St. Amandus (Bad Urach)

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St. Amandus Collegiate Church
Interior view: View along the main nave to the choir

The St. Amandus Church in Bad Urach in the Reutlingen district in Baden-Württemberg is a Protestant church in the Bad Urach-Münsingen church district of the Evangelical State Church in Württemberg . Amandus of Maastricht was chosen as the patron saint of the church . It was designed and built as a collegiate church .

history

Immediately by the moated castle in the Urach settlement there was already a church around 1100 on the site of today's Amandus Church. Remnants of the foundations of a total of 3 previous churches were found during renovation work around 1990. Although these could not be classified in a differentiated manner in terms of time, at least a church building tradition could be proven at this point, which goes back at least to the end of the 11th century. Around 1150 there is a church in Urach that is consecrated to the Virgin Mary and Saints Andrew and Amandus. In the 14th century a new church is built, the immediate predecessor of today's Amandus Church, which is said to have assumed a special position in the responsible diocese of Constance. It was already a considerable size: with a length of 45 m and a width of 19 m it was only 1/4 smaller than today's church.

Probably around 1474/75, Count Eberhard V. ("Eberhard in the Beard") commissioned the foreman Hans Koch to build the late Gothic collegiate church. Since Württemberg was divided and Urach was the capital of the southwestern part of the country, the church building was supposed to enhance the residence compared to Stuttgart. For this purpose, the previous, not dilapidated church had to give way, in which the wedding of Count Eberhard V and Barbara Gonzaga of Mantua was last celebrated in July 1474. With the completion of the choir in 1477, the brothers were brought to Urach from their common life and the monastery was attached to the church in order to spread new spiritual impulses in Eberhard's territory. After the death of foreman Hans Koch in 1481, builder Peter von Koblenz continued building the church. The count and builder did not see the completion around 1500, neither did Peter von Koblenz, he was buried there in 1501. In the same year his successor Marx Welling completed the church with the westernmost side chapel of the north aisle. The pin Urach was the Tübingen contract , dissolved in 1514, just before the Reformation and the complex of buildings used for other purposes later.

In the niche to the right above the pulpit, reports are made of the explosion of the ducal powder mill in 1707, the pressure wave of which destroyed the medieval colored glazing on the north side and the organ, as well as causing damage to the vault.

During the renovation from 1896 to 1901, Heinrich Dolmetsch expanded the unfinished tower, improved the facade, restored pieces of equipment and designed the interior of the church in a neo-Gothic style. The church was consecrated on October 27, 1901 in the presence of the Württemberg royal couple. The interior of the church was renovated again from 1988 to 1990 and the neo-Gothic painting in the choir was removed. The other high-quality neo-Gothic versions on the nave walls, tile coverings, lights and carpentry were retained and renovated. In 2006 the tower was renovated.

From 1923 to 1926 Karl Hartenstein worked as the parish priest at the Amandus Church.

An event in the Württemberg church history

In Urach - where exactly is not known - the “Urach Picture Conversation”, also called “Urach Götzentag”, took place in 1537 at the invitation of Duke Ulrich . Theologians and lawyers familiar with the Reformation and the Württemberg church order, including Erhard Schnepf , Ambrosius Blarer , Johannes Brenz and Matthäus Alber, were supposed to clarify the question of the Reformation, whether the veneration of saints and the worship of their "annoying" images is idolatry and whether they are removed from the churches would have to ( iconoclasm ) or whether "annoying" representations of salvation events for preaching, teaching and education could be allowed. Wuerttemberg, as the Lutheran Church in the end, had a not only geographical bridging function between the Wittenberg- Lutheran and the Zwinglische Reformation of Swiss character. The participants in the conversation could not come to an agreement, so that finally the duke clarified and ordered the removal of the images of saints, which was by no means followed everywhere and to the full extent. On the occasion of the 475th anniversary of this Urach Idol Day , the 2012 award ceremony of the First Art Prize of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg in the Amandus Church was again about the new discussion about the current power of images in new media and their worldwide distribution.

