St. Nikolai Church (Aken)
The Protestant St. Nikolai Church in Aken (Elbe) is one of the oldest buildings in the city.
history
At this point there was a chapel of the Holy Spirit , probably part of a Holy Spirit hospital. This was first mentioned in 1265 in the Aken jury books. In 1270 Duke Johann I of Saxony founded a Nikolaikirche there and founded a collegiate foundation . The foundation was confirmed by Archbishop Konrad von Magdeburg , as well as by King Rudolf .
The monastery was endowed with a number of privileges and possessions: it had sole school rights in Aken, its own jurisdiction and its own customs and tax rights. In addition, the Marienkirche was subordinated to him as a subsidiary church.
After the monastery was abolished in 1558, the Nikolaikirche was initially only used for funerals and was left to the Reformed community from 1712 to 1831 .
Building history
From around 1270 a three-aisled pillar basilica was built in the late Romanesque style. The church was severely damaged by a flood of the Elbe in 1316/17, so that extensive renovations had to be made, which lasted until 1335. Here, the construction were early Gothic elements added. The west facade was raised by two storeys to which two octagonal twin towers with a folding roof were added. The Romanesque choir was replaced by an elongated rectangular building. The arched portals in the north and south aisles are still reminiscent of the Romanesque building, further Romanesque elements can be seen in addition to Gothic decorations on the capitals and fighters of the south portal. A special feature is a striding lion, which is depicted in a tympanum in the north portal.
An extensive renovation carried out from 1882 to 1884 reinforced the Gothic character of the church. After 1945, no substance-preserving work was initially carried out, so that the condition of the building increasingly deteriorated. A renovation that began in the 1980s was not completed until 1996 when the two twin towers were re-covered.
Interior design
The interior of the main nave is closed by a flat wooden ceiling. The original furnishings of the church include a large Gothic octagonal sandstone baptism and two figure tombstones from the 14th century with incised drawings depicting clergy . A late Gothic winged altar and a triumphal crucifix (around 1485) as well as the neo-Gothic wooden gallery and the organ from the 19th century were taken over from the Marienkirche in Aken, which has been closed by the building authorities since 1983 . The altar shows Mary with the Christ child and the saints Anna and Barbara in the central shrine . Twelve apostles and other saints are depicted in the side wings . The organ, created by the Hausneindorf organ builder Ernst Röver , is equipped with a pneumatic mechanism.
literature
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the historical sites of Germany - Province of Saxony. Kröner, Stuttgart 1987, p. 3
- Thilo Schwichtenberg: Historical background to the Nikolaistift in Aken . In: Akener Haus- und Familien-Kalender , 2006
- Ed. Kirchenkreis Egeln: Blessings on wide land - The churches of the Protestant church district Egeln. Edition Akanthus, Spröda 2016, p. 8.
Web links
- Nikolaikirche city of Aken
- Church information on the parish website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thilo Schwichtenberg: Historical background to the Nikolaistift in Aken. In: Akener house and family calendar. 2006, pp. 137-142.
- ↑ Friedrich Gottfried Carl Pfeffer: Chronicle of the city of Aken on the Elbe . Zerbst 1821. pp. 166-174
Coordinates: 51 ° 51 ′ 8.3 " N , 12 ° 2 ′ 49.2" E