Torgau Castle Chapel

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The castle chapel in Torgau

The listed Torgau Castle Chapel at Hartenfels Castle , also known as the Torgau Castle Church , is often referred to as the first new Protestant church in the world, but in the Neuburg an der Donau Castle Chapel, with its inauguration on April 25, 1543, when construction began, a Catholic church service was still available conceived forerunner. What makes it unique in terms of architecture and the history of the Reformation is the fact that it is the first time that a new type of church, the transverse church , which is unique to Protestantism , has been realized. Torgau is a large district town in the district of North Saxony ( Saxony ). The Protestant parish of Torgau uses the chapel .

History and architecture

Portal of the castle church

Torgau with the residential palace became the center of the Reformation in the first half of the 16th century . Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous had a new room for church services built in 1544, which was included in the facade design of the palace wing. Only the portal by the Torgau sculptor Simon Schröter reveals the room as a sacred building. The chapel is inserted between the Hofstubenbau and the medieval keep, it shouldn't be a special house. Luther said in his sermon about the initiation: as if it were better than other houses where the word of God is preached . In this Protestant church building, Martin Luther vividly implemented his spiritual program of the Reformation in art and architecture. The builder Nickel Grohmann implemented the ideas with emphasized simplicity. Luther consecrated the church on October 5, 1544. The "consecration" took place - following Luther's liturgical ideas - expressly not through the conventional ceremony of consecration ( church consecration , altar consecration ), which in the Catholic Church was and is only carried out by the responsible bishop or his representative, but solely through the evangelical focus of the sermon, Hymn of praise from the community and prayer - as Luther emphasized in the Torgau inauguration sermon: “This house should be directed so that nothing else happens in it, for our dear Lord himself to speak to us through his holy word, and we in turn speak to him through it Prayer and Hymn ” . This later so-called Torgau formula shows that for Luther, worship consists of word and answer, i.e. communication, and is a relationship between God and man.

The cantor of the Reformation Johann Walter composed the music for the inauguration with the setting of Psalm 119.

To the present day, the room has been preserved almost unchanged as a transverse hall church with the pulpit on one long side and the altar table on one narrow side - however, the loose individual seating is mostly arranged in an altar orientation - it served as a model for many other Protestant buildings. Lucas Cranach the Elder , who also made the sketches for the motifs for the pulpit, planned the entire color scheme with his workshop. The structure of the chapel stands out from the palace complex only through the portal, the impression of the room is shaped by the liturgical requirements with sermons, community prayer and sacramental liturgy.

In the three-story hall there are two surrounding stone galleries. The vaults are star and net vaults. The hall is 23 meters long, 11 meters wide and around 14 meters high. Before the church was dedicated to the Luther Memorial Church on October 31, 1930, an extensive renovation took place.

Furnishing

the pulpit
  • The sculptors Simon Schröter and Stefan Hermsdorf created the original altar in 1544, four free-standing putti carry the cafeteria. In the 16th century the altar still had a reredos depicting the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane , the washing of the feet and the Last Supper by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. In the 17th century the reredos were exchanged for a carved alabaster top. This essay was placed in the palace chapel again in 2017.
  • The pulpit hangs across from the portal, the 16th century basket is a work by the sculptor Simon Schröter. The relief depictions show scenes from the life of Jesus: the expulsion of the money changers from the temple , Jesus and the adulteress and the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple .
  • The dedication plaque from 1545 was cast by the Hillger brothers in Freiberg and is considered an early monument to the Reformation. The portrait of Luther on it with a relief effect is one of the most expressive depictions of the reformer. The verses of the Latin text come from Johann Stigel from Wittenberg. They were paraphrased in a no longer preserved but well attested inscription in a simple German rhyming version: This house auffs new gebawet is / zu praise the gentlemen Jhesu Christ. [...] God give it away, bleyb in / Nothing just hear God's word. […] Doctor Martin of God's man | The first preaches that / Darmit consecrated the house. / No Chrisssem / he needs white water / No Kertz / No fáan / nor weirauch. / The divine word / and his prayer / Sambt of the believers prays to it. The town church of Göppingen received this text in an adapted version as an inauguration inscription in November 1619, which was obviously consciously linked to the 75th anniversary of the Torgau Castle Church. Earlier sermons for the inauguration of a Protestant church also quote this text. It was attached to the Torgau inauguration sermon, first printed by Caspar Cruciger the Elder in 1546.

