St. Francis (Schwäbisch Gmünd)

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East facade of St. Francis - straight end of the choir
Church from the north-west as seen from Franziskanergasse. The four-storey monastery building is directly attached to the left.
Roof turret from the south
Romanesque portal
The interior of the Franziskuskirche

The baroque parish church of St. Franziskus is a former monastery church of the Franciscan monastery in the core town of Schwäbisch Gmünd and was consecrated to St. Ludwig until 1908 , who is now the patron saint.

The establishment of the Franciscan order in Schwäbisch Gmünd probably took place during the lifetime of St. Francis and is one of the oldest settlements north of the Alps. There is even the assumption that the Gmünder branch was the first north of the Alps. The high altar is considered a special piece of the South German Rococo .

Today the church serves as the parish church for the Catholic Franciscan congregation and the native-speaking Croatian congregation of St. Nikola Tavelic . In addition, there is a service in Hungarian on the first Sunday of each month.

history

According to the tradition of the Franciscan branch in Gmünd, which was also maintained in other branches, a brother David and seven companions came to Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1208 and founded the parent company there , from which the houses in Nördlingen , Regensburg , Lucerne and Ulm were founded. However, this tradition is unhistorical, because it was not until 1209 that Saint Francis joined forces with other brothers to form a religious community.

The Romanesque church parts in the choir , which were built in the 13th century, speak for the early settlement in Schwäbisch Gmünd . The Romanesque building with the choir just closing, which has been preserved to this day, was later relocated to the Gothic style . In 1637 a storm destroyed the roof turret , which was soon rebuilt, and the organ . At that time the church already had the dimensions it is today, as evidenced by pen drawings from that time. On April 23, 1718, the construction of the monastery began in the Baroque style, at this time, in any case before 1723, the church was also baroque. In 1751 the high altar was built in the Rococo style, and in 1752 Joseph Wannenmacher painted the ceiling and wall frescoes. On October 13, 1809, the monastery was closed in the course of secularization and the priests had to vacate the monastery. In 1830 the roof turret was completely renewed again. From 1825 to 1965 the monastery building was a teaching institution. The entire Catholic parish of Schwäbisch Gmünd acquired the monastery complex in 1971. Since that time it has served as a community and administrative center.

The church was named the second parish church by Bishop Paul Wilhelm von Keppler on November 20, 1908 and is still the parish church of the Franziskusgemeinde Schwäbisch Gmünd. Alongside the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster community, it is the second Catholic inner-city community in Schwäbisch Gmünd and is part of the pastoral care unit Schwäbisch Gmünd-Mitte in the Deanery Ostalb . Among other things, the St. Leonhard Church and the Spitalkapelle are assigned to it as pinnacles .

During the Second World War , the evening and morning masses took place in St. Franziskus, as this was the only larger Catholic church in Schwäbisch Gmünd at that time whose windows could be completely darkened. In 1942 a relic of Francis of Assisi and St. Clare in the altar.

After the new organ was installed in 1960, minor renovation work was carried out in 1968 and 1975, and the interior was extensively renovated in 1972.

Furnishing

The ceiling in the choir is a ribbed vault that was built into the Romanesque choir when it was redesigned in the Gothic style. The ceiling of the ship is a mirror ceiling, which is decorated with frescoes by Joseph Wannenmacher. In addition to Wannenmacher's frescoes, there is little stucco in the ship, which goes back to the principles of the mendicant order. The fact that the choir is designed in extremely rich Rococo can only be due to one exception, which is justified by the special veneration of the Mother of God. The ribbed vault in the choir is also painted with frescoes in the fields. The high altar by Dominikus Zimmermann is considered the most important work of rococo altar architecture and shows in its center, above the tabernacle, raised on a globe in another canopy , the life-size “ Mary of Victory ”. It is a canopy altar supported by six pillars and the dome of which extends to the vault. The side altars are simple altars, but they are adapted to the style of the high altar. They were created by the carpenter student Anton Pfister from Lucerne. The pulpit and the choir stalls , of which only the back wall remains, were created in front of the altars. The pulpit, which is different in color and structure of the marble from the altars, shows the signs of the four evangelists . The sound cover is carried by two angels and is crowned by the Good Shepherd.

organ

The organ was built in 1960 by the Walcker organ builder (Ludwigsburg). The instrument has 35  registers , three manuals and a pedal on a slide . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electropneumatic.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Pomegranate 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Pointed 8th'
4th Octave 4 ′
5. Gemshorn 4 ′
6th Cane fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
7th Forest flute 2 ′
8th. Horn whistle III
9. Mixture VIII 2 ′
10. Light trumpet 8th'
II Swell C – g 3
11. Reed flute 8th'
12. Violetacked 8th'
13. Ital. Principal 4 ′
14th Night horn 2 ′
15th Third flute 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
16. Quintlet 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
17th Scharff V 2 ′
18th Dulcian 16 ′
19th Cor anglais 8th'
20th Lovely Clarino 4 ′
Tremulant
III Crown positive C – g 3
21st Copel 8th'
22nd Quintates 8th'
23. Field flute 4 ′
24. Principal 2 ′
25th Hörnle II
26th Fine cymbal II
27. Vox humana 8th'
28. Schalmey 4 ′
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
29 Principal bass 16 ′
30th Sub bass 16 ′
31. Flute bass 8th'
32. Choral bass 4 ′
33. Backset V
34. trombone 16 ′
35. Tromba 8th'

Bells

There are three bells hanging in the roof turret of the church , the large bell being cast by an unknown master around 1300. The other two bells were cast for this church by Heinrich Kurtz in Stuttgart in 1949. The bells for these bells were created by Alfons Feuerle.

No. Surname diameter Casting year volume
1 k. A. 750 mm around 1300 D.
2 Francis Bell 590 mm 1949 f ′ ′
3 Death or angel bell 520 mm 1949 G''
I. Sanctuary bell 172 mm 1686 k. A.

literature

  • Ludwig Mangold: "St. Franziskus Schwäbisch Gmünd ", Einhorn-Verlag, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1985, ISBN 3-921703-67-0 .
  • Hans-Helmut Dieterich: "The Franciscan Monastery between Reformation and Secularization", in Gmünder Studien 3 (1989). Contributions to the city's history , Einhorn-Verlag Eduard Dietenberger GmbH, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1989, ISBN 3-921703-92-1 , pp. 37–58.
  • Richard Strobel, State Monuments Office Baden-Württemberg: “The art monuments of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. Volume 2, Churches in the old town without the Holy Cross Cathedral ”, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-422-00569-2 .
  • Klaus Jürgen Herrmann : “The Franciscans and St. Franziskus in Schwäbisch Gmünd. 90 years of the second parish church St. Franziskus 1908 to 1998 ”, in Einhorn-Jahrbuch 1998 , Einhorn-Verlag Eduard Dietenberger GmbH, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1998, ISBN 3-927654-67-1 , pp. 157-164.

Web links

Commons : St. Franziskus (Schwäbisch Gmünd)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: History of the Franciscan Minorite Monastery Schwäbisch Gmünd  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See, for example, The Call - bulletin for the Catholic parishes in the pastoral care unit Schwäbisch Gmünd-Mitte , 108th year (2019), volume 5, p. 4 f.

Coordinates: 48 ° 48 ′ 0.8 ″  N , 9 ° 47 ′ 57.6 ″  E