Furnishing

Carving stone

  • Extensively figured wall statue consoles, 21 vaulted beginner consoles and 52 keystones convey much of the piety, theological thinking and the artistic work of those involved in the construction and of their time. It can only be interpreted in detail with a deep understanding of Christian iconography. On one of these keystones, Amandus, the patron saint and namesake of the church, can be recognized by his bishop's clothing and the attributes of a shepherd's crook and book. Only since 1986 has it been known through a calendar entry by Count Eberhard that the namesake Amandus is the Bishop of Maastricht, the apostle of the Belgians in the 7th century,
  • The pulpit, the exact time of its origin and its stonemason, is one of the richest of its kind in Württemberg in terms of structure and design with figurative and ornamental stonework on the foot, staircase, pulpit and parapet and with its wooden Renaissance bell from 1632 The fields of the pulpits of the collegiate churches in Tübingen and Herrenberg depict the Latin church fathers Gregory the Great , Hieronymus , Augustine of Hippo and Ambrosius of Milan , each with an evangelist symbol. Above all, the stone sculptures on the pulpit address the relationship between various saints, the brothers who lived together and the builder Count Eberhard V ("Eberhard in the Beard"), the first reigning Duke of Württemberg and Teck .
  • The baptismal font, an important sculptural work by Christoph von Urach from 1518, captivates with its enormously complex geometrical construction and well-ordered proportions as well as with the iconographic-theological program of figurative ornamentation. The elaborate iconographic program most likely came from the brothers who lived together . The baptismal font, made from a sandstone block, is constructed in all its dimensions "in the stonemason's style from the right geometry", whereby the well-ordered proportions are only unconsciously perceived by the viewer: on an octagonal plate set into the floor, there is initially a base that is already through separates its coarse-grained material from the actual font. With this base, the octagon is transformed into an eight-pointed star. The font is not only remarkable because of its construction and its excellent craftsmanship. Not only that eight Old Testament figures were chosen for the eight sides of the image zone. The main feature is that the content is clearly related to the baptismal event by selecting characters whose biographies, according to the medieval interpretation of the Old Testament, symbolize hidden references to one dimension of the baptismal event.

Carving wood

  • The choir stalls date from the time of the brothers who lived together. It was used by the community for their hour prayers.
  • A sight in the church is the magnificent former prayer chair of the sovereign Eberhard im Bart. The late Gothic throne-like chair, carved from oak, is almost six meters high. Due to the stylistic features of the carvings, it is associated with the Ulm School . The installation in the choir of the Amandus Church is mentioned for the first time in 1626. Since this had not even started when the prayer chair was manufactured in 1472, it is now assumed that the prayer chair was intended for the Güterstein Charterhouse and was also set up there. Since the completion of the church renovation in 1900, “it has stood in its current location in the east yoke of the south aisle. For three and a half centuries, it was located in the center of the choir, in place of the high altar, a relic and national monument of the cult of the sovereign dynasty and its first duke, which was replaced by the burnt saints during the Reformation. "
  • From numerous epitaphs from the Gothic to the 18th century, stylistically and qualitatively different, two are to be mentioned that stand out artistically and personally: the painted Brendlin epitaph in the Renaissance style and the round Imhoff death shield, the table of which is richly carved. The artistic and the personal-familial of both memorial marks can be exemplified by them.

Altar grille

The altar grille from 1650 is one of the few pieces of jewelery of its kind in the Württemberg Protestant churches. “It is a delicate baroque grille, the curved tendrils of which end in finely curled tips and seem to be intertwined and grown. Small oil paintings - painted on metal - are set into the grille, depicting the story of Jesus' passion, with commentary four-line texts in verse. “It was from 1675 to 1862/64 and has been in its current place since 1990.

Leather parament

A rare leather altar parament is kept in the sacristy , made in 1896 by the leather goods manufacturer Albert Feucht based on Heinrich Dolmetsch's design. Two deer at a well are depicted, with four evangelist symbols as gargoyles, a pictorial representation of Ps 42 : 2-3  LUT : “As the deer thirsts for fresh water, so my soul, God, cries out to you. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come to see God's face? "

