Collegiate Church of St. Peter (Bad Wimpfen)
The Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Bad Wimpfen in the district of Heilbronn in northern Baden-Württemberg was built as the church of the medieval Wimpfen Monastery and is considered one of the most important early Gothic buildings in Germany.
history
The church is located in the middle of the former Roman fort Wimpfen in the valley and was probably built on the site of its temple or administrative seat. The construction of the church is largely in the dark, but a church building at this point probably existed as part of a monastery since the 7th century and is mentioned for the first time in a document from 965 as the property of the diocese of Worms . The change into a secular choir monastery probably also dates to the time of Bishop Hanno von Worms (950–978). Like most of the knight's monasteries, the Wimpfen monastery served to care for the sons of noblemen who were born afterwards, who did not acquire territorial rule due to the succession and who therefore sought spiritual careers. The noble canons usually did not take any vows, did not lead a strict way of life and often gave up their monastery life again if they had otherwise gained wealth or goods. A provost is first documented in 1068 and was archdeacon of the diocese of Worms in the high Middle Ages , later the convent was headed by a dean.
In the 10th or 11th century, the church was expanded in the early Romanesque style based on the model of the palatine chapel of the Aachen royal palace , albeit around a third smaller than the Aachen model. The west towers with the west portal in between date from this construction phase. The Romanesque central building , which can only be determined on the basis of foundations today, was divided into six sides on the inside and twelve on the outside, and was adjoined by three small choirs with apses .
In the 13th century - in the meantime the Stauferpfalz had emerged to the west above the church and the old settlement in the valley - the church had fallen into serious disrepair and was renovated from 1269 under Dean Richard von Deidesheim . As a master builder, he appointed a stonemason from Paris who "hewn the stones in the French style" and thus created a church building in the then new Gothic style , which, due to its structural features, is compared with Notre Dame in Paris and the Strasbourg Cathedral . The builder who was not named was identified repeatedly with the Strasbourg cathedral builder Erwin von Steinbach .
The collegiate church was not renewed in one go, but in several sections. First the choir and transept to the east were renewed. In 1278 Dean Richard was buried in front of the new high altar. Before 1300, side chapels were added and the nave renewed, and from the 14th century the church was extended to the north by the monastery building, which forms a cloister with the church . The expansion changed and was delayed due to a lack of money. The west facade of the church was therefore retained in its Romanesque form of the previous building, the east towers remained unfinished and the roof of the nave was initially flat. It was not until 1480 that the vaulted ceiling over the nave was completed, with which the church had essentially achieved its present form. The northern extension of the church was inhabited by the canons from 1488.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the old and new dean's were built around the church , which round off the ensemble today. After the first schedule of the Imperial Diet where the pin in August 1802 Prince of Leiningen envisaged allot Hessian troops seized in November 1802 held by the pin. Only afterwards did Hessen acquire the rest of the former imperial city of Wimpfen, which had fallen to Baden as a result of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss . The monastery buildings were gradually sold. From 1898 to 1902 the church was extensively renovated by Friedrich Adler , among other things one of the unfinished east towers was raised. In 1947, some of the earlier monastery buildings were re-occupied by the displaced Benedictine monks from the Lower Silesian monastery of Grüssau . The Wimpfen branch in St. Peter became known as the Grüssau Abbey under Abbot Albert Schmitt . The monastery life died out in 2006 due to aging and membership decline.
The church was extensively renovated between 2000 and 2006. In 2008 the church and monastery were taken over by the Order of Malta , and since then St. Peter has again been called the Knight's Church .
