St. Michael (Berg am Laim)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Michael in Berg am Laim is one of the most magnificent and important sacred buildings in today's urban area of Munich . The late baroque church was built between 1735 and 1751 on behalf of the elector and archbishop of Cologne Clemens August I of Bavaria according to plans by the Bavarian master builder Johann Michael Fischer . The furnishings of the church are considered to be a major work of the southern German Rococo .
history
Building history
St. Michael was built from 1735 to 1751 on behalf of the elector and archbishop of Cologne Clemens August , a son of Max Emanuel of Bavaria , in his Hofmark Berg am Laim near Munich. It was supposed to serve as the house church for the Order of Michael and the Arch-Brotherhood of St. Michael as well as a court church. The Bavarian-Electoral Cologne architect and master builder Johann Michael Fischer was responsible for the construction. In 1739 he opposed the Munich court master builder Philipp Jakob Köglsperger the Elder . J. prevailed. Johann Michael Fischer received the building contract in 1735, a contract was signed with him in 1737 and he drew the floor plan, but in 1738 there was also a contract with the Parlier Philipp Jakob Köglsperger. Now the ambitious Köglsperger began to intrigue, who could then begin the construction and to whom the double tower facade also goes back. Only when this about eight shoes (about 2.65 m) was bricked up did Fischer take over the construction management again.
It is the only church by Fischer that was richly decorated with rocailles in the Rococo style , possibly due to François de Cuvilliés the Elder , who was the building inspector on this building.
From 1743 to 1744 the court plasterer and painter Johann Baptist Zimmermann made the ceiling paintings and stucco work . The high altar with the image of the Archangel Michael by Johann Andreas Wolff and carvings by Ignaz Günther and Johann Baptist Straub are also known . It is worth mentioning the clear three-part division of the central rooms: in the community room, which used to be used by the brotherhood, in the choir room reserved for the prince and the order of knights, and in the chancel.
Subsequent time
In 1801 Berg am Laim came to Bavaria with the dissolution of the electoral bishopric of Cologne, and the court church became a parish church. In the course of secularization in 1802, the hospice was closed. Brotherhood and order continued to exist for the time being. In 1913 Berg am Laim was incorporated into Munich. The Order of Michael was converted into an Order of Merit in 1837 and finally abolished with the Revolution of 1918, the brotherhood still exists today under the direction of the Pastor of St. Michael.
During the Second World War , the church was badly damaged by an artillery hit on April 30, 1945. Approaching troops of the American army were fired at from an anti-aircraft position that was roughly in the area of today's park in the southeast. The Americans also fired. One of the grenades penetrated the church through the north window in the chancel, got behind the altar, ricocheted off the apse wall, smashed through the altarpiece and detonated on the floor. A large explosion funnel was created, the right side of the altar and the altarpiece were destroyed. The walls and ceilings (including the painting and the frescoes) of the church and the sacristy were damaged by shrapnel. The day after the explosion, parishioners searched the rubble and secured the parts of the altar and the altarpiece.
The first comprehensive restoration of the church took place in the years 1978 to 1982. From 2000 to 2016, another extensive renovation (roof structure, shell, furnishings, towers) took place.
facade
The double tower facade, painted white, is sparsely structured, the three-story towers are crowned by helmet-like hoods with lanterns and the corners are framed by yellow pilasters . The convex middle section protrudes slightly between the towers, its two floors are framed by double columns, also painted yellow. In the large niche on the second floor above the portal is the figure of St. Michael, which only replaced the original figure, which has not been preserved, in 1911 and is a bit too small in proportions.
Artworks of the interior
Between 1735 and 1739 Fischer began three special masterpieces of European sacred architecture: the churches in Ingolstadt , Aufhausen and St. Michael in Berg am Laim. All three were designed as central rooms on the floor plan of an unequal-sided octagon, the niches of which are occupied by columns.
The vault constructions of the church domes of St. Michael, the largest of which has a diameter of 17 meters, are located under the most widely spanned cantilevered wooden vault in southern Germany. The three large frescoes by Johann Baptist Zimmermann lie above the parish room, the knight's room and the chancel:
- Vault fresco in the parish room The citizens of the city of Sipontum make a pilgrimage to Monte Gargano
- Vault fresco in the outer choir apse Bishop and citizen of the city of Sipontum , saved by St. Michael, make a pilgrimage to Monte Gargano
- Vault fresco in the inner choir apse St. Michael frees Sipontum
The high altar by Johann Baptist Straub (1767) is adorned with the high altar painting Archangel Michael fights against Lucifer, which Johann Andreas Wolff had already created in 1694.
The side altars of the Immaculata, St. Johannes Nepomuk, Portiuncula and St. Norbert are decorated with figures and superstructures by Johann Baptist Straub, 1743/1744 and 1758/1759, the paintings with the exception of the Norbert altar are by Johann Baptist Zimmermann. The altarpiece of the Norbert altar was created by Joseph Ignaz Schilling (1744/1746).
Important works of art are in particular a crucifix (Passau School, 15th century), a Mater dolorosa (18th century) as well as the pulpit ( Benedikt Haßler , 1745) and the sculpture of St. Rochus by Andreas Faistenberger (1690) in the anteroom.
Detail of the ceiling fresco by Johann Baptist Zimmermann
Michael figure by Franz Joseph Muxel , above the entrance
Stucco statue of St. Gregory the Great under the dome of the choir room
Statue of St. Rochus von Faistenberger (1690)
organ
The organ in St. Michael was built in 1996 by Hubert Sandtner (Dillingen an der Donau). The instrument with three manuals and pedal has 46 registers on slider drawers . The Spieltrakturen are mechanically, the Registertrakturen electrically.
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- Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids : Tutti, 9 × 256 setting system , crescendo roller .
Branch church
The old church of St. Stephan lost its independence as a parish church as early as 1806 due to a royal decree to the brotherhood church of St. Michael, to which it now serves as a subsidiary church.
literature
- Robert Stalla: St. Michael in Berg am Laim. Konrad, 1989, ISBN 3-87437-271-5 .
- Christl Knauer-Nothaft and Erich Kasberger: Berg am Laim - From the beginnings of the settlement to the modern part of Munich. Volk, 2006, ISBN 978-3-937200-16-3 .
- Klaus Gallas : Munich. From the Guelph foundation of Henry the Lion to the present: art, culture, history . DuMont, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1094-3 (DuMont documents: DuMont art travel guide).
- Franz Peter: St. Michael in Berg am Laim - 5 new aspects of the architecture of the church building by JMFischer. MünchenVerlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-937090-51-1
Individual evidence
- ^ Parish chronicle St. Michael, entry by Pastor Carl Graf
- ↑ Strauss Helmut: St. Michael in Berg am Laim , in: Nord Ost Magazin 2020, publisher Roland Krack, Association for District Culture in Munich Northeast e. V., Munich 2020, pp. 32–33.
- ↑ More information about the Sandtner organ ( memento of the original from November 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Website of the Catholic parish of St. Michael Berg am Laim
- Photos of the furnishings of the Michaelskirche, in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database .
- photos
Coordinates: 48 ° 7 '30.3 " N , 11 ° 37' 49.3" E