St. Marien (Bernau near Berlin)
The Sankt Marien church is the Protestant parish church of Bernau near Berlin (Brandenburg). The late Gothic church is the dominant building in the historic old town of Bernau and has a remarkably rich historical interior.
history
The St. Marien Church was probably built around 1240 as a Romanesque basilica . A second church was built around 1280 in the Gothic style. Between 1400 and 1519 the Gothic basilica was converted into a late Gothic hall church. The field stone tower was demolished in 1839, until 1846, under the direction of the district building inspector Julius Manger, the brick tower still existing today , which is 57.4 meters high, was built.
An extensive exterior renovation took place from 1979 to 1985. During the interior restoration from 1985 to 1989, the painting from 1519 was restored.
A commemorative plaque from 1884 attached to a column in the presence of the Prussian Crown Prince and his wife reminds that on December 17, 1632 the remains of King Gustav II Adolf, who died in the battle of Lützen "for the evangelical matter of faith", were laid out in the church and that a funeral sermon was held in accordance with the ordinance of Elector Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg .
On the night of May 1, 1933, the communist Peter Schlawitz climbed the church tower and placed the red flag there , a symbol of the socialist and communist movement. This was previously sewn by the communist Marie Brendel.
In 1999, during construction work on the church square, two bell castings were found in the former cemetery. In addition to the remains of slag , the remains of a bell shape and several firing channels could be secured. A mosaic to the north of the church commemorates the site. The bell shape is designed as a circle, while the four combustion ducts were designed with red mosaic surfaces.
architecture
The church is a hall church made of brick with a four-bay nave, extended on the north side by a second aisle, i.e. a four-aisle nave with a hall choir . The church is covered with a gable roof over three aisles; the fourth nave shows transverse gable roofs with pillar gables. The layout of the ship is similar to that of the also four-aisled Marienkirche in Kamenz . In the two north aisles there are different star vault shapes.
The sacristy was built in the corner between the choir and the outer north aisle, and above it the so-called student choir with an ornamental gable, which is open to the choir and nave. In the eastern yoke of the southern aisle is the entrance hall with a monk choir built above it, which is also open to the ship. The west tower was built from brick by J. Manger in 1846 instead of the original rectangular field stone tower.
The oldest components are the two north aisles, which probably date from the late 14th century or the early 15th century. They were built as an extension to the nave of the presumably basilical predecessor building, of which only remnants have survived in the northern row of pillars of the central nave and which was still used during the renovation work. The pillars between the two north aisles are octagonal with semicircular templates. The ambulatory choir probably originates from the period between 1480 and 1490. It has sturdy round pillars with twisted services and simple ribbed vaults. Similar to the buildings of Hinrich Brunsberg, the buttresses are drawn inwards and only appear as flat pilaster strips on the outside .
The south wall of the nave and the south vestibule were built around the same time as the choir and have head consoles as a common feature. After that, the south aisle and the central nave were probably built and, based on the row of pillars between the two north aisles, also provided with octagonal pillars. The date 1519 can be found in the east nave yoke, which probably refers to the completion of the renovation work. The central nave and the vestibule show star vaults, while in the south aisle, more detailed, imaginative star net figures predominate.
Furnishing
The most valuable work of art in the church is the late Gothic winged altar from around 1520. It consists of 39 figurative and 68 pictorial representations and probably comes from the school of Lucas Cranach the Elder . In the shrine he shows a Coronation of Mary between music- making angels with four saints underneath. In the wings, 24 saints are depicted in three rows one above the other. Like the predella, the double wings and the inactive wings show scenes from the life of Christ and Mary as well as the legends of the saints. A rich burst with carved figures completes the altar.
The triumphal cross group from 1520 stands on a row of carved, crossed tracery arches and characterizes the interior of the church.
The richly carved pulpit with crown-like sound cover dates from 1609 and shows two older carved figures of Christ and Mary from around 1500 on the pulpit cage. The cup-shaped baptismal font comes from the 14th / 15th centuries. Century. On the north-eastern pillar of the inner choir stands the brick sacrament house from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 16th century, which is closed with a gable field and pinnacles . It shows a depiction of the handkerchief of St. Veronica on a panel.
Several artistically valuable carved figures and reliefs are to be mentioned, including a sandstone relief of Christ on the Mount of Olives from the beginning of the 15th century, a smaller wooden relief with the flagellation of Christ and a seated Madonna under a canopy from around 1520.
Two sacrificial money chests date from the 16th and 17th centuries. A former sacristy door was made in the 16th century. Four pastor portraits from the second half of the 17th to the first half of the 19th century should also be mentioned. The gallery in the outer north aisle was built in 1614 as a cloth maker, shoemaker and servant choir and shows 75 paintings with representations from the Old Testament on the parapet.
The stalls from the 16th and 17th centuries are almost completely preserved. Particularly noteworthy is the richly carved and inlaid mayor's chair from the end of the 16th century on the south side with carved cheeks of an older chair from the beginning of the 16th century.
The remains of an organ prospect from the 17th century have been preserved in the student choir , as well as three carved figures and two paintings. Two candlestick angels from around 1500 have been preserved in the sacristy, as well as an antependium made of Italian silk from the second half of the 15th century.
Numerous epitaphs and grave monuments, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries, are placed in the interior of the church and in the southern porch.
literature
- Heinrich Trost, Beate Becker, Horst Büttner, Ilse Schröder, Christa Stepansky: The architectural and art monuments of the GDR. Frankfurt / Oder district. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1980, pp. 107–115.
Web links
- Entry in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg
- Sankt Marien Bernau - Homepage of the community
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article about Bernau near Berlin at stadtnavigator-berlin.de (accessed on October 21, 2017)
Coordinates: 52 ° 40 ′ 47 " N , 13 ° 35 ′ 14" E