Bruchsal town church
The Stadtkirche Bruchsal is a Catholic parish church built in 1447 in Bruchsal in the district of Karlsruhe in north-western Baden-Württemberg . The Church is consecrated to Our Lady .
history
Early history
At the place of today's city church a Marienkapelle as ecclesia Sanctae Mariae , 1345 one of our frowen chapel in the stat and 1464 a capella Mariae Virginis is mentioned in documents. In the 15th century, the citizens of the city wanted a representative church and the Speyr bishops also met this wish . Therefore one began under the bishop Reinhard von Helmstatt and his bailiff Weiprecht III. von Helmstatt on May 27, 1447 by laying the foundation stone for the choir with the construction of a larger church, on the foundations of which the current building still stands.
The parish church for Bruchsal was initially the Peterskirche , but the Liebfrauenkirche was endowed with charities in 1468 , several of which were soon amalgamated as they appeared to be underfunded. Before 1468, Holy Mass was sung by the pastor or one of his two chaplains on Sundays and public holidays and on Marian feasts. After 1468, worship should be held at least 160 days a year, as stated in a church foundation of the knight Peter von Talheim . The same document also states that this noblewoman wanted to be buried in the Church of Our Lady in front of the Altar of the Holy Trinity; his foundation was 1700 guilders. The Liebfrauenkirche became the parish church for the walled city due to the church service order, while the Peterskirche remained mainly the parish church of the two suburbs, the Heidelsheimer and Grombacher Vorstadt.
Ritterstiftskirche from 1507
A decisive change occurred on May 21, 1507, when the Speyer Bishop Philipp I von Rosenberg (1504 to 1513) transferred the Church of Our Lady in Bruchsal to the Knights' Monastery of Odenheim "free and full" . The document stipulates that “the pastor and magistrate of Bruchsal no longer have their administration”, but that “the other parish rights which the pastor had in the church mentioned should be arranged by the bishops of Speyer.” The document remained on the exact details Rights of the knight's monastery on the one hand, the pastor and the citizens of Bruchsal on the other hand were unclear, so that there was a lot of controversy in the subsequent period.
The church became a knight's monastery church and the services were provided by 12 canons, ten of whom were supposed to belong to the nobility. The remaining two were supposed to be doctors of Canon and Roman law, and they were usually of civil origin. In addition to the office sung daily, the canons were also obliged to pray the hours , as they are still common today in Benedictine monasteries . For the chorus is trained service required Ministranten , in co-1507 laid by Odenheim to Bruchsal Lateinschule were formed. The canons also included the predicator (preacher), usually a doctor of secular law and of civil origin, who was supposed to preach on Sundays and during Lent.
The entry of the Odenheim canons in a solemn procession into the Liebfrauenkirche welcomed by the bishop and the Bruchsal clergy was depicted in 1914 by the painter Josef Mariano Kitschker in the choir with a fresco that was destroyed in World War II. With the takeover of the Liebfrauenkirche, the canons committed themselves to the maintenance of the building and its interior, which relieved the city. The move of the Latin school to the city turned out to be advantageous, but the bishop's hope for a more worthy service was only partially fulfilled, because the noble lords, some of whom only had minor ordinations, did not care as they should to their spiritual obligations and were often difficult to persuade to obey the bishop, especially since the Reformation also made itself felt in the diocese of Speyer . The councilors and citizens of the city of Bruchsal were also upset that the choir of the church had been withdrawn from them and that the canons did not support the parish service in the nave, but rather wanted to bring the nave and thus the whole church into their possession.
Bishop Eberhard von Dienheim (1581 to 1610) sought to remedy this obvious deficiency by making a decision in 1590 by appointing Magister Martin Chylenus as pastor for the church and thus establishing the actual city parish. The final division of Bruchsal into two parishes was now legally completed. This parish included the actual, walled city north of the Saalbach .
The parish altar, consecrated to the holy cross, stood under the choir arch, the choir itself remained reserved for the canons. The knights protested against this decision by Eberhard and threatened to close the church after their service, whereas in 1593 the bishop ordered "the bailiff should keep the church open with several citizens without being armed and give the pastor a hand" . So the protest of the canons failed, the pastor continued to own the nave, but the knight's monastery and the parish faced each other full of tension.