organ

The organ by Martin Vier

The organ builder Fritzsche completed an organ for the castle chapel in 1631 following an indirect instruction from Heinrich Schütz . The current organ was built in 1994 by the organ builder Martin Vier from Friesenheim. The slider chests instrument is in the Renaissance style scheduled and voted meantone. It has 25 registers , including 4 registers on alternate loops (WS) and two prints on three manuals and pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical. The case is made of solid spruce, the design comes from the cantor Ekkehard Saretz in collaboration with the monument office in Dresden. The white frame with green and blue tones made of malachite and azurite is a work by Mechthild Noll-Minor.

The organist Christine Gevert recorded the CD “Dulcis Memoria from Schütz to Rosenmüller” (label: Carpe Diem, CD 16251) on the organ.

II major CDE – e 3
1. Coarse-dense (WS No. 20) 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Onda maris 8th'
4th Quintadeena 8th'
5. Octava 4 ′
6th Night horn 4 ′
Octave (in advance No. 7) 2 ′
7th Mixture IV 2 ′
8th. Bassoon (WS No. 22) 16 ′
9. Drummed 8th'
I Rückpositiv CDE – e 3
10. Stuck 8th'
11. Principal 4 ′
12. Rohrflöit 4 ′
13. Nassat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
14th Sedecima 2 ′
15th third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Octave (previously No. 16) 1'
16. Cymbals III 1'
17th Krumbhörner 8th'
III breastwork CDE – e 3
18th Singing shelf 8th'
19th Hohlflöiten 4 ′
Channel tremulant
CDE – d pedal 1
20th Pounded underbass 16 ′
21st Octave bass 8th'
22nd bassoon 16 ′
23. Drumming (WS No. 9) 8th'
24. Night horn (WS No. 6) 4 ′
25th Singing Cornett 2 ′
  • Coupling : manual slide coupler II / I, pedal coupler I / P, II / P

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c in the prospectus.

literature

Hartenfels Castle
  • Georg Piltz: Art guide through the GDR. 7th edition, 1976, Urania Verlag , VLN 212-475 / 56/76, DNB 200721887
  • Hans-Joachim Krause: The gallery of the Torgau Castle Chapel in its original shape and function ; in: Architecture and visual arts as reflected in international research ; Edited by the Institute for the Preservation of Monuments of the German Democratic Republic, Central Documentation and Publication; Berlin 1989, pp. 233-245
  • Hans-Joachim Krause: The castle chapel ; in: Torgau - City of the Renaissance , published on the occasion of the 2nd Saxon State Exhibition in Torgau; Dresden 2004, pages 39–47
  • Hans-Joachim Krause: The castle chapel in Torgau ; in: Faith & Power - Saxony in Europe during the Reformation - 2nd Saxon State Exhibition Torgau, Hartenfels Castle 2004 ; ed. Harald Marx and Cecilie Hollberg for the Dresden State Art Collections; Dresden 2004, pages 175–188
  • Hans-Christoph Sens: Evangelical Castle Church Torgau. Publisher: Schnell and Steiner, August 31, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7954-6694-7
  • Clemens Jöckle: Thoughts on a typology of Protestant castle chapels of the 16th century ; in: Jan Harasimowicz (Hrsg.): Protestant church building of the early modern times in Europe. Basics and new research concepts ; Regensburg 2015, pp. 36–43
  • Katharina Rotté: The Torgau Palace Chapel - the ideal type of a Lutheran church building? ; in: Pro facultate - messages from the “Friends of the Evangelical Theological Faculty Bonn eV”; No. 16, WS 2018/19; Bonn 2018, pp. 12-20 - available as PDF on [7]

