St. Walburga (Weissensee)

Parish Church of St. Walburga

inner space

The Catholic parish church of St. Walburga, Philippus and Jakobus in Weißensee , a district of Füssen in the Bavarian district of Ostallgäu , is a Romanesque building that was probably built in the 12th century and enlarged in the middle of the 14th and 15th centuries. In the years 1668 to 1678 the church was rebuilt and refurbished in the Baroque style. The stucco decoration from 1725 and the frescoes by Johann Heel from 1730 date from the Rococo period . The church is consecrated to St. Walburga , the patron saint of the diocese of Eichstätt . Secondary patrons are the apostles Philip and James the Younger . The church is one of the protected architectural monuments in Bavaria.

history

Only parts of the tower remain from an early Romanesque building. A priest in Weißensee is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1209. In 1229, the Augsburg Bishop Siboto von Seefeld donated the church to the Benedictine monastery of Sankt Mang in Füssen, which was entrusted with pastoral care until its dissolution in 1803.

architecture

In the northern corner of the choir stands the square tower, which was covered with a folding roof with a pointed helmet in 1672 . The nave has a single nave and merges into a retracted, semicircular closed choir in the east . The choir and nave have flat ceilings over covings. The western end of the nave forms a double empore , on the upper gallery, there is organ housed.

Frescoes

Ceiling frescoes in the choir

The frescoes were painted in 1730 by Johann Heel from Pfronten . The eastern choir fresco depicts the death of St. Walburga and her acceptance into heaven. She is received by Mary and the baby Jesus , who puts a ring on her finger as a sign of the mystical marriage . Angels present the crown and scepter and a bottle with Walburgis oil , the attributes of the church patroness. In the other picture you can see angels holding a relic monstrance in their hands. An angel holds a shield with the coat of arms of the Füssen abbot Dominikus Dierling, who commissioned the frescoes. The parish church, parish house and sacristan's house are shown at the bottom of the picture .

On the ceiling of the nave are angels with the symbol of the Trinity and Saint Magnus , who stops a dragon. Angels playing music can be seen above the organ gallery. On the oval fresco at the entrance, angels hold a banner with the inscription "JUBILEMUS DEO" (Let's cheer the Lord). As in the choir, apostles are depicted in the side medallions.

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  Choir fresco

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  Saint Magnus

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  Angels making music

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  Angel with a banner

Gallery pictures

The pictures on the gallery parapets take up themes from the legend of St. Walburga. Like the ceiling frescos, they were executed by Johann Heel. In the middle picture of the upper gallery angels light candles on the bier of the dead, the picture below shows the transfer of the saints to the Benedictine monastery in Eichstätt. On the four smaller pictures angels hold the attributes of the church patroness: top left a wreath of flowers and a branch of the tree of life, top right crown and scepter, bottom left the abbess's staff and the rule of the order, bottom right a small bottle with Walburgis oil .

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  Angel and bier of St. Walburga

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  Angel with abbess staff and rule of order

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  Transfer of the holy Walburga to Eichstätt

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  Angel with walburgis oil bottle

Furnishing

crucifix

• The high altar made of stucco marble from around 1715 is attributed to Dominikus Zimmermann . The antependium is made using the scagliola technique. In the middle is the Jesus monogram IHS , above you can see the Jesus boy who carries the cross and holds the globe in his left hand, below the heart of Jesus, which is surrounded by the crown of thorns and from which three nails protrude. The altarpiece by Paul Zeiller depicts Saint Walburga with the two other church patrons, Philip and James the Younger.
• The altar panel of the north side altar is dedicated to the fourteen helpers in need, the excerpt to St. Magnus.
• Saint Martin , Saint George and Saint Sebastian are depicted on the southern side altar, and the holy clan in the excerpt .
• The Walburgis reliquary , a goldsmith's work from the mid-18th century with relics of St. Walburga, is kept in the glazed substructure of the popular altar .
• The life-size crucifix on the north wall of the nave is a late Gothic work from around 1500.
• The painted Stations of the Cross were made around 1750 by Balthasar Riepp , who came from Reutte in Tyrol .

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  High altar, Scagliola antependium

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  North side altar, fourteen helpers in need

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  South side altar

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  Walburgis reliquary

literature

• Georg Dehio (arranged by: Bruno Bushart , Georg Paula ): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Bavaria III - Swabia . 2nd edition, Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 1989, ISBN 3-422-03116-2 , pp. 1061-1062.
• Hans Pörnbacher: The churches of Weißensee . Kleine Kunstführer, Kunstverlag Josef Fink , Lindenberg im Allgäu 2012, ISBN 978-3-89870-723-7 , pp. 3–21.

Web links

Commons : St. Walburga (Weißensee, Füssen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Parish Church St. Walburga Parish Community Füssen (accessed on December 16, 2017)
2. ↑ Parish Church of St. Walburga Tourist Information Weißensee (accessed on December 16, 2017)

Coordinates: 47 ° 34 ′ 24.2 "  N , 10 ° 38 ′ 20.5"  E