Castle Church (Mannheim)
The palace church is part of the west wing of Mannheim Palace . From 1731 to 1777 it served as the court chapel of the Electors of the Palatinate and is today the parish church of the old Catholic community.
history
In 1720, Elector Carl Philipp moved the residence of the Electoral Palatinate from Heidelberg to Mannheim and laid the foundation stone for Mannheim Palace on July 2nd that same year. The initial planning was carried out by Johann Kaspar Herwarthel . After his death in November 1720, Johann Clemens Froimon (also "Froimont") took over the construction management. He was dismissed in 1726 and replaced by Guillaume d'Hauberat . It is unclear how large the respective share of the builders in the castle church was, because preliminary planning and trades already under construction had to be taken over. The first construction phase of the palace ended with the consecration of the church on May 6, 1731 in the name of " Mariä Heimsuchung " by the Worms auxiliary bishop Johann Anton Wallreuther .
The castle church was used for the daily services of the court. Church music was played by the then famous court orchestra developed by the Mannheim School . In 1777, the Messiah by Georg Friedrich Handel was performed here very early. The court organist was Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler . During his visits to Mannheim, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played the organ in the church.
After the court moved to Munich in 1778, the castle church led a shadowy existence. In 1803 Mannheim fell to Baden and Karl Friedrich handed the church over to the Reformed and from 1809 it was used simultaneously by Reformed and Catholics . In 1819 Grand Duchess Stephanie took her widow's seat in Mannheim and the palace and palace church were once again held at court until her death in 1860. After that, the church was no longer used for church services and the Red Cross even set up a depot during the Franco-German War in 1870.
In 1874, Grand Duke Friedrich I gave the church to the newly founded old Catholic parish of Mannheim, which celebrated the first service in the castle church on April 5 and reached its historic high in 1902 with 2,003 members.
Only the Elector's Crypt survived the Second World War almost undamaged. In 1940 the church was only damaged by air pressure, but in 1943 and 1945, like the entire castle, it was destroyed down to the walls. The reconstruction was carried out between 1952 and 1956 by the State Building Department, which was praised as a prime example of German monument preservation, although the dummy dome behind the high altar was not rebuilt and the organ was moved to the place of the elector's box. On July 1, 1956, the castle church was consecrated again in honor of the Most Holy Trinity by the old Catholic Bishop Johann Josef Demmel .
architecture
The castle church is located on the corner of the western wing of the Ehrenhof and the western wing of the castle. On the city side, the seven-axis architecture resembles the rest of the palace and is only recognizable as a church through the two-story arched windows . The design of the three-axis entrance facade corresponds to the library on the opposite side of the main courtyard.
The external appearance of the baroque church , like the castle as a whole, is characterized by the interplay between red sandstone and surfaces painted in light yellow. The not undisputed yellow replaced the color white only during the recent renovation of the castle (2000–2007).
The gable relief above the entrance shows the Holy Trinity and comes from the court sculptor Paul Egell , it is one of his largest reliefs .
Furnishing
In the interior, the structure given by the windows is supported by marbled pilasters on the sides . The window frames have stuccoed putti instead of keystones . On the left wall there are entrances to the boxes, which were formerly used by the higher-ranking members of the court. The walls are decorated with more than 120 stucco work in bandwork style.
In the choir there is now an altar structure recreated in rococo forms . The altar painting is a copy after the painting “The Adoration of the Three Kings”. The original was created in 1753 by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for the Schwarzach monastery ; it is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
Ceiling painting
The ceiling painting in the nave vault, originally created in 1728 by Cosmas Damian Asam , shows the triumph of the church and, on the choir side, the Visitation of Mary. It extends over 224 square meters and is today a reproduction by the painter Carolus Vocke . The false domes in the choir, the altar structure and the musicians' gallery behind the altar were not reconstructed during the reconstruction.
Crypt
Behind the altar is the sacristy, from which you can access the electoral crypt . Carl Philipp and his third wife, Countess Violantha von Thurn und Taxis, are buried here in magnificent sarcophagi. They were broken into in 1946. During the police investigation it was found that the embalmed corpse of the elector was relatively well preserved, but only the bones of his wife were preserved. The found Order of the Golden Fleece and the Grand Cross of the Order of Hubert were given to the Baden State Museum. Originally two putti carried a large medallion with a portrait of the elector on the sarcophagus of Carl Philip. Today it is in the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums .
organ
The electoral lodge above the entrance was not rebuilt after the Second World War. The organ gallery is now located here with a baroque organ front . The organ is a three-manual instrument built in 1956 by Steinmeyer (Oettingen) with 34 registers (3 transmissions in the pedal ) and an electro-pneumatic action (pocket drawer). On the parapet is the Rückpositiv , which is decorated with the coat of arms of Carl Philip. A number of internationally renowned organists have given concerts on the organ as part of the “Mannheim Palace Concerts”.
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- Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids : two free combinations , one free pedal combination, crescendo roller
Bells
In the bell room, a small wooden building on the flat roof above the castle church, three bells hang , including two baroque bells from when the Mannheim castle was built.
- Bell 1 h 1 , diameter 814 mm, 319 kg, cast in 1731 by the Mannheim bell caster Blasius Sattler
- Bell 2 dis 2 , diameter 640 mm, 141 kg, cast by Blasius Sattler in 1731
- Bell 3 f sharp 2 , diameter 546 mm, 113 kg, cast by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling in Heidelberg in 1956
The small bell serves as a replacement for the historical bell, which was melted down during World War II and which was also cast by Blasius Sattler in 1722 (possibly not until 1732) (diameter 750 mm, strike tone around c sharp 2 ). In order to achieve an exact B major triad, the strike tone of the historical bell 1 was tuned 7/16 higher in connection with the casting of the Schilling bell, contrary to today's monument conservation norm.
literature
- Hans Huth: The art monuments of the city district Mannheim I. Munich 1982, ISBN 3-422-00556-0 .
- Friedhelm Herborn: Mannheim Castle Church. 2nd Edition. Munich 1988.
- Old Catholic parish Mannheim (Ed.): 120 years old Catholic parish in the Mannheim Castle Church . Mannheim 1994.
- Ferdinand Werner: The electoral residence in Mannheim . Worms 2006, ISBN 3-88462-235-8 .
- Johannes Theil: … while the cannons are fired: Church services, church festivals and church music in the Mannheim court chapel according to the Palatinate court and state calendar . Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-2545-3 .
- Reiner Albert, Günther Saltin: Catholic life in Mannheim: Vol. 1, From the beginnings to secularization (1803). Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0908-4 .
- City of Mannheim, Michael Caroli, Ulrich Nieß (eds.): History of the city of Mannheim: Bd 1 1607–1801. Ubstadt-Weiher 2007, ISBN 978-3-89735-470-8 .
- Hartmut Ellrich, Alexander Wischniewski: Baroque Palace Mannheim - History and Stories . Karlsruhe 2013, ISBN 978-3-7650-8629-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Source on the consecration of the church and its altars by Auxiliary Bishop Johann Anton Wallreuther
- ↑ Wolfgang von Hippel: Does the Mannheim Castle have jaundice? in: Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter: New episode 8/2001 . Ubstadt-Weiher 2001, ISBN 3-89735-177-3 .
- ↑ 19003323 - Color slide archive for wall and ceiling painting. Documentary color photographs before the destruction. Retrieved May 10, 2020 .
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 4 " N , 8 ° 27 ′ 42" E