St. Johannes (Kitzingen)
The St. Johannes Church is the Roman Catholic parish church of Kitzingen , consecrated to Johannes the Baptist . It stands in the old town, southeast of the market square and belongs to the Kitzingen dean's office in the Würzburg diocese . St. Johannes forms the center of the parish community St. Hedwig in Kitzinger Land is one of the most remarkable late Gothic church buildings in Northern Bavaria. The church is also the oldest preserved building in the city and, together with the evangelical city church of the same name, shapes the cityscape.
Building history
The first mention of an independent parish in Kitzingen comes from the year 1126, when the pastor at that time and Abbess Bertha II von Ebenhausen or von Hohenlohe of the Benedictine convent Kitzingen, which had existed for almost 400 years at that time, had a dispute over tithe levies . The Kitzingen parish had been incorporated into the monastery since 1394, so that the monastery had the right to occupy the pastor's position and to take care of the maintenance of the church.
Construction phase (1402–1487)
In 1402, the construction of today's church began on the foundations of a previous building, about which little is known. The only builder known by name was the stonemason and master craftsman Heinrich Sommer , who died in 1462 and was probably buried in the church. During the construction there were frequent interruptions due to financial bottlenecks, so that the church could not be completed until between 1460 and 1463 under Abbess Margaretha II. Von Erbach (her coat of arms is in the vault). In 1487 the church was consecrated by the Würzburg prince-bishop Rudolf von Scherenberg . This year can be found on the south pore as well as on an outer pillar.
Reformation and Counter-Reformation (1530–1650)
In 1530 the first Protestant sermon took place in St. John, with which the Reformation entered the city. From then on, the church was a Lutheran place of worship for almost a hundred years before it was re-Catholicized in Kitzingen in 1629 after the deposit of Brandenburg-Ansbach was redeemed by the Würzburg monastery and St. Johannes became a Catholic parish church again. Associated with this was a Baroque transformation of the interior, which lost a large part of its furnishings in the turmoil of the Reformation and in the Peasants' War in which Kitzingen took part (ten altars, including two on the gallery, were detectable before the Reformation).
Changes in the 18th and 19th centuries
In the 18th century the interior was partially redesigned, this time in the style of early classicism . The pulpit is the only piece left from this measure.
In the 19th century, the baroque - classicist interior was replaced by a neo-Gothic one, in particular the massive high altar from 1667, which had filled the entire choir polygon and thus also covered the three east windows. The altar painting by the painter Johann Baptist de Ruel from Flanders , which hangs today on the east wall of the tower in the north aisle, is still preserved. In addition, the church was painted in a neo-Gothic style, which concealed the remains of the original wall paintings.
Development since the beginning of the 20th century
In 1901, Balthasar Neumann's tower dome burned down and was initially replaced by a flat temporary structure before it could be reconstructed in its old form three years later. In the course of the renewal of the tower there was also an urgently needed exterior renovation of the church, in which a few neo-Gothic "corrections" were made (e.g. gargoyles and gallery at the north-west portal), but overall a careful and archaeologically secured procedure was in the foreground. the newer ingredients identified as such. Responsible for this renovation was the Nuremberg architect Josef Schmitz , who was able to fall back on the experience he had gained during the restoration of the two large Gothic Nuremberg main churches St. Sebald and St. Lorenz . In his plans for St. Johannes, he oriented himself primarily to the Würzburg Marienkapelle , which most likely served as a direct model and has many structural parallels.
The church survived the devastating bomb attack on February 23, 1945 unscathed, while a large part of Kitzingen's old town suffered severe damage. After the Second Vatican Council , some changes were made to the sanctuary, but for a long time it was not possible to achieve a satisfactory result. It was not until the final redesign during the last church renovation in 1994 that a harmonious overall concept was implemented, which harmonized the furnishings from the most varied of eras. Most of the neo-Gothic changes in the interior were reversed and the room was restored to a largely authentic state.
The Epiphany was found in 1994
In the course of the renovation, three Gothic sandstone figures were discovered in the floor of the baptistery, which, surprisingly, were hardly damaged. There is a Mother of God (the baby Jesus is missing) and two kings who were probably once part of a group of three kings. This sensational find caused a sensation in the professional world at the time. The figures are verifiably from the period between 1350 and 1380. How and why they were used as filling material for the floor of the chapel can hardly be clarified today, perhaps they were to be saved from the iconoclasm of the Reformation in this way, or they were removed in the course of the Baroque era. One can only speculate about the origin of the group of figures as well as their original location at the church, most likely that the figures once adorned the vaulted niches of the north-western main portal (the tympanum there from around the same time also speaks for this). The figures, which are exceptionally high-quality for the region and the time they were made, have references to the Nuremberg Parlerschule or the Bauhütte of Cologne Cathedral ; in any case, they were created by a foreign artist. The figures are currently in the museum at the cathedral in Würzburg, a repositioning to St. Johannes is being discussed.
The Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments lists the St. John's Church under the number D-6-75-141-111 as a monument.
architecture
Exterior construction
St. John's Church was built in the late Gothic style in the 15th century . It is a three-aisled hall church with a retracted polygonal choir . The exterior is structured on all sides by strong buttresses and three-lane tracery windows, and in the choir area also four-lane tracery windows, which in the couronnement (area of the arched area) are partly filled with fish bladders and partly with geometric shapes such as three or four-passes. In addition, the church has two rose windows, which are rather unusual for the German late Gothic (one in the south wall of the choir above the sacristy and one in the second nave in the south-west). They were possibly originally intended for the west facade. The nave buttresses are crowned with finials, while the choir buttresses, which are generally more richly designed, have pinnacles at the level of the eaves. Older representations of the church show that these pinnacles existed earlier. They were probably removed during one of the many restorations and have not yet been replaced.
Due to the location of the tower in the northwest, the north aisle is shortened to five bays , while its southern counterpart and the main nave each have eight bays. This arrangement gives rise to the curiosity that the nave and choir roof are offset from one another, since the ridge of the nave is not centrally located above the central nave, but is oriented towards the west gable, which only combines the southern aisle and central nave. Another element of asymmetry is the slightly south which bends , three-bay choir - possibly a result of the simultaneous commencement of the west and the east side.
Between the buttresses on the sixth yoke on the south side, under a canopy, there is a scene of the Mount of Olives from around 1500, which is attributed to the Riemenschneiderschule . In addition, an outside staircase leads to the gallery entrance. A second access to the gallery, albeit from the inside, is made possible by a round stair tower on the south-west corner of the church. Another, octagonal stair tower is relatively hidden on the north side of the choir. It ends in an unadorned, short stone helmet and leads to the roof structure. In the corner between the south aisle and the choir is the vaulted sacristy , which was extended to the east by an extension in 1935. The total length of the building is 58 meters.
inner space
The impression of space inside is greatly changed by the brick gallery that divides the south aisle into two storeys. It was withdrawn at the end of the 15th century to increase the capacity of the church. The inner structure of the south aisle cannot be seen from the outside, as the south windows were not divided and are therefore partially covered by the gallery inside. The central nave and the side aisles span net vaults , the ribs rest on slender octagonal pillars, partly on profiled consoles (north arcade, south arcade towards the central nave), partly on heads (remaining south arcade). The choir is also vaulted with a net and slightly raised compared to the nave.
tower
The lower parts of the slender, six-storey tower, hardly tapering towards the top, originate from the late Romanesque-early Gothic predecessor building. This also explains its unusual positioning within the structure. It was increased to 32 meters in 1593 and initially provided with a pointed helmet . In the 18th century, after a lightning strike, the tower hood was redesigned according to plans by Balthasar Neumann . Neumann retained the proportions of the old helmet, so that the late Baroque hood rises harmoniously over the Gothic tower shaft.
Former Lady Chapel
On the south-east side of the nave is the one-bay former Marienkapelle, which is now used as a baptistery . Like the choir, it has a five-eighth end and is crowned by a curved, slate-covered dome roof in neo-baroque shapes, which forms an effective contrast to the steep gable roof of the nave. The tracery window and the vault of the chapel indicate that it was built before the new church was built in the 15th century and that it was only integrated into the building during the course of this work. This is also supported by details such as the missing base cornice that surrounds the rest of the church.
Portals
The church has a total of four portals (two in the north, one in the west and one in the south), of which the western northern portal and the western portal are more richly designed than the other two. The western north portal served as the main portal of the church for a long time and is also known as the Empire portal due to its appearance . It is spanned by a late Gothic canopy with a keel arch, which is decorated with vine leaves. In its tympanum , the Last Judgment is shown, which is considered the oldest sculptural work on the exterior (around 1400).
The west portal, which was built a little later, takes up the theme of the Coronation of the Virgin in its tympanum . It is covered by an eyelash , which is accompanied by two lateral pinnacles and ends with a finial.
