City Church St. Johannis (Neustadt an der Orla)
The Johanneskirche in Neustadt an der Orla in Thuringia was built between 1470 and 1538 through the expansion of a chapel that already existed in the 13th century.
history
The oldest document that mentions Neustadt an der Orla dates from 1287. A chapel donated around 1294 was elevated to a parish church around 1400 . In the second half of the 15th century the place experienced an economic boom due to trade, weaving and tanneries , combined with an increase in the population. The old chapel was no longer sufficient.
Construction work on the choir and tower began in 1470 . The choir, consecrated in 1476, was only completed with the vaulting in 1503 . A new building made of plastered quarry stone masonry replaced the old nave from 1517 . The church was completed in 1538 with the tower tower and the southern portal roofed over with a canopy .
Extensive redesigns were carried out in 1686 and 1769, which were followed by restorations in the neo-Gothic style in 1893/1894 . Single-storey galleries were planned when the ship was built, but were only implemented during the regotisation. A second mezzanine floor with a baroque baluster parapet now accommodated the organ. The entrance on the west facade has been expanded, and separating arches have been added between the pillars inside .
During the restoration in 1981–1983, remains of late Gothic wall paintings were uncovered in the choir vault and restored in accordance with the requirements of listed buildings. The choir received stained glass windows depicting the birth of Jesus Christ and the Ascension of Christ . The historic organ from the 18th century was reconstructed in 1993 by the Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau company .
architecture
The three-aisled hall church with choir and north tower dominates the cityscape through its high roof. The nave consists of five bays . The polygonal pillars in the nave go under the flat wooden ceiling. The choir is only as wide as the central nave, it has two bays, a polygonal end and a net vault with figured keystones . In the northern gusset between the nave and the choir, the tower stands on a square floor plan, on the ground floor of which there is the sacristy with a groin vault . The formerly open passage under the end of the choir is walled up. The outer facades with surrounding, partially cranked cornice are supported with simple buttresses . There are tracery windows above low lancet windows . The south portal has a profiled wall and a looped rib vault resting on top consoles . The northern pointed arch portal is covered with bars.
Furnishing
Choir room
Here three high, three-lane windows with colored depictions of the Bible let daylight into the trapezoidal room. The Cranach winged altar is located in front of the middle window . During the reconstruction work, frescoes of the four evangelists in their symbolic figures were rediscovered in the eastern fields of the ribbed vault of the apse . The keystones of the vault represent the handkerchief of Veronica, Mary with the baby Jesus, John the Baptist and Saint Anne.
Cranach altar
The most important piece of equipment in the church is the so-called Neustädter Altar by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. in the choir of the church. The artist had received the commission in 1511 at the Leipzig fair ; the consecration took place on June 24, 1513. Julia Greipl from the German Foundation for Monument Protection reports that he survived the Reformation because Martin Luther traveled to Neustadt in 1524. The reformer was able to convince Andreas Bodenstein that images of saints are permitted “as jewelry”, but are to be despised as “miraculous idols”.
The panels tell events from the life of John the Baptist . When the shrine is open , John the Baptist and the patron saints of the Orlasenke , the brothers Simon and Jude , are depicted as three-dimensional figures in front of a painted, golden cloth. The insides of the wings contain panels depicting the baptism of Jesus and the beheading of John the Baptist .
The farewell of Christ from Mary is painted on the outside of the two wings of the altarpiece , and the apostles of the figurine are painted on the inactive wings. St. George on the left and St. Florian on the right are fully sculpted as the shrine guardians . In the top of the altar you can see a filigree burst with St. Martin on horseback, flanked by St. Catherine and Magdalena , and in the coronation Anna herself the third . The predella shows the last judgment . The painted back of the shrine depicts Veronica's handkerchief . The predella shows the Lord's Supper .
The altarpiece was probably partially looted during the Thirty Years War and renovated in the Baroque period. In the centuries that followed, at least two other restorations took place. During the renovation of the choir in 2016, the reredos were fumigated to combat pests and the blast was restored. In 2017 the predella, the shrine sculptures and the inactive wing were repaired. Experts removed both the top layer of varnish and a brownish glaze from the 19th century. The restored retable was returned to the public on July 23, 2019.
Catherine Altar
From the previous building of the church, the center shrine of the carved Katharinen altar is preserved, on which Anna herself, St. Catherine and St. Dorothea can be seen. This altar stands on the south side next to the chalice-shaped, colored baptismal font from 1494.
baptism
The baptism in a hexagonal shape is a work from 1494, which was donated by the bakers' guild . It was made of limestone and sandstone, in its shape surrounding the basin, figurative representations of the four evangelists are repeated. A boy with a pretzel refers to the donors.
organ
The organ was built in 1726–1728 in the workshop of Johann Georg Fincke the Elder . Older and was restored (after reconstruction in 1936 by Jehmlich ) in 1993 by the organ building company Schuke (Potsdam). The instrument has 24 stops on two manuals (C, Dc 3 ) and a pedal (Cc 1 ). The playing and stop actions are mechanical.
Bells
On the tower hang three bells from the Erfurt bell foundry of Hans Sinderam, known as the "Erfurt Unknown".
- The largest from 1479 is named after Susanna - it was poured in the market square. It has a diameter of 1742 mm and a weight of 3,300 kilograms. Because of its impressive sound, it is known and loved nationwide. It was consecrated in 1480 by the Abbot of Saalfeld. Both their artistic lilies and cones on the bell neck and the line reliefs are special . They show John the Baptist with the Lamb and Mary with the Child.
- The second bell was cast in 1493, has a diameter of 1193 mm and a weight of 1150 kg.
- The third bell was cast in 1494, has a diameter of 1079 mm and a weight of 850 kg.
These two bells are also historically significant.
literature
- Kati Reinhardt, Martin Gröger: Churches in East Thuringia. Altenburg 2001.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Band Thuringia. Munich 2003.
- Karl Hoffmann (Ed.): The Neustädter Altar by Lucas Cranach and his workshop , Berlin 1954.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Julia Greipl: Never really gone - Looked up: The Cranach Altar in Neustadt an der Orla , In: Monuments , edition 6/2019, pp. 28/29.
- ↑ Information about the organ on orgbase.nl. Retrieved June 18, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.meinanzeiger.de/arnstadt/haben/1479-wurde-susanna-als-grosse-glocke-der-stadtkirche-in-neustadt-orla-auf-dem-marktplatz-gegossen-wegen-ihres-klanges -was-they-preferred-all-other-thuringian-bells-diameter-175-meters-66-centner-weight-they-was-consecrated-in-1480-by-the-Abbot-von-Saalfeld-special-are-not-only -artful-lilies-and-cones-on-the-bell-neck-but-the-line-reliefs-they-show-hannes-den-taeufer-with-the-lamb-and-maria-with-the-child-m413687,68843.html
Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 10.5 ″ N , 11 ° 44 ′ 39.6 ″ E