St. Peter (Straubing)
The Catholic branch church of St. Peter in the Lower Bavarian town of Straubing was formerly the parish church of the settlement area about one kilometer east of today's city center, elevated above the south bank of the Danube , known as the old town . The church is a Romanesque pillar basilica that was built towards the end of the 12th century. It is located in the middle of a cemetery with old trees, which is surrounded by a circular wall and on which three late Gothic chapels and numerous tombs from the 14th to 19th centuries have been preserved. As part of the fortified cemetery complex, the church is one of the protected architectural monuments in Bavaria.
history
A Roman fort was built on the church hill of St. Peter in the last quarter of the 3rd century AD . During excavations in 1974, two stone predecessor buildings of today's church were found here. It could not be determined whether there was an older wooden church before that. The first stone-built church existed from the 9th century until at least around the year 1000. After Straubing was donated to the Augsburg cathedral chapter in 1029, the Carolingian hall church was extended to the west in the second quarter of the 11th century and an upstream one was added Tower. At the end of the 12th century, this church was replaced by a larger new building with three apses in the east and two towers in the west.
In the years 1695/96 the church was redesigned in Baroque style , the main and side aisles were vaulted and the windows were enlarged. The entire interior was covered with stucco decor . In 1772 the south tower was raised. In 1866/67, under the Regensburg Cathedral Vicar Georg Dengler, the interior was redesigned in the neo-Romanesque style and the baroque furnishings were removed. With the elevation of the north tower and the new tower closings in 1887, the exterior structure received its current appearance. The current interior was created during the renovation between 1976 and 1978, during which the attempt was made to restore the Romanesque impression of the room. At that time, the vaults were removed and wooden flat ceilings were put back in at the original height, the floor was lowered and the neo-Romanesque furnishings were removed.
With the consecration of the new parish church St. Michael in 1956, the Peterskirche, once the parish church of the original parish of Straubing, became its subsidiary church.
architecture
Exterior construction
The floor plan of the church, including its three apses and the two west towers, forms a closed rectangle. A cornice with a toothed frieze runs under the roof approach on the long sides and the apses , the east gable and the apses are also decorated with a blind arch frieze. The towers are structured by corner pilasters and blind areas with toothed and arched friezes. They are broken through by twin windows on the lower floors and by triplet arcades on the bell floor . The south tower and the lower three floors of the north tower date from the Romanesque period.
West portal
The two-tiered round-arched west portal is framed by set columns, the capitals of which are decorated with palmette ornaments in a flat notch cut . The archivolts also have a decoration with palmette friezes. Lily blossoms are depicted on the lintel . The relief of the tympanum shows a knight, armed with a sword and a large shield, fighting a dragon that has devoured another man. The wood-carved door leaves date from 1861.
Capitals of the west portal
Tympanum of the west portal
Capitals of the west portal
South portal
The south portal is framed by two columns with twisted shafts, the decoration of which is continued on the central archivolt. The inner archivolt, the lintel and the capitals are decorated with friezes of stylized leaves and spiral ornaments, while vine leaves and grapes are depicted on the battlements above the capitals. The relief of the tympanum represents the fight of a lion with a mythical creature, a griffin or basilisk , a symbolic representation of the fight of good against evil.
inner space
The three-aisle , covered with a flat wooden ceiling nave is in six yokes divided. Wide arched arcades , which rest on square pillars with combat capitals, open the main nave to the two aisles. The decoration of the fighters with heart and circular framed leaf ornaments dates from the 19th century.
The choir square adjoins the nave without an intervening transept . Like the two eastern aisle bays, this is covered by a groin vault. The choir and the aisles close with slightly retracted apses covered by semi-domes.
The western end of the nave forms a gallery on which the organ is installed. The vestibule below is covered by a groin vault like the two side rooms under the towers. The vaulting of the western yokes serves to strengthen the tower basements.
Central nave arcades
Central nave arcades
Camphor capital
Furnishing
- The Romanesque triumphal cross hanging under the choir arch is part of the original furnishings of the church. It is a crucifix of the four-nail type and dates from around 1200. Christ is depicted wearing a knee-length loincloth.
- The wood-carved Pietà is dated around 1340.
- The two carved figures of St. Catherine , depicted with her attribute , the wheel, and St. Barbara , with the tower in hand, are dated to the early 15th century.
- In the tabernacle stele set up in the apse there is a colored stone relief depicting the crucifixion group with Mary and John, which dates from around 1500.
Pietà
Tabernacle stele, St. Catherine and St. Barbara
Saint Catherine
Saint Barbara
Funerary monuments and epitaphs
- Numerous gravestones are placed on the side walls of the aisles.
- In the south aisle is an unadorned late Roman stone sarcophagus , which was discovered during archaeological excavations in 1974.
- In the northern tower chapel is the epitaph for Veit Kargl from 1511. It is made of limestone and is carved with a colored high relief of the Lamentation of Christ .
Grave slabs
Grave slabs
Chapels
The surrounding cemetery of St. Peter includes three free-standing chapels:
- The Chapel of Our Lady , built around 1425, with an ossuary from the 15th century
- The Agnes Bernauer Chapel , built in 1436, as the burial place of the beloved Duke Albrecht III, who was executed in 1435 . from Bayern-Munich
- The Dance of Death Chapel , built in 1486, with an extensive cycle of paintings of the Dance of Death . The frescoes were created by the Rococo artist Felix Hölzl († 1774), a resident of Straubing, in 1763.
Trivia
In the St. Peter's cemetery, some graves are marked with QR code signs. With a suitable smartphone or tablet, information about the respective burial site can be called up.
literature
- Georg Dehio (edited by Michael Brix): Handbook of German Art Monuments. Bavaria II: Lower Bavaria . 2nd revised and supplemented edition, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03122-7 , pp. 676–681
- Alfons Huber: St. Peter Straubing Basilica . (= Kleine Kunstführer Nr. 1005), 7th improved edition, Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7954-4739-7 .
- Alfons Huber: Dance of the Dead or Soul Chapel in the cemetery of the former parish church of St. Peter Straubing . (= Kleine Kunstführer Nr. 2529), 2nd improved edition, Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7954-6456-1 .
- Richard Strobel, Markus Weis: Romanesque in Old Bavaria . Verlag Zodiaque-Echter, Würzburg 1994, ISBN 978-3-429-01616-6 .
Web links
- Church of St. Peter Parish of St. Peter in Straubing
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of monuments for Straubing (PDF) at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, monument number D-2-63-000-150
Coordinates: 48 ° 53 '10.5 " N , 12 ° 35' 17.9" E