Sint-Niklaaskerk (Ghent)

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Sint-Niklaaskerk and houses at the Kornmarkt in Ghent
Eduard Gärtner: Kornmarkt and Sint-Niklaaskerk (around 1850)
Kornmarkt and Sint-Niklaaskerk (around 1895)

The Sint-Niklaaskerk in the heart of the historic old town of the Flemish city ​​of Ghent is one of the most important Gothic church buildings in Central Europe. Unlike the St. Bavo Cathedral , which is approx. 400 m away , it is not a bishop's church , but the parish church of the citizens of the city who have become rich through manufacturing and trade and is consequently more representative and better equipped in some respects.

Building history

The St. Nikolaus von Myra , the patron saint of grain traders, merchants, inland boatmen, carters, etc. began at the beginning of the 13th century in the Scheldt Gothic style after a previous Romanesque building had been demolished and was completed in the same century. In the 14th century the choir area of the church was expanded and stabilized with buttresses ; Due to structural damage, it was decided in the 17th century to close the lantern tower with a vault. As early as the Middle Ages, small residential and commercial buildings were attached to the chapel-free side aisle walls of the church; part of the (rental) income went to the church. In the 20th century there were three major restoration measures; In one case, the drawn-in vault in the lantern tower was removed again - the last only ended in 2010.

architecture

The church building, built from the bluestone typical of the Tournai region , impresses with the slimness of its proportions and the high two- story crossing tower , the basement of which was designed as a lantern tower towards the three-aisled church interior, whereas the church bells were hung on the upper floor . All facades as well as the crossing tower are framed or stabilized by small side stair turrets with pointed helmets . The pillars of the church are not - as is common in the simultaneous cathedral architecture of France - in the form of bundle pillars , but as brick and then clad columns , to which slender half-columns are placed, which seem to take the weight of the rib vaults . The central nave of the church shows the typical three-part wall elevation of the Gothic with an arcade zone, unexposed walkway triforium and upper aisle , although the latter two are greatly reduced in height compared to the arcade zone. The church has a transept and a choir , but without a chapel wreath .

Furnishing

The baroque main altar shows a picture framed by four Solomonic columns depicting a miracle of St. Nicholas wearing a bishop's robe. The tabernacle altar , accessible from the ambulatory, shows a God the Father who is surrounded by putti and looking down from heaven . The wooden pulpit , also a work of the Baroque, is lavishly carved.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Wilfried Koch : Architectural Style. European architecture from antiquity to the present . Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-570-06234-1 , p. 178.

Web links

Commons : Sint-Niklaaskerk  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 14 "  N , 3 ° 43 ′ 23"  E