Sebastian Chapel in Kupferberg

The Sebastian Chapel stands at the northeast exit of Kupferberg (Dörnhofer Strasse) in the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria .

history

"Since time immemorial" - Alois Schoenheinz and Nicolaus Hennemann in their chronicle of the Catholic parish in Kupferberg - there is a chapel dedicated to St. Sebastian next to the old pilgrimage route to Marienweiher at the northeastern exit of the city of Kupferberg on a property belonging to the Mittelmeßbenefikum Kupferberg until 1975 (For historical map view see under web links). “In fact, its first construction can be dated to the 14th century, when the old trade route from Forchheim to Bohemia still led there”.

Why the prayer room - simply called "Kapella" in the vernacular - was once entrusted to St. Sebastian is beyond our current knowledge: the reasons for this patronage may be related to mining, the chaos of war or a rampant epidemic (such as the plague) .

For example, an old motto from popular piety reads: “St. Sebastian with your arrow, we sick people safe from pestilence ”. The pious relationship of the Kupferberg population to St. Sebastian is also expressed by a corresponding statue in the Catholic parish church of St. Vitus. In addition, opposite the Sebastian Chapel to the east of Kupferberg, on the southwestern edge of Kupferberg, there was once a stone Marterl , which, according to the chronicle of Schoenheinz / Hennemann, was given the year 1802 in a later supplement of unknown date and by an unknown hand. This Marterl had a small Sebastian figure above and beneath it reliefs of a crucifixion group [front side], the Virgin Mary [representation of the immaculate conception, standing on the globe with a snake around it; Back], of St. Vitus [since the 16th century patron of the cath. Parish church to Kupferberg; East side] as well as St. John v. Nepomuk [west side]. It was - according to Ignaz Stocker: 60 years of contemporary history in Kupferberg. 1945-2005 . Kupferberg o. J., p. 580 - destroyed by a lightning strike around 1950 down to the base. This remained at its location until an earth wall was filled in (to limit the quarry) at the end of the 1960s .

After the last previous building was in great danger of collapsing in 1821 (so that “anyone who stepped in ran the risk of being killed by the ruins [...]”), it was laid in and replaced by the current building, completed in 1824 - both at the expense of the Kupferberger citizens .

Since then, the Sebastian Chapel at Kupferberg has been entered from the north, from the pilgrimage route (Dörnhofer Straße - previously the entrance was on the southern side). The Sebastian Chapel has a metal patriarchal cross (cross with two crossbars) on the ridge of its tiled gable roof .

Northeast view 2017

Protective mantle Madonna with putti heads (August 2017)

In 1888, Johanna Lauterbach, a woman from Copper Berger, donated the installation of a Lourdes grotto with a small altar on the southern inner wall. This Lourdes grotto is still there as a simple wall niche, but since the chapel was repaired in the mid-1970s it was hidden from view by a wall in front of it. A group of figures made and donated by the copperberg woodcarver Emil Schwander (†) was attached to this wall in front of it - above a narrow altar panel that took up the entire interior width of the chapel: A protective mantle Madonna , flanked on the right and left by a putti head .

For a long time, nothing on the outside or inside of the Sebastian Chapel in Kupferberg indicated its actual patron saint. Due to its design, inexperienced visitors could only assume that it was a Lady Chapel. Only in the course of the repairs carried out in 2017 was the old reference to St. Sebastian made clear again: by placing a portrait of St. Sebastian in the wall niche above the chapel entrance. In addition, since then, people passing by have been informed about the patronage of St. Sebastian by means of a small information board.

Care and maintenance

The care and maintenance of the Sebastian Chapel in Kupferberg has always been in the hands of volunteer citizens of Kupferberg. Both are made possible exclusively by donors, by Kupferberger associations and financial grants from the city of Kupferberg. In the recent past, the following measures have been carried out at the Sebastian Chapel:

1997: Renovation of the outside of the chapel. The old two-winged wooden door (which only allowed a view into the interior of the chapel through two small, barred windows) was replaced by a single-winged, galvanized lattice door.
2010: Paving of the entrance area of the chapel as well as the area of the nearby benches.
2013: Extension of a gutter.
2017: Renovation of the chapel outside and inside. Picturesque design of the renewed southern inner wall. Installation of a portrait of St. Sebastian in the wall niche above the entrance and an information board to the left of the chapel entrance. After the work was completed, the Sebastian Chapel was opened to the public again on the Feast of the Assumption .

