Parish Church of St. Oswald (Eisenerz)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Oswald in iron ore , popularly Oswaldikirche called, with the enclosing Tabor plant the largest and most important fortified church complex of Styria and one of the few completely preserved in Austria. As such, it has recently been called the St. Oswald Fortified Church .
The parish church belongs to the dean's office in Leoben in the diocese of Graz-Seckau , the patronage is the municipality of Eisenerz. The church, consecrated to St. Oswald , was built in the 15th and 16th centuries in the late Gothic style. It is one of the main works of the Admonter Bauhütte and was built on a northern branch of the Erzberg , the so-called Vogelbichl. Together with the Layer Tower and the Erzberg, the Oswaldi Church is one of the landmarks that dominate the Eisenerz cityscape. According to the latest research from 2010, it is the only remaining sacred monument of Protestantism in Styria. The fortified church was restored from 2004 to 2014 and further developed for tourism.
history
From the previous building to the church consecration
Different information can be found about the first documentary mention of the previous church on the Vogelbichl . The church leader and the Sunday paper of the Graz-Seckau diocese report that the former Romanesque church was built around 1279, the Dehio and the Eisenerz parish state in 1282. The fact that the previous church was mentioned for the first time in 1288 is revealed in an investigation from 1941 by Maja Loehr. Another year can be found in Anton Schifter, who only saw the first indication of its existence in 1404 when Bishop Friedrich II von Seckau granted indulgence to the Oswaldi Church . According to legends, a chapel stood at the place where today's Johanneskapelle is located as early as 1016, but so far neither structural traces nor written evidence have been found. The Karner is mentioned on the occasion of a foundation in 1447. In 1469 there was the first entry in the parish directory about a pastoral care office in Eisenerz. The construction of today's church began in 1470 under Emperor Friedrich III ; Hanns Haug , whose coat of arms is affixed to the southern gallery, was his representative .
The nave , the tower, the old sacristy and the choir , which was completed in 1472, were started by the site manager, Master Thoman . The late Gothic altar was donated in 1461 by the cycling master Kunrat Tackhner; the four altarpieces painted by the master of the Oswald legend are now in the Belvedere in Vienna. Because of the impending Turkish invasions , Emperor Friedrich III ordered a fortified fortification from 1482 onwards . A devastating fire in Eisenerz in 1496, which also affected the church under construction, delayed the construction of the church. Only the tower was spared. The work was now continued by Master Erhart and his son Peter . This was followed by cladding the walls of the tower and nave with stone blocks, the roof covered with 13,000 shingles (1503) and the vault made of tuff stone (1504 to 1509). According to old accounting books, the vault was decorated with " colored shields " by Master Jakob in 1510 ; nothing of these paintings has survived. The church was finally consecrated on July 2, 1512 by the Bishop of Lavant . Only then was the unusual west gallery created by master stonemason Kristoff from 1513 and the building was completed in 1517/18. This previous assumption about the creation of the gallery was refuted in 2010 by a study by Graz University of Technology under the direction of Simone Hain : According to this, the decorations on the gallery should not have been created before 1539 and the year "1517" carved on the gallery not the year of completion , but rather indicate the beginning of the Reformation and thus represent a monument to the Wittenberg theses . It therefore seems obvious that the gallery should initially be completed without decorations and that this was only added later. According to Simone Hain, the two oriels may also have been added later. An organ was built and delivered by Paul Hofhaimer as early as 1513 .
Reformation, strengthening of the fortifications and counter-reformation
From 1519 on, Protestantism spread in Styria and developed into the majority of the faith. In the peasant uprising in 1525, which was mixed with misunderstood Lutheran religious demands, the miners, wind house workers and the citizenry from iron ore also took part. In 1529, when the Turks besieged Vienna , the defensive system, which had previously consisted of a simple wall, was reinforced and provided with loopholes, machicolation and wooden battlements. In the north, access to the complex was secured by a massive barbican and an inner gate, the west portal, which was not blocked, was walled up and a new entrance was created in the south. Strategically, the facility was primarily intended to defend access to the then important Erzberg. In order to also offer protection to the population, the weir system was equipped with its own well and a lavatory bay and a defensive trench was built. In 1538, Samuel Kracher, the first Lutheran predicant, is mentioned. In 1550 the church was elevated to a parish church. By the middle of the 16th century, Eisenerz was mostly Protestant. This emerges from the records of the Brucker Winkellandtag in 1572, at which Eisenerz, along with 14 other cities and markets, publicly declared that it belonged to the Augsburg Confession. In 1593 the cycling master Hans Weeger had the Johannes chapel built over the Karner; A commemorative coin was struck as a souvenir.
