St. Nikolaus (Überlingen)
The St. Nikolaus Minster is the parish church of Überlingen on Lake Constance . The five-aisled basilica was built between 1350 and 1576 in the late Gothic style. The furnishings of the largest late Gothic church building on Lake Constance include a carved altar by Jörg Zürn , a masterpiece of German Mannerism (1613–1616). The cathedral overlooks the historic old town of Überlingen, primarily through the high north tower. The semicircular square north of the church was a cemetery before 1530 . South of the church is the town's late Gothic town hall , built in 1494 , which already shows influences from the Italian Renaissance.
Building history
Überlingen probably had a hall church as early as the year 1000 . In the 12th century it was replaced by a longer, three-aisled pillar basilica . Both buildings were probably designed in the Romanesque style.
The original parish church in Überlingen was Michaelskirche in Aufkirch outside of Überlingen. Michaelskirche changed hands several times in the early 14th century and lost its importance. On the occasion of the transfer of Michael’s Church to the Teutonic Order in 1348, the church in Überlingen was already referred to as a parish church. In 1350 Pope Clement VI ruled. the church conditions in Überlingen and incorporated the Überlingen parish church into the Michaelskirche zu Aufkirch as a branch church. Around that time, master builder Eberhard Rab began building a new choir in the Gothic style in the Nikolauskirche . For the new building, demolition material was used that came from properties of Jews from Überlingen that had been confiscated in 1349 . The nave was also rebuilt and consecrated on April 16, 1408 by Auxiliary Bishop Hermann von Konstanz.
As the city's wealth grew in the 14th century , a new building of the nave began in 1424. The neighboring Imperial Abbey of Salem had just completed the Salem Minster ; Now Überlingen began - partly under the same master builder - with the conversion of the town church into a three-aisled hall church, which shortly afterwards was even to be converted into a five-aisled hall church. Around 1470 the church got bigger again when the spaces between the buttresses were expanded into side chapels.
The last extension to today's form was the conversion to a basilica after 1512, using the Ulm Minster as a model. The central nave was extended upwards and supplemented by upper aisles and vaulted with mesh rib vaults . In 1563 the current shape of the church was completed.
Towers
From the beginning of the 15th century, the two choir flank towers were built. However, construction of the south tower was interrupted in 1420 and never completed. The Osanna bell, cast in 1444, hangs in it, covered by a half-hip roof .
Unlike the south tower, work on the second tower, the north tower, continued. It was provisionally completed in 1494 at the same time as the choir extension and the construction of the Überlingen town hall. Almost a hundred years later, in 1574/76, the upper floors of the north tower were redesigned to its current late Gothic appearance. The previous pyramid roof was broken off down to the bell storey and replaced with new storeys in half-timbered construction . The seventh floor now carries a platform above which an octagonal roof attachment with a final Welsch hood rises.
At the time of the completion and redesign of numerous churches in the style of historicism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, consideration was also given to unifying the two cathedral towers in a neo-Gothic style , according to plans by archbishop's building director Max Meckel from Freiburg im Breisgau . However, the plans did not materialize.
After the wooden roof attachment of the north tower had been restored in 1937, a fire two years later, on August 13, 1939, badly damaged the upper half-timbered floors, which were then only poorly renovated. When the steeple of St. Michaelskirche in Aufkirch collapsed in 1950 , there was concern that the north tower of the minster could, because of its very poor and dangerous condition, resemble the tower of St. Michael's Church and collapse too. Therefore, shortly afterwards, the demolition of the roof attachment and the clock floor below began. The wooden, damaged floors were then rebuilt in concrete . By the time the church was patronized , St. Nicholas' Day in 1951, the work had been completed.
Kollegiatstift
In 1609, the collegiate monastery of St. Nicholas ( Ad Sanctum Nicolaum ) was founded by amalgamating the municipal parish and the local benefices . This late founding of the monastery in the early modern period was considered relatively rare, as Überlingen was one of the few imperial cities (next to Buchhorn , Pfullendorf and Rottweil ) in the southwestern German area of the Holy Roman Empire that remained with the Catholic faith during the Reformation period (unlike e.g. Constance , Lindau or Ravensburg ). The catholic reformed statutes of St. Stephan in Konstanz served as a model for the Überlinger Kollegiatstiftung . With the mediatization in 1803, the monastery was initially dissolved, although the final dissolution was not carried out until 1810, when the Grand Duchy of Baden withdrew the remaining monastery assets.
