City parish church Freistadt
The Roman Catholic parish church Freistadt (also: Katharinenmünster ) is located in the municipality of Freistadt in the district of Freistadt in the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria . The church was built as a Romanesque church in the 13th century, Gothicized in the 14th and 15th centuries and expanded to a five-aisled basilica . In the baroque period the church was rebuilt again before the original Gothic was largely restored in 1967. Today the parish church is the only five-aisled church in Austria. The church, consecrated to St. Catherine , belongs to the Deanery of Freistadt of the Diocese of Linz . The church is a listed building .
history
Shortly after the city was founded, the citizens of Freistadt began building their own church at the highest, designated place in the city. The parish church was first mentioned in a document around 1288 on the occasion of its consecration. The church was built directly on the main square and next to the town hall (today: district court) and the Freyung , but without a cemetery .
The originally three-aisled, Romanesque basilica was built with a flat wooden ceiling, octagonal columns and the Latin cross as a floor plan. The crossing rectangle of the church was realized four times in the nave and once in the east choir ( presbytery ). The two aisles were built half as high and half as wide as the nave and just ended in the chancel. It is believed that the presbytery had a semicircular apse , construction plans from this period have not survived.
- Expansion in the Gothic
During the Gothic period, at the end of the 14th century, the church was given a ribbed vault and numerous altars and chapels in the side aisles. Due to the chapels, another, but shortened, aisle with the length of three window axes was added on each side by 1522 in order to reduce the space problems of the church. The shortened aisles resulted from the spatial situation on the main square side, which prevented aisles of equal length.
During this time, the east choir was also rebuilt. On behalf of the mayor , judge and council, the Freistadt master stonemason Mathes Klayndl took on this task in planning and execution. The choir was raised to 16 m, lengthened by 8 m and then received an admirable loop rib vault and the tracery windows. In addition, a small chapel was built on the north side of the east choir, today's baptistery. This marked the peak of the Gothic style in Freistadt around 1501. Since then, the church tower has been located next to the east choir and the sacristy opposite on the south side . The pointed arch as a symbol of Gothic was to be found everywhere, on the arcade arches, on the windows and on the doors. The parish church grew by expanding to a basilica with five naves.
Also at the end of the 14th century, the capacity was enlarged by adding a gallery on the west side and one on the south side. At that time there were 17 altars in the church, among them possibly Gothic masterpieces. The Stadtpfarrkirche - Sankt Katharina - was a magnificent church in a wealthy city around 1500, before the two city fires destroyed a lot.
- Destruction by fire and reconstruction
The two city fires on September 13, 1507 and September 1, 1516 destroyed the entire interior. The Katharinenmünster burned down completely, only the walls and the vaults withstood the fire. The precious altars, pictures, statues, bells, the church stalls and all the decorations were destroyed by the flames.
The reconstruction took place during the Reformation . The Reformation also had an impact on the expansion of the church. The church was restored, but the basic equipment was enough : an altar of the 14 helpers in need , the altar of the Corpus Christi brotherhood and the altar of St. Michael were rebuilt. An organ was only installed in 1539, the bells only in 1558, only when there was wealth again in Freistadt.
In the 16th century, the Katharinenmünster was only a dull reflection of the church before 1507. Without the precious flower paintings in the vault of the side gallery, the artful Renaissance would have passed the church without a trace. The citizens of Freistadt were pious then, perhaps even more pious than ever before. But there was the contrast between Catholics and Protestants, which was particularly noticeable during the reconstruction of the parish church. In October 1625, Emperor Ferdinand II demanded : "Become a Catholic again or emigrate!"
- Recatholization in Freistadt
Almost everyone in Freistadt became Catholic again or pretended not to have to emigrate. As a first gift, Saint Catherine received a new high altar in 1641, carved by master Hans Hens, 15 meters high and 7 meters wide, and a magnificent altarpiece by Adrian Bloemaert Martyrdom and Glory of St. Katharina , which still hangs in the east choir today, while there is no trace of the high altar, which was removed in 1875. In the course of the recatholicization in Freistadt, the baroqueization of the parish church was initiated in 1687.
- Baroque
It became a cheaply baroque church without the glamor of other churches that combined baroque and rococo. The removal of every pointed arch was the guiding thought. It was not until the 18th century that it was decorated. The four side altars, the confessionals, the magnificent organ loft, the marble communion grids, the bells, the Marienbrunnen on the main square and finally the magnificent church tower by Johann Michael Prunner were built.
