St George's Chapel (Windsor Castle)
The St George's Chapel is a Kollegiatstiftskirche in Windsor Castle in the UK . It is considered to be one of the major works of the Perpendicular Style . As Queen's Free Chapel , it is the private church of the British monarchs and serves as a chapel for the Order of the Garter and as a burial place for numerous members of the royal family. In addition, numerous weddings and baptisms of members of the royal family took place in the chapel.
history
As early as the first half of the 13th century, King Heinrich III. a chapel dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor at the site of the current building . On August 6, 1348, King Edward III donated. the collegiate monastery of St George at Windsor Castle . The monastery consisted of a dean and twelve canons , each with a vicar as a deputy. There were also four choir singers, six choirboys and two bell ringer , which means that the monastery had as many clergymen as the Sainte-Chapelle of the French kings in Paris. Edward III. had the existing chapel expanded and added that of the Virgin Mary and the English national saint George to the patronage . This military patron saint was established by the new purpose of the chapel, which now served as the chapel of the Knights of the Garter. This association of knights included the king as head of the 25 other knights who were represented in the daily service in the chapel by a deputy, a so-called poor knight . As a collegiate member of the Order of the Garter, the chapel was one of the most respected churches in medieval England. Around 1350 the King gave the Chapel the Cross of Gneth , a cross relic that had originally belonged to the Welsh princes of Gwynned . In 1351 Pope Clement VI declared. the chapel exemted by the Diocese of Salisbury and the Archbishops of Canterbury .
In 1475 Edward IV began building a new chapel in which he was buried after his death. Nevertheless, construction progressed slowly at first. By 1484, only the choir without the vault was completed. In 1503 Sir Reginald Bray , who had donated considerable sums in his will for the further construction of the chapel, was buried in the south transept. This foundation enabled the construction of the nave to be completed around 1511. Henry VIII had the Lady Chapel completed by 1522 , which was originally intended as a burial chapel for Henry VII, but which was then buried in Westminster Abbey . The construction of the chapel was completed around 1528. The monastery chapter was not dissolved during the Reformation and continued after the dissolution during the English Civil War in the 17th century. The number of Poor Knights had been reduced to thirteen by Henry VIII, and since 1833 they have been called the Military Knights of Windsor . At the end of the 18th century, Georg III. Restoration work on the chapel. Between 1804 and 1810 a royal tomb was built under the former Lady Chapel, which now serves as a burial chapel . Under Victoria I , Thomas Willement restored the stained glass windows of the chapel between 1841 and 1861 and added to them. In the period from 1863 to 1867 the chapel was extensively restored by Sir Gilbert Scott and the Lady Chapel was converted into the Albert Memorial Chapel . Another restoration of the chapel took place between 1920 and 1930 by Sir Harold Brakspear . In 1969 the last extension was the King George VI Memorial Chapel on the north aisle.
In addition to the Cathedral Churches and Westminster Abbey , the chapel is today (2018) the only church in Great Britain with a chapter of secular canons . The chapter consists of a dean and six other members.
investment
Exterior
The free-standing, towerless St George's Chapel dominates the Lower Ward of Windsor Castle. Although officially chapel rank, at 237 feet (about 72 m) in length it is the size of some cathedrals . The building made of light sandstone is considered one of the main works of the late Perpendicular Style. The exterior is characterized by the large windows and the ornate buttresses . The flat roof is not visible, instead the building is completed by a parapet with pinnacles , which represent the heraldic animals of the Houses of Lancaster and York, such as the falcon, deer, dragon and other animals. The pronounced transept is located in the middle of the chapel, so that the main nave and the choir room each have seven bays . Both the main nave and the choir room have two low aisles , in the east the choir room is continued by a single-nave former Lady Chapel with a polygonal finish.
Interior
The interior of the church, which is bright through the large windows, impresses with the richly structured fan vault . Of the chapel's furnishings, the splendid oak-carved choir stalls for the knights of the Order of the Garter, over which the banners of the current members hang, as well as the coats of arms of over 700 former members of the order are particularly noteworthy. The over 9 m high and almost 9 m wide west window is one of the largest stained glass windows in Great Britain, the majority of the 75 stained glass dates from the early 16th century. The chapel contains the graves of ten kings, numerous other members of the royal family and other members of the high nobility. One of the most elaborate grave monuments is the grave memorial created by Matthew Cotes Wyatt for Princess Charlotte in Urswick Chapel . The Albert Memorial Chapel was richly adorned with marble, mosaics, sculptures and stained glass in the neo-Gothic style in the 19th century .
