Sophienkirche (Erlangen)

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Exterior view of the former knight academy with Sophienkirche as it is today (2011)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Sophia was the church of the Erlangen Knight Academy . The baroque facade , which has been preserved to this day, is registered as a monument with the number D-5-62-000-262 at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation .

location

The former knight academy (also known as the old university building due to its later use ) is located in the eastern row of houses on Hauptstrasse , the central street in Erlangen city center, between the former Holzmarkt (now Hugenottenplatz ) in the north and Friedrichstrasse in the south. At the southern end of the row of houses is the former Sophienkirche. Immediately to the east is the Neustädter Kirchenplatz, in the middle of which is the Evangelical Lutheran Neustädter Church .

history

Inauguration ceremony of the university on November 4, 1743 - in the foreground on the right the Sophienkirche, in the background the Neustädter Kirche (University Church )

In 1676, Baron Christoph Adam Groß von Trockau founded the auditorium publicum in Erlangen . In 1699 he decided to expand it to a knight academy for 50 pupils (boarding school for 24 pupils, day school for 26 noble pupils), which was officially founded in 1701 with the approval and support of Margrave Christian Ernst . Construction work on the four-building complex of the Knight Academy (today Hauptstrasse 14-18) in Erlanger Neustadt began on March 20, 1700 with the laying of the foundation stone . The Sophienkirche - named in honor of Sophie Luise von Württemberg , Christian Ernst's second wife - was housed at the southern end of the building . Originally, the building, consecrated on December 4, 1701 , was intended as a pure collegiate church . The church, equipped with an organ at the beginning of 1702 , was elevated to the parish church of the newly founded Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Neustadt on January 22nd, 1703 and remained so until the Neustadt church was consecrated on December 8th, 1737. The bell was also placed there in 1739 transferred to the Sophienkirche.

In the course of the change of government in 1712/13, the Knight Academy got into a crisis that was accelerated by the death of its founder in 1724. By 1741 at the latest, when Margrave Friedrich allocated the school's property to the Ernestinum Gymnasium in Bayreuth , the Knight Academy was history. The premises were used by the newly founded Erlangen University from 1743 , with the Sophienkirche serving as the venue for academic celebrations and church services . There were also several graves here, including those of Baron Groß von Trockau; The university crypt was housed here until 1776, which was then moved to the Neustädter Friedhof . From 1745, the former knight academy also housed the Fridericianum high school, which was to bring students to the university. In the 1820s, both institutions moved to other premises.

After the installation of partition walls and a false ceiling, the former Sophienkirche was used by the regional court and later by the local court . The tower , which previously housed a dungeon , was first used by the court as a city prison until 1964 and later as a sobering cell for the police. For a long time the Otto & Co. GmbH fashion house was housed in the other rooms of the former knight academy . In the years 1958 to 1964, the buildings were demolished in favor of a new Kaufhof building that was tailored to the needs of a modern department store . However, the facades of the Sophienkirche facing Hauptstrasse, Friedrichstrasse and Neustädter Kirchenplatz were preserved and were superimposed on the department store facade. After the Galeria Kaufhof moved to the former Horten department store on the Neuer Markt , the department store building was replaced in 2002/03 by a business and office building that was better adapted to the historical buildings on Hugenottenplatz.

description

The Sophienkirche formed the southern end of the knight academy building. The facade design was largely based on the appearance of a town house in Neustadt. Only a high oval window above the elaborately designed basket arch portal to the main street as well as the two-storey round arch and two other high oval windows on the narrow side to Friedrichstraße point to the sacred character . The tower, begun in 1706 on the east side, barely protruded beyond the ground floor. The approximately 23 meters long (north-south direction) and 10.5 meters wide (east-west direction) interior, which was spanned by a coffered hollow vault, was designed for the maximum number of visitors by means of a double gallery.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ritterakademie Erlangen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Andreas Jakob, Ulrike Fürst: Sophienkirche. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.
  2. ↑ a b Alfred Wendehorst : Knight Academy. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.
  3. ^ Andreas Jakob: Old university building. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.
  4. ^ Bianca Braun: Kaufhof Warenhaus AG. In: Erlanger Stadtlexikon.

Coordinates: 49 ° 35 '43.6 "  N , 11 ° 0' 17.4"  E