St. Foillan (Aachen)

St. Foillan - view from the cathedral

St. Foillan is one of the parish churches in Aachen . It is located in the pedestrian zone and is only separated from the cathedral by a narrow alley. It is the only church in the German-speaking area that was subordinated to the patronage of the Foillan . This is an indication that the missionary work in the Aachen area came from the west.

history

After the construction of the Aachen Cathedral around the year 800, the privileged of the empire and the canons of the Marienstift celebrated their services in this church, while ordinary citizens had to switch to other churches. For this reason, a church of the same name was built around 1180 on the site of today's parish church of St. Foillan. This no longer exists today.

After the cathedral was significantly enlarged by an extension of the side aisle in 1414, the citizens of Aachen also strove to rebuild their church, which had become too small. For this reason, a three-nave Gothic new building was built and inaugurated in 1482. Some parts of it have been preserved to this day. However, it is essential that the expansion of the cathedral brought both places of worship extremely close together and only remained separated by a narrow alley. In order not to reinforce the visual impression of the narrowness, the newly built church tower of St. Foillan was erected atypically on the south side. A tower on the usually chosen west side would be much too close to the cathedral. One consequence of this decision is that the church tower is barely visible to the visitors who normally look from the direction of the cathedral.

The appearance of the church today has little to do with that of the time. Only remnants of the choir, parts of the facade and a few other areas have been preserved. The other parts of the facade and the tower date from 1888 or are more recent. For this are u. a. responsible for numerous fires that had extremely damaged the church. The greatest damage was caused by a bombing raid on the Tuesday after Easter 1944. The church was almost completely destroyed.

It was not until 1956 to 1958 that the church was rebuilt by the Aachen architect and master builder Leo Hugot . The preserved Gothic parts were merged into a new whole through a cleverly designed, modern pillar construction with a cast folding ceiling. The sacristy was dispensed with. It has recently been proven that Hugot used the example of the Jacobin church in Toulouse as a model for the reconstruction of St. Foillan .

In the meantime, after a comprehensive reform of the community, St Foillan belongs to the Catholic parish association Franziska von Aachen in Aachen-Mitte , which goes back to the patroness Franziska Schervier and is supported by the poor sisters of St. Francis . The parishes of St. Adalbert , St. Andreas, Hl. Kreuz , St. Marien, St. Peter and the youth church kafarna: um and the Neue Gemeinde Zeitfenster also belong to this parish association .

Interior

Interior of St. Foillan (wide angle), on the left the paintings by August von Brandis

Ecce Homo figure in St. Foillan

Beautiful Madonna of St. Foillan

The central eye-catcher is the altar from 1962 in the middle of the choir. It was designed by Klaus Iserlohe and is made of bluestone . The surrounding relief shows 32 scenes from the history of salvation .

Above the altar there is a large bronze cross with an enamel coating , which also dates from 1962. It was created by Egino Weinert and shows scenes of the crucifixion on the front and the Lamb of God on the back .

The tabernacle as an octagonal altarpiece dates from 1962 and was designed by the same artist. Enamel work on the outside shows scenes from the life of Jesus.

For the incidence of light into the church, u. a. three large central windows in the choir room. They date from 1958 and were created by Wilhelm Buschulte . Depicted are scenes from the secret revelation of John . The large west window in a color composition shows the theme: "Salvation (red) in history". The act of creation, the incarnation of God and the end-time perfection are shown.

The ambo from 1966 was designed by Klaus Iserlohe and is made of bluestone . The reliefs show how the word of God came to people and the seven sorrows of Mary.

The baptismal font with the Easter candlestick is also by Klaus Iserlohe. They are from 1968. The ensemble of bronze and bluestone combines the multi-layered symbolism of the baptismal rite (water, Red Sea , Jordan , tree of life, light, pillar of fire, sun disk, original snake and many more).

Numerous paintings decorate the interior of the church.

