St. Bartholomew Church (Dresden)

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The St. Bartholomew Church was a church in the Wilsdruffer suburb in Dresden . Like the churchyard used as a cemetery, it belonged to the Bartholomäus Hospital and, like the hospital, existed until 1839.

The St. Bartholomew Church with the adjoining hospital buildings

history

The Bartholomäus Church was the church of the Bartholomäus Hospital built in the 13th or 14th century. Bartholomew is the patron against skin diseases because it on the orders of Astyages , brother of the Armenian ruler Polimio , flayed to have been. In 1238, his alleged apostle's skull was brought to the Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew in Frankfurt am Main by Emperor Friedrich II , which was then named after him. Subsequently, the Bartholomäus patronage spread more frequently in the area of ​​the Holy Roman Empire . A relic of Bartholomew , which has since been lost, also came to Dresden , because water supposedly gushed against leprosy in front of the Wilsdruffer Gate . With the flourishing of the cities in the 12th century and the general population growth into the 13th century, the number of lepers increased. In addition, the narrowness of the cities and the often poor hygienic conditions encouraged the spread of infectious diseases.

The first news of the existence of the church are invoices for reconstruction of the church from the year 1408. The consecration of an altar and the cemetery by the Bishop of Meissen is documented for the year 1473.

The church was "slightly indented from the road to the duck puddle [Freiberger Platz], where a wall itself makes the enclosure". In 1519 a major renovation followed, which was completed in 1520. After the cemetery was closed at the end of the 16th century, the church was surrounded by a green courtyard in 1783 with trees and a fountain. According to belief, its water should have healing powers. On the church premises there were also residential and commercial buildings of the Bartholomäus Hospital.

The St. Bartholomew Church was, in addition to the hospital church, also the parish church for the later Wilsdruffer suburb. Parishes such as Gerbergasse , Viehweide, Fischersdorf and Poppitz were parish in the Bartholomäus Church. In 1539, the pastoral office of the church was transferred to the pastor of the Plauen community during the Reformation , so that Plauen, Naußlitz , Roßthal , Löbtau , Dölzschen and Coschütz were also parish into the church. The first Protestant pastor of St. Bartholomew's Church was Johann Küchler († 1545), the second pastor from 1546 Nicolaus Fleischmann († 1570). It is possible that the community of Plauen was cleared out of the Bartholomäus Church under Fleischmann; Donat Michael was pastor of the church in 1563 at the latest, replacing Fleischmann. He was followed in 1566 by Matthias Haber, then by Matthias Hausotter († 1593), who was also the first pastor of the parish from 1567 to take care of the plague sufferers, and from 1574 to Paul Pretzschner.

In the course of the Reformation, the Dresden Franciscan monastery had been closed and one of the few cemeteries in the city had been eliminated. At that time the Frauenkirchhof , the cemetery of the Dreikönigskirche and the Bartholomäus Church remained the only burial places in the city. In Pretzschner's time, the parishes had grown so much that the church and cemetery became too small. The idle times in the cemetery had been shortened by 1577 to such an extent that for new burials "often still partially undecayed bodies have to be dug up". The parishes therefore asked Elector August in 1577 for a new place for a larger church and cemetery. At the intercession of Electress Anna , in 1578 he gave the community the so-called Parchenhof for a new church and a place for "a quiet, peaceful burial". On July 26th 1578 the dedication of the Annenkirche could be celebrated, around which the new Annenkirchhof was built. In the same year the St. Bartholomew Church lost its parochial status to the Annenkirche, whose first pastor was Paul Pretzschner. The parishes previously parish in the Bartholomäus Church have now been combined to form the Annengemeinde. The Bartholomäus Church was still used for church services, so the pastor of the Annenkirche was obliged to hold a church service with communion for the sick four times a year on Wednesdays in the St. Bartholomäus Church. The hospital sisters used the church from 1578 and maintained it structurally. From 1760 to 1769 the St. Bartholomew Church served as a substitute church for the Annengemeinde, as the Annenkirche was badly damaged by Prussian shelling during the Seven Years' War .

As early as 1831 the construction of a new hospital and church was planned on the site of the Bartholomäus Church. In the course of the construction of Freiberger Platz , the church and hospital including the infirmary were demolished from 1838 to 1839. Apartment houses were subsequently built on the site.

