St. Paul (Aachen)

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St. Paul, Aachen (2011)

The Church of St. Paul in Aachen is a former Dominican church and later a Roman Catholic parish church . It was profaned in 2009 and has housed the diocesan archive of the Aachen diocese since 2018 . The exterior structure, destroyed and rebuilt several times, preserves the character of the Gothic church of mendicants . The interior has been redesigned in a modern way.

history

Rosary Portal (2016)

The Dominicans settled in Aachen in 1294 and initially set up an oratory in their new establishment, the Dominican monastery in Aachen . Like most of the foundations of the order of preachers, the monastery and chapel / church received the patronage of the Apostle Paul . It was not until the end of the 14th century that the Dominicans were able to acquire additional areas for their monastery property and build a monastery church thanks to larger donations. The Gothic hall church without a tower was built between the 14th and 15th centuries, because a keystone in the south-east window of the choir shows a coat of arms stone with a double coat of arms and the year 1405, indicating that the construction of the church was completed around this time is. The first renovations were due around 1485, according to a petition from the prior to Duke Wilhelm IV of Jülich-Berg . Another well-preserved unpolished three-part bluestone , which was originally located in the garden wall of the church and was later installed in the wall of the side chapel, shows that the fourth meeting of the provincial chapter took place in Aachen in 1493 .

When the city ​​fire of Aachen in 1656, the monastery and church were destroyed and then rebuilt in a more complex way. The baroque rosary portal designed by Laurenz Mefferdatis was created in 1705 , its two engraved chronograms : IBI STELLA DOMINICI ("There is Dominic's star") and SANCTA MARIA REGINA ROSARII DEPRECARE PRO NOBIS ("Holy Mary, Queen of the Rosary, pray for us") result in the year 1705. In the church and in the churchyard, as well as through finds in the neighborhood, some Epitaphreste point out that during their time as Dominican church, not only their monks, but also deserving citizens from the surrounding area, mostly supporters of the Dominican Order, were buried there. Evidence was found about the funerals of Wilhelm van Horn, owner of the neighboring Haus zum Horn , the mayors Statz the Elder , Statz the Younger and Peter von Segraedt as well as Johann Bertram and Winand Theodor von Wylre , but also from the spa doctor François Blondel .

During the French period , the Dominican Convention was abolished in 1802 as part of the secularization . Two years later, St. Paul was recognized as a parish church and initially affiliated to the main parish of St. Foillan , before it became the main parish, 2nd class, in 1826. At the same time, the church received the main altar there from the chapel of the also secularized White Women's Monastery in Aachen with the image of the Annunciation and the large statues of St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Mary Magdalene . In 1822 a major renovation was carried out by Johann Peter Cremer and Karl Friedrich Schinkel . The parish church was provided with three altars, an organ and plenty of sculptural decoration.

When Aachen was bombed on 13/14 In July 1943 the monastery complex burned down. All that remains of the church are the surrounding walls and some art treasures, including the head relic of St. Willibrord . The reconstruction was not completed until 1955. Instead of the columns and vaults, slender steel supports and an open roof structure with steel girders were installed inside. Between 1950 and 1969, several new lead glass windows were made, including the ornament window designed by Ludwig Schaffrath above the organ loft. In 1978 the portal on the west side was renewed according to plans by the artist Egino Weinert .

In 2009 the church was profaned. After a long planning phase, the renovation work to accommodate the diocesan archive was carried out from 2016 to 2018. A concrete cube was built into the unchanged exterior.

literature

  • Christian Quix : The former Dominican monastery and the parish of St. Paul in Aachen . M. Urlichs publishing house, Aachen 1833. S. ( digitalized )

Web links

Commons : St. Paul, Aachen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b monastery database
  2. ↑ Helga Giersiepen: DI 32, City of Aachen, No. 43 in www.inschriften.net
  3. ↑ a b c Aachener Nachrichten , July 6, 2007
  4. ^ Helga Giersiepen: DI 32, City of Aachen, No. 15 † in www.inschriften.net
  5. ↑ Helga Giersiepen: DI 32, City of Aachen, No. 25 † in www.inschriften.net
  6. ^ Helga Giersiepen: DI 32, City of Aachen, No. 32 † in www.inschriften.net
  7. ↑ a b sus-architects-münster
  8. ↑ Aachen, Kath. Kirche St. Paul , on the website of the Research Center for Glass Painting of the 20th Century
  9. ^ Aachen - St. Paul , entry on the website of the Egino Weinert Foundation
  10. ↑ church use.wordpress.com

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 29 "  N , 6 ° 4 ′ 46.4"  E