Russian Chapel (Darmstadt)

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The Russian Chapel in Darmstadt
Darmstadt, Russian Chapel and Wedding Tower (left)

The Russian Chapel on Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene .

history

The sacred building was built between 1897 and 1899 according to plans by the Petersburg architect Léon N. Benois (actually Leonti Nikolajewitsch Benois), a grandfather of Peter Ustinov . The church, built between various Art Nouveau buildings on imported Russian soil, in which Orthodox services take place to this day, is in the style of Russian churches from the 16th century.

The client was the Russian Tsar Nicholas II of Russia , who, when visiting the home of Tsarina Alexandra , born Princess Alix of Hessen-Darmstadt , did not want to do without his own house of worship for his family and his court. The cost of around 400,000 marks was paid for from the Tsar's private assets.

The interior of the church is decorated, among other things, with mosaic works and paintings based on designs by the Russian painter Viktor Michailowitsch Wasnezow . This work was not completed until 1903. The chapel was restored from 2005 to 2008 for 1.1 million euros. Léon Benois provided the design for a similar Russian chapel in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe . In front of the church is a fountain system built in 1914 in Art Nouveau style, which was erected on the occasion of the fourth exhibition of the Darmstadt artists' colony based on a design by Albin Müller with figures by Bernhard Hoetger .

In 1918 the original court chapel became the property of the Russian Orthodox Diocese .

In 1914 the chapel was closed and the gilding of the tower roofs, the gilding of the cross attachments, the roofing made of copper, the copper gutter, the copper surround, five bells, four painted windows and the gilded wrought-iron altar door were removed. After the Second World War, the carillon was restored using repaired or purchased bells. But this improvisation did not result in a harmonious glockenspiel. In 2019, seven new bells were therefore bought from the Russian bell foundry Vera in Voronezh . The Vera foundry produces bells with the special Rostov sound . The bells have a weight of 550 kg, 230 kg, 190 kg, 42 kg, 25 kg, 18 kg and 10 kg.

See also

gallery

  • Mathildenhöhe: wedding tower, exhibition building and Russian chapel with fountain

  • Russian chapel with plane grove

  • Portal view

  • At night

  • East side with apse

  • Mosaics on the apse

  • The domes

  • West side 2017

  • Design of the chapel by Léon Benois from 1897

literature

Web links

Commons : Russische Kapelle (Darmstadt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cultural monuments in Hesse. City of Darmstadt. ed. by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse in collaboration with the City of Darmstadt's Magistrate, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1994, ISBN 3-528-06249-5 , p. 340
  2. ↑ Rainer Hein. In: A new sound on the Mathildenhöhe , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 162, Tuesday, July 16, 2019, p. 44.

Coordinates: 49 ° 52 ′ 35 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  E