St. Michael (Aachen)

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St. Michael's Basilica

St. Michael (official name: Church of the Archangel Michael - St. Dimitrios (Ναός Αρχαγγέλου Μιχαήλ - Αγίου Δημητρίου)) is a formerly Roman Catholic and now a Greek Orthodox church in Aachen . It was built in 1628 as a monastery church of the Jesuit community Aachen , which was newly established in 1601 , became a Catholic parish church in 1804 and is today the church of the Aachen community of Agios Dimitrios of the Greek Orthodox metropolis of Germany .

history

In 1579 two Jesuits came to Aachen who held services in the Anna Chapel in the neighboring Aachen Cathedral . However, they left the city in 1581. In 1600, as part of the Counter Reformation, by a council resolution, Jesuits were recruited again, who immediately accepted the invitation and settled permanently in Aachen. They founded the Jesuit community in Aachen and held services again, this time in the Karlskapelle of Aachen Cathedral. In 1607, the Jesuit order received the approval to set up its first own chapel on the ground floor of a private house in what was then Scherpstrasse and today's Annastrasse, which was consecrated to Archangel Michael in 1608 by Liège Auxiliary Bishop Andreas Stregnart. After the order received more and more fines from the Protestants expelled with the imperial ban, it was able to plan and implement a new and larger church from 1617 onwards. On May 28, 1618, the mayor Albrecht Schrick laid the cornerstone of this church and started construction in the area of ​​the then Gängstrasse and today's Jesuitenstrasse, which already existed in Roman times and which was the via principalis of a military camp . The completed church was consecrated on August 6, 1628 by the papal nuncio in Cologne, Pier Luigi Carafa . Shortly afterwards, a bronze Charles chandelier was donated to the church. Agostino Franciotti (nuncio 1656-1670), who died in Aachen in January 1670, was buried in the church. The Jesuits played a leading role in education and from 1715 made a full theological course possible.

With the abolition of the Jesuit order in September 1773, the church was closed and during the French era it was converted into a grain store. In 1804, St. Michael was used as a parish church and received the side altars from the chapel of the also secularized White Women's Monastery in Aachen as a gift . In 1987 the church was acquired by the Greek parish of St. Dimitrios (Ἐνορία Ἁγίου Δημητρίου), founded in 1962. In addition to orthodox services, ecumenical services are also held here.

The Catholic Bishop Klaus Hemmerle was close friends with the Greek Orthodox community in Aachen. A week before his death in 1994, he was in severe health problems and visited the Church of St. Michael for a service, where his friend Evmenios Tamiokakis became Vicar Bishop of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Germany was consecrated.

Concerts

Recently, the church interior has enjoyed increasing popularity with Aachen choirs and orchestras due to its pleasant acoustics. The following ensembles have performed in St. Michael’s Church:

Building

The church with the still unfinished facade. Lithograph from the middle of the 19th century
Entrance of the church, also visible the nave windows

St. Michael is one of the most important buildings of the Jesuits and their colleges in Aachen, which include the chapel in Annastrasse as well as school buildings and colleges.

The three-aisled gallery basilica in seven bays with '/ 8-choir closure was built between 1617 and 1628, the tower only after the city ​​fire of Aachen in 1656 between 1658 and 1668. This is oriented to the northwest and is located at the front of the choir. Stylistically, the building is attributed to Rhenish Mannerism . Due to the many parallels between the design and the execution, both with the Jesuit Church in Molsheim and with St. Mary's Assumption in Cologne , Karl Faymonville attributes the construction to the baroque architect Christoph Wamser ; deviations in the floor plan are to be interpreted as a possible start before consulting the builder.

The choir is raised by steps, but has the same height as the central nave and is separated from it by an arch. The choir and main nave no longer show any connection with the Gothic, and the net vault is more like a barrel vault, which Rudolf Otten describes as spacious .