On September 8, 1561, the solemn consecration of the Speyer prince-bishop Marquard von Hattstein took place in the Bruchsal collegiate church . It was donated by Auxiliary Bishop Jakob Eliner von Konstanz , assisted by Auxiliary Bishops Georg Schweicker from Speyer and Johannes Delphius from Strasbourg . The diocesan historian Franz Xaver Remling from Speyer describes the consecration ceremony very vividly:
“ September 8th and the collegiate church in Bruchsal were determined for the consecration. Both Johannes Delphius - Episcopus Tripolitanus - from Strasbourg and Jacob - Episcopus Ascaloniensis - from Constanz promised to arrive and to carry out the ceremony with the Speyer Auxiliary Bishop Georg Schweicker. They came to Bruchsal on Saturday, September 6th. On Monday morning around seven o'clock the shepherd to be ordained was fetched in a solemn procession by the collegiate clergy, headed by the collegiate dean Georg von Koppenstein , from the castle, under the ringing of the bells, to the collegiate church. Marquard followed, after his relatives, in a long, black velvet dry with a square priestly bar, behind him the Auxiliary Bishop of Constanz, who was destined to ordain, the Auxiliary Bishop of Speyer on the right, the Auxiliary Bishop of Strasbourg on the left. This was followed by a long line of clergy and secular people, including several members of the cathedral chapter and the Weissenburger Stift. Philipp Simonis , notary of the cathedral monastery, was also among the secular officials ; the cathedral scholaster Andreas von Oberstein and the vicar Nicolaus Haugk were the altar boys. The consecration was carried out according to ecclesiastical regulations and Marquard placed the oath to be taken by the Pope in the hands of the Constance Auxiliary Bishop ... After the consecration, including high masses, Marquard expressed his thanks to the three suffragan bishops in a Latin address, whereupon the Episcopal Chancellor spoke and called on those present to pious prayer, loyalty and obedience to the newly consecrated. A happy meal at ten tables in the palace hall concluded the day's celebration. "
Destruction in the wars of the 17th century
The Thirty Years' War began a long period of suffering for the population (around 1600 Bruchsal had around 1000 citizens, which may correspond to a population of 4000 to 5000). The city changed hands more often, she saw the Palatinate, the imperial, the Swedes and the French within its walls. Most of the population perished in the war. The town church as a building seems to have survived the terrible time fairly intact; but the city was badly haunted. In 1649 only one pastor looked after both Bruchsal parishes. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 also granted France the right to occupy nearby Philippsburg , and Louis XIV sought to incorporate the entire left bank of the Rhine into the French crown. Especially in the Dutch War and the Palatinate War of Succession , Bruchsal was thoroughly destroyed by the French. In 1676 the city was burned down for the first time, including "the beautiful collegiate church with the tower, the organ, the bells and clocks, as well as everything that the poor people took refuge in." Only 16 houses in the city and 20 in the suburbs were spared.
The next year a French patrol corps burned the Hoheneggerhof down. In 1681 the church and the tower were provided with emergency roofs, in 1683 two Jesuit priests held a visitation here. According to their report, the Liebfrauenkirche was “a sad sight. The interior, which used to be so richly decorated, was barren and burned out ”.
In 1689 Bruchsal was taken again by the French. "On Tuesday, August 9, 1689, the French army under General Duras advanced from Heidelberg before the city and on Wednesday at noon with two large cannons and other artillery, which they placed on the Steinsberg (reserve) and the Kirchbrücklein (large bridge ) had planted to start bombarding the city, causing the vaults of the collegiate church to collapse. As a result of this misfortune, the collegiate church and other collegiate buildings (meaning the apartments of the canons), which were restored at such great expense after the previous French fire, went up in smoke. "
The last still intact building in Bruchsal, the Capuchin monastery with a Gothic church built in 1672 by Mathias von Burgund, was cremated a year later when the Bruchsal population made a pilgrimage to the Michaelsberg.