The Turkish invasions did not take place in Eisenerz, but the facility was used as a refuge in the course of the Counter Reformation around 1599. The Protestant part of the citizens and cycling masters entrenched themselves in front of Martin Brenner , the Bishop of Seckau, who forced them to give up at the behest of Prince Ferdinand II with 316 riflemen and halberd- bearers. Government measures such as confiscations, the compulsion to sell the wheel works to Catholic buyers and the expulsion of those who remained loyal to the Augsburg Confession , the burning of sectarian books or 50 soldiers put in their quarters were able to convert the vast majority back to Catholicism . At least 14 cycling masters and their families were on the final expulsion list, including Hans Weeger , who, however, appears again in the documents in 1610.
Additions and conversions, renovations
In the course of the construction of the fortification that still exists today, the two-bay north chapel was built on the tower from 1532–1534 and connected to the nave via two pointed arches and a mighty pillar . Since the year 1690 in the church are register books out. In 1706 the church got a Johann Christoph Egedacher organ. From the year 1763 it came to baroque ; first a new sacristy was built north of the choir, the tower was given an onion dome and the church was given a baroque interior. In 1775 the access stairs were created from a total of 160 stone steps. At the end of the 19th century, the wooden battlements had become obsolete.
From 1890 the church was completely renovated inside and outside, in the course of which the Viennese cathedral builder Friedrich von Schmidt brought it to regotation. Schmidt's plans were not fully implemented, but significant changes were made: the onion dome was replaced by today's pyramid roof , the baroque altars and the organ by neo-Gothic. The baroque altarpieces were hung on the side walls of the choir. In addition, in 1898 the colored glass panes of the five apse windows, ten figures of the apostles and the forged pulpit were added. The colored glass panes of the three and four-lane windows in the nave and in the north chapel were installed in 1903. The neo-Gothic high altar was erected in 1905 and consecrated in 1912 . The baroque sacristy was renovated in 1910.
In 1967 the southern wall of the Tabor complex partially collapsed and was restored in 1969. From the inscriptions on the nave, it can be concluded that the restoration was carried out in 1911 and 1982. Folk altar and ambo were added in 1993. The altar was consecrated on July 4, 1993. Since 2004, the church and weir system have been gradually renovated under the direction of the Association for the Rescue of the Weir System and the parish church of St. Oswald , which was founded to raise the financial resources. The restoration is expected to take ten years. On July 1, 2012, a festive service was held to mark the 500th anniversary of the church consecration. The sermon was given by Bishop Egon Kapellari and the St. George's Mass composed by Franz Cibulka was performed.
The exterior
Weir system, former cemetery and Johanneskapelle
Via a staircase, the visitor first reaches the north portal with a barbican as an entrance , in the eastern part of which the former sacristan's apartment was housed. An inner gate and further steps lead into the interior of the complex, the upper end of which is flanked by two statues of saints from the mid-18th century, Johannes Nepomuk (left) and Maria Immaculata (right). On the side of the Vorwerk facing the inner courtyard there is a toilet for visitors to the church. Several tombstones are incorporated into the surrounding wall; Noteworthy are the epitaphs of Margaretha Schmetzerin-Friewirth, who died in 1580, and Georg Scheichel , who died in 1596, on the side of the east gate , as well as a relief " Resurrection " and on the northeastern defensive wall several heraldic tombstones from the second half of the 16th century. In the southeast corner of the fortifications are the Johanneskapelle, built in 1593 above the Karner, and the pointed arch west portal. In the southwest corner there is a defense tower , the so-called Reckturm. Its second floor was set up to allow a military team to stay permanently.
