St. Martin on Kirchbühl
St. Martin auf Kirchbühl is one of the oldest churches in the Swiss canton of Lucerne . It stands in the Sempach hamlet of Kirchbühl on a hill above Lake Sempach .
History / function
St. Martin auf dem Kirchbühl was first documented in 1234, but the building is demonstrably older. In 1275 it is named as the richest church in the deanery. In 1288 it was owned by Murbach Monastery in the Vosges Mountains, which it ceded to the St. Leodegar Monastery in Lucerne in 1420 .
From the 13th century until 1832, St. Martin on the Kirchbühl was the parish church of Sempach. But because of its remote location outside the city walls on the southern slope of the Eichberg (approx. 30 minutes ascent from the center of Sempach), the “rival church” of St. Stefan established itself in the city as early as 1275. The parish priest did not live already in the late Middle Ages, sometimes more on the Kirchbühl. Nevertheless, the Parish of Sempach remained the mother church even after the Reformation, but the masses celebrated here became increasingly rare in the 17th century. In the end, St. Stefan (consecrated in 1831) prevailed as the new parish of Sempach. In 1832 the cemetery of St. Martin was moved to the city, and with this step the church was completely abandoned.
Building history / exterior construction
According to excavations from 1958, the church, which today presents itself as a Romanesque-Gothic mixed type, stands on the foundations of a Roman manor and another late Roman square building of unclear function. From an early Romanesque predecessor (10th / 11th century), part of the single-nave nave with small, walled-up arched windows and a former gate can still be seen. In the late Romanesque period (12th / 13th centuries) the nave was lengthened and raised and the tower was built. This Käsbissen tower , made of sandstone up to the height of the nave, above it made of quarry stone, is the most striking eye-catcher of the church building.
The late Gothic choir, closed on three sides with tracery windows, was added in the late 16th century, a vault capstone is dated 1583 and signed with the initials "PB". In the same construction phase, a bell storey was added to the tower by reusing older components (coupled double windows, parts of the vestments). An ossuary at the entrance to the churchyard (square, late Gothic building, consecrated in 1575) also belongs to this era.
1903–1905, under the direction of the art historian Robert Durrer, two whitewashed layers of frescoes were exposed (high Gothic around 1300 and parts from several overpaintings in the 15th century). From 1951 to 1962, the local association Pro Kirchbühl carried out further restorations and financed archaeological excavations. In addition, in 1964 the art locksmith Ineichen from Sempach restored the wrought-iron crosses that were still in the neglected cemetery and placed them on the old graves. During the last renovation, 1989–1991, the entire interior was cleaned.
The listed complex is listed under Sempach as an A property in the Swiss inventory of cultural assets of national and regional importance .
Interior / frescoes
The walls of the single nave nave (hall, wooden ceiling renewed) are completely painted with frescoes. Despite their very rudimentary state of preservation and the partial destruction due to the later breaking out of the windows, the early frescoes (around 1300) are of great cultural and historical importance for the full extent - as there are only a few examples from this period in this region Canton lucerne.
The following representations of the early frescoes have survived in outlines and parts:
- On the west wall above Christ and Mary, flanked by Saint Catherine with sword and wheel on the left and an unidentifiable monk and bishop on the right. The zone below is destroyed.
- The Archangel Michael carries the soul scales on the north wall . On the right the devil fills the right bowl with sacks, on the left Our Lady fills the bowl with good works. Hell is shown below. In addition to the big devil on the right, a demon who feeds a damned man and another little devil who carries a figure on a spit can still be seen. To the right of it, a large-format Saint Christopher fills the entire inner wall zone. Next to the window on the right is the birth of Christ (Mary on the bed with the Christ child in the manger, Joseph and a shepherd with a dog). Below we find a no longer identifiable saint, an abbot or bishop, a mass celebrated at an altar and a meeting of the apostles (below, Peter can be easily recognized with the key).
