Holy Cross Church (Schaftlach)
The Roman Catholic Kuratiekirche Heilig Kreuz in Schaftlach , a district of the municipality of Waakirchen in the Upper Bavarian district of Miesbach , was first mentioned in 1315. The church building in its current form was essentially built between 1473 and 1476 in the late Gothic style. The church contains the well-known Schaftlacher Kreuz, one of the oldest surviving monumental crucifixes, dating from the late 10th century.
history
The Heilig Kreuz church in Schaftlach was first mentioned in 1315 as one of the churches cared for by the Tegernsee Monastery . Six years after the abolition of the monastery in 1803, the Waakirchen church, which had previously belonged to the parish of Gmund am Tegernsee, was raised to an independent parish with the Schaftlach branch. In 1946 Heilig Kreuz became a branch in Schaftlach , which was declared a parish curate in 1949 . Today this forms a parish association again with the former mother parish Waakirchen.
The existing late Gothic church was built between 1473 and 1476 by the Tegernsee monastery builder Alex Gugler. The Schaftlacher Hauptstraße is accordingly called Alex-Gugler-Straße in the area of the Holy Cross Church . The first church consecration took place on August 4, 1476. The Holy Cross Church was redesigned during the baroque period . Around 1640, large parts of the church furnishings were baroque and the sacristy was rebuilt, and in 1683 a baroque roof turret was added.
description
architecture
The simple, chapel-like hall structure , like almost all medieval churches, faces east with the choir closed on three sides . What is striking is the great height of the otherwise rather squat looking church. The non-retracted choir area draws its light from four ogival windows, the window in the apex of the choir ( hidden inside by the high altar ) as a two-lane tracery window . The nave, which is united with the choir under a shared saddle roof , has no window at all on the north side, and only a larger, ogival closing window on the south side (facing Alex-Gugler-Strasse). On the south side, the two-storey sacristy, which was redesigned in the Baroque period, is added. There is an artistic sundial on the facade . On the west side of the nave there is a three-storey porch, which is as high as the nave and choir and has a hipped roof . The two upper floors are paneled with wood ; on the ground floor there is an ogival doorway on the south side. The porch draws its light from a glass painting that was created in 1997 by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen . At about the level of the rear nave, a square roof turret with tower clocks on all sides extends towards the sky. By means of a cornice , this merges into an octagonal cross-section, which in turn is crowned by an onion dome with a ball and cross.
Despite the small number of windows, the interior appears bright and inviting. The presbytery is structurally not separated from the nave, as in many other churches, for example by a choir arch . As a result, the church interior is also spanned by a uniform, late-Gothic cross-ribbed vault that rises from consoles at a great height. The vault ribs, like the pilaster strips around the window openings, are painted yellow, while the arches and the side walls are white. In the rear area of the nave , a two-storey wooden gallery has been drawn in, which rests on two supports to the left and right of the central aisle. At the level of the lower gallery there is an additional small window on the south side, the organ is housed in the upper gallery . While the lower gallery parapet is closed, the one on the upper floor was designed, atypically, as a balustrade .
Furnishing
According to the patronage of the church there is a cross relic in a niche at the high altar , which is kept in a gilded ostensorium . A lively pilgrimage to this cross particle began as early as the 16th century . Originally the exaltation of the cross, i.e. the patronage of the Schaftlach church, was celebrated on May 3rd. In the course of the liturgical reform of the 20th century, the date was postponed to September 14th, but on the last Sunday in April the Schaftlacher Kreuzritt still takes place today. The mounted participants will be blessed with the cross relic.
The high altar in its current version dates from 1641. In the central niche, above the cross relic, there is a crucifixion group , in the excerpt a representation of God the Father with the equilateral triangle as a symbol of the Holy Trinity . There is a baroque side altar on the north wall of the chancel. In the course of the church renovation between 2000 and 2002, the chancel was redesigned by the sculptor Werner Mally. In addition to the new people's altar , which is designed as an open cube with a cross-shaped cavity, this includes the ambo , the sediles , the tabernacle , the baptismal bowl , the Apostle candlesticks and the lecture cross .
On the lower gallery parapet there are four statuettes by the sculptor Hans Haldner , which were originally part of the choir stalls of the Tegernsee monastery church. In addition to other late Gothic carvings, a figure of the Madonna from the 14th century and an enthroned figure of St. Ulrich , which is considered a major work by the so-called “Master of Rabenden” , are of particular interest.
Shaftlach cross
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By far the most famous piece of equipment in the Holy Cross Church is the so-called Shaftlach Cross. Strictly speaking, it is a crucifix , since the cross carries a body; that is why the term Schaftlacher Crucifix can also be found. Up to the year 2000 the cross was considered an important work of Romanesque in Bavaria; it has generally been dated around 1200. Attempts at earlier dating did not have any significant impact on the art history literature. In the course of an upcoming restoration of the Holy Cross Church, the crucifix was scientifically examined from 1999. The C14 analysis showed that the limewood of the body was felled around 970. This makes the crucifix one of the oldest surviving life-size images of Christ crucified . So it was about the same time as the Gero cross in the Cologne Cathedral and the Triumphal Cross in Aschaffenburg Collegiate Church . Cross-checks and further in-depth investigations confirmed the dating to the Ottonian period around 1000/1020.
The results of the examination of the version showed more good and extensive traces of the original version of the time of origin on the cross than on any comparable medieval cross, even if only about 9% in total. Initially, therefore, even exposing the original remains of the socket was considered. However, this had to be discarded later for restoration reasons. In the end, it was decided to strike a balance between the “new version based on findings” and “preservation of the visual version”. As part of a festival week in September 2006, the crucifix was returned to the Holy Cross Church after extensive restoration.
Little is known about the origin of the cross. In 1884 it was mentioned for the first time in writing in the church of Schaftlach. It can be assumed that the origin of the cross can be linked to the history of the Tegernsee monastery, which was incorporated into Schaftlach until secularization in 1803. It is possibly identical with the cross ("Heinrichskreuz"), in front of which, according to tradition, Emperor Heinrich II prayed after a devastating fire in the Tegernsee monastery around 970/975.
literature
- Klaus Kratzsch: District Miesbach (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume I.15 ). 2nd improved edition. Munich / Zurich 1987.
Web links
- Internet presence of the parish curatie Schaftlach on the website of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Parish Curate Hl. Kreuz, Schaftlach: Church Hl. Kreuz . Online at www.erzbistum-muenchen.de ; accessed on October 30, 2017.
- ↑ Norbert Jocher: Ottonian Cross in Schaftlach. Festschrift, 2006.
- ↑ Alois Winderl (Ed.): Return of the Schaftlacher Cross - festival week from September 22 to October 3, 2006, p. 4f. Online at www.erzbistum-muenchen.de; accessed on October 30, 2017.
Coordinates: 47 ° 47 ′ 25.1 ″ N , 11 ° 41 ′ 11 ″ E