Church building
In the north , the tower and the aisle-like north chapel are attached to the four-bay nave of the church, starting with the second bay, and the former sacristy or Loreto chapel in the south . To the east of the main nave is the three - bay choir, ending with a five- eighth end, whose longitudinal axis is slightly offset to that of the main nave towards the south. In the north, the new sacristy is attached to the choir and forms a wall with the north chapel. A small annex adjoins the new sacristy to the east. The west facade is slightly inclined to the main nave, making it a little wider to the north. The external appearance is characterized by multiple stepped buttresses . On top of these are pinnacle turrets that were renewed at the end of the 19th century. Above the sacristy there is also an eight-sided stair tower placed in the first yoke of the choir, which is divided into three zones by means of two roofs and with its conical roof almost reaches the height of the roof ridge. It provides access to the oratory above the sacristy and to the choir loft.
The well-fortified, square tower on the north side extends over a little more than a yoke; this leads to irregularities in both the interior and exterior design of the church. Surrounding cornices divide the tower into four zones, in the uppermost of which there are two-lane , pointed-arched acoustic windows with tracery decorations and slender round arches. Stepped gables with rectangular openings protrude from the center of the tent roof on all four sides . Between the buttresses in the south, four such gables adorn the gable roof of the nave, in the north there is one on either side of the tower. Steep pent roofs cover the north chapel and the former sacristy. Today's sacristy and its extension to the east are covered with flat roofs.
The walls of the church consist of quarry stone masonry , which is only plastered in the west and the choir, otherwise it was faced with stone blocks . Architectural style elements such as window frames, portals, square surfaces and buttresses are largely made of conglomerate , tuff and sand-lime bricks . On the outer wall of the former sacristy (Loreto Chapel) there are preserved frescos on two fields , which show a depiction of the death of the Virgin as well as Saint Barbara and Saint Catherine . On the buttresses at the end of the choir there are remains of frescoes of St. Barbara and St. Andrew . Based on the draperies , it is concluded that it was built around 1500.
The windows in the choir have two lanes, the individual lanes end with nested pointed arches , the one in the southern fourth yoke is somewhat shortened. Of the three three-lane windows on the south side of the nave, the two outer windows end with a pointed arch, the middle one is delimited by a bar . There is no window on the north side of the nave, but there is in the north chapel, which means that light enters the nave indirectly. The two side panels of this three-panel window are round-arched, the higher central part is pointed arch. The only four-lane window of the church is in line with the former portal on the west facade. Its tracks close uniformly with nested round arches. All the windows of the church have differently designed tracery such as three and four leaves , differently designed arched gussets , fish bladders , a spherical square or a heart shape with the tip pointing upwards.
The former main portal of the church was the simply barred west portal, which was bricked up when the church was closed and is now well above ground level. In 2005 the wall was opened and replaced by glass, which allows more daylight to penetrate into the gallery area in particular. Two portals were on the east and west sides of the tower. The one on the east side was used as access from the walling up of the west portal to the addition of the north chapel. The one on the west side is framed in a rectangular shape and some of it has curved bars. A pointed arch portal on the outside of the new sacristy is located in the first yoke of the nave on the south side. Opposite this is the pointed north portal protected by a round arched porch. This is equipped with a tympanum on both sides . Today the church is usually only entered via the north portal. The tympanum shows the fall of man on the inside , on the outside a double-headed eagle with a protective angel and the expulsion from paradise , with Adam shown here as a miner .
Interior construction
Choir
The three-bay choir is four steps higher than the nave; the spatial separation is also emphasized by a strongly drawn-in triumphal arch profiled with pear sticks . The mighty diamond rib vault consists of six-part rib stars, in the end of the choir of a seven-part rib star, in the center of which there are small, round keystones . The vault ribs have cylinder-like attachments that rest on polygonal wall pillars. The side walls are framed with shield arches . The lower part of the triumphal arch soffit and the pillars were replaced during the restoration at the end of the 19th century. The richly crowned figure canopies and their consoles decorated with leafy tendrils also date from this period.