The reason that the western north portal and not, as is usually the case, the western portal used to be the main entrance to the church, is that it faces the market square and here, until the Reformation, solemn reliquary processions took place at the monastery church of the Benedictine nuns began.
Today the two north portals are usually closed, the main entrance is the south portal under the staircase to the gallery.
Furnishing
The interior of the St. John's Church is stylistically diverse today due to the frequent redesigns, it ranges from the important medieval sacrament house to large-format wooden Passion reliefs also made during this time , the classicist pulpit by Materno Bossi and the figure sculpture from the former neo-Gothic - High altar in the baptistery through to the contemporary altarpiece in the choir by Jacques Gassmann , who was also responsible for the corresponding color version of the organ prospectus.
Sacrament house
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The Gothic sacrament house in the form of a filigree, multi-storey tower has the typical style elements of this era such as crabs , finials , pinnacles , flying buttresses and tracery. It dates from the time the church was built (around 1470–1480) and rises up on the left choir pillar. In 1960 it was returned to its medieval state and in the course of this was given new bronze tabernacle doors by the Kitzingen artist Klaus Rother. The sacrament tower is made of sandstone and is adorned on its lowest level above the pedestal by circumferential figures depicting in detail: Christ as Man of Sorrows , the church patron St. John the Elder. Baptist, the evangelist John, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and St. Urban, the patron saint of winemakers. In the burst one level above, two angels hold the handkerchief of Veronica with the face of Jesus.
pulpit
The early classicist pulpit in the main nave was designed in 1793/94 by the Würzburg court plasterer Materno Bossi from light gray marble . Her figures are made of polished plaster. The medallion on the pulpit, which is framed by two putti , shows the sermon of John the Baptist facing the nave. Another medallion on the east side shows the Evangelist John on Patmos. On the sound cover, an angel surrounded by other putti proclaims the Ten Commandments.
North aisle
One of the church's most valuable works of art hangs on the walls of the north aisle. There are four wood-carved Passion reliefs that may have been part of the high altar of St. John in the Middle Ages. They depict in detail: Jesus on the Mount of Olives, scourging of Jesus, crowning of thorns and carrying the cross . The authorship has not been clearly established, but the quality of the work suggests a reference to the Riemenschneider workshop in Würzburg or the Nuremberg workshop of Adam Kraft .
In this part of the church there are still remains of medieval frescoes in two places , which probably once covered a large part of the walls in the interior. Above the north portal Mary can be seen on the crescent moon, further to the right St. George, St. Barbara, the Adoration of the Magi and part of a Lamentation of Christ.
At the east end of the aisle is the gothic cross altar, a plain, simple blind arches -provided altar block of sandstone, it depends a bronze crucifix by Otto Sonnleitner from Würzburg from the year 1970th
To the left of the north portal there is a Rococo pieta made of alabaster and two reliefs from the beginning of the 18th century. One shows the flight to Egypt , the other the child murder in Bethlehem . In front of it, as a sacrificial candle stand, there is a stylized burning bronze thorn bush designed by Arno Hey from Volkach.
- Four passion reliefs from the former high altar
Jesus on the Mount of Olives
Flagellation
Crowning of thorns and mockery
Carrying the Cross
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Choir room
The eye-catcher of the choir is the modern high altar painting by Jacques Gassmann, which interprets the baptism of Christ in the Jordan . It rests on two steles made of reddish red sandstone . In the center of the picture, Johannes d. Baptist Jesus as the Lamb of God who will blot out the sins of men and thus refers to Christ as the real main figure. Gassmann, who also designed the organ brochure, used colored ink for the picture.
In front of the high altar painting is the popular altar consisting of a simple canteen made of red sandstone, which, like the ambo , was created by Christoph Mai in 1994 . On its side facing the nave, the altar contains a reliquary grave with relics of Saint Hedwig of Silesia , who was once brought up in the Kitzingen monastery and is buried in Kitzingen's twin town Trebnitz , and of Blessed Adolph Kolping .
The late Gothic choir stalls with artistically carved cheeks are now back to their original destination in the choir polygon after having changed location several times.
On the south side of the choir is the oldest work of art in the church. It is a late Romanesque crucifix by an unknown artist, flanked by four medieval bas-reliefs depicting the symbols of the evangelists . These pieces are not originally from St. John. Opposite on the north side of the choir, almost the entire wall surface of the first, windowless yoke is taken up by a large-format fresco, which depicts St. Christopher in larger than life size. The mural, which is still in good condition despite some damage, can be dated to around 1590.