Former natural monument

Some of the linden trees that surround the Sebastian Chapel were classified as natural monuments for a time due to their age (i.e. under nature protection). Due to a change in the underlying ordinance on natural monuments in the district of Kulmbach, they lost this protection in December 2014.

Five Wounds Chalkboard

Five-wound plaque on the linden tree to the right of the Sebastian Chapel

A wooden plaque with the five wounds of Jesus hangs on the linden tree immediately west of the Sebastian Chapel. For a long time no one remembers when it was installed there. Alois Schoenheiz and Nicolaus Hennemann do not mention this wooden panel in their chronicle. (You will also look in vain for a corresponding addendum by the various successors in office who added or updated the chronicle by hand). The carved representations (hands, feet, heart) are very old and possibly originate from that long no longer preserved five-wound cross that Schoenheinz and Hennemann mention and describe as standing at a crossroads in the northwest of Kupferberg (near the road tavern, towards Streichenreuth / Guttenberg).

Field crucifix

Body of the field crucifix (August 2017)

A few meters east of the Sebastian Chapel there is a wooden crucifix on the same property - also for an indefinite period . In the 20th century, its body was first renewed in the 1950s. This corpus - like the wooden sculptures mentioned above inside the Sebastian Chapel - was made and donated by the copperberg woodcarver Emil Schwander (†) and blessed by Friedrich Glaßauer (†), the last mediocre deficit to date. According to Karl Dill , the cross carried the body until around 1960; after that he "unfortunately disappeared". Years later Emil Schwander carved a new body out of linden wood and attached it to the cross in 1979.

Since the cross beams had become very rotten over time, they were replaced in July 2010 by a new oak cross with a copper roof. In order to protect the body from excessive weather conditions, it is removed annually in late autumn and attached to the cross immediately before Easter.

For many years, a wooden plaque hung under the body of the field crucifix with the following slogan: “What is the purpose of the cross that stands by the path. It wants to say the beautiful word of love to the wanderer who passes by. So the Lord bore your guilt. ”This wooden plaque was moved to the linden tree to the left of the Sebastian chapel some time ago.

The care and maintenance of the field crucifix is also carried out by volunteers who finance their work partly from their own resources, partly with the help of private donations and financial subsidies from the public sector.

Views

Sebastian Chapel (northeast view 1950s)
Double-leaf wooden door (replaced 1997)
IHS monogram and year of construction in the lintel,
Sacred Heart figure in the wall niche (replaced 2017)
Wall niche in the southern inner wall
(before the redesign)
Altar view from mid 1970s to 2017
Field crucifix and wooden plaque on the linden tree
(August 2017)
Message board (August 2017)

Web links

Commons : Sebastian-Kapelle Kupferberg - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

↑ Alois Schoenheinz, Nicolaus Hennemann: Chronicle of the Catholic parish of Kupferberg . Kupferberg 1896, p. 77 (Alois Schoenheinz was at that time mediocre deficit in Kupferberg, Nicolaus Hennemann was the incumbent pastor. Her handwritten chronicle was sporadically supplemented and updated by various successors in the following decades.).

↑ Originally (and up to the last decades of the 20th century) the Sebastian Chapel was several hundred meters outside the city walls or the settlement area of the city of Kupferberg. It was only surrounded by trees, fields, fields and paths. It was not until the construction of the Galgenberg and the Frühmeßhof in the late 1970s that the Kupferberg houses gradually moved up to a few meters from the Sebastian Chapel. The path from Kupferberg up (a good 63 meters in altitude) to the chapel was traditionally simply called “Kapella-Weg” by the residents. Only at the beginning of the development of the "Frühmeßhof" building area was this section of the old pilgrimage route given the name "Dörnhofer Straße" (cf. Streets in the Frühmeßhof got names. In: Bayerische Rundschau , Kulmbach September 28, 1976, p. 12).

