Schildthurn pilgrimage church
The pilgrimage church of St. Agidius is a Roman Catholic branch church in the Schildthurn district of the municipality of Zeilarn in Lower Bavaria .
history
The church was perhaps built around 1237 on the site of a previous building. A new Gothic building took place in the 15th century. After 1730 the church was rebuilt in baroque style. The church was a real pilgrimage center to several saints, all of whom were supposed to help with sterility and the desire to have children. So the original church patron St. Aegidius , the Mother of God and the three holy virgins Einsteth, Wilbeth and Warbeth (companions of St. Ursula) were called upon to bless children. Saint Aegidius was a hermit and abbot in southern France around 700. He is depicted in art with a doe and is among other things the patron saint of breastfeeding mothers because he is said to have fed on the milk of the doe. The legendary virgins Einsteth, Wilbeth and Warbeth are secondary patrons. The veneration of these three virgins is still known in Schlehdorf am Kochelsee and in Worms , among others . Max Heuwieser wants to see in them a Christian substitute for the pagan Norns who, like the three virgins, protect the birth of man.
architecture
Schildthurn's landmark is the 78-meter-high tower, which was completed in late Gothic style in 1531 at the latest and is considered the highest village church tower in Germany. That year the big bell was cast in Burghausen . The brick tower, completely faced with tufa blocks, has five square and four octagonal storeys, the fourth and fifth storey have round-arched blind arcades , the upper storeys have pointed arches with tracery that ends in hanging lilies. The huge spire is 30 meters high and the top is turned. On the south side of the second floor are the coats of arms of the Duke of Bavaria and the Archbishop of Salzburg, Cardinal Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg. (Up until the 19th century, Schildthurn belonged to the archdeaconate of Gars am Inn, the northernmost part of the Archdiocese of Salzburg.)
The interior of the pilgrimage church has preserved extensive fragments of what was once complete painting of the chancel. Behind the high altar, integrated into a fictitious architecture, there are two large-format scenes of a passion cycle, busts of the prophets, two Credo apostles and two further busts of saints with banners. The very high quality murals were created around the middle of the 15th century by a Salzburg artist from Conrad Laib's environment . The high altar from 1660 contains a group of figures in the middle: Mary gives the rosary to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. The assistant figures are St. Joseph on the left, and John the Baptist, on the right. Above in the middle the church patron Aegidius can be seen with a doe. The left side altar in the choir shows a picture of the three holy virgins with St. Ursula (with cross flag) from the 19th century. Under the gallery there is a whole cycle of miracle pictures from the 17th century. The miracles shown relate predominantly to the Mother of God.
Votive cradle
In Schildthurn, cradle protection was customary as a pilgrimage custom, moving a large wooden cradle when the child wanted to have children and was infertile. Instead, there was a cradle under the gallery, which had to be removed around 1870 on the instructions of Passau's Bishop Heinrich von Hofstätter (1839–1875). The pilgrims also offered small votive cradles, some of which were made from precious materials. In 1796 several gilded and silver-plated cradles, all votive offerings, were requested. Only a votive cradle from 1868 is still preserved in Schildthurn. On the left wall of the nave, some votive offerings (including silver babies) and votive pictures are kept in a showcase.
Leonhardi Chapel
The chapel next to the church within the churchyard wall was built around 1490 and redesigned in Baroque style in the 18th century. The altar dates from 1670 and shows St. Leonhard against the background of the landscape between Zeilarn and Schildthurn. The assistant figures are Rupert (diocese patron of Salzburg), left and Wolfgang, right. Pilgrims also came to the chapel dedicated to the cattle patron Leonhard, as shown by some votive pictures with depictions of horses.
literature
- Markus T. Huber, Matthias Less: Gothic murals in Schildthurn, Neumarkt and Burgkirchen am Wald and the Salzburg painting by Conrad Laib . In: Austrian Journal for Art and Monument Preservation LXIII, 2009, Issue 3/4, pp. 183–195.
- Josef Haushofer: Churches of the parish Zeilarn (church guide), Passau 2000.
- Impressions from the highest village church tower in Germany , Süddeutsche Zeitung, online version from October 13, 2017.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 18 ′ 6.5 ″ N , 12 ° 51 ′ 37.4 ″ E