St. Mariä Virginis (Gunzenhausen)

Parish Church of the Virgin Mary

The Evangelical Lutheran town church St. Mariä Virginis is located in Gunzenhausen in the central Franconian district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen on the area of the former Roman fort Gunzenhausen . The building is registered under the monument number D-5-77-136-46 as a monument in the Bavarian monument list. The underground components and the previous building of the church as well as several body graves are also registered as ground memorials under the number D-5-6830-0038. The church is the deanery of theEvangelical Lutheran Dean's Office Gunzenhausen . The postal address is Kirchenplatz 11.

location

The church is located as a free-standing building in the middle of the city center and defines the cityscape. The Roman fort Gunzenhausen , which was located near the northernmost point of the Upper German-Raetian Limes , stood in the area of today's church from 150 to 240 AD . In the 8th century, the Benedictine monastery Gunzenhausen was located here . Between 1183 and 1195 Otto von Eichstätt consecrated the previous church here, which had to give way to today's city church in the 15th century. The Marienkirche is located directly on the Franconian Way of St. James , which, coming from Nuremberg , continues via Abenberg to Nördlingen .

history

From 150 to 240 AD, a Roman fort stood on today's church square . There is a sign on the church indicating this. It served to secure the Limes and the ford of the Altmühl and was destroyed by the Alemanni in 233 . A monastery was founded on the same site before 754 . It was the property of Louis the Pious and was then transferred to the Benedictines . The consecration of a larger church by Bishop Otto von Eichstätt is historically guaranteed for the period between 1183 and 1195 . The three lower floors of the church tower date from this time . The Romanesque window of the old sacristy on the first floor can be seen from the outside . The head of Christ on the first pillar in the nave probably also dates from this period. This church was the parish church of a small congregation of about 300 members. After the church had become too small (Gunzenhausen had received its town charter, the number of inhabitants rose steadily), the construction of a new church began in the 15th century. The choir was built by Endres I. Embhardt von Kempten (according to other sources by Andreas von Kemnaten) from 1448 to 1461. The nave was completed in 1496. At the same time the tower was added. The galleries were built in around 1569 . The Reformation was introduced in Gunzenhausen on September 11, 1528 . In 1706 and 1707 a gable wall was erected on the western front and the interior of the church was designed in baroque style. Nobles were buried in the two tombs of the church until Margrave Karl Alexander prohibited this. In 1850 the originally Baroque church was redesigned in a neo-Gothic style. In 1911 the church was connected to the power grid. After the Second World War , the church was renovated several times. On February 12, 2012, the Sunday service was broadcast on ZDF .

Christophorus fresco

Building description

St. Maria is a three-aisled stacked church with a retracted choir. It offers around 1,200 seats. The nave is covered with a gable roof. Inside, a stone net vault was built in place of the existing wooden flat ceiling during the Baroque period . 1705–1707 a gallery was built over the north aisle and even a two-storey one in the rear central nave. In the west gable on the organ gallery, windows were created in a Gothic-Baroque mixed style. During the neo-Gothic redesign, the frescos in the choir were painted over, as was the Gothic sacrament niche on the windowless north wall of the choir. Today only remains of the sacrament niche are left. To the left of it is a large wall painting showing Jesus with the 12 apostles. In 1850 new pews were built in .

To the south of the choir is the square church tower with an octagonal top floor, which is crowned by an octagonal pointed helmet . The basement floors of the tower come from the Romanesque previous building and are from the early 13th century. The sacristy is from 1581.

inventory

The high altar in the choir from the Baroque period was removed in 1850 and renewed in its current neo-Gothic form. The altarpiece, which shows the transfiguration of Christ and was created in 1705 by Johann David Fillisch, comes from the baroque high altar. The cross altar has a baroque wooden crucifix made in 1705 by Giuseppe Volpini . A relief of the head of Christ on the north pillar of the central nave probably comes from the previous building. In 1954 a large St. Christopher fresco from 1498 was uncovered. The patron s lodge was built in 1729 on the instructions of Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach , it was removed again during the neo-Gothic redesign. The baroque walnut pulpit is from 1707. The tomb of the knight Paul von Absberg († 1503) has been preserved from the Gothic period with a dog lying at the knight's feet as an attribute , which today adorns tourist flyers as Kiri the church dog . The choir window was designed by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen in 1990. In front of the church is a sculpture by Ernst Steinacker .

Organs

Main organ

In 1651 the first organ with 5 registers was installed to support the congregation singing in response to the sermon . New organs had to be installed about every 20 years. After the organ from 1934 no longer met the requirements, new ones were purchased.

Main organ

The main organ is on the gallery above the entrance. It was built in 2006/2007 by the Thomas Jann Orgelbau workshop . It is equipped with 47 registers on three manuals and a pedal .

I main work C – a ³
1.	Principal	16 '
2.	Principal	08th'
3.	Hollow flute	08th'
4th	Double covered	08th'
5.	Viola di gamba	08th'
6th	Octave	04 '
7th	Reed flute	04 '
8th.	Fifth	02 ² ⁄ ₃  '
9.	Octave	02 '
10.	Mixture major IV0	02 '
11.	Mixture minor II	0¹ ⁄ ₂ '
12.	Trumpet	16 '
13.	Trumpet	08th'

II Positive C – a ³
14th	Principal	08th'
15th	Wood-covered 0	08th'
16.	Quintatön	08th'
17th	octave	04 '
18th	Wooden flute	04 '
19th	Nasard	02 ² ⁄ ₃  '
20th	Duplicate	02 '
21st	third	01 ³ ⁄ ₅  '
22nd	Larigot	01 ¹ ⁄ ₃  '
23.	Scharff IV	01'
24.	Cromorne	08th'
	Tremulant

III Swell C – a ³
25th	Bourdon	16 '
26th	Portal flute	08th'
27.	Salicional	08th'
28.	Vox coelestis	08th'
29	Fugara	04 '
30th	Transverse flute	04 '
31.	Piccolo	02 '
32.	Harmonia aetheria III	02 ² ⁄ ₃  '
33.	Trompette harmonique	08th'
34.	Clarinet (resounding)0	08th'
35.	oboe	08th'
	Tremulant

Pedal C – f ¹
36.	Pedestal	32 '
37.	Principal bass0	16 '
38.	Violon	16 '
39.	Sub-bass	16 '
40.	Octave bass	08th'
41.	cello	08th'
42.	Covered bass	08th'
43.	Chorale bass	04 '
44.	Flute bass	04 '
45.	trombone	16 '
46.	Trumpet	08th'
47.	Trumpet	04 '

Couple
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P (mechanical); III / I, III / P (electrical)
- Sub-octave coupling (electrical): III / I, III / III
- Super octave coupling (electrical): III / I, III / III, III / P

Choir organ

The choir organ near the altar is a single manual positive from GF Steinmeyer & Co. from 1954. It has 5 registers (Covered 8 ', Flute 4', Principal 2 ', Octave 1' and Hörnlein 1 ').

Bells

The following bells hang in the bell tower:

Chime	Caster	Pouring year
it	Ulricus	1435
G'	Christian Victor Herold	1730
b ′	Ulricus	1435
c ′	unknown master	1260
d ′	Ulricus	1435

In 1958, Karl Czudnochowsky added the second largest and finally in 1986 another bell from the Karlsruhe bell foundry was added. The full bells only sound on high holidays.

literature

Johann Schrenk, Karl Friedrich Zink : Houses of God. Church leaders in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district , Treuchtlingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-934145-64-1 .
Gotthard Kießling: Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen district (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume V.70 / 1 ). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-87490-581-0 .