The modern glazing of the choir windows (1959–1964) comes from Johannes Schreiter and thematizes the appearance of the Lord in an abstract way. Each color has its own sacred meaning: blue (sky), white (light), olive (everything earthly), gold (the divine).
The triumphal cross in the choir arch was created in the 17th century.
South aisle
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At the east end of the south aisle, which is low due to the gallery installation, is the Marienaltar, the counterpart to the cross altar in the north aisle and very similar to it. On it is a late Gothic Madonna with Child Jesus of unknown origin in front of a round back wall in gold tones. In this part of the church there is also a wood-carved Anna herself from around 1500, which also shows the influence of a belt cutter. The keystones in the star vaults below the gallery have been decorating the coats of arms of the bishops, which were important for Kitzingen and the parish church, since the last church renovation.
Mezzanine floor
Since the gallery is normally only accessible for church services, the works of art that are located in this part of the church are usually hidden from visitors. On the south wall in the gallery hangs a baroque painting by the Flemish court painter Oswald Onghers , which shows the martyrdom of the Franconian apostles Kilian , Kolonat and Totnan .
The east window on the gallery was re-glazed in 1946/47 by the company Pütz / Munich. The crucified Christ is depicted on it, and above it the risen Christ. A burning city can be seen in the background, symbolizing the destroyed Kitzingen.
Baptistery
In the baptistery, the floor level of which is lower than that of the nave, stands the baroque baptismal font from 1762, behind it a bronze altar cross by Klaus Rother (1959). Two reliefs depicting scenes from the life of John the Baptist were placed on the walls. They are part of the former neo-Gothic high altar from 1885, nothing else of which has survived.
Funerary monuments
The church also has some artistically designed epitaphs, mostly from the 16th and 18th centuries. The most important of them is that of Wolff von Crailsheim, which was probably made by the sculptor Peter Dell the Elder. J. was designed in the style of the Renaissance . In 1756, Reiner Wirl probably created two more monuments. Overall, the church, especially in the side aisles, contains the grave monuments from
- Hans Ludwig von Münster († 1607), Brandenburg councilor, with wife Eva and their three children
- Married couple Hans and Barbara Dullinger, in the form of a sandstone Pieta (around 1500)
- an unknown gentleman from Crailsheim , presumably from Hans Sigmund von Crailsheim († 1575), with his two wives and his seven children (figures partly mutilated)
- Anna Sophia Countess von Leonrod, b. Baroness von Wallenfels († 1756)
- Johannes Martinus Ziegler († 1756), high judge
- Ernst Wolff von Crailsheim († 1556), Brandenburg bailiff in Kitzingen, with first wife Elisabeth von Giech (with rosary) and second wife Ursula von Vestenberg (with Bible), including eleven sons and 13 daughters
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Further equipment
A special feature of the church are the many console heads on the nave pillars, which have been colored since the last church renovation in 1994 , the meaning of which has not yet been finally clarified. They can be seen particularly well from the gallery, especially since most of them are in this area of the church. Such heads and grotesque figures can also be found on the exterior in the area of the portals in the west and north.
organ
The organ on the west gallery was built in 1996 by the organ building company Vleugels and expanded in 2007 by a swell . Today the instrument has 54 registers (including four transmissions ) on three manuals and pedal . The action action is mechanical, the stop actions are electric.
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- Pairing :
- Normal coupling: III / I, I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: III / II, III / III
- Super octave coupling: III / II, III / III, III / P
- Playing aids : electronic setting system , sequencer, crescendo roller , tutti button and tongue holder.
Bells
The tower of the church contains a melodious ringing of five bells. They hang in a steel belfry on slightly cranked steel yokes and were cast in 1950 by Albert Junker in Brilon as a replacement for those delivered in the Second World War. Bells 4 and 5 are dedicated to five holy women who are closely connected with Kitzingen, especially the former Benedictine convent.
| No. | Surname | Chime | Mass (kg) |
Casting year | Foundry / casting location | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Most Holy Trinity | h 0 | approx. 2900 | 1950 | Junker, Brilon | |
| 2 | John the Baptist | cis 1 | approx. 2200 | |||
| 3 | Holy Family | e 1 | about 1500 | |||
| 4th | St. Adelheid and St. Thekla | f sharp 1 | approx. 900 | |||
| 5 | St. Elisabeth , St. Hedwig and St. Irmgard | g sharp 1 | about 450 |
Church music
In addition to the church services, church concerts often take place in St. Johannes, which are organized by the choir , the chamber choir, the church choir and the children's and youth choir. One of the regular events is the "Organ Music at Market Time" series, during which, as a rule, every second Saturday at 11 am, various organists play church music from different centuries on the Vleugels organ. Due to the extensive range of choirs, the tradition of the Evensong is maintained at irregular intervals , a form of choral prayer that comes from the Anglican Church.
