St. Sylvestri Church (Wernigerode)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The St. Sylvestri Church in Wernigerode belongs to the Evangelical Church Community of St. Sylvestri and Liebfrauen . The church is named after Pope Silvester I and is located at the Oberpfarrkirchhof .

St. Sylvestri Church
St. Sylvestri Church, interior view (around 1900)

Building history

House Gadenstedt

The building of the St. Sylvestri Church stands on the oldest part of Wernigerode, the "Klint". The Benedictines of the monastery Corvey under its Abbot Warin I built here, according to legend, in the 9th century a chapel, which was the center of the settlement Wernigerode. Remnants of the foundation are still under the parish hall of the church, the " Haus Gadenstedt " opposite the current church building. In the 10th century it was converted into a three-aisled, cruciform Romanesque basilica . The pillars of this church still stand today. The church received a broad west building and two octagonal towers. The name "ecclesia St. Georgi" appears for the first time around 1100, so it was consecrated to Saint George , patron saint of farmers , miners , knights and orders of knights as well as soldiers , blacksmiths and pilgrims .

1265 the building was at the founding of Canons for early Gothic rebuilt Basilica. Among other things, the central nave wall of the top floor was provided with large windows ( upper storey ). The choir was lengthened to make room for the canons' stalls. Under the choir there is a crypt with the graves of individual counts. The access was walled up from 1880 to 1886. Bishop Volrad von Kranichfeld confirmed the patronage of Pope Silvester I in 1265 .

In 1727 the two towers of the church were demolished and an octagonal tower with a hood in the Baroque style was built on the westwork . This was demolished again in 1869. On the occasion of the church renovation in the neo-Gothic style (1880–1886), a new tower was built that is still standing today. During this renovation, a wooden flat ceiling had to be installed instead of the baroque barrel vault for structural reasons . To do this, it was necessary to shorten the lancet windows on the east side of the choir. The upper storey was walled up and only broken open again in the 19th century.

Furnishing

As a result of the abandonment of the Liebfrauenkirche as a place of worship and the necessary deedication, cultural objects that previously had their place in the Liebfrauenkirche are transferred to the Sylvestrikirche.

Bells

The church originally had five bells. Three of them were melted down for armaments purposes during the First and Second World Wars . The first remaining bell from June 27, 1297 weighs around 1750 kg. The other from 1500 weighs around 1000 kg.

altar

The winged altar was made in a Brussels workshop around 1480. A special feature is that it represents an altar of Mary when it is open and an Altar of Anne when it is closed ( Anna selbdritt ). The pictures on the closed side are probably older than the pictures and figures on the open side.

This altar originally stood in the Liebfrauenkirche. When it was completely destroyed by fire in 1751, it was saved and damaged and was initially installed in the Nikolaikirche. After its demolition, he came to the St. Sylvestri Church in 1932, where he replaced the altar created in 1883 by the wood sculptor Gustav Kuntzsch from Wernigerode . The base ( predella ) comes from a baroque altar.

  • Altar of the Sylvestri Church

  • Altar opened

  • Altar closed

epitaph

Epitaph for Dietrich von Gadenstedt

One of the epitaphs is for the captain of the county, Dietrich von Gadenstedt († January 13, 1586). It shows him and his family in Spanish court dress . The grave monument was only put back in the church in 1995. Only the Ascension of Christ remains from the pictures that were previously available. Four of the Twelve Apostles are also missing from the work of art.

Memo boards

Memo boards

The left memorial plaque is dedicated to Count Heinrich IV von Wernigerode († June 3, 1429). He was the last count of Wernigerode. His wife Countess Agnes von Gleichen can be seen as the benefactor. The right panel is dedicated to Count Dietrich, the brother of Count Heinrich IV., Who was executed on July 22, 1386 for an alleged breach of the peace or who had fallen victim to a plot of murder.

Oak plank cabinet

Oak cabinet

One of the oldest preserved cabinets in Germany is in the church. It originally stood in the sacristy and was used to store holy scriptures. The Romanesque round arches in the base at the foot, as well as the Gothic gable point to the 13th century as the period of manufacture. The specialty of the cabinet is the bar in the middle, which has seven different reliefs . Heads, tournament helmets, snakes and leaves, a monkey and a lion are shown on the decorative strip. They could be interpreted as the victory of Christianity over paganism or as the victory of good over evil.

pulpit

The pulpit shows the apostles John , Peter , Paul and James . Wood sculptor Gustav Kuntzsch created them in 1883 based on models by Peter Vischer .
The chairs are also made by Gustav Kuntzsch.

window

In 2017, the three-window group in the north transept above the Gadenstedt epitaph was given new glazing based on a design by Günter Grohs . The lead-glazed windows were made in the F. Schneemelcher glass workshop (Quedlinburg) and were mainly financed by donations.

organ

Jesse organ

The baroque organ was built in 1790 by Balthasar Georg Christoph Jesse (1741–1795) from Halberstadt . It has 26 stops on two manuals and a pedal with mechanical action and slider chests , 1383 pipes . In 1971/1972 it came from the village church of Deersheim and was converted by the Zittau organ building company A. Schuster & Sohn using the pipe material from the previous organ created by Friedrich Ladegast .

  • Hauptwerk: Cd 3 : Pommer 16 ', Principal 8', Rohrflöte 8 ', Octave 4', Gedackt 4 ', Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ', Octave 2 ', Third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ', Mixtur VI, Trumpet 8 '
  • Topside: Cd 3 : Gedackt 8 ', Principal 4', Rohrflöte 4 ', woods flute 2', fifth, 1 1 / 3  ', Sifflöte 1', Sesquialtera II, Cymbel III, mixture IV, Vox Humana 8 ', Tremulant
  • Pedals: Cf 1 : Subbass 16 ', Octave bass 8', Gedackt 8 ', 5th 5 1 ⁄ 3  ', Octave 4 ', Choralbass II 4' + 2 ', Trombone 16', Clarine 4 '
  • Coupling : II / I, I / P

literature

  • Helga Neumann: The churches in Wernigerode. Schmidt-Buch-Verlag, Wernigerode 1994, ISBN 3-928977-22-9 , p. 5 ff.
  • Helga Neumann: St. Sylvestri Church in Wernigerode. Art publisher Peda Gregor e. K., Passau 2010, ISBN 978-3-89643-799-0 .

Web links

Commons : St. Sylvestri (Wernigerode)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Church music Wernigerode - Liebfrauenkirche is decommissioned - organ remains the property of the church. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .
  2. ^ Gustav Kuntzsch: Altar of the St. Sylvestri Church in Wernigerode. In: Drafts for Church Furniture in Gothic Style, p. 7 , accessed on August 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ On the death of Count Dietrich von Wernigerode
  4. ^ Katrin Schröder: New Windows for St. Sylvestri. In: volksstimme.de. December 18, 2017, accessed June 7, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Jesse organ in the Sylvestri Church
  6. ↑ Organ building company Schuster und Sohn ( Memento from January 11, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )

Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 10 ° 47 ′ 3.2 ″  E