The vertically structured facade of the Renaissance building, however, remained unfinished. An inscription reads: PIETATIS ET STUDIORUM OFFICINA (Workshop of Piety and Studies) and is seen by Hermann Krüssel as a possible inspiration for the work of the neo-Latin writer Johann Gerhard Joseph von Asten.

Only in 1891/1892 was the cathedral builder Peter Friedrich Peters lavishly completed and completed the facade made of Aachen bluestone . Due to the chronological break, it can therefore be assigned to the neo-renaissance of historicism if interpreted strictly . In the niches there were once eight small statues from the year of construction of the new facade, three of which were owned by the Diocese of Aachen until 2015 and were then brought to the TH Köln for restoration and conservation work . These are the figures of Ignatius von Loyola , the founder of the Jesuit order, Franz Xavier and Aloisius von Gonzaga , all canonized Jesuits. The remaining figures were lost and the now empty niches are illuminated today.

The building was badly damaged in the Second World War, and reconstruction with a simplified roof took place until 1951.

Church paintings

The Greek Orthodox community decided to paint the church, which takes place in stages. The pictures "Pentecost", "Maria" and "The divine liturgy" (1997) were completed in 1997. An iconostasis and a bishop's chair were also set up. The second stage was completed in 2002. The motifs of the church paintings are ecumenical, for example St. Peter representing the Church of the West and St. Andrew representing the Church of the East. The church painter Christophanis Voutsinas painted some Orthodox churches in different countries and lives in Aachen. He is also the head of the church choir.

Structural environment

The church is reflected in the facade of the grammar school opposite

The area around the church is disturbed by the entrance to a parking garage. Attempts are made to counteract this with various urban development means.

In 2004 the square in front of the church was rebuilt, the design and the materials have been related to the building since then.

The opposite extension for the St. Leonhard Gymnasium (extended 2009-2011) was aligned with the church axis and mirrored, so the facade is also visible in this.

literature

Web links

Commons : St. Michael (Aachen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 25 ″  N , 6 ° 4 ′ 57 ″  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Philippe Metzger: Enlightenment goes swimming. P. 31
  2. ↑ Axel Hausmann : ATUATUKA: Caesar's legion camp in Aachen , page 106
  3. ↑ Karl der Grosse: Lebenswerk und Nachleben , Ed .: Braunfels, Wolfgang / Schramm, Percy Ernst, Volume 4
  4. ↑ Cologne History Association, Yearbook 1939, Volume 21
  5. ↑ Hermann Krüssel: Horatius Aquisgranensis , p 52
  6. ^ Walter Kaemmerer, Bernhard Poll , Hans Siemons : Aachens history in data , p. 66, Aachen city archive , 2003
  7. ^ Zeitungsverlag Aachen: Stepwise 2, p. 99
  8. ↑ Hemmerle, Klaus (actually Nikolaus) on leo-bw.de
  9. ^ Ingeborg Schild: The buildings of the Jesuits in Aachen , magazine of the Aachener Geschichtsverein, issue 106, page 207
  10. ^ Reclam's art guide: Rhineland and Westphalia , arr. by A. Henze, p. 16, 1961
  11. ^ Rudolf Otten: Architecture as a program , p. 49
  12. ^ Rudolf Otten: Architecture as a program , p. 49
  13. ↑ Hermann Krüssel: Horatius Aquisgranensis , p 52
  14. ^ Wolfgang Cortjaens, Jan De Maeyer, Tom Verschaffel: Historism and cultural identity in the Rhine-Meuse region , p. 281
  15. ↑ Façade figures of the former Jesuit church St. Michael Aachen , on the pages Technology Art Sciences of the TH Köln
  16. ↑ Jutta Katsaitis-Schmitz: Precious images connect Christians from East and West , in: Aachener Nachrichten of October 20, 2002
  17. ^ Jesuitenstrasse and has a nicer place , in: Aachener Nachrichten of May 16, 2003
  18. ↑ Press information on aachen.de