St. Foillan has two large-format early sacred works by August von Brandis . One is from 1901/02 and depicts the wedding at Cana in a cheerful, Mediterranean-style scene , the other shows the entombment of Christ. Symbolically, the Easter candle is in front of this painting in the church to represent the transition between burial and resurrection .

Two other paintings are significantly older. Abraham Campenhout , a Rubens pupil, created the painting Madonna and Child in 1649. The Black Madonna , also shown as a painting in the church, is a copy of a painting of the original work from around 1700 exhibited in Brno .

One of the most notable sculptures in St. Foillan is the Beautiful Madonna . It was placed in an altar in the south aisle. The Madonna dates from 1410 and is an example of the late Gothic sculpture of the "beautiful style" with pronounced soft, elegant shapes. Their original polychromy was removed after the Parler exhibition in Cologne in 1979. In 1984 the painted tapestry was designed by Irene Rothweiler and inaugurated with the newly crowned Madonna.

There is also a wooden figure of the scourged Jesus with a crown of thorns ( Ecce homo ) from the 16th century.

The Stations of the Cross in the church dates from 1987 . Unlike usual, this has 16 instead of 14 stations, since not the entombment but the resurrection represents the end of the Way of the Cross. The stations are a replica from the Kilians crypt in Neumünster in Würzburg .

organ

Since the church was rebuilt after World War II, there have been two different organs in the church. Between 1979 and 2010 the Peter organ was in St. Foillan, which was specially purchased for this church space. This was then replaced in 2012 by the listed Klais organ from 1913, which previously stood in the Nikolauskirche in Aachen .

Peter organ from 1979 to 2010

Until 2010 there was an organ in St. Foillan , which was built in 1979 by the organ building company Willi Peter (Cologne). In 1998 the instrument was re-voiced and two registers were added. The organ has electric slide chests. This organ was dismantled and sold to Poland.

Klais organ (1913) from 2010

Klais organ

As a replacement, the listed Klais organ was moved to St. Foillan after the fire on New Year's Eve 2010 in the St. Nicholas Church, which had been converted into the City Church . The instrument was built in 1913 by the organ builder Klais (Bonn) for the Propsteikirche Kornelimünster (Opus 502) and installed in a historical case from 1763, which was designed by the artist Johann Joseph Couven . Leo Hugot had it brought to St. Nikolaus in 1963 and provided with a painted organ front by the artist Franz Pauli . This second oldest organ in Aachen was installed in St. Foillan in 2012 after a complete restoration, as it was given a more worthy place as an even more valuable organ. The instrument has 32 stops on two manuals and a pedal . It has a fully pneumatic mechanism and is considered a special sound monument of the late romantic era , which is why it has been a listed building since 1988 .

Important events

• The Dominican Father Johann Tetzel preached indulgence in St. Foillan in 1507 .
• On the occasion of the coronation of Charles V . Albrecht Dürer drew St. Foillan together with the town hall and cathedral in 1520 .
• In 1848 a May service was celebrated for the first time in a parish church in St. Foillan .

literature

• Carl Rhoen : History of the St. Foillans Church in Aachen , Creutzer, Aachen 1892.
• Richard Pick : From Aachen's past. Creutzer, Aachen 1895, pp. 21-29 (full text) .
• Olaf Winkler: "… getting on in years St. Foillan Aachen" Leo Hugot (1925–1982). In: Deutsche Bauzeitung 133, 1999, p. 88 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Raabe, Christian., Horn, Heinz Günter .: Leo Hugot: the human being, his time, his legacy: Contributions to the colloquium on November 9, 2012 on the occasion of the 30th year of death: supplemented by a catalog raisonné and two unpublished lectures . Geymüller, Verlag für Architektur, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-943164-10-7 .
2. ↑ The organ on franziska-aachen.de
3. ↑ Report on the parish side to replace the organ and further information

Web links

Commons : St. Foillan (Aachen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of St. Foillan
• Website of the Research Center for 20th Century Glass Painting Foundation e. V. with many pictures of the church windows
• The bell from St. Foillan on wdr.de/Glockenpforte

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 29.5 ″  N , 6 ° 5 ′ 5 ″  E