St. Ottilia (Absberg)

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The former castle with the parish church in the rear part of the south wing (right)
The interior towards the east

The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Ottilia in Absberg , a municipality in the Middle Franconian district of Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen ( Bayern ) is in the rococo embodied style former chapel of the German Order castle .

Building and Church History

The parish church in the southeast corner of the castle building
The interior to the west
Madonna under the canopy
The roof turret of the parish church, seen from the courtyard
Ceiling painting (Dying of St. Ottilia)
Main altar
Crucifixion group

Cyriakus and Ottilien Church

The first church in Absberg was built of wood and consecrated in honor of Saints Cyriakus and Ottilie . It stood on today's cemetery grounds. It was burned down during the Hungarian invasions in 955 and rebuilt in stone in the following decades. The consecration of this church in "Abbatesberc" was carried out by Eichstätt Bishop Gundekar II between 1057 and 1075, as reported in the Gundekarianum pontifical under him . In 1327 Absberg, previously a branch of Pfofeld , became its own parish, with Chunrat von Absberg being enfeoffed by Konrad and Gottfried von Hohenlohe with the parish, the Pfarrwidum and 1/3 of the large and 2/3 of the small tithe at his request . In a document from 1458 of a parish church “S. Otilie ”and in another document from 1480 from a church“ S. Ciriaci et Otile ”with the right of presentation by the von Absbergs. There was also a chapel as a further pre-Reformation sacred space which, according to sources, Heinrich IV. Von Absberg - Rumburg , Bishop of Regensburg , had consecrated in 1488 ; it was also back in the area of ​​today's cemetery. In 1604 it was renovated and in 1805/06, when it had become dilapidated, it was demolished.

Christ Church

After the Lords of Absberg had already accepted the Reformation for their territory in 1523, they built a new church in Absberg from 1597 to 1598. This late Gothic Christ Church was the first church in the wider area that was planned and built as a purely Protestant church. When on July 11, 1652, five years after the Lords of Absberg had died out, the Teutonic Order took over the rule of Absberg by way of exchange, Catholics returned to Absberg who were in the service of the Teutonic Order. Around 1660 the order forced that the Christ Church could also be used for Catholic worship, with an interruption until 1834. This simultaneous use of the church was "a source of countless disputes".

St. Ottilia

After the demolition of the castle of the Absbergian rule, which was too small for the German rulers, built in 1593/95, it was supported by a builder not mentioned in the sources from 1723 to 1726 under the building commander Karl Heinrich von Hornstein († 1745 in Ellingen ), as evidenced by the style through biographical references, perhaps by Gabriel de Gabrieli , a three-wing baroque palace was built, which also contained a chapel, which was consecrated on September 7, 1727 by the Eichstatter auxiliary bishop Johann Adam Nieberlein . For 1732 we learn that of the subjects of the Teutonic Order in Absberg, 24 are Lutheran and 31 are Catholic.

After the palace was sold to private individuals by the Kingdom of Bavaria in the course of secularization in 1809 and the Catholic parish of Absberg was raised to a parish in the same year, the latter rented the palace chapel for their services in 1812. When the Christ Church was subjected to a “thorough repair” in 1826, the Protestant parish was able to use the Catholic castle chapel, as it did again during the church renovation in 1851. In 1834 the Catholic parish bought the palace chapel with the floors above it and the knight's hall and ended the Simultaneum on August 14th of the same year with an amicable settlement. In 1835 the Christ Church was completely handed over to the Evangelical Lutheran Church with a ceremonial handover of the keys. Also in 1835 the Catholic parish enlarged the former castle chapel to the west; previously it only reached as far as the church portal. The solemn inauguration together with the appointment to the parish church with the former patronage “St. Ottilia ”took place on November 22, 1835.

In 1927 the parish left the floors above the parish church to the sisters from the order of the Dillinger Franciscan Sisters , who looked after the former castle, which was converted into the “Ottilienheim” in 1910 to care for mentally handicapped women and girls, and also took care of the parish church. When a fire in the attic floors above the parish church caused severe damage to the sacred space, especially by fire-fighting water, in 1969, the Catholics were able to use the Christ Church again during the renovation. The stucco ceiling, threatened by collapse, could be saved; the renovation work lasted until autumn 1972.

Building description

The church is located in the eastern half of the south wing of the former Teutonic Order Castle, where it occupies the ground floor and the first floor. On the roof of the upper floor, shifted a few meters to the north, sits a hexagonal roof turret with a dome over a half-pointed roof with bells, clearly visible from the castle courtyard . The outside of the church, like the entire palace complex, is structured by horizontal and vertical plaster strips. The windows are rectangular and of the same size as the rest of the wing. The church is accessed via the castle courtyard, the church portal is at the end of the south wing.

The sacred space is a rectangular, six-axis hall with a flat mirrored ceiling with stitch caps and a gallery in the west; the church extension behind the gallery is separated by segmented glass walls. The walls have a Corinthian pilaster structure .