Parts of the monastery library were merged around 1832, together with the old Überlingen monastery libraries ( Franciscans and Capuchins ) and the imperial city council library, to form the Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek . The (heavily rebuilt) former benefice house of the monastery is still today on Münsterplatz across from the cathedral. After extensive renovation of the building, which is essentially medieval , it was awarded the Baden-Württemberg Monument Protection Prize in 2012.
Furnishing
Altars
The nationally most important work of art in the cathedral is the carved high altar , which the woodcarver Jörg Zürn from Überlingen and his colleagues created from 1613 to 1616. It is made of unpainted limewood and is decorated with 23 life-size and over 50 small figures, some of which are staged. The birth of Christ is shown in the center, along with saints and apostles , including James the Elder for the pilgrims on the Way of St. James and Rochus and Sebastian , who were supposed to protect the city from the plague . Below this scene the Annunciation is shown, above the coronation of the Virgin Mary . On the fourth level, below the final crucifix , there is a figure of Bishop Nikolaus von Myra , the patron of the church.
In the side chapels of the nave there are 13 other altars dating from the 15th to the 19th century. The altar structures are partly decorated with splendid carvings. The rosary altar in the south aisle, which David Zürn carved in 1631, is particularly striking . A wooden figure of Our Lady is surrounded by 15 scenic round reliefs depicting motifs from the rosary prayer . The St. Mary's altar , the fourth in the south aisle from the west, is the most important work of art in the cathedral after the high altar; it is the first work by the woodcarver Jörg Zürn in Überlingen (1607–1610).
The children's friend altar and the Sacred Heart altar also come from Überlingen artist Josef Eberle . One of the two stands to the right of the high altar, the other in one of the side chapels.
Holy Cross Altar
Erhard Altar
Guardian Angel Altar
Guardian Angel altar, detail
Paintings and sculptures
Larger- than-life wooden figures of the twelve apostles and the Savior, dating from 1552, are posted on small consoles on the pillars of the central nave .
The wall above the choir arch is painted with a huge fresco depicting the Last Judgment . Jacob Carl Stauder painted it in 1722. It is clearly visible from the lay room and should be a constant reminder for the faithful.
In the southwestern vestibule of the minster there is a fresco by Marx Weiß (1563) depicting a Madonna in protective cloak. Traces of another fresco from 1493 are still preserved on the north side of the minster; it represented the death of Mary and the Last Judgment and served as a decoration on a family grave.
Detail of the rosary altar
Madonna on the crescent moon, 1510 ( attributed to Gregor Erhart )
Protective mantle Madonna from 1563
St. Elisabeth (Erhard Altar)
Ceiling painting
Organs
Main organ
The main organ of the minster, the so-called Nikolaus organ, was built in 1968 by the organ manufacturers Mönch and Pfaff (Überlingen). In 1996 the organ building company Mönch expanded the disposition by two registers (No. 1 and 59) and equipped the instrument with an electronic setting system. The instrument has 53 registers, mechanical key actions and electrical stop actions .
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- Coupling : I / II, III / II, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P (No. 14–16, 29, 44, 45)
Choir organ
The choir organ, so-called. Marie Organ , was in 1761 the "Wurzburger Hof organ maker" Johann Philipp Seuffert for the parish church of St. Andrew in the Lower Franconian Erlabrunn built. In the years 1966/1967 the Erlabrunn parish church was rebuilt and purified according to the zeitgeist of the time. The Seuffert organ also fell victim to this measure. It was dismantled and the organ builder Norbert Krieger in Retzbach took it in payment for the construction of a new organ. Almost by chance, Erich Hildenbrand from the Überlinger Pfeifenwerkstatt Hildenbrand und Brede discovered the organ in Krieger's organ building workshop and shared his discovery with his friend, then Überlingen organist and choir director Anton Johannes Schmid. After he had campaigned to buy the organ, it was installed on March 10, 1975 in the Münster.
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- Coupling : foot coupling Man./Ped.
