Bad Hersfeld abbey ruins
The monastery ruins in Bad Hersfeld are the ruins of the collegiate church of the former Hersfeld Abbey in Bad Hersfeld . It is considered one of the largest Romanesque basilicas north of the Alps and is now the largest Romanesque church ruin in the world. The collegiate church and most of the monastery buildings were destroyed in the Seven Years' War in 1761 .
Building history
Buildings in the early Middle Ages
The later collegiate church emerged from a hermitage that was founded by Sturmius in 736 . Between 769 and 775, Bishop Lullus of Mainz turned the hermitage into a Benedictine monastery . At the same time, instead of the older chapel, a larger church was built, which was consecrated to Saints Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddeus . In the year 780 the bones of the holy Wigbert von Büraburg near Fritzlar were brought to Hersfeld. The foundations of these two church buildings were found during excavations (by Joseph Vonderau in 1921 and 1922) in the south wing of the transept of today's monastery ruins.
The grave and the bones of Lullus are lost. Wigbert's bones were verifiably found again in 1252, but have also been lost since then.
Abbot Bun began building a monastery church in 831. This Carolingian basilica was finished under Abbot Brunwart in 850 and consecrated in the same year by Archbishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus . The main patron of this church was Wigbert . This is also the origin of the Lullus Festival, which is still celebrated today.
Romanesque new building
After the great fire of 1038, the new Romanesque building began, which, apart from the long choir and the west building, followed the Carolingian floor plan. The choir and crypt were consecrated in 1040 in the presence of Emperor Heinrich III. Around 1040 the main relics of the former Carolingian collegiate church, the relics of the apostles Simon the Zealot and Judas Thaddäus, were transferred from the abbot to Emperor Heinrich III. given away for the establishment of the Collegiate Foundation Goslar . The main consecration of the new church took place in the presence of King Konrad III. held in 1144.
The sandstone for all church buildings came mainly from the Cornberg quarry . It is also likely that the natural monument "Lange Steine" in the municipality of Haunetal was also an old quarry, from which sandstone was used for the monastery. The long stones could have been broken out of the rock for pillars of the collegiate church.
The Romanesque abbey and collegiate church existed without significant changes until it was destroyed. However, it was abandoned as a Catholic church house in 1525.
destruction
In 1761 the church was cremated by the French Marshal Broglie during the Seven Years' War . The interior of the collegiate church was almost completely destroyed in the fire ( see below ). During the war, the former monastery buildings and the church were used as a supply depot for the French troops.
The ruins served the Hersfelders as a quarry until the 19th century.
Conservation measures in the 19th century
Leonhard Müller (1799–1878), electoral Hessian master builder, took the first steps in 1828 to preserve the ruins of the monastery. He used funds that were actually intended for demolition to repair the masonry and uncover the crypt. The southwest corner of the Katharinenturm collapsed on March 26, 1895. Here, too, consideration was given to demolition, but the collapsed areas were then rebuilt the following year.
The buildings
Romanesque basilica
The church is 102.8 m long from the main entrance in the west to the end of the long choir in the east. The church covered an area of over 3000 m 2 ; it was one of the largest Romanesque basilicas north of the Alps and is now the largest Romanesque church ruin in the world.
Above the main entrance in the west choir (lay choir) the apse still opens in full height and width. There were two bell towers on both sides of the westwork , of which only the southern one has survived.
The nave is 46.8 m long and 29 m wide. It had aisle on both side walls. These are destroyed along with the entire roof structure. Only one row with wide than one meter cube capitals is the North series of columns separated the main of aisle.
The transept , the vestibule to the Holy of Holies (the choir and the crypt ) runs freely along its entire length of 55 m, without dividing arches and columns. On the east walls of the transept wing there are two side apses, which have also been preserved. A quatrefoil opens on each side above the side apses . In the transept, too, there is no longer the roof and the bell tower (was probably a wooden structure) that rose above the crossing . On this tower there is said to have been a gilded hand that still came from Charlemagne .
The transept east arch, 22.5 m high at its apex, opens to the 27 m long high choir and the three-aisled crypt below . This is the oldest area of the church, which can also be seen from the still preserved columns and the associated capitals . The destruction is very strong here. The roof of the high choir and the apse, the altar base and the vault of the crypt are no longer there.
View from the southwest: westwork with bell tower, behind the nave and transept
View from the southwest at night
Westwork and bell tower
View from the east: the apse
in front , the transept in the background
Bell tower and westwork seen from the inside
(Photography: Albrecht Meydenbauer , around 1900)
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Catherine Tower
The Katharinenturm is a single standing bell tower on the east side of the former monastery grounds from the 12th century . The Lullus bell , the oldest dated bell in Germany, hangs in this tower . Abbot Meginher had them poured in 1038. The inscription on the bell identifies Meginher as the incumbent abbot and a Gwenon as the caster. According to the inscription, the bell was dedicated to Mary . Today this bell only rings a few times a year:
- on October 16 , on the anniversary of Lullus ' death , at 12:00 p.m.,
- at church festivals (Christmas, Easter Sunday, Pentecost Sunday) at 12:00 p.m.,
- at the turn of the year on New Year's Eve at midnight.
The first floor of the tower was used as a prison cell for a long time. Among others, the Baden writer and freedom fighter Gottfried Kinkel was imprisoned here on the night of October 3rd to 4th, 1849 . He was taken to the prison in Spandau by Prussian troops . Until the 20th century, the cell was the detention center of the old monastery school (today the Konrad Duden School).
Monastery building
Of the monastery buildings, apart from the Katharinenturm, only the east wing of the Romanesque monastery quarter is still standing , which is an extension of the southern transept. Today the museum is housed in the building.
Here on the first floor in an altar niche (called the Abbot's Chapel) there are still paintings that date back to Abbot Godehard's time. In the vault the enthroned Christ is depicted flanked by the nine angel choirs . The saving acts of Christ adorn the sides of the niche. The wall paintings were rediscovered in 1930.
Preserved equipment
In 1623 a depot with church vestments and relics was found walled up in a vault and brought to Fulda and Munich . It is not known whether it also contained relics from the Romanesque collegiate church, Saints Wigbert and Lullus .
In the west choir stood a Gothic baptismal font, which is now kept in the Marburg University Museum.
The side wings of a high Gothic convertible altar (around 1480) with a lost main painting, presumably a carved crucifixion scene, have been preserved to this day. It probably comes from the collegiate church, is attributed to a student of the Erfurt “Reglermeister” and is in the Kassel State Museum . The two-winged altar is furnished with eight precious and detailed pictures, which depict scenes from the last days of Jesus Christ on the festival side. The four pictures on the left wing show Jesus with Pilate, his flagellation, the crowning of thorns and the crucifixion. The right wing contains the images of the lamentation, the resurrection, the ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The everyday side of the wings show clearly more simply designed male and female saints.
Festival
Every now and then, festive events and choral performances took place in the ruins . This was taken up again after the Second World War and the Bad Hersfeld Festival has been held there since 1951 .
The spectator area in the nave has been covered with a 1400 m 2 tent roof since 1968 during the festival season . For this purpose, there is a 36 m high mast on the north outside of the nave, which supports the tent roof via a rope system. The designer of the tent roof, which can be extended and retracted with the help of 22 electric motors, is the architect Frei Otto .
See also
literature
- Smit, Verena: The building history of the Salic Abbey Church in Hersfeld (Studies on Cultural Heritage in Hessen 4), Regensburg 2018 online
Web links
- History of the Abbey Ruins Society of Friends of the Abbey Ruins e. V.
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 0 ″ N , 9 ° 42 ′ 10 ″ E