On-site equipment

Of the two ceiling medallions that the Deiningen painter Lang created during a restoration in 1887 , only one has survived that shows the death of the church patroness. The second was destroyed in the fire in 1969; it represented the baptism of St. Ottilia. The frames are made of stucco from acanthus tendrils with bands , flower vases and groups of putti making music, created by the Teutonic friar and artist Franz Joseph Roth .

Movable equipment

  • The high altar, which comes from the old Catholic church of Ansbach, the "Karlshalle", is a stucco marble installation of classicism from 1777 with a rococo tabernacle; on him the coat of arms of Prince-Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal of Bamberg and Würzburg can be seen in a cartouche above the altarpiece . The altar sheet, which was inserted between four Ionic columns, probably around the middle of the 19th century, shows St. Ottilia, healing a blind man. The assistant figures represent St. Francis of Assisi and St. Louis , King of France.
  • The late Rococo pulpit on the south wall, a curved rectangular body with corner pilasters and shell carvings, bears the coat of arms of Landkomtur Friedrich Karl von Eyb (1748–1764) on the sound cover and was probably built in 1760. The pulpit and the side altars on the east wall were probably already there present at the time of the Order of the Teutonic Order Chapel.
  • The marble font carved in wood also comes from the Ansbach Karlshalle. It is attributed to classicism (around 1800) and stands on the north wall.
  • The carved baroque confessional , "a good early rococo complex in oak", was created around 1725. It stands in the middle below the gallery.
  • Above the sacristy door you can see the coat of arms of Würzburg bishop Matthias Ehrenfried , who was born in 1871 in a part of the Absberg Palace that no longer exists today.
  • On the north side wall there is a crowned Madonna in a niche under a Rococo rose; the marbled frame with shell work is accompanied by two angels. On the southern side wall, next to the pulpit, there is a crucifixion group; Under the cross between two pilasters, a plaque commemorates the parishioners who died in World War II.
  • At the front of the gallery is the coat of arms of the locksmith's builder, Count Karl Heinrich von Hornstein.
  • The organ was made by Stellmacher in Nuremberg in 1975. It replaced the Steinmeyer organ that fell victim to the 1969 fire.
  • The Stations of the Cross were painted in the Nazarene style in 1858 .
  • The two bells in the roof turret date from 1780 and 1790 and were cast around in 1884.

literature

  • Karl Gröber and Felix Mader (arr.): The art monuments of Middle Franconia. VI Gunzenhausen district office. Munich: R. Oldenbourg 1937, pp. 20-24.
  • Alfred Schnek: The Catholic parish Absberg. In: Festschrift der Marktgemeinde Absberg on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary on July 5 and 6, 1958. Absberg 1958, p. 10f.
  • Gerhard Nierlich: The Evangelical Lutheran parish Absberg. In: Festschrift der Marktgemeinde Absberg on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary on July 5th and 6th, 1958. Absberg 1958, p. 12.
  • Robert Schuh: Gunzenhausen. Former district of Gunzenhausen . Series of Historical Place Name Book of Bavaria. Middle Franconia, Vol. 5: Gunzenhausen . Munich: Commission for bayer. State history 1979.
  • René Richter (responsible): 400 years of the Christ Church Absberg 1598–1998. [Absberg: Evang. Parish 1998].
  • Brief historical outline of the cath. Parish Absberg and small church leader through the parish church of St. Ottilia. [Leaflet], undated [after 1999].
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia. The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia. Edited by Tilmann Breuer and others. 2nd, revised and supplemented edition, Munich / Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag 1999, p. 4.
  • Johann Schrenk and Karl Friedrich Zink : God's Houses. Church leader in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen. Treuchtlingen / Berlin: wek-Verlag 2008, p. 7f.

Web links

Commons : St. Ottilia (Absberg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schnek, p. 10
  2. ↑ Short historical Demolition, p. [2]
  3. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 12
  4. ^ W. Huber: Market Absberg. In: Landkreis Gunzenhausen , 1966, p. 180; Schuh, p. 3
  5. ↑ Schuh, p. 3
  6. ^ Richter, p. 10
  7. ↑ a b c d Short history Demolition, p. [3]
  8. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 3
  9. ^ Richter, p. 48
  10. ^ Collective sheet Historischer Verein Eichstätt, 62 (1967/68), p. 34f.
  11. ↑ Short historical Abriss, p. [2] f.
  12. ↑ Schuh, p. 4
  13. ^ Richter, pp. 51, 54
  14. ↑ Schnek, p. 10; Richter, pp. 48, 52
  15. ↑ Nierlich, p. 12
  16. ↑ Church newspaper for the diocese of Eichstätt from November 5, 1972, p. 21.
  17. ↑ Schrenk / Zink, p. 8
  18. ↑ a b c d e f Short history Demolition, p. [4]
  19. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 20; Dehio, p. 4
  20. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 20; Short historical Demolition, p. [4]
  21. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 24; Dehio, p. 4
  22. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 24; Short historical Demolition, p. [4]
  23. ↑ Gröber / Mader, p. 24
  24. ↑ Alt-Gunzenhausen 17 (1940), p. 37

Coordinates: 49 ° 8 ′ 39.5 ″  N , 10 ° 52 ′ 58.4 ″  E