The Knights' Monastery of St. Peter was named Monument of the Month for January 2009 by the Monument Foundation Baden-Württemberg .
description
architecture
The collegiate church is a three-aisled basilica with four bays . Most of the walls are made of unplastered sandstone . In the west is the Romanesque west facade with two towers standing on a square floor plan and octagonal shaped on the second floor on the sides of a high round arched portal, in front of which fragments of a Romanesque vestibule are still preserved. The slightly trapezoidal nave with different vaulted ceilings is followed by a slightly sloping transept in the east , the wings of which are each spanned by two rectangular vaults. In the middle of the transept, to the east, is the slender choir, designed as an apse , with a 5/8 end . The choir has elaborate wall arcades and capitals with foliage and tracery windows . On both sides of the choir are the small east towers standing on a square floor plan. The east towers were probably planned much higher, but then remained unfinished for lack of money. The south east tower was not increased until 1902. At the corners of the transept, the east towers are joined by side apses .
The trapezoidal shape of the nave or the bend in the axis between the west facade and transept / choir is probably due to the building history. Originally, an entire new building seems to have been planned around 1300, whereas after the construction of the newly aligned choir, the old west facade, which did not run parallel to it, was retained, which marked the corners of the trapezoidal shape. However, the trapezoidal shape is noticeably concealed through a skilful choice of the structural shapes and axes. The north and south walls have strong buttresses on the outside.
The main viewing side is the south transept gable along the main street (Cornelienstrasse) with the richly decorated south portal, which forms a contrast to the simple Romanesque structural forms of the west facade.
Romanesque west facade
Door knob on the west portal
Gothic south facade
South gable
The south gable of the transept is defined by a large, six-part tracery window , which is dated around 1280. The gable side is bordered by buttresses, is provided with blind tracery (decorative windows), crowned by turrets and pointed arches resting on columns and richly decorated with figures. The portal walls and the central pillar separating the narrow door wings carry seven large stone figures. The tympanum shows a crucifixion scene with Ecclesia and synagogue as a half-relief , in the door vault there are twelve smaller apostles .
The composition of the south gable shows some peculiarities. The tympanum is made for a different door width and does not sit on the console originally intended for it. The figures, not all of which can be clearly identified, appear to be set up arbitrarily and without reference. Since the construction of the Gothic church stalled due to lack of money, it is assumed that the south portal was partly composed of various parts that had already been completed from additions that were not implemented (such as the new west portal, which is beginning to be recognized).
South gable, illustration from 1901
South gable, photo from 2008
Tympanum
The south portal clearly shows Mary on the central pillar and the apostles Peter and Paul , which was probably created especially for this purpose , but the female figure with the book in hand and the young martyr can no longer be identified. Some of the figures on the south gable may once have been in the choir and are stylistically or mythologically related to the figures there. The royal figure on the south gable, long interpreted as the Queen of Sheba , could also be the third of the otherwise identifiable Three Wise Men . The figure with a tree on one of the choir buttresses is interpreted as St. Bibiana , St. Afra or St. Sebastian . St. Martin , placed on the side of the south wing, is designed as a standing figure without the usual horse and could therefore also have been created for the garments of another portal.
In addition to the figures of saints, various mythical creatures are attached to the south gable and the outer facade of the choir and side apses. These mainly serve as gargoyles . One of these figures is designed as a Jewish sow . The anti-Semitic sculpture was created around 1270 and is now in the Imperial City Museum Bad Wimpfen , a copy has been on the church since 1995. In 2013 an explanatory board was attached below the illustration.
Figures to the left of the portal
Mary on the central pillar
Figures to the right of the portal
Furnishing
In the choir there is an impressive high altar , the altar plate of which measures 3.35 × 1.58 meters and the front of which is decorated by seven tracery windows, of which the tracery of the middle corresponds to the middle window of the south gable. At the rear a door leads into a chamber five steps below the altar, in which relics were presumably once kept. Next to the high altar is a late Gothic tabernacle with foliage and tracery decorations. The wooden cross above the altar dates from the 15th century.
The massive choir stalls and the three-seat with carved tracery roses, like the altar, date from the 13th century and have only been partially renewed since then. A rood screen in front of the choir donated in 1299 can only be seen in fragments today; on its southern side wall there is an organ installed in 1902. The rood screen with the Holy Cross altar underneath, donated at the same time in 1299, once determined the spatial effect of the church.
