St. Paul (Esslingen am Neckar)

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St. Paul Minster from the east

The Catholic Minster St. Paul in Esslingen am Neckar is an early Gothic sacred building from the 13th century. The church is considered the oldest surviving mendicant order church in Germany. It stands on the western edge of the market square and, together with the Protestant town church of St. Dionys and the Frauenkirche on the slope, is one of the most distinctive church buildings in the city center.

history

The foundation stone for the church was laid in 1233, at the same time as the foundation stone for the Dominican monastery. The actual construction did not begin until 1255. In April 1268 AD Albertus Magnus consecrated the church. The three-aisled pillar basilica thus became the first domed Dominican church in Germany. In the first centuries the church also served as a burial place. The oldest preserved piece of equipment is the grave slab of the Augsburg auxiliary bishop Johannes Haiterbach , who died in Esslingen in 1447. The top is made of red marble. The old mendicant order church was largely stripped of its other decorations during the iconoclasm ; In 1532 the Dominicans gave up the church. It was then used for Protestant church services until 1802, after which it served as a feed store, storage room, wine press and weighing house. From 1827 to 1832, the Esslingen Song Festival under Karl Pfaff was held in the building . In 1861 the Catholic parish in Esslingen bought the cathedral for 15,000 guilders . In the period up to the renewed consecration in 1864, the rectory at Augustinerstraße 5 was also built. The monastery building next to the church, on the other hand, has been used as an orphanage and school since the days of the Reformation and now houses the orphanage school.

Building

inside view

Originally, the north side of the simple church was designed as a show facade, on which - in the sixth yoke - was the main portal. It faced an important street that led to Mettinger Tor. The redesign of the area in the 20th century made the location of the church less attractive. The main entrance is now on the west side, which was once only ten meters from the city wall. Instead of a tower, the St. Paul Minster only has a roof turret . The choir and nave are not separated from each other, there is no transept. With a revision of the exterior of the church in 1664, a white joint drawing was created between the sandstone blocks. This was restored during a restoration in 1994.

Furnishing

The windows of the east aisle from 1934 are by Adolf Saile . The colored glass windows in the polygonal choir with motifs from the Pauline letters and the window above the organ gallery were designed by Wilhelm Geyer in 1961 . They show scenes of the old covenant in small medallion pictures and the fulfillment of the new covenant on larger surfaces . The five choir windows were presented to the public on Palm Sunday 1962, but were not without controversy from the start. The yellow-green tones were even criticized by Walter Supper , who was then chief curator for the preservation of monuments, as a “perverse-infernal color” and had to be softened afterwards by painting over. Further windows were designed by Emil Kiess in 1995 and by Johannes Schreiter in 2003 .

In 1994 Ulrich Rückriem created an ambo , altar and baptismal font as well as a stele on which a Pietà by Johannes Retzbach was placed.

Sebastian Osterrieder has set up a nativity scene in the St. Paul Minster every year since 1927 .

organ

The organ was built in 1966 by the Rieger organ builder (Schwarzach, Vorarlberg) and renovated in 1994. The instrument has 41 stops on three manuals and a pedal . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.

I Rückpositiv C – g 3
Salicional 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Coupling flute 4 ′
Sesquialter II 2 23
Gemshorn 2 ′
Fifth 1 13
Scharff IV 1'
shawm 4 ′
Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C – g 3
Pommer 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Wooden flute 8th'
Octave 4 ′
Fifth 2 23
Super octave 2 ′
Mixture IV-VI 1 13
Cornett VI 8th'
Trumpet 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
III Breastwork C – g 3
Wooden dacked 8th'
Quintad 8th'
Reed flute 4 ′
Principal 2 ′
Night horn 2 ′
third 1 35
Octave 1'
Zimbel III 13
Dulcian 16 ′
Vox Humana 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
Principal bass 16 ′
Sub bass 16 ′
Quintbass 10 23
Octave 8th'
Sub bass 8th'
Zinc III 5 13
Pipe whistle 4 ′
Choral Bass V 4 '
trombone 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'
Trumpet 4 ′

Felix Muntwiler has been a church musician in the St. Pauls Congregation since 1985 . Among other things, he leads the St. Paul Minster Choir.

literature

  • 700 years of St. Paul's Church in Esslingen . Festschrift for the 700th anniversary of the consecration of St. Paul's Church. Edited by of the Catholic parish of St. Paul Esslingen. Esslingen, 2nd ext. Ed., 1989.
  • Robert Uhland: The Esslinger monasteries in the Middle Ages. In: Esslinger Studien 8 (1961), pp. 7-42.
  • Falk Jaeger: The Dominican monastery in Esslingen. Building monograph of the church and monastery. Dissertation Hannover 1993, (Esslinger Studien 13) Sigmaringen 1994

Individual evidence

  1. Church and Art Working Group (ed.): The Paulus Windows in the Minster St. Paul Esslingen. Created by Wilhelm Geyer in 1961. Esslingen 2008, p. 6.
  2. http://www.kirchkunst.de/guided_tours/view/46 ( Memento from June 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. Information on the organ of St. Paul

Web links

Commons : Münster St. Paul (Esslingen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 44 ′ 34.5 "  N , 9 ° 18 ′ 19.4"  E