In the choir there are two richly profiled, crossed shoulder arch portals , one of which leads to the old sacristy in the south, the second in the small annex next to the new sacristy in the north. A profiled pointed arch portal leads into the new sacristy. All the door frames in the choir were replaced by artificial stone during the restoration at the end of the 19th century; The same material was used to create a tracery parapet consisting of two openings with reinforced curtain arches leading to the oratory and the session niche , which is located at the transition to the end of the choir in the south. It is facing the masonry , framed in a rectangular shape and provided with a wide keel arch , which is adorned with crab trimmings and finials, as well as pinnacles and nested pointed arches. The two-bay old sacristy is spanned with a parallel rib network that sits on wall templates.
North chapel and tower
For the length of the north chapel, less than two bays were left due to the tower extending over a yoke. As a result, of the knick-ribbed star vault of the north chapel resting on the escutcheon consoles, there is only one complete star in the eastern yoke and that in the west yoke had to be shortened. In the chapel, part of the pointed arch of the east portal of the tower is still visible, which once served as an entrance to the church from outside. The right part of the arch is walled up; Due to the space required for the path between the church and the defensive wall, the chapel could not be built wider. In the four-story tower, whose ringing of the four bells is coordinated with that of the Church of Our Lady below in the old town, four-part stars composed of deltoids adorn the vault of the tower room.
Nave and Johanneskapelle
The four -bay nave has a net rib vault , the not exactly straight ribs of which rest on a combination of polygonal capital and cylindrical top. The supporting ¾ round pillars only correspond in the south with the buttresses on the outer wall; in the north they are placed in front of the free pillar of the north chapel and the tower wall. In the north wall of the nave there are two high pointed arch portals that lead into the north chapel, as well as a round arched door, which represented the entrance through the tower. A rectangular, barbed portal, of which only the right part of the inner shoulder arch opening has been preserved, is located on the gallery. Two more rectangular framed doors lead to the upper gallery and into the tower.
The arching underneath the gallery in the first, western yoke of the nave consists of a purely decorative ribbed vault formed with coffered arched squares. The keystone represents a poppy blossom. The support column for the staircase leading to the gallery is in the shape of a barrel . Two differently designed round pillars, one turned, one with a diamond pattern, support the gallery via three wide pointed arch arcades from which chalice-shaped bay windows, reminiscent of rood screen pulpits , protrude. The entire front of this double pulpit gallery - including the arched reveal as well as the side parts protruding laterally into the second yoke and running outwards at an angle - is decorated with remarkable, ornamental and figurative forms made of cast and hand-worked artificial stone . For the signs used on it and their symbolic language, see the section on the sign language of the double pulpit . Different rotated bars delimit the individual fields. In the north there is a second side gallery, one floor higher, which provides access to the tower. The lower edges of the consoles supporting the galleries are different for the upper gallery than for the lower gallery, which - among other details - speaks for changes to the original plan that were made during construction.
The Johanneskapelle is entered through a pointed arch portal in the west. It is two-yoke with a Schluss end. A reticulated vault with plaster ridges sits on circular services with folding capitals. In the basement is the former Karner, in which a central pillar with beveled edges supports a groin vault.
Furnishing
The high altar from 1905 is in neo-Gothic style and made of marble . On both sides of the tabernacle there are two baldachins with statues of the four evangelists , John , Luke , Mark and Matthew . Above the tabernacle is the church patron St. Oswald with crown, sword and raven. The wrought-iron pulpit , which was built around 1900 and is decorated with rich ornamentation , is also neo-Gothic . A stone from the Erzberg is stuck in their foot. It is the work of a master blacksmith from Graz . Another stone from the Erzberg is the material from which the ambo is mainly made. This column, chiseled in the 16th century, was kept in the church until 1900, then survived in the churchyard until it was converted into an ambo by Gustav Troger in 1993 with a steel attachment. The altar made entirely of steel comes from the same artist and from the same year. Folk altar, ambo and pulpit form a liturgical triangle (table of bread, table of words, former place of annunciation). A baroque crucifix , which was located in the triumphal arch, was hung in the middle of the choir on the occasion of the installation of the popular altar.
