St. Cecilia

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Cologne, St. Cecilia
Floor plan of St. Cecilia
Interior view of St. Cecilia looking east
The dance of death on the west facade, graffiti by Harald Naegeli . Renewed in 1989 by the artist for the 150th birthday of the Kölnischer Kunstverein .

St. Cäcilien is one of twelve large Romanesque churches in Cologne's old town . It was the church of the women's monastery of St. Cäcilien, from the 15th century until the secularization of the monastery Maria zum Weiher in 1802 . St. Cäcilien has housed the Schnütgen municipal museum for medieval art since 1956 .

Building description

The Hohenstaufen building is a three-aisled pillar basilica that is now without a tower . She has no transept . The south aisle closes with a round apse . The north aisle, on the other hand, opens into a sacristy that was built in 1479 in place of the original apse . In the choir of the central nave there are still frescoes , which are difficult to see because they were badly damaged during the severe damage in the Second World War . The flat wooden ceiling of the central nave is supported by groin vaults on the side aisles. The tympanum created in honor of St. Cäcilie - today a copy above the north portal, as an original in the museum's possession - dates from 1160. The Franconian arch from the former cloister is still a relic of the Ottonian predecessor building.

history

The origin of church construction goes back to a women's monastery of the same name founded in the late 9th century. For a long time it was assumed that the first Cologne Cathedral stood at this point . However, excavations have ruled out this tradition. Rather, the foundations of a rectangular church were found, which probably belonged to the women's monastery. According to the documents on the difficult economic situation of the monastery in the 10th century, Archbishop Brun bequeathed 50 pounds of silver in his will in 965 for the completion of the church. Around this time, the crypt, which was rebuilt in the west of the church in 1970 , was apparently laid out for the first time to store relics . In St. Cäcilien, the Archbishop of Cologne used to celebrate the second Christmas mass after St. Maria in the Capitol, which emphasized the special importance of the monastery, which was lost in the further course of the Middle Ages. The Ottonian church building had to give way to a new Hohenstaufen building in the 12th century. The building differs significantly in its modest design from the other large Romanesque churches in Cologne.

In 1474 the building was made available to the Augustinians of the abandoned Maria zum Weiher monastery . They arranged for the sacristy to be built and replaced the Romanesque wooden ceiling of the central nave with a vault, which was not renewed after it was destroyed in the war. The painting “Madonna with the Violet” from Stefan Lochner's workshop, which originally belonged to the women's monastery, is now part of the Archbishop's Diocesan Museum . The monastery building adjacent to the collegiate church was laid down after the dissolution of the monastery in the 19th century. It was replaced by the first Cologne hospital , which St. Cäcilien served as a church for a long time. The former main entrance with the west facade was rebuilt in neo-Romanesque style after the monastery was demolished , the archivolts in relief and the tympanum were created in 1849 by the Cologne cathedral sculptor Christian Mohr . Today the entrance is walled up, the tympanum is lost. In 1980 the sprayer from Zurich , Harald Naegeli , sprayed his dance of death there . This work is now a listed building .

At Christmas and on the anniversary of Saint Cecilia one is in the church fair celebrated.

Abbesses of the women's monastery

Surname Term of office Remarks
Berezvinta 962-982 Daughter of King Heinrich I and sister of the Archbishop of Cologne, Bruno I.
Irmgardis of Virneburg 982-?
Ida 1047-1074 Relatives of the Archbishop of Cologne Anno II.
Hathewig 1094
Kunigunde 1185
Gertrudis 1226
Anthiphona 1239
Geva von Neukirchen 1260-1272 Sister of Gertrud von Neukirchen, Abbess of Gerresheim Monastery
Beatrix 1276-1291
Mechildis from Lynepe 1307
Margarata of Virneburg 1316-1345
Katarina von Wevelinghoven 1362-1379 1382 †
Hildegardis vom Stein 1382-1408
Elisabeth von Oitgenbach 1411-1439
Elisabeth von Reichenstein 1443-1475 She was the last abbess from the Benedictine order and died in 1478 in excommunication
Elisabeth von der Reven 1475-1515 Was elected as the first abbess from the Premonstratensian order
Elisabeth von Manderscheid 1515-1538
Clara von Reichenstein 1559-1581
Susanna von Brederode 1581-1620
Anna Maria von Sinzenich gt. Von Garzen 1620-1659 She donated four relics to the olive monastery in Cologne
Amalia Regina Elisabeth von Cratz 1659-1676
Maria Elisabeth Mechtildis from Weichs to Weichs 1691-1712
Maria Sophia Bawyr von Frankenberg 1712-1737
Anna Franziska Eugenia Edmunda Waldbott from Bassenheim 1737-1767
Maria Theresa von Dücker zu Oberrödinghausen and Niederrödinghausen 1765-1790
Maria Aloysia von Kläwer 1790-1803

