St. Nikolaus (Thannhausen)
The St. Nikolaus Church is a sacred building in Thannhausen , Altmannstein municipality , Eichstätt district . It is a branch church of the parish of Schamhaupten . The patronage of the Church is celebrated on December 6th .
Building history and exterior construction
The church is located in the center of the village on slightly elevated terrain and is surrounded by a wall. The nave is broken through by a window axis. The visitor enters the church from the west through a Gothic portal with a profiled garment. In the east rises above a square ground plan a massive choir . The large window in the south wall was broken into in the baroque era . Strongly tapered, a square and an octagonal storey with an onion dome rise above the choir building . To the north of the choir is the sacristy . On the southern outer wall a sheet sundial the middle of the cemetery standing and with a high wall walled sacred . In its basic substance, the Church of St. Nicholas is a Romanesque building from the 14th century . The wall thickness in the nave is 1.15 m. According to a document, a previous church was consecrated by Bishop Otto (1182–95).
Interior and equipment
Inside, the first thing that strikes the visitor is the contrast between simple medieval architecture and baroque furnishings. The view goes east to the retracted square choir with baroque cross vault. The adjoining unadorned nave has a flat roof. The four-column system of the high altar dates from around 1850. The pairs of columns have lush floral capitals . The high altar sheet shows the church patron Nicholas in glory (mid-18th century). In the gable-shaped curved extension is a painting with God the Father and the Holy Spirit Dove, flanked by two putti . The free figures on the side of the altar depict the early Christian martyrs John and Paul in the armor of Roman legionaries , who were highly venerated as so-called "weather saints" in southern Germany . The two-column side altars are important works from the early baroque period (2nd half of the 17th century). The reredos are framed by slender columns with foliage capitals, laterally carved tendrils with large cartilage volutes. The center of each is a flat niche with a wide decorative frame. In the north side altar (left) it is supported by a late Gothic sculpture of St. Peter (around 1500/10) captured with his book and key attributes . The sculpture of St. Nicholas (late 17th century). The southern side altar (right) hides in its central niche a carved John the Baptist in a hairy robe, wearing a cloak over it and in his hands holding the two attributes of cross and book with lamb. It probably comes from the same artist as St. Petrus on the north side altar. In the pull-out niche a late Gothic Madonna and Child of outstanding quality (approx. 1490 - 1510). In her right hand she holds the coat, on her left arm the child in a shirt, who is holding an open book in her left hand, but with her right hand she reaches for her mother's veil. A cycle of the Stations of the Cross from the late 19th century hangs on the nave walls . A baroque replica of the famous Altötting miraculous image (15th century) was stolen in the 1960s. On the gallery stands the artfully decorated baroque organ with rich carvings . It was provided with hand-soldered pipes and a richly colored prospectus . The keyboard row in the console is black (almost four octaves), the keyboard row (semitones) white. Three swiveling metal levers on either side of the organ table are used to select the registers . The bells come from Ursus Laubscher (1710) and Johanns (1766), both from Ingolstadt.
meaning
What is extremely remarkable for the area is that in the simple rural building of St. Nikolaus in Thannhausen a medieval choir tower has been preserved, which survived the active Baroque period relatively unscathed. The interior of the church captivates with its valuable early Baroque side altars with valuable late Gothic sculptures , which form an attractive contrast to the structurally simple interior.
Coordinates: 48 ° 56 ′ 7.9 ″ N , 11 ° 36 ′ 20.6 ″ E