In the baldachin niches of the pillars stand ten apostle figures created by the Graz sculptor Peter Neuböck ; the missing two of the twelve, John and Matthew, are also evangelists and are already in the form of statues on the high altar. The figurative colored glass panes of the windows in the choir, made in 1898 by the Tiroler Glasmalerei und Mosaik Anstalt in Innsbruck, show Saints John the Baptist and Barbara, the patron saint of miners in the first (left) window above, and Saints Georg and Joseph below as patrons of the guilds . The second window is the "Kaiserfenster", this shows the coronation of Mary by the Holy Trinity above , in the middle the laying of the foundation stone of the first parish church can be seen, and in the lower third Emperor Franz Joseph I kneels with the inscription that Rudolf II. The foundation stone was laid for the first Oswaldi church, as well as the Habsburg coat of arms. The middle window shows Saints Michael and Florian above , Anna and Joachim below . The fourth window is a picture with the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary . The last window shows Christ as the Good Shepherd and the Sower .
The baroque painting by the Garsten monastery painter Johann Karl von Reslfeld , which was used as a high altar painting until regotisation and now hangs on the north choir wall above the sacristy portal, shows the Assumption of Mary into heaven , as well as the saints Oswald and Florian below. The oval top picture by the same painter, which also belongs to the former high altar, shows the Holy Trinity. The pictures were donated around 1700 by Chamber Count Franz Leopold Freiherr von Ziernfeld. Two side altar pictures , painted in 1774 and signed by Christian Maller , hang on the opposite, southern choir wall. On them you can see St. Dominic in front of Our Lady and St. George on horseback. On the left side altar, the Barbara altar, there is a baroque Barbara group; Saint Barbara is depicted with a sword and chalice and flanked by two miners. On the right side altar is a richly decorated wooden sculpture of a Loreto Madonna from 1839, created by Johann Max Tendler . The Stations of the Cross over the nave, north chapel and choir were painted by Tendler around 1840. One of them has two bullet holes and is under the northern gallery behind a lattice door; an inscription written in 1710 tells of a sovereign hunter whom God soon punished for the outrage on the picture. Also by Tendler are the nativity figures carved around 1830 , which - originally set up in different scenes - were built into a baroque box by Egon Machaczek in 1972. This nativity scene is located in the north chapel under the window and is open during Advent and Christmas . The north chapel also houses a baroque tombstone with mourning putti in memory of Johann Josef Kofflern, who died in 1767. Further details in the nave are the miners in Maximilian miners' costume hanging on the north side in the second yoke high above the upper gallery and the bronze barbara luster in the middle of the nave; kneeling miners hold the candlesticks, in the middle above is St. Barbara with sword and chalice under a canopy.
Looking from east to west, the windows in the south wall of the nave show the fourteen helpers at the first window . On the second window you can see a scene from the life of Saint Oswald, which stands for his charity: when he heard about the poor outside who asked for benevolent gifts at a banquet, he not only distributed food to them, but the silver tableware right away, whereupon the bishop blessed the hand with the words “This hand should never rot” . One learns about Oswald's funeral at the third window; his severed head is one with the body again. On the window above the gallery, Saints David and Cecilia watch over the organ playing.
In 1705/06 Johann Christoph Egedacher built an organ in the upper church and 2 other small works. His sister Maria Scholastica (born November 18, 1674 in Mülln ) had come to help him with the construction. Then she fell ill with a so-called rapid disease and died. Maria Scholastica Egedacher was buried on February 22nd, 1706 in the cemetery of St. Oswald.
The sign language of the double pulpit
The hand-molded decorations on the front of the organ loft, its two chalice-shaped pulpits and the lateral branches, cast from artificial stone, have been dated to the year 1517 and attributed to Master Kristoff. Because of the artistic trimmings and branches, the gallery has been considered one of the most remarkable examples of its kind in Austria. Simone Hain carried out studies in Eisenerz in 2010 with a group of students and teachers from Graz University of Technology , with the intention of supporting the “Austrian Eisenwurzen ” World Heritage Application , which eventually expanded into broad basic research into the symbolism of the organ loft. The research group was able to prove that the gallery is the only Reformation sacral building in Styria that has survived the Counter-Reformation and that it was not built before 1539. It was previously assumed that all Protestant buildings in Styria were blown up by the religious commission under Martin Brenner in 1599 - after all, this affected more than 20 partly newly built church buildings in Styria. The following is a comparison of the old and new interpretations of the signs on the gallery. Another opinion on the gallery, not considered here, can be found with Anton Schifter.
