St. Abdon and Sennen (Ringelheim)
St. Abdon und Sennen is the Roman Catholic Church in Salzgitter - Ringelheim (Johannesstrasse 16). The former abbey church, together with Ringelheim Castle, forms the building complex of the former Ringelheim Benedictine abbey .
history
Cannon pin
The church and monastery go back to a foundation by Count Immat from Immedingen , which King Otto I confirmed with a certificate of protection in 941. The women's monastery received the rare patronage and relics of Saints Abdon and Sennen , two Persian "under kings" who were martyred in Rome around 250 . Until 1150 Ringelheim was an imperial canonical monastery .
Around 1000 Judith was abbess of Ringelheim. She was a sister of Bishop Bernwards von Hildesheim . Perhaps on the occasion of her death, Bernward donated the Ringelheimer Kreuz , a monumental wooden sculpture of Christ crucified of a unique status, to the monastery .
Benedictine Abbey
After a period of decline, King Conrad III. the monastery 1150 the Hochstift Hildesheim . At that time there was apparently no viable canonical convention any more. Bishop Bernhard sent monks from Hildesheim's Michaelskloster and converted Ringelheim into a Benedictine abbey. This flourished for two hundred years until it ran into trouble in the 14th century. In the middle of the 15th century she joined the Bursfeld Reform Congregation .
reformation
As a result of the Hildesheim collegiate feud (1519–1523) the Hildesheim bishop's chair lost a large part of its territory, including Ringelheim, to Braunschweig-Lüneburg . The Reformation was carried out under Duke Julius in 1570 . The Ringelheim Monastery remained as a corporation under Lutheran abbots, but the buildings were neglected.
Benedictine Abbey
In 1643 the Hildesheim Monastery was restored within the limits of 1519. Bishop Ferdinand of Bavaria resettled the now dilapidated Ringelheim monastery with monks from St. Michael. The ensemble of buildings, which has largely been preserved to this day, was built in the following decades.
secularization
After secularization in 1803, Ringelheim came to Prussia . The park and the convent building were sold in private hands (see Ringelheim Castle ), and the church became a Catholic parish church . In 1961, their parish got a branch church that has meanwhile been profaned, St. Martin in Lutter am Barenberge, eight kilometers away . Since November 1, 2006, St. Abdon and Sennen has belonged to the parish of St. Marien , based in Salzgitter-Bad, and thus to the Deanery of Goslar-Salzgitter.
architecture
The pre-Romanesque church built in the 10th century was a three-aisled basilica without a transept. It had a west tower with a pyramid-shaped dome and two chapels . This and the tower were demolished after a fire in 1596. 1485–1504 the monastery church was expanded to include a late Gothic choir .
After the return of the Benedictines, the nave and choir were raised in 1694. The nave was given a new roof with pointed dormers and the transition to the choir an octagonal roof skylights with lantern . On the site of the old west tower, the baroque façade was built in 1730 , which today is the most obvious part of the exterior. Like the whole building, it is plastered white and divided into two wall and two gable storeys with stone-transparent transverse bands and edges , the lowest of which takes up almost half the total height. In it is the portal, which is framed by pilasters and architraves and above which the figure of Our Lady with Child stands, flanked by Saints Benedict and Scholastica . The upper wall level contains three rectangular windows. The gable is richly decorated with volutes and curved arches, obelisks and vases, various (false) windows, a clock with a blue dial and a cross above it.
Interior design
The interior of the church presents itself in the early Classicist form that it received under the last abbot Godehard Arnold (1794–1803). It is a high and elongated hall with narrow arched passages to the side aisles. A stucco beam stretches across the entire length of the room , separating the basement from a “sky zone”. The flat ceiling with stitch caps over the windows is missing - probably originally planned - painting. The large, arched upper clad windows are clear glazed and provide plenty of light. The walls and ceiling are white. The pilasters end in richly stuccoed bill capitals . The choir continues the central nave in full width and height. It is separated from the nave by two diagonally placed side altars and a flat, round wall arch under the ceiling.