The church building

Interior of the Bartholomew Church

Exterior view

The church was renovated or rebuilt from 1519 to 1520 on the instructions of Elector Georg , for example, a stone not far from the gravestone of Auxiliary Bishop Niclas bore the inscription “Darnach 1519 jare ist diss gotshaus ufs naw widerumb. Hans Hammer Spitalmeyster ”. Anton Weck found in 1680 that the church was not very large, but that it was "built in fine stone". Historian Johann Christian Hasche also called the building a “stone but certainly small church”. Cornelius Gurlitt estimated the size of the church in 1903 to be around 21 meters long and eleven meters wide.

The church was a simple rectangular building with a small slate roof turret in which several bells were attached. Hasche called the style "badly Gothic". The roof was flat; the windows were inconsistent in shape. The church served as a place of worship for the community and the sick. While the parishioners took their places inside the church, the sick people in the hospital could only watch the sermons through the window hatches due to possible contamination. Historian Carl August Espe wrote in 1837 that the church was "of no value in terms of construction, as the appearance teaches and experts have assured me".

inside view

The church had a simple beamed ceiling with boards inserted. The interior of the church was dominated by wooden galleries on the south, west and partly north sides. In the eastern area of ​​the altar there was also a simple gallery with stairs for the church choir. On it was also the positive for church music. The galleries were painted with watercolors by George Lessigk in 1663. The drawings showed biblical scenes and were surrounded by ornate wooden frames. The choir area itself had been painted with gold stars and roses by Franz Eger.

The church closed off on the west side opposite the roof turret with a small sacristy, which was arched but so low that one could hardly stand upright in it. The sacristy was entered from the church through a round door.

Furnishing

altar

Bartholomäus Church Dresden Altar Shrine Wing 2.jpg
Altar shrine Dreikönigsaltar Bartholomäuskirche.jpg
Bartholomäus Church Dresden Altar Shrine Wing 1.jpg


Altar shrine with side wings
Altar table with the Holy Sepulcher, photo around 1910

In the church there was an altar on the east side, which was partially broken. The altar table was hollow and showed the interior of the tomb of Christ with the three holy women Maria Magdalena , Maria Jakobi and Salome . The figure of the dead Jesus was recognizable in the foreground. The angels hovered over the grave, the sleeping guards could be seen at the edge of the scene. "The relationship between the figures is not observed here because the guards are more than half the size," Hasche said in 1783. The altar part was the first altar with the Holy Sepulcher from the Busmann Chapel , which was erected after the Franciscan monastery was dissolved in 1552 had come to the Bartholomäus Church. Around 1837 the altar was well preserved and only the angel figures showed broken points. However, at that time the altar was already "very defaced" by multiple lime coats. After the church was demolished in 1839, the piece came into the possession of the Royal Saxon Antiquities Association , which stored it in the palace in the Great Garden . Here the altar, of which only parts had been preserved around 1900 , was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in February 1945.

There was a structure above the altar table: the altar sheet consisted of a carved representation of Mary with the child and the wise men of the Orient. The figures were partially gilded. The carving was attributed to Hans Eyfflender and dated to 1509. It was 1.04 meters wide and 1.37 meters high. The rear wall of the altar was provided with a wooden double door that could be opened like a cupboard. It showed carvings of the apostles Andrew and Saint Stephen on the left and Saints Catherine and Magdalena on the right. Saint Peter and Saint Nicholas were also painted. During holidays, the doors of the altar were opened, which thus became the three-field altar. The altar wings were 52 centimeters wide each. A wooden crucifix hung over the altar as a crown, which Hasche described as "worked in the worst style ...". It is assumed that the altar structure originated in the 16th century and "was certainly not donated for the poor Bartholomew Church". Presumably it originally stood in the Dreikönigskirche and came to the Bartholomäus Church after the fire in Altendresden in 1685, which destroyed the church. When the church was demolished, the shrine became the property of the Saxon Antiquities Association, where it had been preserved in 1903.

At the foot of the back wall of the altar was an oil painting with the twelve apostles. It is not known whether it was the predella from the Busmann band that had come with the altar to the Bartholomew Church.

pulpit

Flaser pulpit of the Bartholomäus Church; Dresden City Museum

The church had a wooden, 85 centimeter wide pulpit, which, like the choir gallery, stood on the north side of the church. The pulpit was attached to the church wall and was accessed via a staircase. Possibly it was created in the course of a renovation in 1552. The surrounds of the stairs, as well as the pulpit itself, were covered with wallpaper made of paper or flat paper (so-called "Flaser pulpit"). The front showed a stuck-on woodcut with a Passion coat of arms with scenes of the Passion of Christ. The Passion of Christ was printed in verse under the coat of arms; the poem was from the year 1569. On the right narrow side the blessing Christ and on the left a scene of the crucifixion of Christ or a Calvary were to be seen. Under the drawing was written in Dutch “Siet dat Lam Gods, tovelck der Werldt / probes op hem neemt. Johannes I Cap. ”The portraits of Elector Johann Friedrich I and Martin Luther could be seen above the depiction of the Calvary . Cornelius Gurlitt classified the pulpit as the work of Hans Willkomm (1509–1577), who also worked with flasers in the 16th century at Annaburg Castle and Freudenstein Castle . The pulpit has been preserved and is part of the permanent exhibition on Dresden's city history in the Dresden City Museum .