Little can be felt in Freistadt of the religious disenchantment caused by the Enlightenment, rather the opposite, as the arrival of the Piarists in the city (1761) shows. The abolition of the Capuchin monastery , the secularization of the Johanneskirche in the Linz suburb and the All Saints Chapel in St. Peter happened on the orders of Emperor Joseph II and caused great resentment in Freistadt.
- Regotization
In the 19th century the city raved about the greatness of the Middle Ages, and the restoration of the Gothic style in the east choir began, which had suffered severely in the course of the Baroque era. Vinzenz Statz , the master builder at Cologne Cathedral , and his close colleague Otto Schirmer supplied the plans and managed the construction activities. Soon the money ran out, and so only the east choir was fundamentally changed. The east choir already shone in neo-Gothic style, and the baroque in the church was only tolerated and waited for the renovation until 1967.
- Renovations from 1967
1967 was the year of the large-scale renovation, and when a renovation began because of the erection of a people's altar, they dared to take the decisive step. The result at the end of the construction period was the 13th century church in its simple and unpretentious grandeur, only the valuable items from the baroque era were left. This is how the parish church shows itself to us today: Gothic and Baroque not as a contrast, but as a symbiosis of art to glorify God.
In 1988, the previous seating with armchairs was removed and replaced by benches with underfloor heating and the carpet removed. Between 2004 and 2005 the organ of the church was also completely rebuilt for around 5.5 million schillings (= 400,000 euros).
Steeple
The dilapidated Gothic tower was redesigned in Baroque style in 1736/37 by the Upper Austrian Baroque master builder Johann Michael Prunner and is 67 m high. On the curved roof over the entrance stands St. Florian with two angels. During this time, one was Türmer housed in the church tower. The watchman on the church tower, which the city of Freistadt had to provide, kept watch during the night, while the watchman on the keep, for which the rule was responsible, was on duty during the daytime. The guard room or circus room for the city guards was at the foot of the church tower, where a war memorial by Adolf Wagner von der Mühl has been located since 1925 .
The tower has a room with four balconies in each direction, which can be visited on rare occasions (usually once a year). An overview of the whole city and its hilly surroundings can be enjoyed on the balconies.
In 2009 (April – November) the church tower was renovated, which cost around 385,000 euros.
Inside the church
Inside the church you can see the Gothic pillars / columns with the Gothic pointed arch arcades from the middle of the 13th century, which were uncovered in 1967 after they were built in the Baroque period. In the crossing in front of the triumphal arch is the people's altar made of white Jura marble (1967), behind it in the east choir the Gothic Holy Helper's altar (around 1520), over which the looped rib vault spans. On the north side of the choir hangs the picture of the former baroque main altar (1640). The tracery windows are made of English cathedral glass, painted in Cologne according to designs by Vinzenz Staaz.
On the upper floor, which can be reached both from inside the church and from outside via the sacristy, you can see the baroque furnishings by Carlo Antonio Carlone (1690); four high baroque figures (Maria, Josef, Anna and Joachim) can be seen in the main nave.
The side aisles are closed to the east with an altar each. The following altars can be found:
- Last Supper Altar
- Ottilie Altar
- Rosary altar
- Cross altar
Organs
Main organ
The main organ is located at the rear end of the main nave . The instrument was built in 2005 by the organ building company Metzler (Dietikon) in an existing baroque organ case . It has 27 stops on two manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
- Tuning : modified from Werckmeister III
Choir organ
The choir organ is a historical organ positive and was built in the second half of the 18th century by Lorenz Franz Richter. It was restored in 2012/13 by the Upper Austrian Organ Builders Kögler .
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- Tuning: Kirnberger III
literature
- Benno Ulm : The baptistery of the parish church and its works of art . Freistädter Geschichtsblätter Volume 3, 1952.
- Benno Ulm: The Katharinenmünster in Freistadt . 1968.
- Ignaz Nößlböck: The origin of the parish and the building history of the Katharinenkirche in Freistadt . Innsbruck 1942.
- Othmar Rappersberger: Freistadt - jewelry box of the Mühlviertel . Kunstverlag Hofstetter, Ried iI 1992.
- Parish office Freistadt (Ed.): The parish church of Freistadt (church leader). Plöchl print.
- Stadtgemeinde Freistadt (Ed.): Freistadt history sheets - 700 years of the parish church of Freistadt . Volume 1 and 2, 1950, Plöchl-Druck.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Katharina. Patrociniums Forum OoeGeschichte.at (with an overview of the St. Catherine's Church in Freistadt).
- ^ Ferdinand Opll : The beginnings of the city of Freistadt. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Volume 134a, Linz 1989, p. 91 (entire article p. 79-94, PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- ↑ Information on the organ
Coordinates: 48 ° 30 ′ 40 " N , 14 ° 30 ′ 20" E