City Church (Bayreuth)
The city church of Bayreuth is a three-aisled Protestant basilica in the late Gothic style and the largest church in the city. The previous building, consecrated to St. Magdalena, a daughter church of St. Nicholas Church in Altenstadt , was destroyed in a city fire in 1605. Reconstruction of the church began in 1611 and was consecrated to the Holy Trinity on First Advent in 1614 .
location
The Bayreuth city church is located in the historic city center , not far from Friedrichstrasse on the edge of the pedestrian zone . The church square is closely surrounded by houses, the southern front facing Kanzleistraße is open. To the north is the Historical Museum in the former Latin school, not far from there are some of the castle estates of the city of Bayreuth .
history
A first church with only one tower was presumably consecrated on November 9th, 1194 by Bishop Otto II of Bamberg . During his stay in Bayreuth, he signed a document that was the first mention of Bayreuth. In the basement of the north tower remains of that building are preserved.
After the destruction by the Hussites in early February 1430, construction of the church began in 1437 in its current dimensions. A new church was built according to the plans of the Bamberg stonemason master Oswald . It is 55 meters long, 20 meters wide and 16 meters high; the two towers are around 50 meters high. The church is about three times the size of the previous building; it could not be completed until 1495 after years of construction interruption. The construction is faces east , the choir with the altar located at the eastern end. The 16 meter high central nave is separated from the two side aisles by seven pointed arches, there is no transept.
Between 1444 and 1529 the second tower, a wooden bridge connecting the towers and the tower house were built . The two towers are offset from the longitudinal axis of the central nave to the south. On May 12, 1448, a tower keeper began his service for the first time .
Margrave Georg the Pious introduced the Reformation in Bayreuth in 1528 , Margrave Christian moved his residence from Kulmbach to Bayreuth in 1603 .
The church was badly damaged in the first city fire in 1605. From 1611 to 1614, the margravial court architect Michael Mebart converted the church into a court church and the main church of the Principality of Brandenburg-Bayreuth . The wooden ceiling was no longer renewed, but replaced by a vaulted ceiling. The princely crypt was laid out under the choir and served as a burial place for a total of 26 members of the margrave family until the middle of the 18th century.
In 1621 the church was again affected by the second city fire. The ground floor of the north west tower is no longer accessible due to being backfilled with rubble. A small stair tower was therefore added to the outer wall.
In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, a cannonball struck a choir window, but did not cause any personal injury despite the full church. A stylized broken window with the year in the glass on the choir reminds of this incident. The towers have had their current shape since 1668, with Italian domes and a stone bridge.
In 1848 Johann Christian Wilhelm Dittmar became the pastor of the church.
A comprehensive renovation and purification (style adjustment) in the 19th century removed essential equipment such as baroque decorative elements. The main portal between the towers was furnished with neo-Gothic elements, the original, more modest figure decorations were lost. The office of tower keeper was abolished in 1932, the last city tower keeper Johann Münch lived with his family from 1908 until his death in 1934 in the tower keeper's apartment in the north tower.
In September 1969, a two meter high gold-plated cross was also installed on the north tower. During the renovation of the church from 1975 to 1978, the galleries were removed. The medieval anti-Jewish depiction of a " Judensau " was located on the east side of the town church well into the 21st century . The heavily weathered sculpture was only removed in 2004.
Significant structural damage, which endangered the stability of the structure, led to the temporary closure of the building in 2006 with subsequent thorough renovation. The walls of the nave were each 16 cm out of plumb due to the poor dissipation of the vault pressure, which had led to breaks in the vault ribs and in the choir arch. Individual parts had come loose from the stone friezes and masonry. Several initiatives campaigned for the renovation. The church was consecrated on the 1st of Advent 2014.
meaning
The church already had a certain official function in the Middle Ages: Burgrave Johann III decided in a decree . in 1415 the Bayreuth town church together with the parish of St. Peter zu Kulmbach became the meeting place. After the Hohenzollern residence was moved from Kulmbach to Bayreuth, the church became the main church of the Principality of Brandenburg-Bayreuth at the beginning of the 17th century.
Today the city church, along with the hospital church and the Gottesackerkirche in the city cemetery, belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Bayreuth city church. It is the seat of the regional bishop of the Bayreuth church district and the dean for 28 parishes.
Furnishing
The interior includes the high altar from the 17th century, a neo-Gothic baptismal font , several paintings, an altar crucifix and two sandstone reliefs.
High altar
The high altar from 1615 was donated by Margravine Maria . It is reminiscent of a Gothic three-wing altar. The panel paintings, however, date from the early 19th century and were painted by August Riedel from Bayreuth .
Pulpit and font
The pulpit with an artistically carved neo-Gothic pulpit cover was only installed in 1871/72 together with the benches and the font. Eight alabaster reliefs from 1615 were also used in the latter . This, like the main altar of the church, was created by the Nuremberg sculptor Hans Werner .
