Hospital Church (Bayreuth)

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Main facade of the church building, on the left the former hospital, on the right the building of the municipal savings bank that was built in 1934 and demolished in 2007

The Spitalkirche in Bayreuth is in the city ​​center on Maximiliansstrasse, a street market . It belongs to the Markgrafenkirchen , is Evangelical-Lutheran and is administered by the City of Bayreuth as part of the Hospital Foundation. The eponymous former hospital, which houses apartments and the city ​​archive , is directly adjacent.

history

View around 1900, on the right the building of the old local court, from 1904 to 1932 Sparkassenhaus

First construction

The origin of this very old church lies in the darkness of history: Due to the destruction of most of the old documents in the Hussite War in 1430, exact dates are not possible. The first mention of the hospital and the associated hospital fair in the Bayreuth Landbuch comes from the year 1398.

The donors of the hospital and the hospital fair cannot be exactly determined. It is assumed that the burgraves of Nuremberg, as the city lords at the time, founded the hospital. The original church building in the early Gothic style probably dates from the 12th century and might have been built earlier than the hospital itself and even earlier than the town church (1270). Bayreuth initially belonged to the church district of the old town , which is older than Bayreuth.

After severe damage to the facility in the Hussite War , the city fathers brought Master Oswald from Bamberg in 1438 to rebuild. The Gothic , three-aisled church building with a wooden gallery was consecrated as early as 1439. Master Oswald died in 1445 and so Hans Pul († 1472) completed the work.

In the years 1576/1577 a renovation in the style of the Renaissance took place . In 1637 Elias Brentel painted the gallery pictures that tell the New Testament salvation story. In 1669 the painter Lorenz Reincke from Kulmbach († 1666) summed up the seating in green with light foliage. Part of it has been preserved and is in the church. Earlier lattice chairs for the nobles and folding seats on the side benches are no longer available.

Information sign at the hospital church

Second construction in the 18th century

Since the church had become too small for the rapidly growing population of Bayreuth and could not be expanded, it was decided to build a new hospital church at the same location under the responsibility of Margravine Wilhelmine (1709–1758). The new building, led by the Bayreuth court architects Joseph Saint-Pierre and Rudolf Heinrich Richter , began in spring 1748 (laying of the foundation stone) and lasted until summer 1750 (consecration). The stucco was made by the Bayreuth court plasterer Rudolf Albini . The ceiling painting was painted by the Dresden painter Johann Benjamin Müller . The last external renovation of the church took place in 2007.

time of the nationalsocialism

The hospital church was owned by the hospital foundation and was subject to the right of disposal of the city. On April 5, 1935, a congregation of German Christians , a racist , anti-Semitic and leader- oriented movement in Protestantism , was founded in Bayreuth . A first service took place on June 16 of that year in the hospital church, which until 1945 served the German Christians as a place for baptisms, confirmations and weddings.

architecture

Two of the sculptures on the attic

The front side facing the market square is a two-story building with five window axes and a rather inconspicuous portal.

On the attic behind the gable are four sandstone sculptures that the sculptor Johann Gabriel Räntz created as allegories of wisdom , justice , bravery and temperance . Before the renovation in the Renaissance style, the female figures were gilded. The sculptures are still the originals. In the gable triangle is the eye of God , surrounded by putti and clouds. On the top of the church tower is the weathercock, which was freshly gilded in 2005 . At the church tower an electromechanically driven tower clock announces the time in connection with quarter-hour chimes. It was installed in 1966 and has been in operation ever since.

Furnishing

Church art treasures

Pulpit altar
  • Pulpit altar with four Corinthian columns (1749) by Johann Gabriel Räntz; the princes of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul can be seen next to the altar . The sound cover is crowned by a putto with a cross and the Holy Scriptures.
  • Stuck (1750) by Rudolf Albini in the four corners of the main church.
The representations show the Ark of the Covenant with the cherubim (right back below the entrance), showbread in a temple (right front, towards the sacristy door), lamb on the book with the seven seals (left front) and command panels with a cross, a lance and a vinegar sponge ( left back)

Bells

The bell tower contains a three-part bell : the smallest bronze bell weighing 50 kg and 50 cm in diameter comes from the first church. It bears the inscription: “In 1732 Christian Victor Herold poured me in Nuremberg. Simon Richter, Mayor and Hospital Manager ”. The middle bell weighs 180 kg with a diameter of 60 cm. It was created in 1750 and contains the following note: "Christoph Salomon Graulich in Hof poured me in 1750". The third and at the same time largest bell with a weight of 400 kg and a diameter of 70 cm has the following inscription: “Christoph Salomon Graulich in Hof poured me in 1750. Under the government of the most illustrious Prince and Lord, Mr. Friederich Markgraffen zu Brandenburg ect .: Bey Joseph Roder and Mr. Johann Friedrich Gansmann were responsible for building and renovating the hospital church. Adjunctus ". All three bells had to be delivered as a metal donation from the German people during World War II . They came to the bell camp in Hamburg, but were not melted down, but returned to their place in 1948.

organ

In the church building from the 1750s, an organ by court instrument maker Christian Gottlob Hubert was installed, the prospectus of which was made according to a design by Räntz. The instrument with five registers was replaced in 1846 by a new one made by the Bayreuth organ builder Ludwig Weineck . The Gottesackerkirche in Bayreuth received the first organ . The new instrument with a Biedermeier style prospectus was expanded in 1956 by the Austrian Rieger Orgelbau with a few stops and manuals. The now existing on the gallery organ with the Prospectus from 1846 has 17 registers and 2 manuals, it was on 2 July 1958 by the Bishop Oberkirchenrat Burkert ordained . Since then, in addition to its worship service, the instrument has also been used for concerts, including Bach celebrations and the performance of the St. John Passion .

Patronage of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia

The saint mentioned initially served as the church patroness because she was particularly committed to the poor, widows and orphans. In the church room, in front of the sacristy door, a small statue of Elisabeth reminded of her beneficial work by 1968 at the latest. The Lord's Supper goblet from 1499 serves as proof of patronage; the base of the cup is decorated with an Elisabeth figure and the Zollern coat of arms. The chalice has been in the regional church archive in Nuremberg since 1976. A return to the hospital church is being negotiated.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Other works by Saint-Pierre in Bayreuth include the Margravial Opera House , the Castle Church , the New Castle in the city center and the New Castle in the Hermitage .

Web links

Commons : Spitalkirche  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Discover Markgrafenkirchen (PDF file) at bayreuth.de, accessed on August 15, 2018
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Explanation boards inside the church, photographed in May 2019. The complete text comes from the sexton of the hospital church, Thomas Dorn.
  3. ↑ Karl Müssel: Bayreuth in eight centuries , S. 202nd

Coordinates: 49 ° 56 ′ 42.1 ″  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 19.9 ″  E