St. Stephan (Augsburg)

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Front view

The St. Stephan monastery church in Augsburg is a former women's monastery church and is now a Benedictine monastery church. After its destruction in World War II , it was rebuilt in a simplified form until 1966. The church belonging to St. Stephen's monastery is entered in the Bavarian list of monuments as a monument in the Bleich und Pfärrle district.

history

Prehistory and the Middle Ages

Even before the Canonical Monastery was founded in 969, there was a place of worship dedicated to St. Stephen was consecrated. The originally three-aisled Pfleilerbasilika with two west towers was built on Roman foundation walls and rebuilt several times after fires. In the All Saints Chapel there are remains of one of these previous churches, which was consecrated around 1070 by Bishop Embriko (1063-1077).

In the 12th century the cathedral parish of St. Stephan separated from the parish as a separate parish . It is documented from 1169 and was incorporated under Bishop Friedrich I. Spät von Faimingen in the year 1310 into the St. Stephan monastery. The abbess of St. Stephan appointed the pastor and other staff and took care of the maintenance and the buildings. The pastor's office was provided by a cathedral vicar from the late 16th century . The parish church of St. Gallus and the plague chapel of St. Sebastian belonged to the parish . In 1459 the church roof was destroyed by fire, after which the windows and vaults were renewed in the Gothic style.

Baroque and secularization

In 1618 the church was adapted in the Renaissance style by the Freising master mason Adam Höflmayr . In 1619 the Gothic church tower collapsed ; a new tower was built by Karl Dietz. The model was the tower solution at St. Peter am Perlach based on a design by Elias Holl . In its current outer walls, the church goes back to a new building in the Rococo period . The order for the renovation from 1755–1757 was given by the abbess Beata von Welden. The lead architect was Franz Xaver Kleinhans , who was mainly based on Dominikus Zimmermann . He had the previous building demolished in large parts. The frescoes were created by Balthasar Riepp and the stucco work was the work of Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer the Younger .

After the secularization , the parish of St. Stephen, which comprised around 300 souls, was dissolved again in 1809 or 1810 and divided between the parish of the cathedral parish and the parish of St. George . St. Stephen's Church was closed, but after a few weeks it was reopened for private prayer. In 1835 the Benedictines moved in. Today only old black and white photographs bear witness to the splendid design of the Swabian rococo church, which was extensively renovated in 1935.

Destruction and rebuilding

In the devastating bomb attack on Augsburg on the night of February 25th to 26th, 1944 during World War II , the church, as well as the entire monastery, was completely destroyed. The church was provisionally repaired in the winter of 1950/51 and rebuilt by 1966. In doing so, its external shape was largely restored, but the interior has since shown a modern simplicity. Instead of the vault, a flat beamed ceiling has now been installed. A few preserved sculptural figures from earlier centuries adorn the otherwise cautiously decorated building.

description

The raised choir room

The church has a single nave. You enter it in the west through a portal and first get into a vestibule , which is separated from the central room by a grille. The church contains an All Saints Chapel, a Baroque Lady Chapel, and a lower church with a crypt and meditation room. The closing grille and an apostolic chandelier belonging to it are the only structural details that have survived from the Rococo period.

Among the new acquisitions are the figures of St. Scholastica and St. Benedict. They may have come from the Tegernsee or Benediktbeuern monastery . The late Gothic crucifix in the choir from 1495, which is attributed to Michel Erhart , is on loan from the Heilig-Geist-Spital . In the ambulatory there are numerous tombstones from the 14th and 15th centuries.

  • Cover grille

  • Children's sarcophagus

  • Statue of St. Stephan

organ

The console of the Offner organ

In 1965 a contract was signed with the organ builder Julius Zwirner from Munich on the basis of a foundation. Due to illness, the organ builder had to give up his business in the middle of the work and so the master organ builder Max Offner sen. In 1972 entrusted with completing the work. After many years of good service in church services and lessons at the school, the organ was assessed in an appraisal in 1995 by the organ builder. It turned out that a technical upgrade was urgently needed. Organ builder Max Offner jun. was able to complete today's organ in 1996. The disposition changed only slightly compared to the previous organ. A Bourdon 16 ', a Nasat 2 2/3' and an octave 2 'have now found their way into the organ case. a. there are almost 2250 pipes , windchests , a bellows and an organ motor . The color of the seven-part prospectus, which was designed by Franz Bernhard Weißhaar , refers to the exposed eastern choir wall and contains the pipes of the Principal 8 '. The organ's disposition is:

The Offner organ in St. Stephan
I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Bourdon 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
octave 4 ′
Pointed flute 4 ′
Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
octave 2 ′
Little Pomeranian 2 ′
Cornett 3f.
Mixture V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
II Swell C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Willow pipe 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Hollow flute 4 ′
Night horn 2 ′
Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Scharff III 1'
Dulcian 16 ′
oboe 8th'
Tremulant
III Oberwerk C – g 3
Metal flute 8th'
Reed flute 4 ′
Sesquialter 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ + 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Principal 2 ′
Cymbel III 2 ⁄ 3 ′
Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
Principal 16 ′
Sub-bass 16 ′
Octave bass 8th'
Thought bass 8th'
Chorale bass 4 ′
Pommer 4 ′
Mixture IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
trombone 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'
shawm 4 ′
  • Coupling : III / II, III / I, II / I, III / P, II / P, I / P
  • Playing aids : 2 free combinations, 1 pedal combination, roller, single tongue holder, tutti

Web links

Commons : Church of St. Stephan (Augsburg)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments for Augsburg at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
  2. ↑ Placidus Braun , in: Ed. Egino Weidenhiller, Anton Uhl, Bernhard Weisshaar: 1st edition. Self-published by St. Stephan, Augsburg 1969, p. 12 f.
  3. ^ All lexicon articles. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  4. ^ House of Bavarian History - Monasteries in Bavaria. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Placidus Braun , in: Ed. Egino Weidenhiller, Anton Uhl, Bernhard Weisshaar: 1st edition. Self-published by St. Stephan, Augsburg 1969, p. 47.
  6. ^ Special print from Stephania, No. 76, Augsburg December 15, 2004
  7. ↑ Bernt von Hagen, Angelika Wegener-Hüssen: Monuments in Bavaria, City of Augsburg. 7/83, January 1, 1994, pp. 430-432
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Thoma: The renewed organ. In Stephania 1997, pp. 30 to 32.

Coordinates: 48 ° 22 '33.7 "  N , 10 ° 53' 58.8"  E