Epitaphs
The church houses a large number of well-preserved stone epitaphs . These date from the 17th and 18th centuries. There are a large number of children's gravestones underneath. Frequently occurring families are Kanne, von Feilitzsch , von Pudewels, but also other noble families of local importance, such as Erffa , Künsberg and Lüschwitz .
In the church there are also some older wooden epitaphs for pastor and superintendent Justus Bloch and the Bayreuth mayor Pankrazius Bidermann. The so-called Küffner epitaph in the form of an altar contains two special features: The middle part comes from the furnishings of the previous church around 1500. The predella , made around 1615, shows the oldest preserved view of the city of Bayreuth.
Organs
Organs up to the Reformation
In 1476 a so-called organ rehearsal took place. In 1482 a new organ was built. It is assumed that during the organ rehearsal of 1476 either an older organ was repaired or an expert report was made that recommended the new building. The order was given to the organ builder Linhard Lilgenweiß from Bamberg. This organ was repaired several times, for example in 1498 and most recently in 1523. With the introduction of the Reformation the organ was left to decay. In 1549 it was demolished and partially sold.
Rottenstein-Cumpenius organ
Church music was revived under Margrave Georg Friedrich and the city council commissioned organ maker Hermann Raphael Rodensteen in Zwickau to build a new organ, which was completed in 1573. It was single-manual with attached pedal and eleven sounding voices . Because the old swallow's nest could not support the new organ, a stone gallery was built on the west side.
In 1596 an extension, an independent pedal with four registers, was ordered from Timotheus Compenius von Staffelstein. The organ was completed in 1596. The church and the organ were destroyed in the major fire of 1605.
Fritzsche organ and Tretzscher organ
After the church had been rebuilt between 1611 and 1614, the organ builder Gottfried Fritzsche from Dresden received the order for a new organ with a total of 35 registers. It cost over 4000 florins. The inauguration in 1619 was a special festival. The four best organ players of the time were invited: Samuel Scheidt from Halle, Michael Praetorius from Wolfenbüttel, Heinrich Schütz from Dresden and Johann Staden from Nuremberg. The Fritzsche organ only existed until the second city fire in 1621.
During the Thirty Years War , building a new organ was out of the question. Therefore, a positive had to serve as a makeshift until 1653 .
In 1652, the organ builder Matthias Tretzscher , who came from Bohemia, presented himself to the city council and offered to build a new organ, making four different proposals. The new organ was ready as early as 1653. It had two manuals, a pedal and a total of 20 stops. Tretzscher finally received the organ building privilege for the margraviate. In 1654 he moved his workshop to Kulmbach.
Under Tretzscher's successor, the organ registers were rearranged and two new ones were added. Further renovations took place in 1749, 1774/1775, 1779/1780. In 1843/1844 u. a. the organ was retuned from the organ to the lower concert pitch and a free-standing console was set up. In 1871/1872, during the so-called purification (de-Baroqueization) of the church, the last remains of the baroque organ front were replaced by a neo-Gothic case. In the last stage of construction the organ had 31 stops.
Strebel organ and interim organ
With the organ with three manuals and 60 registers built in 1913, the brothers Herrmann and Wilhelm Strebel, sons of the organ builder Johannes Strebel , created a "renowned instrument" with three manuals, 60 registers and 4065 pipes. As early as March 1918, an organ fire destroyed the instrument. Because of the ongoing devaluation of money , a so-called interim organ from the Steinmeyer company in Oettingen could not be purchased until 1923 .
Trinity organ (main organ)
In 1961 the interim organ was replaced by today's main organ, the so-called Trinity organ. The instrument was built by the organ builder GF Steinmeyer (Oettingen) and originally had 60 registers. In 2014 the instrument was renovated and expanded by Orgelbau Vleugels (Hardheim). Today the instrument has 70 registers on four manuals and a pedal.
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Magdalene organ (choir organ)
At the entrance to the sacristy there has been another small choir organ since 1971 , the so-called Magdalene organ . It hangs as a so-called swallow's nest on the north wall of the choir. Its name is reminiscent of the church's former patronage . It was built by H.-G. Klais . It originally had 11 stops on two manual works and a pedal. In 1996 the organ was rebuilt by Hey , Orgelbau in Sondheim / Rhön. In 2014 the instrument was renovated by the organ manufacturer Vleugels (Hardheim) and u. a. expanded to include an auxiliary plant. In addition, the pedal register base 32 'from the main organ was made playable in the pedal. The choir organ has been played from the general console and from the console of the main organ since 2014. The individual works of the choir organ can be freely coupled to all manuals and the pedal of the main organ.
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Bells
When the ringing of the bells was to be completed at the beginning of the 1960s, a smaller bell, whose pitch did not match the other bells, was first given to the new parish of the Resurrection Church in the Saas district . At the same time, five new bells were commissioned. The casting was done in October 1961 by the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe. On the advice of an expert, for static reasons, the bells were rotated by 90 ° before hanging the bells so that the bells swung parallel to the longitudinal axis of the church. The consecration of bells took place in April 1963.
