St. Ursula (Freiburg im Breisgau)

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St. Ursula is an old Catholic church in the Altstadt-Mitte district of Freiburg im Breisgau . It was built as the church of the Friborg Ursuline Monastery , a convent of the Society of St. Ursula by Anne de Xainctonge . Originally it was dedicated to "The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Snow". This patronage never became common parlance, but shaped the iconography of the high altar. According to the costume of the sisters, the monastery complex is also known as the “Black Monastery”, in contrast to the “White Monastery” of the Dominican women , the Adelhausen Monastery .

Facade to Rathausgasse

Monastery history

Like the Order of the Ursulines , which was founded in 1535 by Angela Merici in Brescia , the Society of St. Ursula of Anne de Xainctonge , founded in 1606 by Anne de Xainctonge in Dole , was primarily dedicated to the education of young women. In 1696, after lengthy efforts, the Society's monastery in Lucerne succeeded in setting up a subsidiary in Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1706 to 1715 and again from 1724 to 1734 Euphemia Dorer (1667–1752) from Baden in Switzerland was superior. Under her, the Freiburg Convent broke away from the Lucerne motherhouse in 1709, and under her - after provisional settlements - a monastery and church were built on the corner between Egelgasse (today Rathausgasse) and the city moat (today Rotteckring).

Euphemia Dorer (1667–1752)

The monastery and school survived the secularization . In the course of the Baden Kulturkampf they were closed in 1877, but the superior Pia Waßmer († 1898) dared to set up a private secondary school with boarding school with four teaching wives, from which a new convent emerged in the Freiburg Eisenbahnstrasse, which was state and was recognized by the church. In 1926 they even moved into an additional building, Landsknechtstrasse 4.

The National Socialist authorities closed and expropriated the schools. The bombing raid on November 27, 1944 destroyed the building on Eisenbahnstrasse, but not the old monastery complex. After the war, the property was restituted and the building on Eisenbahnstrasse was rebuilt by 1968. In the St. Ursula Gymnasium Freiburg im Breisgau and the St. Ursula Schools in Freiburg , which are now subordinate to the School Foundation of the Archdiocese of Freiburg , the educational activities of the Sisters of the Society of St. Ursula of Anne de Xainctonge in Freiburg continue.

The former monastery church was initially made available to the parish of St. Martin in 1877 , then to the old Catholic community, which celebrated its first service there on June 3, 1894. The remaining rooms of the "Black Monastery" are now (2013) used by the Freiburg Adult Education Center. A small monastery community still exists at Landsknechtstrasse 4.

Building history

The city of Freiburg approved the monastery project on the condition that the sisters were not allowed to “use any foreign craftsmen for their building, but only the local masters”. The architect was Johann von Heintze († 1747), at the same time an officer and from 1716 professor of civil and military architecture. His daughter Maria followed Euphemia Dorer as superior in 1752. The foundation stone was laid on April 31, 1708, and on August 5, 1710, the minster pastor consecrated the still provisionally equipped church “To the Sacred Heart of Jesus”. The date had consequences. August 5th is the Roman Catholic day of remembrance of the Maria-Schnee- Wunder, on which on August 5th, 358, Mary is said to have commissioned Pope Liberius and the Roman patrician John to build a church on the spot on the next day Snow would have fallen; it is also the day of remembrance of the consecration of this church, namely the Patriarchal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore , on August 5, 432. That is why the Constance Auxiliary Bishop Ferdinand Geist von Wildegg consecrated the Freiburg Church on May 22, 1716 ad Sanctissimum cor Jesu et ad Beatam Mariam Virginem ad nives - "To the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Snow".

Damage caused by the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 was repaired by 1725. The sculptor Johann Barger (Bargör) in Endingen received the order for three new altars and the pulpit, so against the agreement, a non-Freiburg native. The Freiburg carpenters wanted to prevent the transport of the altars. Later, in 1730, when the pulpit was delivered, they ambushed Barger and smashed his work - whereupon they had to bear the costs of the second production, as well as pay a fine and compensation for pain and suffering.

On October 21, 1738, the feast day of St. Ursula, a shrine with the bones of a catacomb saint , St. Felicianus, was solemnly moved into the church. Since 1941 they have been kept in the altar table of St. Martin's Lady Chapel.

The monastery was hit even harder than the War of the Spanish Succession in 1744 by the War of the Austrian Succession and especially the subsequent razing of the Freiburg fortifications. Euphemia Dorer wrote: “On the 10th we arrived back in the impoverished Freiburg, where we have had to endure new fears of death since then, because the blasting continues. But nowhere were the fortification works stronger and more diverse than against our house, and we always suffer immensely. Two days ago the basements , the hidden paths under the Rempart , which had 36 mines, were blown up. Yesterday the two casemates in the area were blown up. Since the Rempart is only 10 paces away from us, the force of the powder tore down our patched roof structure like a house of cards. Window frames and pieces of the walls that were still standing were thrown together. The great powder tower is now being mined; only God knows how many pieces this leaves us. The officers say that the old city wall, which surrounds our garden and our house on the Rempart side, and on which one of our vaults rests, must be demolished without mercy on the king's orders. ... These are certainly tough crosses! "