↑ This mediocrity was founded in the late 14th century for pious reasons from the foundation of the citizens of Kupferberg, which has existed to this day. So it is not a church foundation in the strict sense, but a secular foundation that serves religious purposes. The sole purpose of the Mittelmeßbenefizium is to secure the livelihood of a priest who - relatively independently of and in addition to the respective local pastor - is supposed to read five holy masses a week as a beneficiary for the salvation of the living and deceased Kupferberg population as well as all believers. Traditionally, the right of appointment lay with the City Council of Kupferberg. Since the death of the last Mittelmeßbenefiziaten and Kupferberger honorary citizen Friedrich Glaßauer in April 1956, the Mittelmeßbenefiziaten has been vacant due to the lack of priests.

↑ On September 22nd, 1975, the then mayor of Kupferberg, Fritz Schott, and parish priest Franz Zeis signed a document that the town of Kupferberg would leave this property to the Catholic parish church foundation St. Vitus.

^ ^A ^b Werner Pittermann: A Kupferberger Gem . In: Bayerische Rundschau . Kulmbach April 2, 2001, p. 12 .

↑ Alois Schoenheinz, Nicolaus Hennemann: Chronicle of the Catholic parish of Kupferberg . Kupferberg 1896, p. 77 (At that time Alois Schoenheinz was a mediocre measurement deficit in Kupferberg, Nicolaus Hennemann was the incumbent pastor. Her handwritten chronicle was sporadically supplemented and updated by various successors in the following decades.).

↑ Alois Schoenheinz, Nicolaus Hennemann: Chronicle of the Catholic parish of Kupferberg . Kupferberg 1896, p. 77 .

↑ see: Demolition and rebuilding of a chapel near Kupferberg (StABa, Government of Upper Franconia, Chamber of the Interior, K 3 G II No. 15198). The archival records from 1821 provide information that the secular supervisory and licensing authority responsible for the Kupferberg Mittelmeßbenefician refused to build a new chapel because it was superfluous and dispensable with regard to the practice of religious worship. It only makes sense as a shelter for pilgrims and hikers when storms are approaching. The funds available are to be used for a more useful religious purpose. Notwithstanding this, the Kupferbergers rebuilt “their Kapella”.

↑ Photograph of the Sebastian figure standing in the Catholic parish church of St. Vitus zu Kupferberg. Karl Dill reports that in the wall niche above the chapel entrance there was one day (until exactly when, it is unclear) that there was a figure of Sebastian: Field monuments in the district of Kulmbach. Kulmbach 1984, p. 55.

↑ According to an arbitration ruling on sheep grazing rights from 1532 mentioned in the chronicle of Schoenheinz and Hennemann, at this point there was initially an unspecified stone torture. It has not yet been found out when it was replaced by the five-wound cross.

↑ cf. Karl Dill: Field monuments in the district of Kulmbach. Kulmbach 1984, p. 55: "It is not known by whom and when this picture [note: the wooden panel with the five wounds] was attached." - In the vicinity of the Sebastian Chapel there are two more five- Wound boards with almost identical appearance: On a balcony parapet of the Zeche 17 residential building (500 meters west of the Sebastian Chapel) and on a linden tree 700 meters to the south (next to the dirt road leading from Wirsberger Weg towards Würmberg; nearby Back entrance of the visitor mine). The reason and time of the installation of these signs are also unknown.

↑ JF Ruckdäschel: The Christ Cross in Kupferberg . In: From the Franconian homeland. Supplement to the Bayerische Rundschau . No. 9 . Kulmbach 1953, p. 4 .

^ Karl Dill: Field monuments in the district of Kulmbach. Kulmbach 1984, pp. 55/57. Dill writes that the body was painted.

50.13865 11,585Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 19.1 ″ N , 11 ° 35 ′ 6 ″ E

[1] Alois Schoenheinz, Nicolaus Hennemann: Chronicle of the Catholic parish of Kupferberg . Kupferberg 1896, p. 77 (Alois Schoenheinz was at that time mediocre deficit in Kupferberg, Nicolaus Hennemann was the incumbent pastor. Her handwritten chronicle was sporadically supplemented and updated by various successors in the following decades.).

