St. Dominikus (Kaufbeuren)

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The St. Dominic Church in Kaufbeuren

St. Dominikus is the oldest surviving church in the city of Kaufbeuren and combines Romanesque , Gothic and Baroque elements in its structure . It is a hospital church .

history

The town of Kaufbeuren met by building a Leprosenhauses just outside the city beyond the Wertach the demands of the Third Lateran Council of 1179, which among other things, the supply was governed by lepers. According to non-verifiable sources, a leprosy chapel is said to have been consecrated on the site of St. Dominic as early as 1182 under Guelph rule. In 1263, with the permission of the Augsburg bishop Hartmann von Dillingen, Dominicans settled in Kaufbeuren to look after the lepers. Based on the thesis of an already existing sacred building, the church probably received the patronage of St. Dominic . Before that, it may have been consecrated to another saint, presumably St. Blaise , who is considered the Guelph saint . The existence of a chapel at this place has been documented since 1282. After the inner-city Heilig-Geist-Spital was initially responsible for the administration of the sick, in 1430 after the departure of the Dominicans the city council appointed a civic nurse for the infirmary. The church was rededicated in 1483.

Since 1624, St. Dominic has been open to both Catholics and Protestants. In 1709 it was rebuilt and expanded in the baroque style. St. Dominic was transformed into a war memorial church after the First World War . Since 1923, the honor of the dead in the city of Kaufbeuren has taken place near St. Dominikus. From 1946, St. Dominic became the first home of the Old Catholics expelled from the Sudetenland . In the 1990s, the parish curate Heinz Panhans founded the Friends of St. Dominkus Church Kaufbeuren eV to stop the church from falling into disrepair. As a most urgent measure, the old walls were drained first. Today St. Dominkus serves as an ecumenical church for the Roman Catholic parish of St. Ulrich and for the Old Catholic parish of the Ascension of Christ in Neugablonz as a place for religious concerts and as a popular wedding church.

The neighboring infirmary belonging to the ensemble was used to care for lepers. From 1330 to the 15th century it was administered by the Hospital Foundation for the Holy Spirit (Kaufbeuren) . From 1827 it was used by the city as a poor and work house. Since 1979 the building has belonged again to the Kaufbeurer Hospital Foundation and since 2009 has housed a special living and care area for people with severe dementia.

Information board at the church
St. Dominikus, north view with infirmary on the left

Building history

The side walls and the rear wall of the church are considered to be the oldest architectural monument in the city of Kaufbeuren up to a height of 3.40 meters. During the last renovation measures in 1964/65 and 2000, the Romanesque structure of a previous building from the 12th century was recognized in the tuff stone masonry. This Romanesque hall church probably already had a gable roof. On the west side of St. Dominikus the steep gable approach has been preserved under the plaster. In 1483 the east wall was torn down to build the Gothic choir ; a tower substructure was built. Gothic arched keel windows were created in the nave.

In 1709 a sacristy was added in a baroque style. The tower house was raised and provided with an onion dome . In addition, the Gothic windows were partially bricked up and replaced with new arched windows. A flat barrel vault was drawn into the nave. The stucco work on it is done in green and red and comes from Francesco Marazzi , who also worked in Irsee , Andechs and Weißenau . The two-sided baroque altar has a brown marbled wood structure with gilded acanthus and palmette decoration . The altar sheet has been considered lost since the 1920s. In the lay chairs made of oak, the acanthus pattern is repeated in the carvings. Scenes from the life of St. Dominic adorn the parapet of the wooden west gallery.

In the 20th century, the ailing baroque ceiling paintings were removed and replaced in 1923 by fresco paintings by the Munich artist Florian Bosch . Bosch created motifs from the theme of war and peace and portrayed children from established families in Kaufbeur.

literature

  • Information sheet of the Förderverein St.-Dominikus-Kirche Kaufbeuren eV: St. Dominikus through the ages - the memoirs of a cultural-historical gem.
  • Marcus Simm: The king's city in Buron. (Kaufbeuren - an urban archaeological study on genesis, early development and topography) (=  Kaufbeurer series of publications. Vol. 11). Bauer, Thalhofen 2012, ISBN 978-3-934509-96-2 (also: University of Munich, dissertation).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Marcus Simm: The king's city at Buron. 2012, p. 57.
  2. ↑ THE LEPROSEN HOSPITALITY OF ST. DOMINIKUS FOUNDATION - TODAY'S MOOSMANGHAUS
  3. ↑ Cf. Marcus Simm: The king's city at Buron. 2012, p. 75.
  4. ↑ Cf. Marcus Simm: The king's city at Buron. 2012, p. 213.
  5. ^ Anton Brenner, Tilmann Breuer : The urban tradition. Kaufbeurer monuments and their special features. In: Stefan Dieter, Jürgen Kraus (ed.): The city of Kaufbeuren. Volume 2: Art History, Citizen Culture, and Religious Life. Bauer, Thalhofen 2001, ISBN 3-930888-79-3 , pp. 20-63, here pp. 30f.

Web links

Commons : St. Dominikus (Kaufbeuren)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 52 ′ 56.4 "  N , 10 ° 37 ′ 49.5"  E