Pilgrimage Church of St. Leonhard (Inchenhofen)
The Catholic parish and pilgrimage church of St. Leonhard is located in the center of the Inchenhofen market in the Aichach-Friedberg district in Swabia . The Gothic hall church was redesigned in the 17th and 18th centuries and used to be the center of one of the most important pilgrimages in Europe.
history
The pilgrimage to St. Leonhard zu Inchenhofen can be traced back to the 13th century. It is considered the oldest and most important Leonhard pilgrimage in Germany. Originally there was only a small chapel here, which served as a place of worship for the five surrounding farms. The upswing began in 1266 when Duke Ludwig the Strict transferred the parish of Hollenbach to the Cistercian monastery of Fürstenfeld . Fürstenfeld looked after the pilgrimage from 1283 until secularization , when this convent was also abolished in 1803. In 1289 this chapel was given 13 indulgences , which is why it soon became necessary to build a more spacious church. The consecration of this Gothic pilgrimage church was carried out by the Augsburg auxiliary bishop Heinrich von Kiev on May 17, 1332. Because of its importance as a place of pilgrimage, Inchenhofen was made a market in 1400. Even today there is a road leading to the church from every direction.
In 1427 Pope Martin V was raised to the status of an independent parish, but his decree could not be implemented. The church has therefore only been a parish church since 1806 .
Under Abbot Paul Herzmann (1451–1454) construction of the Gothic hall began, which forms the core of today's pilgrimage church. The tower was added in 1486.
Abbot Sebastian Thoma (1610–1623) finally initiated the reconstruction in late Renaissance forms , which is said to have cost over 30,000 florins . The two altars in the aisles and the miraculous image have survived from this time.
During the War of the Spanish Succession , English and Dutch troops devastated the market and church after the battle of Höchstädt . In 1705/06 the damage was repaired and the tower was raised on this occasion. The galleries in the side chapels were removed under Abbot Alexander Pellhammer (1745–1761), while the chapels received new altars. In 1776 Ignaz Baldauf painted the vaults with the preserved pictorial program.
The secularization of the Fürstenfeld monastery (1803) led to a decline in pilgrimages in Inchenhofen, but around 60 pilgrimages still have the church as their destination to this day. For 600 years, the small old Bavarian market was one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Europe, surpassed only by Jerusalem, Rome and Compostella. The pilgrims even came from Poland, Austria, Hungary and Northern Italy.
Today only a few individual believers make pilgrimages to St. Leonhard von Inchenhofen, around the church there is no souvenir and devotional goods trade that you can find anywhere else. The pilgrimage comes to life mainly at Pentecost, when hundreds of pilgrims enter the church. The pilgrimage trains are sometimes 10 to 15 hours en route. The highlight of the pilgrimage year is the oldest old Bavarian Leonhardiritt on November 6th, which is observed by numerous onlookers. Otherwise St. Leonhard is only visited by a few local prayers, and a cultural tourist only occasionally enters the church of the pilgrimage church, which is located off the main tourist routes.
description
Church tower from the southeast
organ
Interior view to the east
View into the vault
The large main fresco in the nave
The south aisle
... and the north aisle to the east
The vault area of the south aisle
Lock on the door
The church stands on the highest point in the center of the village. To the south is the market square, to the north is the former monastery hospital (around 1705) with its wall ring.
The three-aisled Gothic hall church (length 61 meters, width 24 meters) was heavily modified in the 17th and 18th centuries. The exterior presents itself in simple baroque forms with narrow arched windows. Engravings from the early 18th century show the windows still with late Gothic tracery forms . The 72 meter high north tower is crowned by a high octagon with an onion dome. The sacristy opposite in the south indicates a double tower project that was not carried out. A graceful roof turret sits on the lower roof structure of the retracted choir . The sacred building is plastered white, the structure of plaster strips and pilaster strips is yellow.
The interior is also influenced by the Baroque and Rococo . The eight-sided pillars of the nave support the flat needle cap barrel of the central nave; the presbytery is also spanned in this way. In the side aisles, however, there are domed groin vaults that divide the space into five bays. The five floor-to-ceiling side chapels adjoin the south nave.
- Frescoes
The huge ceiling picture in the central nave depicts the life, death and veneration of St. Leonhard on the subject. Ignaz Baldauf, who was born in Inchenhofen, demonstrated his mastery in the mastery of large areas, the strong, decorative coloring distracts from some painterly weaknesses. In the center, the soul of the saint ascends to heaven in the form of a child.
The ceiling fresco in the chancel shows Leonhard's baptism by St. Remigius, who is held over the basin by his godfather, King Clovis.
The vaults of the side aisles and the chapels show scenes from the miracle books of the pilgrimage, for example a boy from Landeck in Tyrol who is run over by a carriage and other miracles attributed to the saint.
The accompanying stucco work is only painted on. The cartouches of the choir vault illustrate the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, those of the central nave depict scenes from the life of Christ and John the Baptist .
- Altars
The large high altar in the choir head is the work of Anton Wiest (1756), which his grandson of the same name restored in 1822 after partial destruction. Two winding pairs of columns flank a large seated figure of St. Leonhard (around 1620), behind some angels float in a splendid halo. Left and right two kneeling pilgrims marvel at the scene.
The two side altars in the choir were probably also made by Wiest. The altar leaves were created by Ignaz Baldauf (death of St. Benedict and greeting of St. Bernhard by Maria in Speyer Cathedral ).
The altars in the side aisles are from the renovation in 1620. In the center of the left side altar there is an effective group of statues of St. Martin donating the coat. On the sides are St. Ulrich and Afra. The altar in the south aisle preserves the old miraculous image, a late Gothic Pietà (around 1430), which was made by the hll. Johannes Ev. and Mary Magdalene is accompanied.
The chapel altars are also works by Anton Wiest (1760) with paintings by Baldauf, who also worked the effective rococo pulpit (1758) on the second south pillar.
The modern celebration altar above the Leonhardischrein in the first choir bay was built in 1995/99 in accordance with the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The canteen plate is connected to the reliquary by four chains (attributes of St. Leonhard). The shrine is carried through the town during the annual Leonhardi procession.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . Bavaria III: Swabia. Editors Bruno Bushart and Georg Paula. Munich 1989.
- German Fischer, Hugo Schnell: Inchenhofen: pilgrimage church St. Leonhard. 11th edition. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2001, ISBN 3-7954-4045-9 . (Schnell & Steiner Art Guide, No. 181).
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 30 ′ 40.8 ″ N , 11 ° 6 ′ 53.5 ″ E