Basilica of St. Martin, Bingen: A Gothic Collegiate Church in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Basilica
On this page15 sections
History
The Basilica of St. Martin, Bingen (Rhine), is a Roman Catholic church in Germany, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours and belonging to the Diocese of Mainz. Its Gothic form developed through several building phases, while Christian activity in Bingen reaches back to the fifth and sixth centuries. The church became the collegiate church of a foundation that shaped its history until the institution declined in the late sixteenth century and was dissolved in 1672.
Early Christian and medieval foundations
Evidence for Christian activity at Bingen in the fifth and sixth centuries includes the gravestone of the priest Aetherius, now displayed in the church. Excavations in the crypt also uncovered part of an ancient altar. This fragment has prompted the theory that a Roman temple once stood on the site, possibly a sanctuary of Mercury associated with a nearby river crossing. The interpretation remains uncertain, since the stone does not by itself prove the existence of a temple and may have been brought to the crypt from elsewhere in Bingen.
The earliest written evidence connected with a church or religious institution under the protection of St. Martin dates from 793. It refers to land near Bingen belonging to such an institution, but does not establish that it was the present church. The first secure reference to the current foundation appears in an archiepiscopal document of 1006, which mentions the collegiate institution of St. Martin in Bingen. The date of its foundation is unknown, although it was certainly in existence by that time.
Gothic rebuilding and the collegiate foundation
A major city fire in August 1403 destroyed the earlier church, but the crypt survived. A new Gothic building incorporating the crypt was consecrated in 1416. The rebuilding was initially single-aisled, and the side aisles were added in later phases. In 1417, Archbishop John II of Nassau united the endowments of the Bethlehem Chapel on the Rochusberg with the St. Martin foundation after the institution had been impoverished by the city fire.
Around 1500, the northern side was rebuilt as the two-aisled, Late Gothic Barbarabau, which served as the parish church. The frequently cited completion date of 1502 to 1505 is not firmly supported by documentary evidence. Construction may have continued longer, possibly until 1510 or 1511. The St. Martin foundation remained the church’s collegiate institution until its importance declined at the end of the sixteenth century. It was formally dissolved in 1672.
Later alterations and twentieth-century recovery
The former collegiate buildings were demolished in 1819. An extensive restoration directed by Max Meckel of Limburg, generally dated to 1885, added chapels along the southern aisle, a sacristy, and tracery galleries on the towers. The gallery on the left tower was never completed.
Pope Pius XI granted the church the title of minor basilica on 1 April 1930. This papal designation recognizes a church’s religious and historical importance and is distinct from the category of major basilicas. Severe wartime damage in 1944 was followed by reconstruction completed in 1958. Since 2002, the church has formed part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Upper Middle Rhine Valley and is also protected cultural property under the Hague Convention.
Remains
The surviving building is a four-aisled Gothic basilica assembled through successive phases. Its earliest surviving element is the crypt, an early Romanesque space probably dating from the middle or third quarter of the eleventh century. Later Gothic construction, the Late Gothic Barbarabau, Baroque furnishings, nineteenth-century additions, and postwar reconstruction together form the present architectural fabric.
Crypt and medieval architecture
Early Romanesque crypt
The crypt is a vaulted space beneath the church choir. Its groin vaults are carried by four stone columns with cube-shaped capitals. A column base discovered during excavations in 1925 suggests that the rest of the church may also have been rebuilt at approximately the same time as the crypt. The ancient altar fragment found during excavations is preserved in this underground area.
Gothic church and Barbarabau
The Gothic church consecrated in 1416 incorporated the older crypt and was originally single-aisled. Its side aisles were completed in later building phases. The northern side was subsequently replaced by the two-aisled Barbarabau, the Late Gothic section that served as the parish church.
Sculpture, altars, and painted furnishings
Medieval sculptures
The Barbarabau contains an enthroned Madonna dating from the early fourteenth century. Two clay figures of St. Barbara and St. Catherine belong to the early fifteenth century and were made in the artistic style known as the Soft Style.
Marian altar, pulpit, and high altar
The Dutch Marian altar was created in 1579 by Antonius van Montfoort, also known as Blocklandt. It includes five paintings and originally stood in the Church of St. Mary in Utrecht. The Baroque pulpit, signed and dated 1681, carries figures of the Church Fathers.
The Baroque high altar is a ciborium altar, meaning that a canopy rises above the altar on supporting columns. Donated in 1768, it was designed by Johann Peter Jäger and executed by Peter Heinrich Henke, the Mainz court sculptor. Its original Baroque painting was replaced after the wartime destruction by a seventeenth-century Crucifixion Group.
Later sculpture and stained glass
The presbytery contains stained-glass windows made in 1957 and 1958. Other windows were created by Otto Linnemann of Frankfurt. Opposite the tower entrance stands a brightly painted wooden sculpture of St. Martin made in 1990. It shows the saint as a young mounted soldier cutting his cloak with a sword to share it with a one-armed, half-naked beggar. The Cologne sculptor Theo Heiermann carved the group, and Damaris Wurmdobler painted it. Its composition recalls the Bassenheim Rider, a thirteenth-century relief attributed to the so-called Naumburg Master.
Organs and bells
Organ tradition
An organ tradition at St. Martin extends back to 1508, with several instruments built over the centuries. The organ used until 2015 was made by Paul Ott of Göttingen in 1971. It had 46 stops across four manuals and pedal, with mechanical key action and electric stop action. The instrument was refurbished in 1995 and fitted with an electronic setter system before being dismantled in 2015 because of technical damage.
Bell collection
In 1895, the Otto bell foundry of Hemelingen near Bremen supplied bronze bells for St. Martin and the Rochus Chapel, including six for St. Martin. All of those bells were confiscated during the two World Wars. The church now has six bells. Five were cast by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling in 1955, while the founder of the historic Mary bell of 1404 is unknown.