Previous view
The vegetal motifs such as sprawling branches are described as typical of the fading Gothic and associated with the Danube School . The support column shaped as a barrel is also described as characteristic of the realism of the fading Gothic. Some motifs are related to the town of Eisenerz and its iron industry or interpreted as imperial hunting grounds, such as the animals in the arched legs pursued by dogs. A wicker field is seen as a charcoal wagon , fields with wicker fences as the customary willow fences . A field with brazen chains is seen as symbolizing the wheelworks , whereby a reference to the iron industry is seen especially in the iron objects imitated from artificial stone. The owl sitting on the tree of life on the left front side is regarded as wisdom , the water bottle and ham in the lower area of the picture symbolize the body.
New perspective
The research is still in progress, but Lutheran and hermeneutical references have already been conclusively explained. A multi-layered symbolism can be recognized in which wisdom teachings from Pico della Mirandola , such as De hominis dignitate , are included, as well as sophiological connections can be deduced behind alchemical and Christian-Kabbalistic coding :
"The gallery represents an end-time salvation event that has got underway, culminating in the reinstatement of Sophia, who was expelled into earthly exile, to her traditional position within the Trinity ."
The sophiological connection has already been secured by further research results in Austrian chemical history, language theory, theology and comparative cultural theory. In addition, suspected grove, an exemplary proof of the picture theory of Paracelsus had found. Masonic symbols can be found on the gallery a hundred years before they appeared. The research results give rise to the assumption that iron ore was a "pre-Reformation melting pot " in which the most prominent representatives of intellectual life exchanged culturally from the beginning of the 16th century, probably among them Agrippa and Paracelsus.
The following is an example of the iconography based on a few details:
Like the two chalice-shaped pulpits, pairs of images as well as vegetable and mineral forms lie opposite one another on the gallery : on the left side of the pulpit, i.e. from the preacher, are the female, lunar , vegetable, organic and watery forms, opposite them the male, solar , mineral, solid and spiritual. At the service of the pulpit the vegetable and mineral elements are interchanged, which is interpreted alchemically as “no substance exists in pure form”. A rolling fish bubble can also be interpreted in this direction, it is reminiscent of a yin and yang symbol . At the same time, the organically feminine symbols on the one and the crystalline masculine symbols on the other suggest that they were liturgically intended for a woman and a man; According to Hain, there are traditions according to which, at least in Lower Styria in the mid-1520s, the Lord's Supper was also held by women. The animals depicted below the pulpit, together with the tympanum above the north portal, are a further indication of this, because Eve tended the female animals in the south and west, Adam the males in the north and east of Paradise . Above all, Agrippa's influence is obvious here, because he adored women as the crowning glory of creation .
Fence motifs that Luther liked to use in the metaphorical sense of friendship with the world can be found several times and in different versions on the gallery. Another deeper meaning is revealed by the only human figure on the gallery; this stands on the side of a wicker fence, holds her arms as if to work on it, and presumably represents a craftsman, as found in Luther's doctrine of the right sermon:
“A preacher is like a carpenter, his tool is God's Word. Because the listeners on whom he has to work are different, he should not teach in the same key all the time, but, depending on the differences among the listeners, sometimes comfort, frighten, scold, reconcile, etc. ”
The fences, which also include the iron chains or a fence in knot language, are thus to be understood in a homiletic sense, to consider the different materials as representative of the different characters of a sermon. Analogous to this, the branches develop from the initial chaos more and more to order, the shoots finally show refinement points . Luther also uses fences and branches metaphorically for further statements in his teachings, equating false saints with “bad fences” and thereby criticizing the monasticism of his time. Another homiletic ingredient is the twigs and fruiting stick, which is used as an allusion to St. Christophorus is seen, who is said to have been given the gift of speaking and teaching through the enjoyment of the fruits of the stick. Some parapet fields with symbols, such as the sky and crystals, could not be deciphered. It is obvious that they speak of measure, order and harmony; Behind it, hidden mathematical symbols in the division relationships are suspected, which, together with four coats of arms on the left pulpit, could reveal a deeper meaning.