The glass windows in the choir are partly replicas of preserved originals, partly new creations in the style of the old panes. The other stained glass windows in the church were made by the Freiburg artist Fritz Geiges around 1900.
The church also features brass candlesticks from the 15th century, a vespers picture made of fired clay around 1420–30 in the south transept, the pulpit from the 17th century and the gilded St. Nepomuk from 1753 in the nave, as well as various stone and wooden figures different eras. The figures of St. Francis and St. Dominic were probably made three or four decades after the saint's death and are among the oldest surviving representations in Germany.
pulpit
Side altar in the southern side apse
Painting in the south transept
Crescent Madonna
organ
The first organ in the collegiate church was built in 1903 by the organ builder Carl Schäfer (Heilbronn). The instrument initially had 15 stops on two manuals and a pedal (pneumatic cone chests ) and had to be inserted into a “shrine” that was newly built as an equipment element at the beginning of the 20th century. This solution soon proved impractical, the instrument was more or less unplayable. In the course of a renovation of the church, the instrument was then completely outsourced. After long planning of a new instrument including the “shrine”, today's organ was built in 1997 by the organ builder Vleugels (Hardheim), using the existing pipe material. Today the instrument has 47 registers on three manuals and a pedal.
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-
Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Special coupling : labial coupling I / II, tongue coupling III / I, super octave coupling I / I, super octave coupling I / P
- Effect register: Ira Dei (Thunder Rolls)
- Playing aids : typesetting system , midi recording system, key heating, crescendo roller , storage, tutti
Cloister
To the north of the church is a three-winged Gothic cloister with tracery windows . Instead of a fourth wing, the church wall thus represents the southern boundary of the cloister. The east wing is probably the oldest of the wings and dates from the late 13th century. It is exceptionally wide and was probably planned as a burial hall for the canons. The tracery made of sandstone is relatively massive and has fine foliage decorations. The north wing was probably built next to the east wing at the beginning of the 14th century. It's not quite as wide, the tracery is slimmer and the foliage is simpler. Finally, the west wing is formally the simplest of the three wings and was built around 1400 on the foundations of an older predecessor structure. Numerous historical grave slabs of canons have been set into the walls of the cloister, and fragments of Gothic wall paintings have been preserved. There is a historic fountain in the inner courtyard.
Inner courtyard with a historical fountain
Historic door in the cloister
Gothic mural in the cloister
literature
- Fritz Arens and Reinhold Bührlen: Wimpfen - history and art monuments . Association Alt-Wimpfen, Bad Wimpfen 1991.
- Friedrich Schneider : The collegiate church to Wimpfen i. Th. And their history . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung . Vol. 17 (1897), No. 39 (September 25, 1897), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-30654 , pp. 433–435 (Part 1) and No. 44 (October 30, 1897) , urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-30753 , pp. 496–497 (part 2).
- Heinrich Klotz : The east building of the collegiate church in Wimpfen in the valley. On the early work of Erwin von Steinbach (Art Studies, Volume 39). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1967.
- Martina Fischer, Otto Wölbert: For the conservation and restoration of the south portal of the former collegiate church in Wimpfen im Tal . In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , 24th year 1995, issue 2, pp. 59–63. ( PDF )
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich Klotz: The east building of the collegiate church in Wimpfen in the valley. On the early work of Erwin von Steinbach . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1967.
- ↑ Ritterstiftskirche of the Benedictine Abbey - anti-Jewish representations: "Ecclesia and Synagoga" and the "Judensau"
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung about dealing with "Judensau" representations in the present
- ↑ More information about the organ of the collegiate church on Organ Databank
Web links
- Website of the Bad Wimpfen monastery
- Description at the State Office for Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg
Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '54 " N , 9 ° 10' 42.5" E