Poznan Cathedral
The Poznan Cathedral , the Archbishop's Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul (Polish: Bazylika archikatedralna św. Piotra i św. Pawła w Poznaniu) , is the episcopal church of the Archdiocese of Poznan and an important architectural monument of the city of Poznan .
As one of the earliest churches and the oldest cathedral in the country, the Poznan Cathedral historically represents the beginning of the Christianization of Poland. According to tradition, the cathedral is located on the site where the baptism of the Polish Duke Mieszko I took place. The earliest settlement in the history of the city of Poznan was on the Cathedral Island (Ostrów Tumski), an inland island in the Warta .
Burial place of the Piast dynasty
The importance of the church is expressed in the fact that it served as the burial place of the early Christian rulers and kings of the Piast dynasty . In addition to Mieszko I, they include the first Polish king Bolesław Chrobry and six other Polish kings and dukes: Mieszko II. Lambert , Casimir I , Władysław Odon , Przemysław I , Bolesław VI. the Pious of Greater Poland and Przemysław II.
There are also the graves of the bishops and archbishops of Poznan who are also buried here .
Building history
middle Ages
The origins of the cathedral go back to the founding of the oldest Polish diocese in 968, when the Pope called the missionary bishop Jordanes to Poznan. In the early Church there was a pre-Romanesque three-nave basilica , the order in 1038 during a campaign of the Bohemian duke Břetislav I was destroyed. In the following two decades a new Romanesque basilica with two towers was built. In the 14th and 15th centuries, it was thoroughly converted into a Gothic cathedral. Several side chapels were added to the choir and the new nave .
Modern times
In 1622 a fire destroyed the church roof and the spiers . The then necessary extensive renovation in the years 1638 to 1650 corresponded to the baroque style . In the 18th century, Posens landmarks were damaged by storms, and another church fire devastated the interior of the cathedral in 1772. This was followed by extensive redesigns that gave the building a classicist look. The new classical Bonaventura Solaris façade with portico dominated the exterior of the cathedral until the Second World War.
In the years 1835 to 1841 - Poznan was now under Prussian rule - the construction of the Golden Chapel was carried out using older walls according to a design by Francesco Maria Lanci in Byzantine historicism. The rulers Mieszko I and Bolesław Chrobry were reburied. The mausoleum of Poland's most important early rulers has been adorned with bronze statues by the German sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch since then .
20th century until today
In the final phase of the Second World War, the Poznan Cathedral was badly damaged during the Battle of Poznan . The severe fire of February 15, 1945 caused severe damage, but ultimately the chapels around the choir and the naves of the basilica were preserved. Since the fire had exposed older medieval layers of the building, the restorers decided to expose them as much as possible and to reconstruct the exterior and interior of the cathedral in the style of brick Gothic . The new opening took place more than eleven years after the end of the war on June 29, 1956.
Today's picture of the church
The cathedral church is a three-aisled basilica. Twelve chapels and two sacristies adjoin the side aisles and the ambulatory . The dimensions of the church are 81 meters in length and 43.5 meters wide. The church towers rise 62 meters. The Gothic window above the portal is adorned with a rose window and was partially uncovered during the reconstruction work, as was the stepped gable , in Gothic forms. The baroque spiers reconstructed in 1952 also give the impression of the front view.
In the presbytery there is a reconstructed cross ribbed and in the nave there is a star vault . In the course of the rebuilding after the Second World War, numerous historical art monuments from other places found space in the cathedral. The new main altar, a late Gothic triptych that comes from the Guhrau parish church, is the cathedral's most important piece of equipment. It was probably created in a workshop in Wroclaw in 1512 . In the middle segment of the winged altar there are three female figures, Mary with the baby Jesus and Saints Barbara and Katharina , above the altar a late Gothic crucifix next to Baroque figures of the Mother of God and Saint John . Also noteworthy are u. a. the late Gothic stalls from the beginning of the 16th century, which come from Görlitz (formerly the choir stalls of the Trinity Church), as well as the baroque pulpit and the baroque baptismal font from the Protestant church of grace in Militsch . The original furnishings of the church, however, include five epitaphs from the Vischer workshop and the richly decorated chapels. The already mentioned mausoleum of Mieszko I and Bolesław Chrobry is located in the Golden Chapel. Another example is the tomb of the Górki family in the Holy Cross Chapel. It was built in 1574 by Hieronim Canavesi and is to be regarded as a classic work of art of Renaissance sculpture .
In accordance with the significance of the Poznan Cathedral for Polish history, changes have also been made in recent times. In 1995, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the coronation of King Przemysl II, a bronze tombstone designed by Marian Konieczny was added to the chapel of St. Stanislaus .
The relics of the pre-Romanesque church can be seen in the crypt . In addition to the earlier tomb of Mieszko I and Bolesław Chrobry is a sandstone - baptistery get five meters in diameter. It may be a remnant of the baptistery built at the time of Mieszko - i.e. before the construction of the first cathedral (it is assumed that the Prince of the Polans was baptized on Cathedral Island in 966). Further remains of the walls of the medieval cathedral buildings can be seen in the crypt.
organ
The organ was built in 2001 by Jan Drozdowicz. It has 51 stops on three manuals and a pedal . The key actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling: I / I (super octave coupling), II / I (also as sub and super octave coupling), III / I (also as super octave coupling), III / II, III / III (super octave coupling); I / P, II / P, III / P, P / P (super octave coupling)
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 41 ″ N , 16 ° 56 ′ 52 ″ E