St. Jakobus (Urschalling)
|
|
| Basic data | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| place | Prien am Chiemsee , Urschalling district , Germany |
| diocese | Archdiocese of Munich and Freising |
| Patronage | July 25th |
| Building description | |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| Construction type | single-nave hall church |
| Function and title | |
|
Branch church of the parish Prien am Chiemsee |
|
| 47 ° 50 '12.7 " N , 12 ° 20' 35.8" E | |
The church Sankt Jakobus in Urschalling is a Romanesque church , which is important and well-known mainly because of its extensively preserved late Gothic painting.
Geographical location
The church is located in the Urschalling district of Prien am Chiemsee on a hill that rises west of the plain in which the Chiemsee is located.
building
The church was part of a castle complex that was built between 1158 and 1200 by the Counts of Falkenstein , who then ruled Chiemgau . In 1158 the Falkensteiners received the bailiwick of the Herrenchiemsee monastery and its possessions in western Chiemgau. Nothing remains of this castle above ground except for a defensive tower of the surrounding wall, which was later integrated into the church building through a wall breakthrough. Falk Steinern the Church owes her patronage : The St. James was also the patron saint of Falkensteiner.
The church has a single nave with a retracted apse and has two bays . It is completely vaulted, which is still unusual at this time and indicates the wealth of the Falkensteiners. The vaulting required strong outer walls on which the vaults could rest statically safely. On the one hand, these strong outer walls kept the church stable for centuries and, on the other hand, made any reconstruction of the church very complex, so that it was largely omitted.
The eastern half of the eastern yoke and the apse together form the church choir , which is clearly separated from the nave by a rood screen. This is emphasized by the fact that the choir area is six steps higher than the nave. This overall situation is a reconstruction based on building findings, as the floor was raised around 1500 and the interior was significantly redesigned in the baroque era .
The church survived almost unchanged over the centuries. It was not until the baroque period that massive changes were made to the interior and exterior appearance: the church received a new roof in 1711 . A small tower with an onion dome was erected over the apse . In addition, the walls and vaults were painted over to fill almost the entire interior, and larger windows were broken into the outer walls. No consideration was given to the now invisible frescoes.
Frescoes
Under the numerous layers of plaster and paint with which the interior walls of the church were covered from the 17th to 19th centuries (documented whitewashing: 1612, 1731, 1793/94, 1852), paintings from two different epochs of the Middle Ages have been preserved. Little was exposed of the older, Romanesque painting, as the Gothic frescoes covering this layer of paint would have to be destroyed.
Romanesque frescoes
After the church was built, it was first frescoed in the 12th century. At that time only the eastern yoke and the apse were painted. A picture of this, Adam and Eve after the fall , is completely exposed today . Romanesque painting remains can also be seen at the foot of the northern wall of the rood screen: Adam, Eve and the snake. In the apse, too, a part of the Romanesque painting, a curtain, was exposed on the lowest level.
Gothic frescoes
This curtain clearly shows that the Gothic painters around 1390 painted over the motifs of the original Romanesque painting in the Gothic style without changing them.
The depiction of Jesus Christ as Pantocrator in a mandorla in the apse , which appears ancient Byzantine for 1390, was included in the cycle of images. He is surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists . Below are the 12 apostles , in the zygomatic arch to the apse the five wise and the five foolish virgins .
On the south wall is a scene of the Annunciation , half of which was destroyed by a window opening around 1500. Opposite, on the north wall, the homage to the three wise men is depicted. The birth scene presumably depicted next to it was also destroyed by a window opening. The south wall in the second yoke shows the passion of Jesus in ten pictures, the events from the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to his burial . Opposite are scenes of the resurrection and the Assumption of the Virgin . The remaining areas are mostly covered with images of saints.
The individual picture fields are strictly delimited from one another and partly separated by strips with stencil painting . Only earth colors were used .
The unusual Trinity fresco has achieved a high level of awareness because it depicts the Holy Spirit as a woman. The depiction of a "living hanged man" is also unusual, indicating a miracle performed by St. James.
Baroque furnishings
The baroque church furnishings were largely removed in favor of exposing the frescoes. A carved baroque figure of St. James is one of the last testimonies of this decoration. It stands in the niche of the entrance from the time it was built, which is now walled up, on the north wall of the church.
Rediscovery and Conservation
In 1808 it was found again for the first time that there was painting under the wall plaster. But it wasn't until 1927, after a piece of plaster fell off the wall, that the first frescoes were exposed again. In 1941/42, the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments removed the layers of plaster and paint that covered the painting. As a result, there was algae and mold infestation on the frescoes, so that the building had to be completely renovated from 1966 to 1968. The interior floor level, which had been filled in the meantime, was restored and the Romanesque rood screen was also reconstructed. 1980–1991 interventions had to be made again because the moisture further damaged the frescoes. In the meantime, an air conditioning system has also been installed to keep the humidity constantly low.
Worth knowing
Today the church belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Prien.
In the central aisle of the nave there is a table-high round stone column with an arching round end plate, which has seven flat cylindrical recesses at the top. The original purpose of the object is unclear, probably an oil candlestick.
literature
- Karl J. Aß, Peter von Bomhard, Josef Price: The churches of the Prien parish (= Schnell Kunstführer 49). 4th edition, Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 1998.
- Maria Freiin von Bibra: Wall paintings in Upper Bavaria 1320–1570. In: Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia. Volume 25. City Archives, Munich 1970.
- Peter von Bomhard: The art monuments of the city and the district of Rosenheim. 2nd edition, Rosenheim 1955.
- Peter von Bomhard: Urschalling (= Schnell-Kunstführer 628). 6th edition, Munich 1976.
- Walter Brugger, Lisa Bahnmüller: Urschalling. 3rd edition, Pannonia-Verlag, Raubling 2007.
- Evamaria Ciolina: The Urschalling fresco cycle. Munich 1980.
- Verena Wodtke-Werner: The Holy Spirit as a female figure in Christian antiquity and the Middle Ages. An examination of texts and images (= Theological Women's Research. Volume 3). Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, Pfaffenweiler 1994, ISBN 3-89085-871-6 (= dissertation at the University of Tübingen 1993).