The year 1690 marked a low point in the history of Bruchsal, the end of the medieval city. There were only a few miserable huts left, the population had sunk to 400 people, a report from the city speaks of 3500 souls that "have been buried since then". A drawing by Simon Schmalkalder, Fouriers in the Imperial Army, from 1689 shortly before the total second destruction gives an approximate impression of the appearance of the city with the collegiate church. The town church has temporary roofs here, the Gothic tracery gallery of the tower is still there.
In addition to all the devastation, the disputes between the monastery and the bishop revived. The monastery dean Johann Adam von Flaxland denied his pastor the right to a church visitation because the monastery was directly imperial. A decision in favor of the bishop and the parish was prevented by the wars of the late 17th century and was not made until 1753 through judgments of the emperor and the pope.
Reconstruction and baroque in the 18th century
After the devastation of almost a hundred years of war, the reconstruction of the city and its church took place very slowly. The community had become poor, even the vineyards were ruined. In 1690 there was also an epidemic, the “great death”, as it always occurred in the aftermath of wars. Since the pastor had also died, the parish service was held in the city hospital church by a Capuchin priest until 1699. It was not until 1699 that the newly appointed pastor of Bruchsal, Rohrmoser, reported that the Church of Our Lady was again allowed to be used by the community on Sundays and public holidays. This explains the fact that the hospital church served the parish for nine years. At that time, when the citizenship was only gradually expanding through immigration, partly through immigration from Switzerland and Northern Italy, it was easy for the noble canons to extend their claims to the Church of Our Lady. Its foundation walls were still in place despite the "great heat".
She could be covered again as soon as the fire broke out. It was not until Bishop Heinrich Hartard von Rollingen (1711 to 1719), who was also provost of the Odenheim monastery, "one of the brightest, most experienced and most learned statesmen" , came into power that the administration of the Speyr diocese got a breath of fresh air; even the simplest man had access to him. In 1716/17 he had the choir and nave vaulted again and provided with good roofs. The Odenheim knight's monastery took over the costs according to the agreements of 1507. The work in the nave was completed in 1723. What is striking about the restoration work is that it was carried out based on the Gothic architecture. The spire, which had burned away in 1676 and 1689, was, however, provided with a fluffy, strongly curved hood with a lantern and attachment, probably in 1718 , in the taste of the early 18th century .
Rollingen's successor was the even more energetic Cardinal Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim (1719 to 1743), to whom the flourishing of his diocese was a serious concern. As is well known, he moved his residence to Bruchsal and built the world-famous castle (laying of the foundation stone on May 27, 1722); pious and conscientious, a fine diplomat in the imperial service, as Commander of the Teutonic Order he had proven himself to be an excellent administrative official; so he became the second funder of the Speyr diocese , where numerous churches, town halls and castles owe the creation to him. As a thrifty father of the country, he freed the Speyer Monastery from debts and left 1,773,000 guilders behind. Looking back, he was right to say: “I found the Speyer bishopric and left it golden.” Damian Hugo also regulated the confused relationships between the city parish and the knight's monastery: in 1724 he issued a decree according to which he divided Bruchsal into three parishes :
- . the city parish, encompassing the walled city proper; 1724 to 1730 acted as the parish administrator of the rain of the episcopal seminary Dr. Kellermann, Schönborn's confidante and best helper in spiritual matters
- . St. Peter's Parish for the two rural suburbs south of the Saalbach
- . since 1730 the court parish, including today's Huttenstrasse and the residential suburb.
In the same year the two altars in the side aisles of the town church were commissioned, on the right the parish altar with two well-crafted baroque figures , the "love and steadfastness". The altarpiece depicted the coronation of Mary, but was rather spoiled by being painted over; on the left the altar of men's sodality with the statues of faith and hope. The altarpiece, also damaged, showed the holy family. Therefore, until the destruction in 1945, the men on the left side of the church had their place. Both side altars were made by the carpenter Zeller from the Electoral Palatinate. On the cafeteria of the first altar stood a Madonna by the famous sculptor Valentin Götz. In addition to these side altars, in the nave, in one of the northern niches formed by the buttresses, the so-called Cross altar, an impressive, calm depiction of the crucifixion of Christ with Mary and John at sides, with Magdalena at the feet of the cross. This group, placed in front of the Gothic window, was very haunting in the semi-darkness of the church. It was created in 1732 by the plasterers Jakob Finsterwald and Michael Zopf.