Stained glass

  • Three windows that are now placed next to the prayer chair survived the explosion of 1707. Depicted on the right are John the Baptist with the founder of the window, Hans von Bubenhofen, kneeling in front of him, in the middle a Madonna and Child ( Radiant Madonna ) and on the left the dragon fight Georgs. The three panes come from the Strasbourg workshop of Peter Hemmel von Andlau (approx. 1422 - 1501), the most important German glass painter of the late Gothic period.
  • In the center above it is another medieval disc depicting Christ enthroned. It does not originally come from the Amandus Church, but was created around 1300 for the Dominican convent Maria- Gnadenzell in Offenhausen, which was dissolved after the Reformation. The disk is therefore significantly older than the Urach collegiate church. It came here during the 19th century and is the only known remnant of the colored glazing of this monastery.
  • The ornamental and motif glazing of the tracery windows of the church was carried out by the Munich stained glass Gustav van Treeck - partly with neo-Gothic "architecture" ( canopy-like structure that takes up Gothic architectural elements) over the central motif of the choir, partly with floral and geometric elements handed down from the Gothic in the ornamental windows, the shapes of which correspond appealingly with the neo-Gothic floor tiles.
  • The upper (main) part of the four-lane choir window with a crucifixion scene was designed by the Stuttgart artist Theodor Bauerle (1865–1914). It is his largest and most figurative crucifixion stained glass painting. A few striking details deserve special attention: The crucified Christ's devotion and hand of blessing to the evildoer on his right with eye contact also to the grieving women. The other culprit turns away - tormented or scornful. He does not even get any attention from those standing next to him: neither from the Roman cavalry captain, nor from the soldiers throwing the dice, or the grim-bearded eternal Jew Ahasver , who, according to a medieval legend, refuses to pity the condemned Jesus on his way to Golgotha and who attended the crucifixion and therefore condemned to immortality, restless wandering through the ages and to admonishing the ungodly and unbelievers - in literary terms from Goethe to Walter Jens it was very ambivalently received and processed. Theodor Bauerle was very well read.
  • The lower part from the same glass painter's workshop does not come from Bauerle, but is a duplicate of the middle choir window of the Schorndorf town church donated by the citizens of Urach for the re-inauguration from 1889. It could - like other glass paintings in some Protestant churches in Württemberg without his artist's signature - stylistically and graphically by the Nuremberg art professor Friedrich Wilhelm Wanderer , who is very well known in Franconia , whose designs were all carried out by van Treeck at the end of the 19th century .

Wall painting

As has been shown by new findings, the restorations necessary in 1901 and the Gothic-style revisions of the figural ceiling painting (heavenly orchestra) around the heavenly or holy spirit hole in the central nave come from the restorer Wennagel, and those of the wall and vault painting from the Stuttgart decorative painter Eugene Wörnle. The remaining remains were traced and then repainted to reconstruct. These templates were then reused for the simultaneous renovation of the Balingen town church , also carried out by the architect Heinrich Dolmetsch, to save costs. Parts of the choir painting were removed again during the renovation work in 1988–1990.

Dolmetsch commissioned the Stuttgart painter Karl Wilhelm Bauerle and his son Theodor Bauerle to create the mural above the choir . Due to the persistent illness of his father, Theodor Bauerle created the choir arch painting in 1901 alone using the luminous egg tempera technique based on Albrecht Dürer's picture for the first chapter of the secret revelation : the candlestick vision of the enthroned Son of Man (Christ) at the beginning of the Revelation of John ( Revelation 1,12-16  LUT ). “Angels, symmetrically arranged to the right and left, floating towards the throne of Christ, offer him crown and palm fronds.” In contrast to Dürer's depiction, the “Son of Man” is not depicted as a strict judge, but as a philanthropic and benevolent, inviting and blessing Savior on the throne of glory. The fearful symbol of the sword, known from Romanesque and Gothic, is missing as the “Word of God”.

Organs

Organ gallery with Weigle organ

The main organ of the Amandus Church is a Weigle organ from 1901.

The choir organ was built in 2001 by the organ builder Mühleisen. The slider chests -instrument has 19 registers on two manual stations and pedal . Five registers of the Hauptwerk can also be played as changing registers on the pedal.

I main work C–
Principal 8th'
Octav 4 ′
Octav 2 ′
Mixture IV-V 2 ′
Trumpet (WS) 8th'
Bassoon (WS) 16 ′
Gamba (WS) 8th'
Rohrflöt (WS) 8th'
Waldflöt (WS) 4 ′
II breastwork C–
Quintads 8th'
Copel 8th'
Praestant 4 ′
Flauttravers 4 ′
Sifflöt 2 ′
Hörnle II 2 23 ′ + 1 35
Nazard II 1 ′ + 1 13
Schalmey 8th'
Pedals C–
Sub-bass 16 ′
Octave bass 8th'
Trumpet (WS) 8th'
Bassoon (WS) 16 ′
Gamba (WS) 8th'
Rohrflöt (WS) 8th'
Waldflöt (WS) 4 ′
  • Coupling: II / I (also as sub-octave coupling), I / P, II / P (also as super-octave coupling)
  • annotation
(WS) = changing register, playable in the main work and in the pedal

