St. Vitus (Donaualtheim)
The Catholic parish church of St. Vitus in Donaualtheim , a district of Dillingen an der Donau in the Bavarian administrative district of Swabia , was built in the 17th century and redesigned in the Rococo style in the middle of the 18th century . It is located in the walled cemetery on the site of the former castle of the Lords of Altheim .
history
Donaualtheim was first mentioned in the 8th century in connection with a donation to the Fulda monastery . The Counts of Oettingen and the Counts of Dillingen , who were followed by the Augsburg Monastery from 1257 , were the most important landlords . They gave the place already in 1100 documented occupied Lords of Altheim to fief whose castle including chapel stood on the site of the present church. The up to five meter high cemetery wall, which has been preserved to this day, was part of this castle complex, from which a Romanesque archway on the east side of the wall has been preserved. The heavily weathered relief of a lamb of God , which is now embedded in the outer wall of the apse , probably belonged to the castle chapel, perhaps as part of a tympanum of a portal. Before 1500, the Lords of Altheim built a moated castle opposite their castle and left the old castle, which was probably converted into a church at the time, to the community. At the latest in the 14th century there was a parish and thus a parish church, as evidenced by a document from 1320 in which Pfaffe Heinrich von Althen is named as the local pastor. During excavation work for the installation of underfloor heating in 1972, the foundation walls of this Gothic predecessor church were discovered. A single grave was found under the pulpit , in which the remains of a gentleman from Altheim were probably buried. A grave field with around 60 skeletons was cut in front of the left side altar.
Built over the Gothic foundations in the 17th century and St. Vitus church dedicated got its present shape from the Tyrolean architect Franz Xaver Kleinhans (1699-1776), who from 1751 to 1753, the nave extended to the west and increased and a new chancel created .
In 1726 the tower was raised by the octagon with double onions. Today's double onion hood with lantern was renewed in 1778 by the then court carpenter Josef Botzenhardt from Dillingen.
architecture
Exterior construction
On the south side of the nave rises the slim, 51 meter high tower with seven square and two octagonal floors. The six lower floors date from the early 13th century and have been preserved from one of the towers, perhaps the main tower of Veste Altheim . They are built from ashlar from Wittislinger limestone , the three upper floors consist of brickwork .
The nave and choir are made of plastered ashlar stones, quarry stone masonry and bricks and are broken up by large arched windows and a three-part bass violin window on the south side.
The entrance is on the west facade of the church. A porch, a so-called sign , is in front of the portal with a door frame made of Amerdinger marble .
inner space
The single-nave nave extends over five bays and ends in a retracted choir in the east . The walls are structured by pilasters made of stucco marble with partially gilded composite capitals . Two belt arches divide the flat barrel vault into three frescoed fields, the frames of which, like the stitch caps, are richly decorated with stucco . The decor of flower garlands, roses, palm branches and angel heads is the work of Christian Greinwald .
The square choir is spanned by a dome , which rests on round arches and hanging spandrels decorated with stucco . On the arch to the choir room there is a chronogram in a shell- shaped cartridge : “aDoLesCentIMartIrIsaCra” (consecrated to the young martyr). The capital letters MDCCLIII correspond to Roman numerals and result in the year 1753, the year the church was built.
A double gallery forms the western end of the nave . The grisaille on the parapet of the organ gallery depict singing and music-making angels. On the left, St. Monika prays for her son Augustine , who is embarking for Italy, on the right, St. Paul of Thebes and St. Anthony , the hermit, pray in front of the image of the crucified. The parapet of the lower gallery was provided in 1948 with a representation of the Mother of God , who fends off enemy planes from the Donaualtheim church, a reminder of the Second World War , in which Donaualtheim was spared from bombing.
Frescoes
The large, middle ceiling fresco of the nave is dedicated to the patron saint of the church, St. Vitus. The saint is depicted with his foster parents Modestus and Kreszentia in prison, the healing of the possessed son of Emperor Diocletian by St. Vitus, the condemnation of the saint, the death of his father and in the main picture the transfiguration of the saint. The picture bears the signature "VITUS FELIX RIGL PINXIT" ( Vitus Felix Rigl painted it).
The smaller frescoes in the vaults depict the church fathers Pope Gregory the Great , Augustine , Ambrosius and Jerome .
