St. Michael (Michaelsbuch)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Michael is a baroque hall church in the Michaelsbuch district of Stephansposching in the Deggendorf district in Lower Bavaria . It belongs to the parish Michaelsbuch in the deanery Deggendorf-Plattling of the diocese of Regensburg .
history
Remains of the foundations of a Romanesque church on site are proven. Today's church is a new building from the years 1728–1731 according to the plan of Straubing's city architect Jakob Ruesch, who built the Metten monastery church . The stucco work was done by lay brother Albert Bärtl from this monastery, the ceiling paintings by Joseph Anton Merz from Straubing . After construction was halted due to the War of the Austrian Succession , most of the furnishings were only carried out in the years after 1751. The sculptors Christian Jorhan the Elder from Landshut and Joseph Deutschmann from Passau were involved. A restoration took place in the years 1985–1988.
architecture
Exterior
The church ends in a semicircular closed choir, which is the same width as the nave. The building is provided with a uniform Tuscan pilaster structure over a high base strip. The tower presented to the west is structured with pilasters and strips of entablature, which are cranked on the upper floors. The bevelled corners of the sound floor are covered with volutes and are crowned by a strongly retracted hood with a lantern. A granite portal with columns opens up the church.
Interior
The nave with four axes is closed with a barrel vault and stitch caps over flat wall pillar niches. The pillars are covered with pilasters with stucco capitals and high cranked entablature pieces with an ornamented frieze. A two-story organ gallery is also decorated with stucco.
An unconventional solution was chosen for the transition from the ship to the choir. The choir bay is drawn in because the choir arch and the following pair of wall pillars are considerably indented and provided with oratorios . The end of the choir is widened in the shape of a clover leaf and shows three niches for the main altar and the two oratorio balconies. The templates of the altar wall are placed closer than the pillars. As a result, the final yoke is trapezoidal and the side panels are arranged at an angle, but this was accepted in favor of a perspective effect. The centering of the eastern part of the room is underlined by a flat dome arching and a slight arching of the pillars. The choir is lit indirectly.
Ceiling pictures
The ceiling paintings show a folk-like character that is characteristic of the artist Merz. The two main fields in the nave extend over two yokes each. It depicts the encounters between Blessed Gamelbert as a pilgrim to Rome and Blessed Utto , the first abbot of Metten Monastery. Gamelbert carries the boy Utto to his baptism in the eastern field. The scene is framed by a fantastic architecture into which the sky penetrates. On the western field, Utto appears in Michaelsbuch immediately before Gamelbert's death, in order to take over the church and the property of the monastery from him. The picture in the choir shows the victory of the cross over the powers of darkness.
Stucco
The stucco work in the forms of the late Regency style , the framework for the pictures and the ornamentation show relationships to the decorations made by Franz Josef Holzinger in the monastery church of Metten. In contrast, the work of Brother Albert is markedly more handcrafted. The stucco frames with lambrequins are carried by putti and decorated with tendrils and ribbons . At two locations, larger-than-life figures set strong accents: Blessed Gamelbert and Ecclesia as well as the patron of the church as their protector are depicted on the choir arch. Groups of evangelists stand in front of the spandrels of the chancel dome.
Furnishing
During a restoration in the years 1910–1912, the overpaintings from the 19th century were removed and the original surfaces almost restored. This condition has also been accepted as binding for the most recent restoration.
The high altar is a work by Christian Jorhan the Elder from 1763/1764. It consists of a pillar canopy that includes the round window of the choir apse as a halo . The gable end was renewed in the 19th century. From the lower edge of the window, which is covered with clouds, a stucco drapery is arranged as a background for a group of carved figures depicting St. Michael defeating the devil. God the Father is depicted in front of the window , to the side there are figures of the blessed Gamelbert and Utto.
The high altar is one of the most important works by Jorhan. The archangel stands like a monument on the tabernacle. He is portrayed as a sure winner. In contrast, the stumbling devil is characterized as a monster. The side figures are depicted with religious fervor, which the artist has worked out with fine gestural and facial details. A particularly fine work is the figure of the Rome pilgrim Gamelbert, who, contrary to tradition, is depicted younger than Utto, unlike in the western part of the ceiling painting in the nave.
The side altars on the choir arch are placed at an angle. To the north is the altar by Joseph Deutschmann, created in 1753, with sculptures of Saints Florian and Rochus . The altar panel shows the martyrdom of St. Sebastian and is labeled " (Martin) Speer ... (1740)". The altar on the south side is also provided with figures that have been archived as works by Deutschmann; they show the saints Benedict and Leonhard . The altars in the pilaster niches were created by Franz Hofer from Plattling and show in the altar leaves the education of St. Mary from 1740 and the Pietà from 1741, also by Speer. The pulpit from 1756 was made by Hofer, the confessionals in 1753 by Deutschmann.
The organ maker Johann Schweinacher from Landshut delivered a new organ with ten registers in 1762, the case of which was designed by Christian Jorhan the Elder. A total of five bells form the ring; Two of these date from 1776, two more from 1950 and one from 1847.
Rectory
The stately rectory began in 1735, but was not completed until 1795. The three-storey building is closed off by a hipped roof with bat dormers . The ground floor is made of plastered ashlars, the upper floors with a structure of plastered mirrors. A renovation took place in 1989/90. The ground floor is used for the parish administration, the first floor as a pastor's apartment, the second floor as a sacristan's and guest apartment and as a parish archive.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria II - Lower Bavaria. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03122-7 . Pp. 390-391.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Information about the church on the website of the parish area. Retrieved June 24, 2019 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 48 '14.4 " N , 12 ° 51' 14.9" E