The baroque highlight of the church was the high altar, which, despite the difference in style, formed an internal unit with the baroque Gothic choir. No wonder, since Balthasar Neumann himself had an advisory role in its design. The Italian Pedetti, the two sculptors Valentin Götz and Johann Gg. Stahl carried it out from 1743–45. Eight mighty columns rose on a high marble substructure and supported a sweeping gable, interrupted in the middle. Between the central pieces, the Assumption of Mary was shown in full sculpture , outshone by the light that shone through the central window that overlooked St. Virgin floating symbols of St. Trinity lit up. The lofty group was flanked by the colossal statues of the two princes of the apostles. Finally, the choir stalls erected in 1756 for the canons completed the interior of the church; a baroque lattice closed the choir from the nave; it was sold in 1816 as "scrap iron". Around 1750, the episcopal master builder Leonhard Stahl built the sacristy on the north side of the choir.
secularization
During the reign of Prince-Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten (1743 to 1770) the old dispute between Odenheim Abbey and the parish flared up again, so that the emperor and the pope had to intervene. In 1753 a decree stipulated that the parish should own the nave. A tolerable peace was thus maintained for the next few decades, but it was not until the secularization of 1803 that final conditions were created, but mostly to the detriment of the Catholic Church. Because the entire secular property on the right bank of the Rhine of the bishopric of Speyer and the knightly monastery of Odenheim, worth 37.6 million guilders, fell to the Protestant margraves of Baden, only with the restriction that the canons should be secured by relatively low pensions.
The monastery owned 512 acres in Odenheim alone. Fields and buildings were valued at 4 million guilders, the parish's (in 1680) "80 acres of fields, 2 acres of vineyards, 2 quarters of herb gardens, including the building yard at Neibsheim and various income from mills and episcopal property". This ecclesiastical property was also annexed by the state through secularization, but the state also took over the salaries of the pastors and the maintenance of the church and parsonage. The last spiritual knight was Johann Graf von Thurn, who died as a subdeacon in 1832, the last vicar was the priest Jakob Schalk, who died here at the age of 90 in 1843. The service of the vicars was finally stopped in 1808.
On All Saints' Day in 1808, the choir of the Liebfrauenkirche was ceremonially handed over to the parish in the presence of the grand ducal bailiff and the Bruchsal city council. The takeover of the whole church by the parish was celebrated with a procession to the high altar, the following office and Te Deum . From 1803 and 1808 onwards, the Church of Our Lady belonged to the city parish, only a few grave monuments and the name collegiate church remembered the canons. The Baden state was obliged to maintain it, an obligation for which it had taken on many goods of stable value.
19th and 20th centuries
The 19th century brought some changes to the church: in 1881 it was renovated except for the baroque altars. The polychrome, gloomy painting on the walls dates from this time, and later the parish priest Dr. Wetterer with artistic feeling had it replaced with light-colored plaster. The activities of its parish priest Dr. Anton Wetterer 1907 to 1939. Two phases can be distinguished during his work in Bruchsal; the establishment of the southern sacristy under the direction of Dr. Hirsch 1911 and the decoration of the choir by the painter Kitschker date back to the time before the First World War . The two frescoes on the choir walls by Kitschker, which deal with the relocation of the knight's monastery from Odenheim to Bruchsal, have already been mentioned. The same artist depicted the Assumption of Mary in the baroque vault of the choir (Kitschker had also painted St. Peter's Church in Bruchsal).
The second phase of the renewal falls between the two world wars. In 1917 the bells were melted down because of the war, which was to be repeated in World War II. In 1926 five new bells and a tower clock with a Westminster chime were installed in the tower, and in 1927 a new organ was built. In the thirties, the church received interior and exterior plastering, which brought out the Gothic ribbed vault with the keystones from the Middle Ages. Finally, a three-dimensional representation of the Stations of the Cross by Sutor enlivened the central nave pillars - then the Second World War broke out, which was to destroy the whole church at the moment when the restoration work seemed to have completed it.
description
Choir
The choir , rebuilt in 1949, has an inner width of 10.4 by 17.5 meters and a height of 14 meters. The 5/8 end of the apse , which is surrounded by a low plinth , is supported by seven buttresses with pinnacle-like crowning, which support the late Gothic vault, which has been restored to its original beauty. A simple but strong cornice runs around the window sill .
