St. Peter (Aachen)
The Church of St. Peter is a city church in Aachen , which is consecrated to St. Peter . It is located in the city center in the immediate vicinity of the bus station. The church is one of the oldest monuments in Aachen.
history
The church was built over an earlier Roman burial site. Little is known about the early days of the church. A chapel dedicated to St. Peter that already existed at the time is documented for the first time in 1215 . Presumably this was created as part of the construction of the city wall, which Friedrich I. Barbarossa had built from 1167. The west tower, which is made of Maasland coal sandstone and the only remaining part of the old chapel, dates from this time. It is documented that in 1250 the order to cast a bell for the church, which u. a. should serve as an alarm bell was issued. It carried the inscription: "Thieves, robbers, murderers I am a horror, I serve the common good by making a sound". In 1582 the Peter bell followed, cast by the bell builder Johann III. von Trier , which was destroyed in a hail of bombs in 1943. Parts of this church were excavated in 1974 as part of renovation work.
Up until the High Middle Ages, the churches in Aachen played only a subordinate role behind the cathedral . It was not until 1260 that Pope Alexander IV extended St. Peter's rights by giving him permission to carry out emergency baptisms or to give Easter communion . It was not until 1331 that St. Peter received his first own priest.
Hardly any reliable data existed over the following centuries. The rectangular choir built in the Staufer period was replaced by a Gothic polygonal one around 1450 . The condition of the church deteriorated so much in the following centuries that in 1621 the Jesuit community of Aachen applied for the renewal of the church. There were only renovation attempts.
After the new pastor Johann Heinrich Scholl took over the office in 1692, he was able to get the old church torn down except for the west tower in 1714. The builder Laurenz Mefferdatis , who also built the Theresienkirche in Aachen , made the plans for a new church, which was completed in 1717. The outside is a brick building in the Maasland Baroque style, which has been preserved to this day. The painter Johann Chrysanth Bollenrath helped create the wall and ceiling paintings . The interior was destroyed in World War II.
The Napoleonic administration resulted in a reorganization of the Rhenish church territory. In the course of secularization , the church property was seized and numerous monasteries were dissolved. In the course of these measures, Aachen, now French, was elevated to a diocese for the first time in 1801 . In 1804 St. Peter became the main parish church and soon grew to become the largest inner-city parish. The building was soon too small for the increasing number of visitors to the church, which resulted in several extensions. In 1862 the neo-Baroque porch was built based on a design by city architect Friedrich Joseph Ark , three years later the southern chapel (so-called Kreuzkapelle), also designed by Ark, and in 1879/1880 the Gutenratskapelle, based on plans by Alexander von Lambris . During a bombing raid on the night of 13./14. In July 1943 the church burned down completely and the outer walls were destroyed by another attack in April of the following year.
Reconstruction began in 1948 and was largely completed in 1951. A radical redesign was carried out in 1974/75 under the direction of the cathedral builder Leo Hugot . By rotating the choir area by 180 degrees, a completely new church interior was created. The old sacristy was torn down; it is now, equipped with the neo-baroque furniture from around 1900, in the former choir area. The main altar was relocated to the south side, contrary to the usual easting. It forms the center of the altar "island" that extends into the room, around which the pews are grouped. Wilhelm Buschulte designed the window cycle on the altar side ; the execution was done by the glass painting company Oidtmann in Linnich . Buschulte also designed the two twin windows in the Schoenstatt Chapel (1977). The windows of the Jewish, Islamic and Christian faith were designed by the artist Sabine Jacobs from Monschau .
The installation of the expressive bronze crucifixion group by Karl-Henning Seemann as a supplement to the main altar erected in 1975 sparked discussion in 1985 .
The church building has been used for the presentation of contemporary art alongside sacred purposes since the early 1980s.
Today, after a comprehensive reform of the community, St. Peter belongs to the Catholic parish association Franziska von Aachen in Aachen-Mitte , which goes back to the patron saint Franziska Schervier and is supported by the poor sisters of St. Francis . The parishes of St. Adalbert , St. Andreas, St. Foillan , Hl. Kreuz , St. Marien as well as the youth church kafarna: um and the Neue Gemeinde Zeitfenster belong to this parish association . In addition, the German, Croatian and Vietnamese communities of Aachen use the building.