Bells
The ringing of eight bells has not been changed since 1741 and is therefore the historically most important of its kind in Baden-Hohenzollern. The Osanna , which hangs separately in the south tower , is one of the most impressive bells of its time. The death bell , created around 1200, is the oldest bell in the Baden-Hohenzollern area that was still cast in the shape of a sugar loaf. The belfry is from the Middle Ages.
| Surname | Casting year | Caster | lower diameter (approx.) | Mass (approx.) | Chime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Osanna | 1444 | Ulrich Snabelburg, St. Gallen | 1,960 mm | 6,800 kg | ais 0 -3/16 |
| Hospital or storm bell | 1585 | Hans Frey, Kempten | 1,570 mm | 2,800 kg | d 1 -3/16 |
| Butcher, Mettglocke | 1741 | Peter Ernst, Lindau | 1,420 mm | 2,200 kg | dis 1 −5/16 |
| Chorum or school bell | 1609 | Johann Heinrich Lamprecht, Schaffhausen | 1,120 mm | 1,100 kg | f sharp 1 −3/8 |
| Late watch, rag bell | 1577 | Hans Frey, Kempten | 840 mm | 400 kg | h 1 +1/16 |
| Three-quarter or evangelist bell | ≈15. Century | anonymous | 660 mm | 200 kg | f 2 ± 0 |
| Death bells | ≈1200 | anonymous | 560 mm | 90 kg | c 3 ± 0 |
| Measuring or Sanctus bells | 1714 | Johann Baptist Ernst ( III. ), Lindau | 420 mm | 50 kg | c sharp 3 -3/8 |
Swedish ball
The first bullets from the attack by the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War on Überlingen in 1634 were carried into the churches and "benediceret" by clergy in order to neutralize their harmful effects. A Swedish ball was hung up in the Überlinger Münster to thank the rescue and to remember.
Mount of Olives
South of the church is the so-called Mount of Olives , a half-open pavilion that houses a monumental statue of Christ praying. It was donated in 1469 by Elbeth Küfferin, a widow from Überlingen. Work on the late Gothic building began in 1493. The eight pillars support a star vault inside . The octagon was probably originally covered by a perforated roof. In the course of uncovering measures around the cathedral at the end of the 19th century, consideration was given to relocating the pavilion, which then did not take place. At the end of the 1970s, restoration work took place, with the Mount of Olives receiving, among other things, the green glazed roof tiles. The last renovation and restoration work took place from 2016 to 2018, during which the damaged rusticated sandstone base was restored.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kollegiatstift St. Nikolaus at LEO-BW .de
- ↑ Baden-Württemberg Monument Protection Prize 2012
- ↑ More information about the St. Nicholas Organ on the website of the Überlingen Minster Concerts.
- ↑ Information about the Marien organ
- ↑ Kurt Kramer et al. a .: The German bell landscapes. Baden-Hohenzollern . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Franz Hofmann: The "Schwedenkugel" in the Überlinger Münster. In: Harald Derschka and Jürgen Klöckler (eds.): Der Bodensee. Nature and history from 150 perspectives. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2018. ISBN 978-3-7995-1724-9 . Pp. 116-117.
- ↑ Hanspeter Walter: Ölbergkapelle completely restored In: Südkurier from April 3, 2018.
literature
- Josef Hecht: The St. Nicholas Minster in Überlingen. The construction and its equipment. Überlingen 1938.
- Ulrich Knapp: Architecture and sculpture in Überlingen up to the end of the Middle Ages. In: Michael Brunner; Marion Harder-Merkelbach (ed.): 1100 years of art and architecture in Überlingen (850–1950). Imhof, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-032-1 .
- Manfred Bruker: The Überlingen Minster and its traditions. Kunstverlag Fink, Lindenberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89870-681-0 .
- Hubert Krins: The Osanna Tower of the Überlingen Minster is being repaired. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg , 4th year 1975, issue 4, p. 175 f. ( PDF )
- Ursmar Engelmann: O joyful night. Reflections on the work of Jörg Zürn in the Überlinger Münster. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. U. a. 1986, ISBN 3-451-20852-0 .
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 46 ′ 2 " N , 9 ° 9 ′ 38" E