Of the total of eight bells, four each hang in the north tower and in the south tower. The largest bell of the peal weighs 2300 kg and is called the Big Bell.
As part of the major renovation of the church at the beginning of the 21st century, the bells were also removed and renovated; the steel bell cage was replaced by a new one made of oak. The rotation of the oscillation direction by 90 ° that took place in 1961 was corrected again. The return of the bells to their destination was also celebrated on the 2010 harvest festival.
The following table provides information about the current composition of the bells and the location of the suspension.
| Name of the bell | Year of casting | Place of suspension |
|---|---|---|
| Big bell, cis' | 1624 | North tower below, south side |
| Fire bell , E ' | 1624 | North tower below, north side |
| St. John's Bell, C sharp ' | 1961 | North tower above, south side |
| Paul Bell, H ' | 1961 | North tower above, north side |
| Fallen memorial bell, Fis' | 1961 | South tower below, north side |
| Trinity Bell, Dis' | 1961 | South tower below, south side |
| Prayer or midday bell, G sharp ' | 1624 | South tower above, north side |
| Petrus Bell, E ' | 1961 | South tower above, south side |
Princely Crypt
In the choir area there is a crypt of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Bayreuth . In the years from 1620 to 1733, 26 members of the margravial family were buried there, including the margraves Christian , Christian Ernst and Georg Wilhelm .
As part of the renovation of the church from 2008 to 2014, the crypt was also brought back into the public eye. The access to the crypt is no longer in front, but behind the main altar. From an anteroom you can see the coffins through two panes of glass. Entering the crypt is not intended. In this vestibule, information on the buried margraves and their families is provided in a video presentation.
literature
- Friedrich H. Hofmann: Bayreuth and its art monuments. Munich 1902, pp. 13-20.
- August Gebeßler : City and District of Bayreuth. (= Die Kunstdenkmäler von Bayern , Brief Inventories , Volume 6.) Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 1959, pp. 7–12.
- Wilfried Engelbrecht: Our libs goczhawss sant Marie magdalene. Notes on the building history of the Bayreuth city church. In: Archive for the history of Upper Franconia. Bayreuth 1991. (a first attempt to correct the incorrectly traditional building history)
- Kurt Herterich : In historic Bayreuth. Lorenz Ellwanger, Bayreuth 1998, ISBN 3-925361-35-9 , pages 8-16.
- Hermann Fischer , Theodor Wohnhaas : On the history of organ building in Bayreuth. In: Archive for the history of Upper Franconia. Bayreuth 2001, pp. 185-218.
- Ludger Stühlmeyer : About organ building in the Bayreuth town church. In: Curia sonans. The music history of the city of Hof . A study on the culture of Upper Franconia. From the foundation of the Bamberg diocese to the present. Heinrichs-Verlag, Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4 , pp. 145 f. and 193 f.
Web links
- Official website of the city church
- Aerial view of the town church in the Bavaria Atlas
- History of the church building (PDF, 918 KB)
- List of people buried in the Princely Crypt (PDF; 44 kB)
- Exterior views of the town church with detailed shots
Coordinates: 49 ° 56 ′ 35.5 ″ N , 11 ° 34 ′ 28.6 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gottfried Lindner, Wolfgang Bouillon: Our old town. 100 years of the Bayreuth-Altstadt parish. 1898-1998 . Heinz Späthling, Ruppertsgrün 1998, p. 26 .
- ↑ a b Kurt Herterich: In the historic Bayreuth, p. 8
- ↑ Kurt Herterich: In the historic Bayreuth, p. 11
- ↑ Kurt Herterich: In the historical Bayreuth, p. 13 ff
- ↑ 50 years ago in: Nordbayerischer Kurier of September 25, 2019, p. 10.
- ↑ From the history of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area at jewische-gemeinden.de, accessed on August 15, 2014
- ^ A b Hans-Helmut Bayer: The rededication of the city church - First Advent 2014. In: Bayreuth Evangelisch, Neues Bayreuther Gemeindeblatt , August / September 2013.
- ^ Rainer Trübsbach: History of the City of Bayreuth 1194-1994 . Druckhaus Bayreuth, Bayreuth 1993, ISBN 3-922808-35-2 , p. 69 .
- ↑ Fischer u. Wohnhaas, cf. Bibliography; P. 186f
- ↑ Fischer u. Wohnhaas, cf. Bibliography; P. 186f.
- ↑ Fischer u. Wohnhaas; see. bibliography
- ↑ Information about the organ on the municipality's website
- ↑ http://www.orgelbau-klais.com/_klais/bilder/pdf/Opusliste.pdf No. 1518 of the Opusliste
- ↑ No. 69 on the Hey company opus list ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bernd Schwemmlein: The Bayreuth city church as a landmark and the history of its towers; published in: Archive for History of Upper Franconia , Volume 93, pp. 303–347, 2013, Bayreuth, ISSN 0066-6335
