lindau 1870, p. 450 f. (Facsimile edition from Antiqua Verlag, Lindau 1980, ISBN 3-88210-058-3 )
  11. ↑ Nobody was allowed to mourn this Lindau man back then. Lindauer Zeitung of November 13, 2004, accessed on May 1, 2015.
  12. ↑ a b c d e Toni Mayer: Report on the restoration. In: St. Peter in Lindau. s. 12 ff.
  13. ↑ Named after the information board in Peterskirche.
  14. ↑ Passion. In: Hannelore Sachs, Ernst Badstübner , Helga Neumann: Christian iconography in key words. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-7338-0095-8 , p. 276 f.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f Norbert Lieb: The Lindau Passion. In: St. Peter in Lindau. P. 17 ff.
  16. ↑ a b c Christof Spuler, Werner Dobras: Lindau city and art guide. Verlag Friedrich Stadler, Konstanz 1984, ISBN 3-7977-0072-S , p. 64 ff.
  17. ↑ Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings, year 1883, p. 32 ( digitized version ( memento of the original from June 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and Archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. , Accessed on May 3, 2015) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bodenseebibliotheken.de
  18. ↑ Sina Setzer: The wall paintings of the picture fields on the north wall in the former Peterskirche in Lindau on Lake Constance (PDF), p. 22. Diploma thesis, TU Munich , submitted on September 3, 2013, accessed on May 1, 2015
  19. ↑ Dr. Oskar Frhr. Lochner v. Hüttenbach: The wall paintings in the old St. Peters Church and in the former Barefoot Monastery. In: History of the City of Lindau , Volume II, Chapter VI. P. 65 ff.
    Quoted in: Rieger et al .: St. Peter in Lindau. P. 5
  20. ↑ Joachim Sighart: History of the fine arts in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Munich 1862, p. 607 ff.
    Quoted in: Rieger et al .: St. Peter in Lindau. P. 5
  21. ^ Karl Wolfart (ed.): History of the city of Lindau in Lake Constance. Commission publisher by Joh.Thomas Stettner, Lindau 1909, p. 236 (facsimile edition from Antiqua-Verlag, Lindau 1979, ISBN 3-88210-023-0 )
  22. ↑ Lake Constance. With Vorarlberg and Rheinfahrt Konstanz – Schaffhausen. 5th edition, Grieben-Verlag Albert Goldschmidt, Berlin 1928, p. 67
  23. ^ Tourist Office of the City of Lindau (Ed.): Lindau im Bodensee. Brochure, 1950. Design: Mayr Gessner Binswanger. Print: Carl Lipp & Co. Munich.
  24. ↑ Hans Holbein the Elder Ä. In: Kindler's Painting Lexicon, Volume 6, dtv , Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-05995-8 , p. 175
  25. ^ Georg Dehio, Bruno Bushart, Georg Paula: Handbook of German Art Monuments. Bavaria III: Swabia. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 2008, ISBN 3-422-03008-5 , p. 666
  26. ^ Eva Moser: Bodensee. Three countries - culture and landscape between Stein am Rhein, Konstanz and Bregenz. DuMont art travel guide, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7701-3991-7 , p. 181 f.
  27. ↑ Sina Setzer: The wall paintings of the picture fields on the north wall in the former Peterskirche in Lindau on Lake Constance (PDF), p. 20. Diploma thesis, TU Munich , submitted on September 3, 2013, accessed on May 1, 2015

Coordinates: 47 ° 32 ′ 48.3 "  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 55.3"  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 27, 2015 .