Baptismal font

The church had a stone baptismal font, which was designed in the shape of a chalice and possibly came from the 16th century. It stood to the side of the altar, across from the pulpit on the south side of the church. The scourged Christ was depicted in wood on the baptismal font. The figure was painted. Art historian Cornelius Gurlitt wrote that the font was heavily redesigned in later years. It was preserved in the city museum in 1903, was later in the palace in the Great Garden and is now used in the Seidnitz Nazareth Church.

Bells and organ

The casting of two new bells possibly by Antonius Tjorler is documented for the year 1552. Andreas Herold cast the bells in 1651.

The church had a positive that was on the choir gallery.

Other equipment

Epitaph by Auxiliary Bishop Niclas, drawing by Cornelius Gurlitt around 1903

In the church there were oak stalls, some of which had been preserved in 1903 and were stored in the city museum. Several oil and watercolor paintings were installed in the church, including memorial images. In the eastern church window by the altar, glass panes from 1553 still existed in 1837, which were painted in yellow with coats of arms and the names of the church's donors.

Auxiliary Bishop Niclas von Meißen was buried in the church. Its epitaph from 1391 was moved to the south-western wall of the church when the church was enlarged. It showed Niclas von Meissen carved in stone, the figure being covered by an inscription band with the text “anno Domini M.CCC.XCI. in vigilia. St. Matthaei. obiit. rev. in Christo pater et Dominus Nicolau episc. Constancianensis ”was surrounded. Around 1837 the figure and the inscription were largely no longer recognizable. When the church was demolished, the grave slab was recovered and brought to the city museum. Another grave slab was located not far from the northern church entrance near the altar and was set into the ground. It was only partially preserved in the church. Espe suspected that other sandstones set into the ground were gravestones from the churchyard.

In 1903, a statue of St. Bartholomew a little more than a meter high had been preserved, which had been recovered badly damaged when the church was demolished. Cornelius Gurlitt suspected it was a work by Master Matiss from 1479 mentioned in the church files, which may have been walled up in the church after the successor figure was erected in 1519. The statue was in the Dresden City Museum in 1903. In addition, various sculptures from the church were preserved, including not only sculptures of saints but also grave monuments. The Dresden City Museum houses, among other things, the wooden sculpture of a Man of Sorrows, which was made and painted at the beginning of the 16th century, as well as the epitaph of the Erttel family from 1575.

graveyard

Although the church was also used as a burial place, the majority of burials took place in the churchyard around the church. It was one of the earliest burial places in the Dresden area. Not only the parishioners, but also the sick, the poor and, until 1568, the corpses of the plague of Dresden were buried on it. The cemetery received an ossuary and a mortuary in 1501 and 1503. The excavated bones of the dead were housed in the ossuary so that burial sites could be relocated more quickly. The ossuary had a gable with a crucifix and a picture of St. Bartholomew; both were carved by Kuntz Steinmetz and painted by Franz Eger.

At times of epidemics, but also in later years, when the congregations had grown rapidly and the church could no longer hold the believers, services were held in the churchyard. The pastor then preached from the so-called plague pulpit, which had been attached to the southern outer wall of the churchyard. This stone pulpit was probably built in the mid-16th century and was present in the churchyard until the church was demolished.

