St. Nikolai: Quedlinburg’s Neustadt Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page13 sections
History
St. Nikolai is the parish church of Quedlinburg’s Neustadt in Germany. The church originated around the turn of the thirteenth century for the settlement that had developed northeast of the old town during the twelfth century, and it was first mentioned in 1222. It began as a Romanesque basilica, a church with a long central nave and side aisles, before receiving Early Gothic and Late Gothic additions. Dedicated to St. Nicholas, the fourth-century Christian bishop associated with Myra, it remains Neustadt’s parish church.
Foundation and religious change
Neustadt’s growth created the need for a separate parish, leading to the establishment of St. Nikolai around the beginning of the thirteenth century. The choir was added during that century, while further building work took place in the fifteenth century. The church was Catholic until 1540. It is now an Evangelical Lutheran parish church within the Quedlinburg Evangelical parish, which belongs to the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, a regional Protestant church body serving parts of central Germany.
The church is also associated with Dorothea Christiane Erxleben. She was the wife of Johann Christian Erxleben, who served as pastor at St. Nikolai in the eighteenth century. In 1754, she received a doctorate from the University of Halle as the first German woman to qualify as a physician.
Renovation, storm damage, and fire
Major renovation took place in the nineteenth century and again between 1965 and 1968. The later work did not include the already damaged towers because funds were insufficient. On 13 November 1972, the Quimburga storm struck the church, leaving both spires in danger of collapse. Residents were required to leave their houses for several days. Demolition was considered but rejected because the towers were regarded as an important visible landmark.
A church-building program in the German Democratic Republic, the former East German state, provided funds for repairs. Work on the towers continued from 1973 to 1980, and the central structure between them was restored to its earlier height. The spires were clad in copper, while their weather vanes and finials were regilded.
On Christmas Eve in 1996, a defective pew heater caused a fire that heavily blackened the interior. Some windows were damaged when their tin components partly melted, and sections of the ceiling detached. The heating system was replaced with recirculating air, and a toilet facility was installed outside the north side of the choir. Renovation continued for several years.
Recent structural conservation
On 1 December 2013, part of a vault rib fell in the southern aisle. The church was temporarily closed, and protective overhead covering was installed except over the High Choir. Ultrasound tests identified corroded historic iron connecting dowels. Soft sandstone and unstable ground also contributed to the problem. Between 2017 and 2021, all rib stones were replaced with more stable Warthauer sandstone, a material used for building and sculpture.
St. Nikolai is listed as a protected cultural monument. Its continuing parish use and successive repairs have preserved a building whose fabric brings together medieval construction, Baroque decoration, nineteenth-century intervention, and modern conservation.
Remains
St. Nikolai is a hall church with differently shaped pillars, a single-aisled choir, a monumental west front, and two multistoried towers. A hall church has aisles whose vaults rise to approximately the same height as the central space. The present west building is Early Gothic, while much of the remaining structure is Late Gothic. The building is said to have been erected on piles and blocks of alder wood because the ground was swampy. The parish house stands east of the church at Konvent 20a.
West front and towers
Towers and roof features
The two towers rise 72 metres. Repeated lightning strikes led to the installation of lightning conductors in 1878. A Baroque structure called the Saigertürmchen is attached externally to the roof structure of the northern tower. It is said to indicate north and contains the striking mechanism for the tower clock, including a quarter-hour bell and a bowl for the full hours. During the tower repairs, a new clock movement made by VEB Spezialuhren Leipzig, a state-owned enterprise in the former German Democratic Republic, was installed in the north tower in 1979. An electric drive was later added for the hands.
Corner figures
Two shepherd figures stand at two corners of the towers, while stone dogs occupy the other two. The figures were temporarily taken down for structural reasons and placed inside the church before being returned to their original positions. A foundation legend says that a local shepherd found a rich treasure and donated it toward construction. This tradition gave rise to the alternative name “Shepherd’s Church.”
Interior furnishings
High altar
The decorative furnishings are predominantly Baroque, the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European style known for dramatic forms and elaborate ornament. The wooden high altar was made in 1712 by the Goslar woodcarver Jobst Heinrich Lessen. It is more than 10 metres high and 7 metres wide, with scenes of the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, and the Resurrection of Jesus. The altar table is probably Romanesque.
Font, pulpit, and memorials
The pulpit dates from 1731, and the baptismal angel was made in the late seventeenth century. The medieval baptismal font has been dated to the late twelfth century. A sixteenth-century Pietà, a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning the dead Christ, is also among the notable furnishings.
A wooden epitaph, a commemorative monument for the dead, was made in 1661 for the mayor Timotheus Heidfeld and his wife, Catharina. The epitaph and an Early Gothic communion chalice were returned to the interior in 1928. Some windows contain twentieth-century stained glass produced by Ferdinand Müller of Quedlinburg.
Organ
The organ came from the Hausneindorf organ-building workshop when it was directed by Ernst Röver. Its console has two manuals, or hand-played keyboards, and a pedalboard operated by the feet. After several rebuildings, the instrument has 30 stops, which control groups of pipes, along with pneumatic action, a system that operates valves through air pressure. Its couplers connect the manuals and pedalboard through I/P, II/P, and MK I/II, and fixed registrations for p, mf, f, and tutti can be selected by button.
A western wooden gallery was built for a new organ installed in 1849. The present organ case, or prospect, derives from the predecessor instrument built by Johann Friedrich Schulze in 1848.
Bells and bell frame
Two church bells remain in the medieval wooden bell frame from at least five former ringing bells. The large Magdalene Bell was cast in 1290 and recast in 1873 before being destroyed during the First World War. The surviving large bell was cast in 1333. It is the oldest dated bell in Quedlinburg and one of the oldest in Saxony-Anhalt, and it bears four rare, high-quality incised bell drawings. The art historian Ingrid Schulze discussed the historical importance of such bell engravings.
