Zeitz Cathedral
The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Zeitz in the south of Saxony-Anhalt was the cathedral of the bishops of the Zeitz diocese from 968 to 1029 and collegiate church after the diocese was moved to Naumburg . Today the cathedral serves as the city's Catholic parish church and is a stop on the Romanesque Road .
history
In the first half of the 10th century, the Ottonians established a royal palace in Zeitz , which also included the church from which today's cathedral emerged. With the foundation of the diocese in 968, construction of the first cathedral began. Excavations yielded vague evidence of this church under the current site. After 1028 a new building followed, which was completed around 1100. Large parts of this historically important building have been preserved to this day.
The three-aisled hall crypt with concha is located under the choir square and its west wall extends into the crossing square. According to the latest building research, the crypt was built at the same time as the church in the middle of the 11th century. The walls, which can still be seen today, had four arched windows and two entrances. The current windows were added later. Of the eight pillars supporting the vault, the capitals of the two western ones are decorated with volutes . So far there is no reliable evidence that the differently profiled capitals of the columns come from different construction phases, apart from Gothic changes to the western row of columns. It is possible that the six unadorned pillars of the crypt still come from the Ottonian predecessor.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, renovations were carried out in which the Romanesque basilica became a Gothic hall church . With the introduction of the Reformation , the Church became Lutheran.
After Zeitz became the residence of Sachsen-Zeitz in 1656 , Duke Moritz von Sachsen-Zeitz had the cathedral converted into the Moritzburg castle chapel and the crypt prepared as a princely burial place. The towers of the cathedral were demolished and a royal box built into the interior.
In the 19th century the church lost its former importance and was used profane at times. In 1945 it was given to the Catholic community, which had grown due to displaced persons .
The structural condition of the cathedral deteriorated in the period that followed. In 1982 the southwestern crossing pillar collapsed , causing considerable damage to the Gothic vault of the church. The renovation of the cathedral was only pushed ahead after reunification. With the altar consecration in 1998, the Catholic parish took it back into use as a parish church. The renovation was completed for the 2004 State Garden Show .
The father of mineralogy and important Saxon scientist Georgius Agricola and the last Naumburg bishop Julius von Pflug rest in the church .
Princely Crypt
The hereditary burial of the Wettin secondary school in Saxony-Zeitz , which used the cathedral as a court church, has been housed in the hall crypt of Zeitz Cathedral since 1666 . The Fürstengruft is an important monument of baroque burial culture in central Germany. The Princely Crypt holds 13 coffins, 8 of which are children's coffins, which are made of wood or lead-tin alloys and whose coats of arms, inscriptions and bands have been preserved. The following members of the ducal family were buried here:
- Moritz (1619–1681), Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
- Dorothea Maria von Sachsen-Weimar (1641–1675), 2nd wife of Moritz, Duke of Sachsen-Zeitz
- Sophie Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg (1653–1684), 3rd wife of Moritz, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
- Friedrich Heinrich (1668–1713), Duke of Saxony-Zeitz-Pegau-Neustadt
- Sophie Angelika von Württemberg-Oels (1677–1700), 1st wife of Friedrich Heinrich, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz-Pegau-Neustadt
- Johann Georg (1665–1666), son of Moritz, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
- Maria Sophia (1670–1671), daughter of Moritz, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
- Magdalena Sybilla (* / † 1672), daughter of Moritz, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
- Friedrich Wilhelm (* / † 1690), Hereditary Prince of Saxony-Zeitz, son of Moritz Wilhelm , Duke of Saxony-Zeitz / Weida
- Caroline Amalia (1693–1694), daughter of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz / Weida
- Sophie Charlotta (1695–1696), daughter of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz / Weida
- Friedrich August (1700–1710), Hereditary Prince of Saxony-Zeitz, son of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz / Weida
- Dorothea Charlotte (* / † 1708), daughter of Friedrich Heinrich, Duke of Saxony-Zeitz-Pegau-Neustadt
Furnishing
Royal box
Royal box
pulpit
Replacement of the grave slab for Agricola
organ
The history of the organs in Zeitz Cathedral can be traced back to the 15th century. An instrument seems to have existed as early as the cathedral fire of 1429. There is documentary evidence of an organ that was rebuilt and expanded by the organ builder Georg Koch (Glauchau) between 1583 and 1584, and was probably built as early as the middle of the 15th century. Based on a "sample" and contract documents, certain conclusions can be drawn about the design and the work. During Heinrich Schütz's tenure as Kapellmeister in Zeitz, two small galleries were built on the crossing pillars, each with a new organ case. One remained empty, the organ of the existing organ was built into the other. Between 1849 and 1850 the organ building company Böhme & Winter (Zeitz) built a new organ in which some of the pipe material from the existing organ was reused. In 1934 the Liebig (Zeitz) harmonium factory built a two-manual “reed mechanism” into the empty organ case. In 1961, the organ builder Lothar Heinze (Stadtilm) built a new, three-manual instrument into the two organ cases, which was, however, damaged after a short time by water ingress in the roof and largely destroyed in June 1982 by the collapse of a pillar. The instrument was replaced in the years 1999 to 2001 by Hermann Eule Orgelbau Bautzen with a new two-manual construction based on the early baroque work.
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Next to the pipe organ, on the opposite gallery, in the disused organ case, the work of which was damaged when the pillar collapsed, there is an electronic organ made by Rodgers with 16-channel sound radiation. The instrument was purchased for the restoration of the pipe organ, but is still in use. It has 43 stops on three manuals and a pedal.
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Bell scratch drawings
The bells, cast in 1439 and 1466, have rare, art-historically significant bell scratch drawings , which are honored in a work by the art historian Ingrid Schulze from 2006.
literature
- Reinhard Schmitt : Contributions to the building history of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Moritzburg Castle and Posa Monastery in Zeitz (writings of the Moritzburg Castle Museum Zeitz). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2008.
- Annett Laube-Rosenpflanzer and Lutz Rosenpflanzer: Churches, monasteries, royal courts: pre-Romanesque architecture between Weser and Elbe , p. 105ff., Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2007.
Varia
On April 19, 2020, the cultural radio program of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , MDR Kultur , broadcast the Catholic service from the Zeitz Cathedral via radio broadcast and via Internet stream as a direct broadcast.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Detailed information on the history of the organs on the cathedral parish website
- ^ Organ in Zeitz , accessed on February 12, 2020.
- ↑ Information about the electronic organ on the website of the cathedral parish
- ↑ More information about the organ (PDF; 83 kB)
- ^ Ingrid Schulze: Incised drawings by lay hands - drawings by medieval sculptors and painters? Figural bell scratch drawings from the late 13th century to around 1500 in central and northern Germany. Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-939404-95-8
- ↑ https://www.mdr.de/kultur/radio/ipg/sendung-549736_date-2020-04-19_days-true_ipgctx-true_zc-b5d0c249.html , accessed on April 19, 2020
Web links
- Information about the cathedral on the website of the Catholic parish of St. Peter and Paul Zeitz
- Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul (zeitz.de)
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 2.4 ″ N , 12 ° 7 ′ 35 ″ E