Furnishing

Bells

The church had a collection of five bells . The three big bells made the chimes on Sundays and public holidays and hung in the big roof tower. The big bell, cast by the Dinckelmayer brothers in Cologne in 1440 as the fourth bell at this point, was re-cast in 1843 by Christian Claren from Sieglar. The 1.17 meter bell was dedicated to the church patroness Cäcilia and had to be delivered during the First World War. The middle bell in the tone as ′ with a diameter of 99 centimeters was cast by Derich and Heinrich von Cöllen around 1560/70 in honor of the Mother of God . In particular, it served as a death knell. This bell was given in during the Second World War and is now hanging as a loan bell in the bell cage of St. Peter . The third bell, 87 centimeters in diameter, tone b ′, dates from the beginning of the 14th century. The inscription in Gothic capitals runs around her shoulder : O REX GLORIE VENI CVM ECA [= PACE]. After the Second World War, the bell first returned to St. Maria in Lyskirchen , from where it was also hung on the tower of St. Peter in 2005. In the roof turret above the west end of the nave roof hung the small Gabriel bell with a diameter of 66 centimeters, cast in 1493 by Jan Schursgyn in Cologne. It bore reliefs of Saints George , Mary and Matthew and was probably intended for ringing for daily choir prayer. It was the only remaining bell that perished when the church was destroyed in 1945. A fifth bell comes from the Romanesque period: the "sent Cunibertz clocke" (St. Kunibert's bell ), presumably consecrated by Bishop Kunibert , is shaped like a cow bell from riveted sheet iron, 40 centimeters high and completely adorned. It was rung as a weather bell during storms, on Kunibert's day (November 12th) and three times each time the abbess or canoness died. Since the bell is said to have been dug up again by a sow rooting in St. Peter's, it is popularly called "Saufang". Together with the yoke and ringing device, the bell was hung on a pillar in the church (Museum Schnütgen). Tower and ridge turret were no longer built.

literature

  • Hiltrud Kier : The Romanesque churches in Cologne: Guide to history and furnishings. Second edition. JP Bachem, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-7616-2842-3 , pp. 58-73.
  • Jürgen Kaiser (text), Florian Monheim (photos): The great Romanesque churches in Cologne , Greven Verlag, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-7743-0615-8 , pp. 50–61.
  • Sabine Czymmek: The Cologne Romanesque churches. Schatzkunst , Vol. 1, Cologne 2008 (= Colonia Romanica, yearbook of the Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln , Vol. 22), 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0422-2 , pp. 123–128.
  • Ulrich Krings, Otmar Schwab: Cologne: The Romanesque churches. Destruction and restoration. (= City tracks - monuments in Cologne, vol. 2). JP Bachem, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7616-1964-3 , p.
  • Irene Gückel: The Maria zum Weiher monastery in front of Cologne (1198–1474) and its continued life in St. Cäcilien up to secularization . Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-922977-43-X .
  • Ulrich Krings: St. Cäcilien. The early Staufer building from the middle of the 12th century. Its shape and the history of its subsequent changes. In: Hiltrud Kier, Ulrich Krings (Hrsg.): Cologne: The Roman churches. From the beginning to the Second World War. (= City tracks - monuments in Cologne, vol. 1). JP Bachem, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7616-0761-X , pp. 235-255.
  • Heinz Firmenich: St. Peter and St. Cäcilien in Cologne . (= Rheinische Kunststätten 61). Cologne, 1976, ISBN 3-88094-018-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Walter Geis: West facade of St. Cäcilien . In: Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln (Hrsg.): Colonia Romanica . No. 8 , 1993, ISSN  0930-8555 , pp. 121 .
  2. ^ Walter Geis:  Mohr, Christian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 705 f. ( Digitized version ).
  3. ^ Maurus Kinter: Studies and communications from the Benedictine and Cistercian orders . Volume IV, Volume II, Würzburg, Vienna 1883, page 178 ff ( PDF, 36 MB at Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ LAV NRW R, Gerresheim Monastery, documents, No. 21.
  5. ^ Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the city of Cologne. I. Dept. 4. The ecclesiastical monuments of the city of Cologne: St. Alban, St. Andreas, Antoniterkirche, St. Aposteln, St. Cäcilia, St. Columba, St. Cunibert, Elendskirche, St. Georg. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1916, p. 192 f .
  6. ↑ Martin Seidler: Cologne bells and peals . In: Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln eV (Ed.): Colonia Romanica . tape IV . Greven-Verlag, Cologne 1989, p. 21 .

Web links

Commons : St. Cäcilien (Cologne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '4.8 "  N , 6 ° 57" 5.6 "  E