On the fields between the two pulpits there is an open book, the text of which refers both to an Advent sermon by Luther and to the Minnelied song composed by Hans Sachs in 1513 under the title “Silberweis”, which calls us to the royal chorale Wachet until 1599 the voice has evolved. Next to the book are the heraldic animal of the Holy Roman Empire and the old coat of arms of Eisenerz. Together with the year 1517, which stands for the beginning of the Reformation, a political meaning can be derived from this, the subordination of the Eisenerzer community to the idea of a German national church. In addition, the wild wood on the gallery can be seen as an impenetrable forest, which the humanists saw as a symbol of community and moral purity.
The vertical central axis is formed by two rods of different lengths wrapped in a spiral band; its meaning has not yet been finally clarified, it could be a symbol for Lapis philosophorum , the philosopher's stone, which as the highest form of cosmic knowledge can only be reached through stages of perfection and testing and as a symbol of empathy and protection is seen.
In terms of numbers, the numbers two, three, four and eight stand out on the gallery, which are kabbalistic as balance, justice and the number of people (2), as unifying (3), as order and symbolizing the entire kabbalistic universe (4) and as God's number (8) can be seen. On the gallery there is, for example, a fourfold figure eight represented as tracery, which can be read in this form as the “face of God”, as well as an intertwined love rope - a symbol of the later Freemasons.
At the southern end of the gallery and thus, seen in the direction of reading the picture statement, in the last field, there is a tree of life as a central Kabbalistic theme , which depicts a nocturnal forest scene. In the middle of it sits an owl, which is interpreted as Lilith , Adam's first wife. Luther uses the term night specter for both . Lilith is seen as a rebellious figure who reinforces the feminine aspect on the gallery as a whole. The approaches to dissolving the background image statements range from a criticism of the fact that the church has kept its monks in the monasteries like serfs to the question “whether the gallery is not ultimately rebellious through and through and socio-politically as a utopian-revolutionary manifesto Equality can be interpreted. ”( Simone Hain ) Superficially, a Luther proverb is seen that speaks of the triumph of knowledge and contrasts this scene with that of the devil scene at the other end of the gallery. The devil scene shows the devil and a cow skin and is interpreted via the saying “That doesn't work on a cow skin!”, Which speaks of the devil writing the sins on a cow skin. On the cowhide on the gallery, the place rhyme of the wicked , whose motto of Emperor Maximilian I is valid.
Special festivals and activities
- The Oswaldi Sunday around August 5th is held in honor of the church patron with a festival and a parish festival.
- On the first Saturday in December, St. Barbara is the focus of an ecumenical service, the Barbara Mass. In addition, mining music and customs are presented by miners and miners' associations.
- The Bacon Mass takes place in memory of the starved returnees from the Napoleonic Wars on St. Stephen's Day. Customs are not neglected here either.
The parish runs a clothes shop and a parish café, and there are also various activities such as Bible rounds and groups for children, women and senior citizens. There is also a hospital visiting service.
literature
- Simone Hain : The double pulpit loft of the parish church of St. Oswald in Eisenerz , First Theses on Research, Institute for Urban and Building History of Graz University of Technology, 2010. In addition to this, further research reports of the same origin exhibited in the church.
- Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625. Sociological investigation . Ulrich Moser Verlag Graz-Vienna, July 15, 1941 ( museum-joanneum.at [PDF; accessed December 8, 2012]).
Web links
- The parish church of St. Oswald in Eisenerz in the parish association
- Kirchenburg St. Oswald , website of the association for the preservation of the fortifications and parish church of St. Oswald
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Sigrid Günther, Reinhard Weidl: Parish Church of St. Oswald in Eisenerz - Styria . In: Kath. Pfarramt Eisenerz together with the association for the rescue of the fortifications and the parish church of St. Oswald as well as the municipality of Eisenerz (ed.): Christian art places of Austria. Church leaders . No. 456 . Verlag St. Peter - Erzabtei St. Peter, Salzburg 2006.