- An early iconographic motif for Switzerland: on the south wall, an encounter between the three living and the three dead is depicted according to a legend from the 13th century: three elegantly dressed young men were walking through the cemetery. There they met three emaciated figures in rags of once elegant robes. They greeted: " What you are, we were too, and what we are you will soon be ". They said it and left. - Due to the window on the left that broke out later, only one of the three living and three dead remains of the depiction. Below this fresco there are scenes of the Passion (Christ on the scourge column, crowning of thorns, crucifixion and, to the right of it, an unidentifiable scene, occasionally interpreted as the gate of paradise).
Since the early frescoes were painted over several times in the 15th century, some parts of this second, late Gothic layer were exposed during the restoration in 1901–1903. In their deficient state of preservation, these frescoes are of minor art historical importance. On the south wall fragmentary scenes from the Old Testament can be made out (including Moses with the tablets of the law), in front of the choir arch (i.e. next to the early Christophorus) on the north wall resurrection, women at the grave, Christ in limbo and the encounter with Mary Magdalene . In the middle of the field of the large early Christophorus fresco, remains of a representation of creation have been uncovered.
The late Gothic choir, accessible through a pointed arch, has a ribbed vault. A scene of the Annunciation is depicted above the choir arch (Gabriel on the left, Maria on the right of the arch). The well-restored vault frescos (the four church fathers with foliage wreaths and the four evangelist symbols) as well as the 12 apostles depicted in pairs in the shield arches date from the time the choir was built (late 16th century).
Furnishing
The late Gothic furnishings go back largely to the 16th century. In contrast to most churches in the region, St. Martin in Kirchbühl was not baroque, possibly because it lost its importance as a parish in the 17th / 18th centuries. Century had already lost in favor of St. Stefan in Sempach-Stadt.
The three Gothic altars have lost their original side wings and cracks. This led to the assumption that they were moved from St. Stefan to Kirchbühl when the new choir was built, but this has not been proven.
The left side altar is stamped in the shrine by a Pietà , flanked by Antonius and presumably Walburga (according to another interpretation Odilia ). These are carvings by a Lucerne master whose name is unknown, but who are stylistically identifiable through various comparative pieces. The Predella painting shows Christ between two angels, a particularly high-quality representation without a comparative example in the Lucerne region.
The right side altar shows the crucifixion of Christ with Maria, Johannes and Maria Magdalena in the shrine, in the style of the Lucerne carver Jörg Keller . The predella painting depicts the handkerchief of Christ carried by two angels. The knight saints Moritz and Ursus von Solothurn appear on the side wings ; they are dated 1515 and stylistically belong to the circle of the master Christoph Bockstorfer, who was proven in Lucerne in 1512/1513, or his workshops.
The high altar shrine with the patron saint Martin in the bishop's robe, who hands his cloak to the beggar, flanked by Barbara and Maria Magdalena, looks stylistically heterogeneous due to its canopy added in the 19th century. The paintings in the side wings show Joachim and Anna on the outside and Jakobus the Elder and Ursula on the inside. These side wings stood in the ossuary until the restoration in the 1950s.
The choir arch crucifix, the Mother of God and a Saint Laurentius in the choir also date from the late 15th and 16th centuries .
Two pieces of equipment from the Romanesque predecessor building (a small bronze crucifix, integrated into a lecture cross from the 17th century and a wooden Madonna) are in museums (Sempach Town Hall and Zurich State Museum ).
literature
- Uta Bergmann: Kirchbühl near Sempach. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 504). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1992, ISBN 3-85782-504-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: The dance of death in the Alemannic language area. "I have to do it - and don't know what" . Verlag Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, p. 26. ISBN 978-3-7954-2563-0 .
Web links
- St. Martin auf Kirchbühl , on the website of the city of Sempach
Coordinates: 47 ° 8 '42.7 " N , 8 ° 11' 12" E ; CH1903: six hundred fifty-six thousand seven hundred thirty-eight / 221851