Surroundings of the church
On the north, west and east sides, the surrounding buildings come very close to the church, so that it can only be viewed in its entirety from the church square in the south. A sandstone fountain by the Kitzingen artist Klaus Christof stands on the paved square, which served as a cemetery until the middle of the 16th century, before today's Old Cemetery was laid out in front of what was then the gates of the city in 1546 . It depicts the heavenly Jerusalem and shows, fully sculpted in miniature form, a typically oriental city that rises above a stylized cloud.
On the south wall of the church, between the Ölberg niche and the baptistery, there is a copy of a Gothic wayside shrine from the 15th century, the heavily weathered original of which is now in the Capuchin Church .
On the south side of the square there is a baroque crucifixion group made of sandstone.
particularities
- In several places both inside and outside the church, high water marks with the year remind you that in February 1784, during the strongest Main flood in recent history, the water was at times just under a meter high in the church.
- A multitude of different stonemason's marks can be found everywhere on the church .
- A special Christmas crib has been set up in St. Johannes every year since the early 2000s . The nativity scene depicts some of Kitzingen's sights true to detail and on a 1:10 scale, including the Leidenhof , in which the birth scene can be seen, the beguinage with the grave church , the Messner's house , the Großlangheimer Tor in Etwashausen , and the Hohenfeld mountain church , which is on one Vineyard stands. The backdrop-like buildings are illuminated from within. The original Kiliansbrunnen on the market square has also been reproduced and can be operated via a water pump. The lighting system and the watercourse at the fountain can be triggered by inserting coins. This crib was created by a former carpenter from Kitzingen, who used chipboard for it. The idea behind the design was to move the Christmas events to today's Kitzingen.
literature
- Hubert Stierling : The St. Johanniskirche in Kitzingen. Its history and its restoration . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , Vol. 59, 1909, Sp. 389–404 ( digitized version ).
- Doris Badel (ed.): Catholic parish church St. Johannes in Kitzingen. Contributions to church and art history (= writings of the Kitzingen City Archives, Volume 10). Kitzingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-924694-37-1 .
- Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia . Munich and Berlin 1999.
- Catholic Parish Office St. Johannes Kitzingen (Hrsg.): Catholic Parish Church St. Johannes in Kitzingen . Gerchsheim 2000, ISBN 3-934223-01-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Herbert Baumann: Catholic parish church of St. Johannes in Kitzingen . Ed .: Catholic Parish Office St. Johannes Kitzingen. 1st edition. KunstSchätzeVerlag, Gerchsheim, Kitzingen 2000, ISBN 3-934223-01-X .
- ↑ a b c d Hubert Stierling: The St. Johanniskirche in Kitzingen. Its history and its restoration . In: Journal of Construction . Born in 1909.
- ↑ a b Klaus Arnold: On the history, building history and furnishings of the Kitzingen parish church St. Johannes in the late Middle Ages . In: Doris Badel (ed.): Catholic parish church St. Johannes in Kitzingen. Contributions to church and art history (= writings of the Kitzingen city archive ). 1st edition. tape 10 . Kitzingen, S. 15th ff .
- ↑ Geodata: Monument number D-6-75-141-111. (PDF) Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, November 22, 2017, accessed on December 7, 2017 .
- ↑ St. Johannes (Kitzingen). In: arch INFORM .
- ↑ a b c St. John's Church. In: Our churches. Catholic parish of St. Johannes Kitzingen, accessed on November 21, 2017 .
- ↑ To the Vleugels organ
- ↑ Church music - our musical offer. Parish community St. Hedwig in Kitzinger Land, accessed on November 26, 2019 .
Web links
- Parish website
- Photographic portrait of the Vleugels organ by St.Johannes, Kitzingen
- Tower recording of the loud bells
- Presentation of the anthology on St. John's Church
Coordinates: 49 ° 44 ′ 20.43 " N , 10 ° 9 ′ 47.18" E