High altar
In the center of the spatial perspective is the baroque high altar structure in the end of the choir. It was built around 1700. Its base is widened like an arm and bears the statues of the church patrons Abdon and Sennen, depicted as kings with crown, scepter and sword as well as with their martyr attributes , a bear and a lion. The altarpiece consists of two floors framed by columns, beams and ornaments. The lower one shows the birth of Christ in the altarpiece (JA Pöttinger, Hildesheim, 1801) and between the frame columns the statues of the Benedictine patrons Benedict and Scholastika, which also appear above the outer portal. On the upper, narrower floor, the Adoration of the Shepherds can be seen as a picture, and the holy bishops Bernward and Blasius as flanking statues . The crown of the altar is the Lamb of God with the flag of the cross and a halo between two kneeling angels.
Ringelheim Cross
The most important piece of the church treasure of St. Abdon and Sennen, along with several baroque chalices and monstrances, is the Ringelheim Cross , the Bishop Bernwards Foundation around the year 1000. The Christ body made of linden and oak wood - the cross itself is no longer there - is 1, 62 m high and of unusual liveliness and expressiveness. In terms of art history for his time, only the Cologne Gero Cross is placed alongside him. Since a comprehensive conservation measure in 1993, the original has been on permanent loan in the Hildesheim Cathedral Museum . For St. Abdon and Sennen, Hans Kazzer (Munich) created a copy in 1993/94 that sensitively reconstructs the original shape of the cross. It hangs as a triumphal cross over the celebration altar . During the restoration of 1949–1951, a leather pouch with a parchment was found in the head of the cross. This bore the inscription "De sepulchro domini" (ie "from the tomb of the Lord"). The reverse bore the signature of Bernward ("B. + ep." - Bernwardus episcopus), in the pouch there were also two small stones which, according to the label, were relics from the Holy Land.
Pulpit and side altars
The richly ornamented pulpit from the end of the 18th century is decorated with lively figures of the four evangelists . Den with cherubs occupied sounding board crowns the risen Christ with the cross.
St. Abdon and Sennen has four side altars. At the choir entrance to the right is the Christ altar with an image of the Trinity and statues of Saints Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua , to the left the Altar of Mary with a painting of the Assumption of Mary and statues of Saints Margaret and Catherine . Both side altars date from the late 18th century.
Two more figure-rich side altars, a good hundred years older, are in the east end of the side aisles. The northern one contains a late Gothic wooden carved and colored Pietà instead of a painting .
organ
The organ is one of the main works of baroque organ building in Lower Saxony. It was probably created in 1696 by the organ builder Andreas Schweimb from Einbeck and completed by Johann Jacob John (around 1700) after his death . Acoustics and optics were modernized by the end of the 18th century. Around 1750 the pedal towers were added by an organ builder. Today the instrument has 31 stops on two manuals and a pedal , a large part of which has been preserved. The Hillebrand Orgelbau brothers carried out a restoration in several stages between 1974 and 1992.
After various restoration measures in the 19th and 20th centuries, it largely resembles its late Baroque condition again today. The white and gold, richly decorated prospectus with black beams takes up the entire width of the central nave above the west portal. It is crowned by the figure of King David with the harp, surrounded by angels playing music.
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
In St. Abdon and Sennen, the Ringelheim Organ Days with well-known organists have been held every year in May on four Sundays since 1989 .
See also
literature
- Barbara Ruhnau: The Ringelheimer crucifix - condition and preservation of a large Ottonian sculpture , in: Hans-Herbert Möller (Ed.): Restoration of cultural monuments. Examples from the preservation of historical monuments in Lower Saxony (= reports on preservation of monuments , supplement 2), Lower Saxony State Administration Office - Institute for Monument Preservation , Hameln: Niemeyer, 1989, ISBN 3-87585-152-8 , pp. 273-278
- Karl Bernhard Kruse, Monika Tontsch: St. Abdon and Sennen Salzgitter-Ringelheim . Schnell Art Guide No. 2184, Regensburg 1995
Web links
- Building and history (website of the parish; PDF; 217 kB)
- Information on the Ringelheimer Kreuz on the diocese website ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Petke: Ringelheim Abbey between the nobility, king and bishop (around 941 to 1150) . In: Geschichtsverein Salzgitter eV (Ed.): Salzgitter Yearbook 1993/1994 . tape 14 , 1994, ISSN 0723-757X , p. 91 .
- ↑ Information on the organ (PDF; 150 kB)
Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 6.3 " N , 10 ° 18 ′ 39.9" E