literature

  • Martin Brecht: "Modern Piety" and "Living Together". The Urach Brethren House and its stories. In: BWKG 78/1978, pp. 5–23.
  • Elisabeth Nau: The prayer chair of Count Eberhard V. von Württemberg in the Amandus Church in Bad Urach. 1986.
  • Hermann Ehmer: The Urach Picture Conversation 1537. In: BWKG 90/1990, pp. 65–91.
  • Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach. Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990.
  • Karl Halbauer: Predigstül. The late Gothic pulpits in the Württemberg Neckar region up to the introduction of the Reformation. 1997.
  • Walter Röhm: Historical walks through Bad Urach, a city guide through art and history. 1999.
  • Martin Hauff: Collegiate Church of St. Amandus Bad Urach ; Series Kleiner Kunstführer Volume 2465, 2nd edition, Regensburg 2007.
  • Tilmann Marstaller, Karl Halbauer: St. Amandus in Urach: parish, residence and collegiate church ; in: From Mantua to Württemberg - Barbara Gonzaga and her court. Accompanying book and catalog for the exhibition of the Baden-Württemberg State Archive, Main State Archive Stuttgart; Stuttgart 2011, pages 75–87 - available as PDF in [1]
  • Protestant monasteries in Württemberg ; Magazine in the “Traces” series; ed. Ev Regional Church in Württemberg, Ev. Oberkirchenrat; Stuttgart 2018, page 36

Individual evidence

  1. Ellen Pietrus: Heinrich Dolmetsch - The church restorations of the Württemberg builder ; Dissertation University of Hanover 2003, published by the regional council of Stuttgart, State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in: Research and Reports on Building and Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, Volume 13, Stuttgart 2008, p. 206 f
  2. Ellen Pietrus: Church furnishings by Heinrich Dolmetsch. How to deal with room settings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries ; in: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg 34, Stuttgart 2005, pages 88–99
  3. Martin Hauff: A man of space. Karl Hartenstein (1894-1952) was the parish priest in Urach . In: ders. That words touch the soul . Fromm-Verlag, Saarbrücken 2015, ISBN 978-3-8416-0562-7 , pp. 17 .
  4. Hermann Ehmer: The Urach Picture Talk 1537 and the role of the picture in the Protestant Church of Württemberg (lecture) ; in: Pictures? Pictures! - First art prize of the Protestant regional church in Württemberg ; ed. Reinhard Lambert Auer and Jenny Sturm for the Association for Church and Art in the Evangelical Church in Württemberg eV; Stuttgart 2013
  5. ^ Fritz Kalmbach: Stones should speak - Contributions to the iconography of the Amandus Church ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 63-100
  6. ^ Monika Ingenhoff-Danhäuser: The pulpit ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 101-109
  7. ^ Hans-Dieter Ingenhoff: The baptismal font of Christoph von Urach ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 111-119
  8. ^ Elisabeth Nau: The prayer chair ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 129-133
  9. ^ Monika Ingenhoff-Danhäuser: Family history in the Amandus Church ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 145-152
  10. Monika Ingenhoff-Danhäuser: The altar grid ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 121-127
  11. Ellen Pietrus: Heinrich Dolmetsch - The church restorations of the Württemberg builder ; Dissertation University of Hanover 2003, published by the regional council of Stuttgart, State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in: Research and Reports on Building and Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, Volume 13, Stuttgart 2008, pp. 29 and 150
  12. according to the protocol of the Balingen parish council of 25 May 1900
  13. ^ Letter from Th. Bauerle to Oberkonsistorialrat Merz from July 1, 1900 - in the State Church Archives in Stuttgart
  14. Hans-Dieter Ingenhoff: Comments on the picturesque furnishings of the Amandus Church at the end of the 19th century ; in: Friedrich Schmid (ed.): The Amandus Church in Bad Urach . Edited on behalf of the Association for the Preservation of the Amandus Church e. V., 1990, pp. 135-143
  15. Collegiate Church of St. Amandus Bad Urach - The organ. In: Reformation churches in Württemberg. Karl-Heinz Jaworski, Head of the Church Department in Leisure and Tourism, accessed on January 6, 2018 .
  16. Information about the organ ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the organ builder @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orgelbau-muehleisen.de

Web links

Commons : St. Amandus (Bad Urach)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 29 '34.1 "  N , 9 ° 23' 50"  E