- ↑ a b c d e f Kurt Woisetschläger , Peter Krenn : Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Dehio-Handbuch Steiermark: (excluding Graz) . Ed .: Federal Monuments Office . Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-7031-0532-1 , p. 84-86 .
- ↑ a b Deanery Leoben - Parish Eisenerz. Diocese of Graz-Seckau - Catholic Church in Styria, accessed on December 8, 2012 .
- ↑ Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625 . 1941, p. 8 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Anton Schifter: A group of late Gothic sacred buildings in the vicinity of the Admonter Bauhütte . Dissertation. Ulrich Moser Verlag, Graz / Vienna August 2010, p. 131 ( othes.univie.ac.at [PDF; 38.5 MB ; accessed on December 8, 2012]).
- ↑ Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625 . 1941, p. 13 .
- ↑ Helmut Brenner: Singing traditions around the Erzberg. Kunstuni Graz, July 13, 2009, accessed on October 29, 2012 .
- ↑ Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625 . 1941, p. 33 .
- ↑ a b Fritz Bayerl u. a .: Around the Hochschwab. Iron ore. In: Austria-Lexikon. Hermann Maurer , accessed December 8, 2012 .
- ^ A b Rudolf Leeb, Susanne Claudine Pils, Thomas Winkelbauer: State power and salvation of the soul: Counter-Reformation and secret Protestantism in the Habsburg monarchy . 2007, p. 319 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625 . 1941, p. 27, 35 .
- ↑ Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625 . 1941, p. 28-30 .
- ^ Otmar Heinz: Early baroque organs in Styria. On the genesis of a southern German-Austrian type of instrument of the 17th century, Berlin 2012, (research on the historical regional studies of Styria, published by the Historical Commission for Styria , Volume 53), p. 161. ISBN 978-3-643-50232-2 .
- ^ Sermon at the festival service on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the parish church of St. Oswald in Eisenerz on Sunday, July 1st, 2012. Retrieved on October 29th, 2012 .
- ↑ The brass players dominate Eisenstrasse. Archived from the original on October 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Quoted from: Otmar Heinz: Frühbarocke Orgeln in der Steiermark. On the genesis of a southern German-Austrian type of instrument of the 17th century, Berlin 2012, (Research on the historical regional studies of Styria, published by the Historical Commission for Styria, Volume 53), p. 161.
- ^ Anton Schifter: A group of late Gothic sacred buildings in the vicinity of the Admonter Bauhütte . Dissertation. Ulrich Moser Verlag, Graz / Vienna August 2010, p. 142–143, 146 ( othes.univie.ac.at [PDF; 39.5 MB ; accessed on November 1, 2012] Schifter suspects due to the different shapes that two different masters worked on the gallery).
- ^ A b c d e Simone Hain: The double pulpit loft of the parish church of St. Oswald in Eisenerz, first theses on research . Ed .: Institute for Urban and Building History at TU Graz. Eisenerz 2010 (Study: In addition, further research reports of the same origin issued in the church.).
- ^ Simone Hain : The double pulpit gallery and fortified church St. Oswald, Eisenerz. Research project. (No longer available online.) Institute for Urban and Building History at TU Graz, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 12, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Simone Hain : Enigmatic work of art decrypted: Protestant church gallery shows iron ore as the melting pot of intellectual life in the 16th century. (PDF; 15 kB) (No longer available online.) TU Graz , archived from the original on March 14, 2016 ; Retrieved November 13, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim : The preference of the female sex over the male . Leipzig 1780 ( full text in the Google book search [accessed December 8, 2012]).
- ↑ Martin Luther: All works: After the oldest editions . Homiletic and catechetical writings. tape 23 . Carl Herder, Erlangen 1838, p. 313 ( full text in Google Book Search [accessed December 8, 2012]).
- ↑ Martin Luther: Luther German - The works of Martin Luther in a new selection for the present . 9. Dinner speeches. Ed .: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 1983, p. 143 ( full text in Google Book Search [accessed October 29, 2012]).
Coordinates: 47 ° 32 '26.9 " N , 14 ° 53' 23.3" E