On the smaller ceiling painting in front of the choir, the Annunciation is depicted as a domestic scene in which a house cat is playing with a ball of wool at Mary's feet. The subject of the picture above the organ gallery is the presentation of Jesus in the temple .
The dome fresco of the choir depicts the coronation of Mary , surrounded by scenes from the Old Testament such as Noah's Ark , Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac , King David with the harp and Moses with the tablets of the Law on the edges. The four evangelists are depicted with their symbols in the spandrels .
Chronogram and Annunciation scene
Saint Ambrose
Saint Ulrich
Holy Spirit Hole
The circular opening in the ceiling of the nave above the archangel Gabriel of the Annunciation scene is called the holy spirit hole . At Pentecost , a white dove was used to fly into the church through this opening from the attic as a symbol of the Holy Spirit .
Furnishing
Altars
The main altar painting from 1842 depicts the crucifixion group. Only the excerpt with the depiction of the martyrdom of St. Vitus, who stands in the boiling oil kettle over a cartridge with the inscription "VENI CORONABERIS" (come, you will be crowned), goes to Vitus Felix Rigl back, who also made the side altar paintings. From the original altar comes the Lamb of God, set in silver, surrounded by a golden halo and lying on the book with the seven seals , a work by Johann Michael Fischer .
The groups of figures above the doors on both sides of the altar, an Anna selbdritt (Anna, Maria with baby Jesus) and St. John Nepomuk with an angel, come from Franz Karl Schwertle .
The altarpiece on the left side altar, which serves as a May tarry and is consecrated to Mary, depicts Saint Sebastian , who is pierced by arrows and venerated as the saint of the plague . In a gilded decorative frame there is an image of the Wessobrunn miraculous image by the same painter.
The altarpiece on the right side altar shows St. Leonhard , the patron saint of cattle, and St. Wendelin , the patron saint of shepherds. A scourged Christ stands behind glass in a wooden shrine .
pulpit
The pulpit was created in 1751/53 by the Dillingen master carpenter Joseph Hartmuth based on designs by Dominikus Bergmüller . The three big angels are works by Johann Michael Fischer, putti and evangelist symbols are by Franz Karl Schwertle.
Sculptures
The twelve life-size apostle figures are attributed to Franz Karl Schwertle after Benno C. Gantner and Friedrich Kaeß. They are dressed in gold and stand on consoles on which reliefs in gold and silver originally depicted the martyrdom of the respective saint. At the feet of each figure there is an angel with the attribute of the apostle. The sculptures were restored in 1981. When they were re-erected, however, they were not assigned to the corresponding consoles, so that the relief representations no longer match the figures of the apostles.
The group of sculptures called Holy Walk (God the Father with globe and scepter, Mary and Joseph, both with walking sticks, baby Jesus) is dated around 1750/60 and ascribed to the workshop of Johann Michael Fischer. It may have been carried out by his son, Anton Bernhard Fischer. It is set up in advance today.
Holy walk
Apostles John and Andrew
apostle
Baptismal font
The baptismal font , a limestone shell on a baluster base , dates from 1644. The monogram of Christ is on the shell .
organ
In 1894/95 the old organ , which had been installed when the church was rebuilt around 1751, was replaced by a new one by Balthasar Pröbstl from Füssen . Parts of the old brochure were reused in the new case.
literature
- Werner Meyer (arr.): The art monuments of Bavaria. The art monuments of Swabia. Vol. VII. The art monuments of the district of Dillingen on the Danube . R. Oldenbourg Verlag , Munich 1972, ISBN 3-486-43541-8 , pp. 210-232.
- Konrad Weber: The parish church of St. Vitus in Donaualtheim . Church administration Donaualtheim (ed.), Reimlingen 2004.
- Georg Wörishofer, Alfred Sigg, Reinhard H. Seitz: Cities, Markets and Communities . In: The district of Dillingen ad Donau in the past and present . Ed. Landkreis Dillingen ad Donau, 3rd revised edition, Dillingen an der Donau 2005, p. 225.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Diocese of Augsburg
- ^ Benno C. Gantner / Friedrich Kaeß: Johann Michael Fischer (1717–1801). A baroque sculptor in Swabia . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-422-06349-5 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 35 ′ 44.6 ″ N , 10 ° 29 ′ 14.6 ″ E