Two inscriptions on one of the choir pillars facing the market read in German translation: "In the year of the Most Holy Incarnation of the Lord 1447, Saturday on May 27th, the choir began under the Reverend Reinhard, Bishop of Speyer, and Wiprecht of Helmstadt, his bailiff. "and" You know, the builder of this building was Master Lorenz. "
On the northeastern choir pillar, above the cornice and the two inscriptions quoted above, under a dainty canopy on a Gothic console, there is an important stone carving from the 15th century, a Madonna with the Child Jesus of the so-called Beautiful Madonna type , the only sculpture in the church that shows the attack of March 1, 1945 survived.
The half-columns with the services supporting the vault inside the choir date back to the construction of 1447 and today with the outer pillars they support the renewed Gothic vault, thus serving their original purpose again. The choir itself is covered by a steep Gothic roof, accessible through a slender stair tower and crowned with a roof turret .
Naves
After the completion of the choir, construction was suspended for a generation, probably due to a lack of money. The nave and the tower were only tackled under the government of the Bishop of Speyer Ludwig von Helmstatt (1478 to 1504). He issued the stipulation that every craftsman who settled in Bruchsal should contribute half a gold guilder to the construction. The nave with its two side aisles was built to a much smaller extent than the choir, the central nave is only 7.6 meters wide, the side aisles barely 4 meters wide, the length of the three aisles, separated by two simple rows of pillars, is around 29 meters . These pillars supported the walls of the elevated central nave; the ribs of the Gothic vault rested on consoles; these were not used in the aisles. By incorporating the buttresses into the interior of the church according to the late Gothic custom, five niches were created in the interior between the buttresses on each side, in which the two side portals and side altars were placed .
Since the central nave reached neither the width nor the height of the choir, this structural deficiency was bridged with gussets that transferred the arching of the central nave to the outer walls of the choir. The interior of the nave looked beautiful because the pillars of the ships and the niches included offered a varied picture. The outer sight was simple. Here the relatively low and smooth walls of the side aisles and the huge gable roof that covered all three aisles were striking. The tower rises on a square floor plan and merges into an octagon at roof height. In the late Middle Ages , a rich gallery in tracery ran around the crown, and a slim helmet rose above it.
sacristy
The sacristy on the north side of the choir was built around 1750 by the episcopal master builder Leonhard Stahl. A building of simple beauty; its walls are structured by pilasters, the windows are decorated with lavish rocailles, and the roof is supported by a rich, profiled cornice. This extension was spared the hail of bombs in 1945.
Furnishing
According to the records of the 16th century, the church must once have been richly furnished. The pulpit , which was preserved until 1945 , was a witness to this , a beautiful, Gothic stone carving. A tabernacle and several altars are mentioned, including the high altar in the choir, the parish altar, where the choir and nave meet, and also three side altars, including a cross altar. These altars have to be imagined as Gothic winged altars ; they perished in the fire of 1676.
A crucifixus on the outer north wall of the church and some well-crafted reliefs inside the church, epitaphs of canons, date from the Renaissance . The crucifixus shows the depiction of the death on the cross, customary in the 16th century; the Savior has slightly bowed his head to one side in passing, the features bear a melancholy resignation. Unfortunately, this cruzifixus was badly damaged by the weather before the attack in 1945.
organ
Since 2009 there has been a restored choir organ in the town church , which was built in 1855 by the organ building company Barker & Son ( Northampton , GB) for the United Reformed Church in Paulerspury (near Towcester ). The abrasive loading -instrument is in a Gothic-style organ case and has 6 registers on a Manual and one on the pedal . The actions are mechanical.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ To Auxiliary Bishop Jakob Eliner
- ^ Sophronius Clasen : Delphius, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 589 ( digitized version ).
- ^ Franz Xaver Remling: History of the Bishops of Speyer . Volume 2, p. 365 ( digitized version )
- ↑ Information on the choir organ on the organ database
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 7 '27.8 " N , 8 ° 35' 49.6" E