Attractions
Good Council Chapel
The Gutenratskapelle with its Marien altar by Jacques de Reux from Liège is one of the few parts of the church that survived the bombing raids of 1943 and 1944. It gives an impression of the former furnishings that the entire baroque church possessed. De Reux made the baroque carvings of the Marian altar based on designs by Johann Joseph Couven . Until 1848 the altar was in the coronation hall of the Aachen city hall and served a. a. to swearing in the councilors. In 1849 the city sold the altar to St. Peter. The central image of the altar, which was built between 1727 and 1734, is a representation of Mary by the Mother of Good Counsel , which has been venerated in St. Peter since 1803. The original picture comes from an Augustinian monastery that has since been demolished. In 1881, the 80-year-old artist Heinrich Franz Carl Billotte from Aachen made “the small altarpiece” for the Gutenratskapelle. In 1904 this was replaced by a copy due to damage, which was probably made by the Aachen painter Josef Assenmacher. The Gutenratskapelle, largely preserved in its substance, was redesigned in 1983/84 as a concession to the baroque church while retaining the old paintwork and furnishings.
Pietà
A Pietà from the late 15th century, probably made in the Lower Rhine or Rhine-Maasland region, is in the tower chapel on the ground floor of the medieval tower. It is the oldest sculpture in St. Peter. It shows the depiction of the dead Christ in the arms of his painful mother.
Madonna and Child and Antonius sculpture
The stone Madonna figure was made by the Aachen sculptor Gustav Angelo Venth , son of the painter Aloys Hubert Michael Venth , as a portal sculpture on the soffit. The wooden Antony sculpture in St. Peter, also by Venth, is one of the few objects that survived the destruction of World War II. It was one of a series of statues that decorated the pillars of the nave. The depiction shows Antonius as a Franciscan with the baby Jesus in his arms.
icon
The icon shows the mother of God Tichwinka. It dates from around 1800. According to a legend, the picture was washed up on the bank of the Tichwinka River. In Byzantine art it belongs to the Hodegetria type. The icon shows the Madonna with the baby Jesus on her left arm. The silver nimbus was added later.
Church treasure
The rich church treasure of St. Peter escaped the devastation of the bombing of July 1943 only through the use of courageous volunteers. In addition to numerous liturgical vessels from the Baroque period and the 19th century, it includes a large number of church vestments. They are presented in the form of thematic changing exhibitions in the treasure chest set up at St. Peter in 2000 .
Web links
literature
- Wolfgang Cortjaens, Church Treasure St. Peter. Sacred art from four centuries in the mirror of parish history, (= publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archives, Vol. 49), Aachen: Einhard-Verlag, 2003
- Karl Faymonville , Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Aachen, Vol. 2: The churches with the exception of the cathedral (= The Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, Vol. 10), Düsseldorf: L. Schwann, 1922
Individual evidence
- ↑ St. Peter's Bell; Entry in the inscription catalog Aachen, DI 32, City of Aachen, No. 81+ (Helga Giersiepen)
- ↑ This Liège master carried out the wood paneling in the Aachen town hall during the renovation in the Baroque period in 1727. Rathaus in Aachen, pp. 11, 13, 15. ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ JJ Couven had made the communion bench, figurine niches for a representation of Mary and a Nepomuk in 1748 and 1749. The floor plan of the communion bench is wound several times with ornamented and openwork pillars and panels. He created the cafeterias for the two side altars and the Marian altar of the Gutenratskapelle. Joseph Buchkremer (cathedral builder) : “The architects Johann Joseph Couven and Jakob Couven.” In ZAGV, vol. 17, 1895, p. 160.
- ↑ J. Fey: "On the history of Aachen painters of the 19th century." In: From Aachen's prehistory. Announcements from the association for customers of the Aachen prehistory . Tenth year 1897, No. 4/8. P. 71.
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 41.1 ″ N , 6 ° 5 ′ 27.1 ″ E