In 1888 the church was renovated under Heinrich Hansjakob , the pastor of St. Martin, and probably received new ceiling paintings. During a restoration from 1937 to 1939 under the head of the municipal building department Joseph Schlippe , these were removed again. The Black Monastery survived the Second World War well. It was renovated from 1980 to 1982, and war damage from 1744 (!) Was also removed. A careful interior restoration of the church took place from 1997 to 1998. The building history and the current shape of the church was researched mainly by Hermann Brommer .

building

Mid 19th century; left home of Karl von Rotteck
Church (K), sacristy (S) and today's lounge (A) on the floor plan before removing the side altars

The church fits seamlessly into the north wing of the three-story monastery complex. Only a roof turret with an onion hood, six window axes to Rathausgasse, arched windows with oval skylights, and two unadorned portals on Rathausgasse, one directly to the church, the other to the monastery, point to the sacred space. Today you enter it through the door to the monastery and an inner door in the west end. The floor plan is a rectangle, on the left is the northern window front facing Rathausgasse, on the right is the south wall facing the monastery, which has no windows except for two skylights. The flat ceiling merges into the walls with console-supported vaults. In the vault cut above the window axes - and symmetrically on the windowless wall - stitch caps, three of which catch the high altar in the east. In the past two side altars, which have now disappeared, and the communion bench between them separated the space around the high altar from the rest of the hall. On the west wall two galleries are arranged one above the other, the lower one with carved wood grating for the sisters, the upper one for the organ. From the monastery one got through the western inner door into the church, also separately into the sacristy, onto the two galleries and onto the pulpit on the windowless south wall.

Furnishing

Entire ceiling of the church

The ceiling mirror is “filled with the most delicate rococo ornament in white and gold”. It frames the surfaces for the ceiling paintings and the picture medallions between the stitch caps. The stucco decoration on the galleries is younger. Brommer attributed the older stucco, applied in the course of the restoration after the destruction of 1713, to the plasterer Franz Joseph Vogel (1684–1756) from Wettenhausen in the district of Günzburg , the younger stucco, applied in the course of the restoration after the destruction of 1744, to the Franz Anton Vogel from Wessobrunn was not related to him .

Of the original three large ceiling paintings, only the one above the high altar has survived, the dove of the Holy Spirit in a dance of angels. Between the stitch caps, five small monochrome picture medallions with symbols of faith are lined up on each side . The pictures presumably come from Franz Bernhard Altenburger from Schwaz in Tyrol , who also worked for Adelhausen Monastery. Altenburger and his client Euphemia Dorer perhaps took the themes of the medallions from the emblem encyclopedia Symbolographia Sive De Arte Symbolica Sermones Septem by the Jesuit pastor Jakob Bosch , published in 1702 .

  • Picture medallions on the north side from east to west

  • Apple tree

  • Noah's Ark

  • Solid as a rock

  • Sunflower

  • Storm-proof tree

The apple tree in the north-eastern bluish medallion is a symbol of Christ and his teaching. The Noah's Ark , to the dove brings an olive branch ( Gen 6.14  EU ) - ( Gen 8.12  EU ), speaks of hope after the great flood. The rock stands firm in the roar of the waves. The sunflower in front of the river and church is a sign of life. The stooped, but firm tree in the greenish medallion means once again to stability.

  • Picture medallions on the south side from east to west

  • Palm tree

  • sunrise

  • Table and column

  • Phoenix

  • lighthouse

The palm tree in the south-eastern bluish medallion is also a symbol of Christ. The sunrise over the primeval water reminds of the creation of light ( Gen 1,1-3  EU ). The table with a treasure chest in front of a column and a curtain may be reminiscent of a religious rite. Christ rises from the grave like the phoenix from the ashes. The lighthouse in the greenish medallion indicates that our life has a goal.

High altar

In Johann Barger's high altar, three free columns on each side bear a blown gable . Above him appears, wrapped in a crown of thorns and carrying a cross, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, venerated by putti on clouds. The altarpiece, attributed to Johann Degler (1666–1729) from Villnöß in South Tyrol , is said to have been donated by the first superior, Cäcilia Hirt (around 1648–1725; from Freiburg im Üechtland), in thanks for the success of the Freiburg foundation. It depicts the miracle of the Snow. Pope Liberius and the patrician Johannes kneel on the lower edge, between them a field of snow in front of the silhouette of Rome with the Senatorial Palace, Castel Sant'Angelo and the Church of Il Gesù . Two angels carry an icon to the snowfield - meaning the icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani from the Capella Paolina of Santa Maria Maggiore. Above it hovers the dove of the Holy Spirit and enthroned God the Father. The veneration of the miraculous image was particularly propagated by the Jesuits. With Il Gesù it is a reminder that the Jesuits of Friborg were important advisers to Euphemia Dorer.