literature

  • Carl August Espe : About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, pp. 97-105.
  • Cornelius Gurlitt : The Bartholomäus Church . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, pp. 167–172. Digitized
  • Johann Christian Hasche : The Bartholomäus Chapel or the Spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, pp. 706-711.
  • Anton Weck : The third church with the same shape as the last imagined gate is the chapel of S. Bartholomaei . In: The Chur-Princely Saxon resident and main vestibule Dresden description and presentation . Froberger, Nuremberg 1680, pp. 271-272.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kathrin Apel: Caritas and memoria. The hospital system of the city of Kassel in the late Middle Ages. (PDF; 433 kB) 2006, p. 43 , accessed on October 19, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: The Bartholomäuskirche . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 167.
  3. ^ Andreas Meinhardt: Dresden in Transition . Academy, Berlin 2009, p. 62.
  4. ↑ Cf. Alexandra-Kathrin Stanislaw-Kemenah: Spitäler in Dresden , 2008. Quoted here. according to Carola Schauer: Death and burial in Dresden. Part 1 . In: Stadtmuseum Dresden (ed.): Dresdner Geschichtsbuch No. 15. DZA, Altenburg 2010, p. 28.
  5. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 711.
  6. ↑ Anton Weck: The third church with the same shape as the last thought gate is the chapel of S. Bartholomaei . In: The Chur-Princely Saxon resident and main vestibule Dresden description and presentation . Froberger, Nuremberg 1680, p. 272.
  7. ↑ Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 100.
  8. ^ Andreas Meinhardt: Dresden in Transition . Academy, Berlin 2009, p. 63.
  9. ↑ Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 101.
  10. ↑ a b deed of donation from Elector August, March 9, 1578. Quoted from Gustav Boettger: The history of the Annenkirche in Dresden: Eine Säcularschrift . Adler and Dietze, Dresden 1860, p. 8.
  11. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 708; Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 101.
  12. ↑ Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, pp. 97-98.
  13. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 53.
  14. ↑ Anton Weck: The third church with the same shape as the last thought gate is the chapel of S. Bartholomaei . In: The Chur-Princely Saxon resident and main vestibule Dresden description and presentation . Froberger, Nuremberg 1680, p. 271.
  15. ↑ Quoted from Carl August Espe: Ueber den Geist or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 102.
  16. ↑ Anton Weck: The third church with the same shape as the last thought gate is the chapel of S. Bartholomaei . In: The Chur-Princely Saxon resident and main vestibule Dresden description and presentation . Froberger, Nuremberg 1680, p. 271.
  17. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 707.
  18. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: The Bartholomäuskirche . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 169.
  19. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 708.
  20. ^ Annette Dubbers: The Wilsdruffer suburb . Dubbers, Dresden 2010, p. 10.
  21. ↑ Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 102.
  22. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 709.
  23. ↑ a b c d e f Cornelius Gurlitt: The Bartholomäuskirche . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 170.
  24. ↑ a b c d e Cornelius Gurlitt: The Bartholomäuskirche . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 167.
  25. ↑ a b c d Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 710.
  26. ^ A b c Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of the h. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 104.
  27. ^ Fritz Löffler: Console figures in the Busmann Chapel of the former Franciscan Church in Dresden . In: Journal of the German Association for Art History . Volume XXII, Issue 3/4, Berlin 1968, p. 140.
  28. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Three Kings Altar . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 122.
  29. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Three Kings Altar . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 123. Espe (104) suspected a representation of Saint Bartholomew in the Stephan representation.
  30. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: Three Kings Altar . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 123.
  31. ↑ See buntpapier.org
  32. ↑ Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 709.
  33. ^ The Nazareth Church in Dresden-Seidnitz. Evangelical Lutheran Church Community Dresden Gruna-Seidnitz, accessed on May 20, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: The Bartholomäuskirche . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 169.
  35. ↑ Quotation from Johann Christian Hasche: The Bartholomäuskapelle or the Spirit . In: Johann Christian Hasche: Complicated description of Dresden with all its external and internal peculiarities . Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, p. 707.
  36. ↑ Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 102.
  37. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt: The Bartholomäuskirche . In: Cornelius Gurlitt: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Booklet 21: City of Dresden . Meinhold, Dresden 1903, p. 169.
  38. ↑ Alexandra-Kathrin Stanislaw-Kemenah: The Bartholomaeihospital . In: Alexandra-Kathrin Stanislaw-Kemenah: Hospitals in Dresden. On the change of an institution (13th to 16th centuries) . Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2008, p. 170.
  39. ^ Carola Schauer: Death and Burial in Dresden. Part 1 . In: Stadtmuseum Dresden (ed.): Dresdner Geschichtsbuch No. 15. DZA, Altenburg 2010, p. 28.
  40. ↑ Anton Weck: The third church with the same shape as the last thought gate is the chapel of S. Bartholomaei . In: The Chur-Princely Saxon resident and main vestibule Dresden description and presentation . Froberger, Nuremberg 1680, p. 272.
  41. ↑ Carl August Espe: About the Spirit or the Hospital and the Church of St. Bartholomew of Dresden . In: PG Hilscher (Ed.): The collector for history and antiquity, for art and nature in the Elbthale . Volume 1, No. 7. Grimmer, Dresden 1837, p. 100.

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 '2 "  N , 13 ° 43' 35.9"  E