Web links

Commons : Torgauer Schlosskapelle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ handwritten Martin Luther see [1]
  2. ^ D. Martin Luther's works, Weimar edition; Critical Complete Edition Volume 49, Weimar 1913, pages 588–615 - available at [2]
  3. ^ Doct. Martinus Luther: Inauguration of a Newen house for the preaching room of Divine Words erbawet / In the Electoral Palace at Torgaw . Wittenberg 1546 - Reprint for the 450th anniversary of the Schloßkirche in October 1994; ed. Ev. Torgau parish, 1994
  4. ↑ Martin Luther: Inauguration of a new house for the preaching office of the divine word, built in the electoral palace in Torgau (1546) , Notger Slenczka, transmission: Jan Lohrengel; in: Martin Luther: German-German Study Edition (DDStA), Volume 2, edited by Dietrich Korsch and Johannes Schilling; Leipzig 2015, pp. 851–891
  5. ↑ Appearance ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.evkirchetorgau.de
  6. ↑ Torgauer Geschichtsverein e. V. and Evangelical Church Community Torgau (ed.): The Castle Church of Torgau. Contributions to the 450th anniversary of the inauguration by Martin Luther on October 5, 1544 ; Torgau 1994
  7. ↑ a b c Georg Piltz: Art Guide through the GDR , 7th edition, 1976, Urania Verlag, VLN 212-475 / 56/76, p. 437.
  8. ↑ Setting of Psalm 119 ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Walter is considered to be one of the founders of Protestant vocal music, and even today there is an annual church music festival in Torgau @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.evkirchetorgau.de
  9. ↑ Illustration from 1675 in: Torgauischer Catechismus / or Princely and other God-fearing children hand book /: In it to find questions and answers about D. Luth. Catechism / item festival questions / Biblical beliefs and Christian rhymes and prayer / [et] c. Initially AC 1594 ... printed in Torgau, but now onf des ... Elector of Saxony / Hertzog Johan [n] Georgen des II. ... Order / ... Auffs overlooked and increased / adorned with beautiful coppers / and published for the sixth time: Torgau 1675, p. 234 (Fig. XVI) - visible in [3]
  10. ^ Work by Lucas Cranach
  11. ↑ Structure
  12. ↑ Luther Memorial Church ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.evkirchetorgau.de
  13. ↑ Altar
  14. ^ History of the Dresden Altar
  15. ↑ The pulpit
  16. ↑ Dedication board ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.evkirchetorgau.de
  17. ^ Text reproduction based on the recording by Tilemann Stella, travel diary, 1560 (Mecklenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv Schwerin, Altes Archiv, Fürstliche Reisen No. 57) and in the inventory from 1610 (Saxon Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, Finanzarchiv, former Magdeburg Rep. A 25a I, I No. 2343) - quoted from: Hans-Joachim Krause: Die Schlosskapelle ; in: Torgau - City of the Renaissance, published on the occasion of the 2nd Saxon State Exhibition in Torgau; Dresden 2004, pages 39-47; and another: The castle chapel in Torgau ; in: Faith & Power - Saxony in Europe during the Reformation - 2nd Saxon State Exhibition Torgau, Hartenfels Castle 2004; ed. Harald Marx and Cecilie Hollberg for the Dresden State Art Collections; Dresden 2004, pages 175–188
  18. ↑ Katharina Frank: The biblical history paintings of the Cranach workshop: Christ and the adulteress as instructive ›history‹ in the age of the Reformation ; Dissertation at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart 2016, published as Volume 2 of the Stuttgarter Akademieschriften at arthistoricum.net, Heidelberg University Library 2018, p. 192 Note 324 - available as PDF at [4]
  19. ↑ For example in 1554 in the Marktkirche Halle , 1582 in the village church Schmolsin near Stolp (Western Pomerania, today Poland) and 1585 in the St. Nicolai Church in Magdeburg
  20. ↑ see introduction to WA 49, available on p. XLI in [5]
  21. ^ Festschrift Arnold Schering on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Editors: Helmuth Osthoff, Walter Serauky and Adam Adrio; Georg Olms Verlag, 1973, p. 117, found on Google Books: [6]
  22. ↑ Information about the organ on the website of the organ builder
  23. ↑ Organlive.com. Retrieved May 12, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 32.1 ″  N , 13 ° 0 ′ 31.9 ″  E