Grave sites (selection)
- Prince George, Duke of Windsor (1477–1479) - (Son of King Edward IV )
- Mary of York (August 11, 1467 - May 23, 1482) - (daughter of King Edward IV )
- Edward IV, King of England (April 28, 1442 - April 9, 1483)
- Elizabeth Woodville (1437 - August 25, 1492) - (Wife of King Edward IV )
- Jane Seymour , Queen of England (c. 1509 - October 24, 1537) - (third wife of King Henry VIII )
- Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1484-22 August 1545) - (Consort of Mary Tudor , sister of Henry VIII)
- Henry VIII, King of England (June 28, 1491 - January 28, 1547)
- Charles I, King of England (November 19, 1600 - January 30, 1649) - (buried there on February 7, 1649 after his beheading in front of the Banqueting House in Whitehall on January 30, 1649)
- an unnamed prince (March 25, 1697) - (son of Queen Anne )
- an unnamed prince (September 15, 1698) - (son of Queen Anne )
- Maria Walpole , Duchess of Gloucester (July 10, 1736 - August 22, 1807) - (Wife of William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh )
- Princess Amelia (August 7, 1783 - November 2, 1810) - (daughter of King George III )
- William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (November 25, 1743 - August 25, 1805) - (Brother of King George III )
- Princess Augusta of Hanover, Princess Royal (August 11, 1737 - March 23, 1813) - (Sister of King George III. )
- Charlotte Augusta (January 7, 1796 - November 6, 1817) - (daughter of King George IV )
- Sophie Charlotte von Mecklenburg-Strelitz , Queen of Great Britain (May 19, 1744 - November 17, 1818) - (Wife of King George III )
- George III, King of Great Britain (June 4, 1738 - January 29, 1820)
- Princess Elizabeth (December 10, 1820 - March 4, 1821) - (daughter of King William IV )
- Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (August 16, 1763 - January 5, 1827) - (son of King George III )
- George IV, King of Great Britain (August 12, 1762 - June 26, 1830)
- William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (January 15, 1776 - November 30, 1834) - (Son of William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh )
- William IV, King of Great Britain (August 21, 1765 - June 20, 1837)
- Princess Augusta Sophia of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover (November 8, 1768 - September 22, 1840) - (daughter of King George III )
- Princess Sophia Mathilda of Gloucester (May 29, 1773 - November 29, 1844)
- Adelheid von Sachsen-Meiningen , Queen of Great Britain (August 13, 1792 - December 2, 1849) - (Wife of King Wilhelm IV. )
- Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge (February 24, 1774 - July 8, 1850) - (Son of King George III )
- Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (April 25, 1776 - April 30, 1857) - (Daughter of King George III )
- George V, King of Hanover (May 27, 1819 - June 12, 1878) - (grandson of King George III )
- Leopold, Duke of Albany (April 7, 1853 - March 28, 1884) - (Son of Queen Victoria )
- Auguste von Hessen, Duchess of Cambridge (July 25, 1797 - April 6, 1889) - (Wife of Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge )
- Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (January 8, 1864 - January 14, 1892) - (Son of King Edward VII )
- Edward VII, King of Great Britain (November 9, 1841 - May 6, 1910)
- Alexandra of Denmark , Queen of Great Britain (December 1, 1844 - November 20, 1925) - (Wife of King Edward VII )
- George V, King of Great Britain (June 3, 1865 - January 20, 1936)
- George, 1st Duke of Kent (December 20, 1902 - August 25, 1942) - (son of King George V )
- George VI, King of Great Britain (December 14, 1895 - February 6, 1952)
- Mary von Teck , Queen of Great Britain (May 26, 1867 - March 24, 1953) - (Wife of King George V )
- Princess Margaret , Countess of Snowdon (August 21, 1930 - February 9, 2002) - (Sister of Queen Elizabeth II )
- Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon , Queen of Great Britain (August 4, 1900 - March 30, 2002) - (Wife of King George VI )
organ
The organ of St George's Chapel was built at the beginning of the 20th century by the organ builder Walter & Sons and was last extensively restored in 2002 by the organ builders Harrison & Harrison and equipped with a new playing system. The instrument has 71 stops on four manuals and a pedal .
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Couple
- Normal coupling: I / II, III / I, III / II, IV / I, IV / II, IV / III, I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P
- Sub-octave coupling: IV / IV
- Super octave coupling: III / III, IV / IV
- Special coupling: Unison off, tongues and cornet (II) / IV
More buildings
To the north of the chapel are the buildings that were built between 1350 and 1357 to house the canons, as well as the Common Hall, built for the vicars in the early 15th century . This building houses the monastery archive and library. The so-called Horseshoe Cloister at the west end of the chapel because of its shape was built for the vicars between 1478 and 1481.
literature
- Nikolaus Pevsner : The Buildings of England. Berkshire. Penguin, London 1966, pp. 268-278 ( excerpts from Google Books ).
- Nigel Saul: St George's Chapel, Windsor, in the Fourteenth Century. Boydell, Woodbridge [et al. a.] 2005, ISBN 1-84383-117-1 .
- Hugo Vickers: St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle . Foundation of the College of St. George, Windsor 2008, ISBN 978-1-904349-57-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England. Berkshire. Penguin, London 1966, p. 24.
- ↑ a b c A short History of St George's. Retrieved May 3, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e f St George's Timeline. Retrieved May 3, 2018 .
- ^ A b Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England. Berkshire. Penguin, London 1966, p. 268.
- ^ The Dean & Canons of Windsor. Retrieved March 25, 2018 .
- ^ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England. Berkshire. Penguin, London 1966, p. 269.
- ↑ 360 ° Virtual Tour of The Nave of St George's Chapel. Retrieved May 3, 2018 .
- ^ Royal Burials. Retrieved May 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Information on the organ. Retrieved May 3, 2018 (Italian).
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 1.5 ″ N , 0 ° 36 ′ 24.4 ″ W.