[2] Originally (and up to the last decades of the 20th century) the Sebastian Chapel was several hundred meters outside the city walls or the settlement area of the city of Kupferberg. It was only surrounded by trees, fields, fields and paths. It was not until the construction of the Galgenberg and the Frühmeßhof in the late 1970s that the Kupferberg houses gradually moved up to a few meters from the Sebastian Chapel. The path from Kupferberg up (a good 63 meters in altitude) to the chapel was traditionally simply called “Kapella-Weg” by the residents. Only at the beginning of the development of the "Frühmeßhof" building area was this section of the old pilgrimage route given the name "Dörnhofer Straße" (cf. Streets in the Frühmeßhof got names. In: Bayerische Rundschau , Kulmbach September 28, 1976, p. 12).

[3] This mediocrity was founded in the late 14th century for pious reasons from the foundation of the citizens of Kupferberg, which has existed to this day. So it is not a church foundation in the strict sense, but a secular foundation that serves religious purposes. The sole purpose of the Mittelmeßbenefizium is to secure the livelihood of a priest who - relatively independently of and in addition to the respective local pastor - is supposed to read five holy masses a week as a beneficiary for the salvation of the living and deceased Kupferberg population as well as all believers. Traditionally, the right of appointment lay with the City Council of Kupferberg. Since the death of the last Mittelmeßbenefiziaten and Kupferberger honorary citizen Friedrich Glaßauer in April 1956, the Mittelmeßbenefiziaten has been vacant due to the lack of priests.

[4] On September 22nd, 1975, the then mayor of Kupferberg, Fritz Schott, and parish priest Franz Zeis signed a document that the town of Kupferberg would leave this property to the Catholic parish church foundation St. Vitus.

[ReferenceA-5] A ^b Werner Pittermann: A Kupferberger Gem . In: Bayerische Rundschau . Kulmbach April 2, 2001, p. 12 .

[6] Alois Schoenheinz, Nicolaus Hennemann: Chronicle of the Catholic parish of Kupferberg . Kupferberg 1896, p. 77 (At that time Alois Schoenheinz was a mediocre measurement deficit in Kupferberg, Nicolaus Hennemann was the incumbent pastor. Her handwritten chronicle was sporadically supplemented and updated by various successors in the following decades.).

[7] Alois Schoenheinz, Nicolaus Hennemann: Chronicle of the Catholic parish of Kupferberg . Kupferberg 1896, p. 77 .

[8] see: Demolition and rebuilding of a chapel near Kupferberg (StABa, Government of Upper Franconia, Chamber of the Interior, K 3 G II No. 15198). The archival records from 1821 provide information that the secular supervisory and licensing authority responsible for the Kupferberg Mittelmeßbenefician refused to build a new chapel because it was superfluous and dispensable with regard to the practice of religious worship. It only makes sense as a shelter for pilgrims and hikers when storms are approaching. The funds available are to be used for a more useful religious purpose. Notwithstanding this, the Kupferbergers rebuilt “their Kapella”.

[9] Photograph of the Sebastian figure standing in the Catholic parish church of St. Vitus zu Kupferberg. Karl Dill reports that in the wall niche above the chapel entrance there was one day (until exactly when, it is unclear) that there was a figure of Sebastian: Field monuments in the district of Kulmbach. Kulmbach 1984, p. 55.

[10] According to an arbitration ruling on sheep grazing rights from 1532 mentioned in the chronicle of Schoenheinz and Hennemann, at this point there was initially an unspecified stone torture. It has not yet been found out when it was replaced by the five-wound cross.

[11] . Karl Dill: Field monuments in the district of Kulmbach. Kulmbach 1984, p. 55: "It is not known by whom and when this picture [note: the wooden panel with the five wounds] was attached." - In the vicinity of the Sebastian Chapel there are two more five- Wound boards with almost identical appearance: On a balcony parapet of the Zeche 17 residential building (500 meters west of the Sebastian Chapel) and on a linden tree 700 meters to the south (next to the dirt road leading from Wirsberger Weg towards Würmberg; nearby Back entrance of the visitor mine). The reason and time of the installation of these signs are also unknown.