St. Maria ad Gradus (Mainz)
St. Maria ad gradus ( German : Maria zu denstufen; also: St. Mariengreden ) was the collegiate church of the Mainz collegiate monastery of the same name , consecrated to the Mother of God , to the east of the Mainz Cathedral , i.e. between the cathedral and the Rhine . It was popularly called Liebfrauenkirche , to our dear women , our dear woman to the staff and to the greden (steps) , because a high staircase led from the east portal of this Marienkirche into the lower area at the fish gate .
founding
The founding history of the church could not be clearly clarified until today. It is believed that Archbishop Willigis , the builder of the Mainz Cathedral and St. Stephen's Church , was also the founder of St. Maria ad gradus. This assumption is based on the fact that the bronze portal wings of the market portal of the cathedral, which are attributed to the time of Willigis, were previously at the Church of Our Lady.
Rhine side with stairs to the fish gate
Surroundings of the monastery, reconstruction by Gerhard Bittens
Interior of the collegiate church
A source of the 11th century is the dedication of the new Marie pin, Novi monasterii S.Mariae , Archbishop I. Siegfried spoken and given as a consecration on Nov. 23, 1069. A Marienmünsterkirche was also connected to the monastery. The church burned down on April 17, 1285, was rebuilt and later extended in a Gothic style. Numerous indulgences to finance the reconstruction testify to the timely new construction.
According to a document found in the high altar, Archbishop Peter von Aspelt consecrated the renovated but not yet completed church in 1311. Work was continued on the tower, cloister and monastery buildings. Master of the building works was Magister Heinricus Lapicida de Boemia, which is listed in a document from 1314.
A document from the 12th century awards the Mariengredenstift den Niedwald in Frankfurt-Nied .
Floor plan of the Liebfrauenkirche with monastery buildings
Engraving by Matthäus Merian , 1633
Damaged by Prussian fire, around 1800
Information sign on the Liebfrauenplatz
Architectural style
On the basis of the surviving images of the Church of Our Lady, which has now disappeared, one can see that it was built as a hall church , like St. Stephan and St. Quintin . The three-aisled complex rose above a square floor plan. Three yokes divided the three ships, of which the middle one was overweight in width.
The crowded interior suggests a lack of building site. Therefore, the buttresses were probably not visible from the outside, but were located within the outer walls. The plant was geost. In addition to the protruding apse, which was closed on five sides of an imaginary octagon, as the reinforcements of the outer walls prove, two towers should rise above the two aisle yokes on the Rhine side, of which only the north tower was built.
Connecting walls from the apse opening to the first pair of columns lengthened the choir. Therefore, only one pair of pillars remained free-standing. Services to accommodate the vault ribs had been submitted to the column core . The capitals were decorated with floral foliage. The church interior was covered at the top by a ribbed vault .
In 1762 the collegiate church was renewed.
Decline and demolition
During the city bombardment by the Prussian army in 1793 , the church was damaged; its preservation would have been possible, but was not opportune under the French occupation. Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar was unable to save all of the Mainz churches and this stood in the way of the construction of the Grande Rue Napoléon . In the years 1803 to 1807 the church was demolished and the stone material for the construction of the Kasteller fortress and to improve the Finther Landstrasse was sold. The portal figures of the Gothic Church of Our Lady are among the oldest holdings in the Mainz State Museum . An important miraculous image from the Gothic period has found a new place in the Augustinian Church . The particularly venerated picture of Mary, created around 1420, holding the baby Jesus playing with a bird on her lap, is an expressive work of the " soft style ".
Adjacent to the east choir of the Mainz Cathedral, today, in memory of the church, its outlines in sandstone are embedded in the ground on today's Liebfrauenplatz. The choir emerges vividly.
The Mainz market breakfast has been held in this reconstructed choir since April 24, 1999 on Saturdays from the beginning of March to mid-November , at which the Mainz winemakers serve their wines and the guests enjoy the rest of the Weck, Worscht and Woi at the the neighboring market stalls for the butchers and bakers. The previous event, also known as the market breakfast, has been held on Saturdays at irregular intervals several times a year since May 6, 1989, under the direction of the department of the city of Mainz responsible for the market with music and moderation.
Dimensions
| expansion | Length in meters |
|---|---|
| Overall outer length including choir and choir | 45.50 |
| Overall outer width with chapel | 47.20 |
| Overall outer width without chapel | 33.80 |
| Clear overall length | 43.70 |
| Open space with chapel | 45.50 |
| Clear width without a chapel | 32.25 |
| Choir dimensions outside (without altar house) | 5.85 × 14 |
| Central nave width | 12.80 |
| chapel | 9.30 × 16 |
| Altar house | 1.70 x 3.80 |
| sacristy | 9.60 x 6.70 |
Individual evidence
- ^ Christiane Reves: Building blocks for the history of the city of Mainz: Mainz Colloquium 2000 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Volume 55 2002, ISBN 978-3-515-08176-4 , pp. 142 .
- ^ Liebfrauenland : Gothic culture guide in Rheinhessen
- ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz from June 4, 2012
- ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, August 26, 2016
- ↑ Beate Dengel-Wink, The former Church of Our Lady in Mainz, in: New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz, born in 1990, Verlag des Bischöfl. Stuhles, Mainz 1990, p. 91f
literature
- Julius Baum : Three Mainz hall churches . Herder, Freiburg 1906.
- Gerhard Bittens: Mainz Cathedral and its surroundings over the centuries . Wittich, Darmstadt 1937.
- Friedrich Schneider : The former Church of Our Lady . Darmstadt 1878.
- August Schuchert : The Mainz churches and chapels . Publisher Johann Falk III. Sons, Mainz 1931.
- Anton Philipp Brück : The Mainzer Liebfrauenkirche in 1794 . In: Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz , Volume 1 (1946), pp. 96-102.
- Beate Dengel-Wink: The former Liebfrauenkirche in Mainz. A contribution to high Gothic architecture and sculpture on the Middle Rhine and in Hesse (series: New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz ). Schmidt, Mainz 1990.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 59 '56.94 " N , 8 ° 16' 32.05" O