Alexander Church: A Late Gothic Protestant Church in Zweibrücken
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- French, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page10 sections
History
Alexander Church in Zweibrücken, Germany, is a late Gothic Protestant church founded in 1489 by Countess Palatine Johanna de Croÿ and her son, Count Palatine Alexander of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. It was established in memory of Count Palatine Louis I of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, with construction under way by 1493 and continuing beyond 1514. The master builder was Philipp Steinmetz, and the design was closely connected with the medieval building schools of the Middle Rhine.
Foundation and pilgrimage
In 1495, Alexander travelled to the Holy Land with his cousin, Bishop Antoine de Croÿ, and his brother-in-law, Count Johann Ludwig of Nassau-Saarbrücken. He apparently intended to return with relics for the new church, linking its foundation with the devotional practices of the late medieval ruling family.
French destruction and shared use
French forces substantially destroyed the church in 1676 and 1677. The damage included the destruction of the church tower and its vault. Reconstruction was supervised by Carl Desiderius de Royer, the royal visitor and Catholic pastor of Zweibrücken, and the church was restored in 1689. A verse by de Royer was carved into the exterior wall to commemorate the destruction and rebuilding.
From 1680 to 1697, Zweibrücken was under French rule during Louis XIV’s Reunion policy, an effort to extend French control over territories claimed by France. During this period, Alexander Church was used simultaneously by Catholics and Protestants. A simultaneous church is one formally or practically shared by more than one Christian denomination.
Baroque and modern transformations
Christian Ludwig Hautt completed a Baroque church tower in 1758. Its Welsch hood, a bulbous or curved Baroque tower roof, made the tower a landmark of Zweibrücken until it was destroyed in 1945. In 1858, an elaborate Neo-Gothic net vault replaced the flat coffered ceiling that had been installed after the earlier vault was lost.
A major renovation under Karl Doflein took place from 1904 to 1911. The work provided the church with a new foundation and a heavily reinforced special-concrete slab supporting the exterior walls. The altar was also moved. During the Second World War, a bombing raid on 14 March 1945 destroyed the church and the surrounding city centre. Otto Stahl and Richard Hummel led a simplified reconstruction, and the church was rededicated on 26 June 1955. An initiative by local citizens to secure at least a faithful reconstruction of Hautt’s Baroque tower did not succeed.
The postwar church continued to serve Zweibrücken’s Protestant congregation. The princely crypt, which had been completely destroyed by the explosion of an aerial mine, was not rebuilt. The few recovered remains were placed in the Wittelsbach Memorial in the northern aisle in 1955. The Wittelsbachs were a major European ruling dynasty whose members ruled Bavaria and several Palatinate territories. In 2001, Alexander of Bavaria, a descendant and namesake of the church’s founder, became the last person buried in the church. Alexander Church is recognized as a cultural monument in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Remains
Alexander Church retains the form of a late Gothic hall church, in which the nave and side aisles are approximately equal in height and create a unified interior space. Its choir-facing frontage is oriented toward the northeast and the market square. The interior follows approximately the traditional arrangement of three aisles and six bays, with narrow outer aisles divided by galleries. Two rows of slender round pillars with chalice-block capitals support the present coffered ceiling.
Gothic forms and interior structure
The north-portal vestibule appears to have been inspired by Frankfurt Cathedral. The three-sided choir termination resembles that of Frankfurt’s Leonhard Church, while surviving forms of the Gothic tracery, the patterned stone framework of a window, recall the Memorial Gate of Mainz Cathedral. The present coffered ceiling broadly follows the flat ceiling that replaced the original vault after the tower’s destruction in 1677. It also reflects the postwar reconstruction, after the Neo-Gothic net vault of 1858 was lost in the wartime destruction.
The present choir windows by Erhardt Klonk of Marburg dominate the interior lighting. The church also contains paintings by artists from Zweibrücken and funerary monuments. Several pre-1945 furnishings remain, including a number of epitaphs, mostly dating from the sixteenth century, and a painting of Christ by Johann Christian von Mannlich.
Memorial and tower
Wittelsbach Memorial
The Wittelsbach Memorial stands in the northern aisle and was donated by Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. It houses the few recovered remains associated with the former princely crypt, preserving a physical connection between the church and the Wittelsbach dynasty.
Postwar tower and bells
The Baroque tower completed by Christian Ludwig Hautt in 1758 was replaced after its destruction by a simpler tower with a pointed helmet. Its design suggests the curved movement of the former Baroque tower. Six bells hang in the main tower. The Hermann Hamm foundry of Frankenthal cast them in 1957, and they are tuned to B-flat, D-flat, F, A-flat, B-flat, and C. The largest weighs 2,370 kilograms and is the heaviest bell in Zweibrücken. The “Füchslein,” now used as a death bell in the altar area, is the city’s oldest bell.
Organs
The former Walcker-Steinmeyer organ began as an instrument built by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker in 1858, with 36 stops on two manuals and pedal. G. F. Steinmeyer rebuilt and enlarged it in 1911 to 45 stops on three manuals and pedal. A bomb destroyed the instrument in 1945.
Paul Ott built the present organ in 1963. It has a wholly Neo-Baroque design, with 47 stops on three manuals and pedal. Its key actions are mechanical, while its stop actions are electric.