Matthias Faller's tabernacle
pulpit

Matthias Faller's delicate, gold-shining rococo tabernacle has been contrasting with the massive high altar since 1807 . He came from the monastery of All Saints of the Augustinian Canons , which was located in the place of today's Archbishop's Ordinariate and had been abolished in 1806. The side axes swinging back slightly present table reliquaries . The actual tabernacle swings forward in the middle, crowned by the radiant eye of God . The crucifixion site Golgotha , skull site, at the foot of the tabernacle crucifix is designed in a special way according to Matthew ( Mt 27.51  EU ) "The earth shook and the rocks split": The trembling earth blows up the architecture and ejects a skull. "As with many of Faller's works, the fine rocaille ornaments appear to have been applied and often detach themselves from the ground, so that one thinks of stucco rather than a carving." Faller created a very similar tabernacle for the church of the St. Peter monastery in the Black Forest . The six silver altar candlesticks, decorated with rocailles and flower garlands and assembled from numerous individual pieces, bear the brand of the belt maker Franz Xaver Gäß (1728–1794), of whom many works have survived in Freiburg and the surrounding area.

Barger's pulpit bears the three evangelist symbols lion, bull and eagle under the basket . The fourth symbol, the winged man of Matthew , hovers with a trumpet in front of the pulpit and, like the sun on the access door from the sacristy, reminds of the proclamation of the Gospel.

The paintings of the two missing side altars on the pulpit wall are also attributed to Altenburger: a Saint Ursula with an arrow, flag, palm and a wreath of flowers and a Saint Joseph with a lily and a wreath of flowers, carrying the baby Jesus over a globe. On the pulpit wall also hang, in rich frames, Mary and the angel Gabriel from an Annunciation to Mary , again presumably by Altenburger.

sacristy

In the sacristy there are 270-year-old built-in cupboards with high-quality inlays, which have been restored since 2015. In one of these cabinets there is a staircase that leads to the Black Monastery above . This was quite common in the Baroque and was not considered a secret passage.

Crypt

Crypt with the grave of Euphemia Dorers

The crypt has been accessible on guided tours since 1989. Here rest the sisters who died before Joseph II banned burials in churches in 1784 . The coffin with the bones of Euphemia Dorers was transferred to a chapel of the secondary school for girls in Eisenbahnstraße in 1901 and, after it was closed in 1941, to the left aisle of St. Martin. After the Martinskirche was destroyed, the bones returned to the crypt in 1946.

In 1989, important grave monuments from the Freiburg Old Cemetery were also secured in the crypt . There are copies in the cemetery.

reception

The church was valued as early as the 19th century. Brommer calls it a “baroque gem of Freiburg city center”. "The client, architect, builders and artists tried to use effective symbolism and artistic means to make the church the religious center of monastery life and girls' school operations at that time."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Hug: 300 years of the Ursulines in Freiburg im Breisgau. In: Freiburg Diocesan Archive. Volume 116, 1996, pp. 123-134, online access
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hermann Brommer: St. Ursula Freiburg i. Br. Munich and Zurich, Schnell & Steiner 1987
  3. ↑ a b Engelbert Krebs: The abolition of the “white” and “black” monastery in Freiburg and the establishment of the Catholic teaching institute IV. In: Freiburg Catholic. Parish sheet 1926; 21: 68-69
  4. ^ A b Leonard Korth: The former monastery churches Adelhausen and St. Ursula . In: Baden Architects and Engineers Association, Upper Rhine District (Ed.): Freiburg im Breisgau. The city and its buildings . HM Poppen & Sohn, Freiburg im Breisgau 1898, p. 371-381 ( Scan - Wikisource ).
  5. ↑ The Symbolographia of Jacobus Boschius on the website CAMENA - Latin Texts of Early Modern . Retrieved November 13, 2013.
  6. ^ Sebastian Bock and Lothar A. Böhler (Eds.): Inventory catalogs of the secular local foundations of the city of Freiburg i. Br. Volume IV. The paintings from the late Middle Ages - early 20th century. General Foundation Administration Freiburg 2000.
  7. ^ Sebastian Bock and Lothar A. Böhler (Eds.): Inventory catalogs of the secular local foundations of the city of Freiburg i. Br. Volume II. The sculptures: Middle Ages - 19th century. General Foundation Administration Freiburg i.Br. 1999 ISBN 90-5705-103-6 .
  8. ^ Community of St. Märgen (ed.): Matthias Faller. Book accompanying the exhibition "Matthias Faller" May 17 to September 2, 2007 Lindenberg im Allgäu, Kunstverlag Josef Fink 2007, p. 166
  9. ^ Sebastian Bock and Lothar A. Böhler (Eds.): Inventory catalogs of the secular local foundations of the city of Freiburg i. Br. Volume I. The handicrafts made of metal. General Foundation Administration Freiburg i.Br. 1997 ISBN 3-356-00724-6 .
  10. ^ Frank Zimmermann: Freiburg: A staircase as a baroque gimmick. Badische Zeitung, May 4, 2016, accessed on May 4, 2016 .
  11. ^ Badische Zeitung of January 13, 1989: New place for old stones in the nuns' crypt.

Web links

Commons : St. Ursula  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 59 '47 "  N , 7 ° 50' 50"  E