Alte Kapelle: A Medieval Holy Cross Chapel in Landstuhl, Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Chapel
On this page10 sections
History
The medieval parish church
Alte Kapelle, also known as the Holy Cross Chapel, is a Roman Catholic chapel in Landstuhl, Germany. It occupies the former choir of the medieval parish church of St. Andrew, probably built in the fourteenth century at the foot of Kirchberg, in the town’s oldest settlement area. Its surviving Gothic structure and wall paintings preserve part of Landstuhl’s medieval religious history.
St. Andrew’s Church may have replaced an early medieval church dedicated to Saint Jodok and built in the eighth century. When Landstuhl’s fortifications were constructed in the fourteenth century around Nanstein Castle and the present old town, the church and the settlement at the foot of Kirchberg remained outside the ring wall. In the fifteenth century, the churches at Mittelbrunn and Oberarnbach served as branch churches of the St. Andrew’s parish.
Reformation and changing confessions
Franz von Sickingen, a German knight and military leader who controlled Ebernburg and supported reformers, introduced the Reformation in Landstuhl during the sixteenth century. In 1522 he appointed Martin Bucer as pastor at St. Andrew’s. Bucer was a major Protestant reformer whose ideas influenced both Reformed and Lutheran Christianity, and one of the earliest Reformed services in Germany was held in the church. Johann Schwebel probably succeeded him briefly before moving to Zweibrücken in 1523.
Until the Peace of Westphalia, the religious affiliation of Landstuhl changed several times with that of its ruling authority. St. Andrew’s consequently hosted Catholic services after 1523 and Lutheran services from 1546. From 1669 it served as a simultaneous church, shared by Catholics and Lutherans. After 1751 it was used as a burial church, and in 1785 it was temporarily assigned to the Reformed community.
Demolition and conversion into a chapel
A new Catholic parish church of St. Andrew was built in the mid-eighteenth century beside the high defensive tower inside the town fortifications. The nave of the old church was demolished in 1805, while its stones were reused in the construction of the Kaiserstrasse, which passed only a few metres northeast of the building. The former choir was preserved, converted into a chapel, and dedicated as the Holy Cross Chapel in 1829.
The name had previously belonged to another chapel built around 1700 at the junction of Ramsteiner Strasse and the Kaiserstrasse. That building was demolished in 1811 during work on the Kaiserstrasse. The cemetery beside the old St. Andrew’s Church was also replaced by a cemetery on the Kaiserstrasse, which was taken out of use in 1836. During the Second World War, a memorial cemetery for soldiers and civilian victims of a bombing raid was established west of Alte Kapelle.
Conservation and protection
Alte Kapelle and the surrounding old cemetery are protected monuments. Wall paintings dating from the second half of the fifteenth century were uncovered and restored in 1940. In 1974, the restorer Otto Schultz reworked the paintings, removing excessive overpainting and additions from the earlier restoration. This work helped preserve the medieval decoration within the surviving choir.
Remains
Choir structure and exterior
The chapel consists of the former church choir, measuring approximately 6.50 by 5.50 metres. It has two bays, meaning two structural divisions, and ends in an eastern three-sided apse, the projecting termination of the choir. A square sacristy extension is attached to the north side. After the nave was removed, the west end was closed by a plain wall, whose centre now contains the chapel entrance. Six Gothic buttresses remain on the exterior, while the three sides of the apse and the south wall contain tracery windows formed by two lancets and a trefoil. A Baroque roof turret, added later, contains a bell.
Vaults and religious imagery
A wrought-iron grille separates the interior from the entrance area. Inside, the two choir bays and the apse are covered by Gothic rib vaults. Their surfaces are painted with vines and flowers. The four compartments of the western bay contain symbols of the four Evangelists, executed in the style of Martin Schongauer’s engravings. The triangular design of the western keystone refers to the Trinity.
Above the altar in the apse, an angel displays the Veil of Veronica, a devotional image associated with the tradition that Veronica wiped Christ’s face during his Passion. Other angels beside it and on the vault of the eastern bay carry instruments of the Passion, referring to Christ’s suffering.
Marian cycle and saints
The upper half of the north wall in the western bay contains a Marian cycle arranged in three rows. The sequence begins with the Annunciation to Joachim, Mary’s father. The second row shows the meeting of Joachim and Anna, Mary’s birth, Mary’s Presentation at the Temple, and the Annunciation to Mary. The third row depicts the Visitation, the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, and the Coronation of Mary. A further scene, the fourth image in the lower row and the cycle’s final image, was almost completely destroyed when a tomb slab was installed and can no longer be recognized.
Above the sacristy door, Mary was shown as a Madonna surrounded by rays, with a kneeling donor at her feet. Only the surrounding rays survive. Six saints are painted on consoles between the apse windows and on the south wall. They include Saint Andrew, the former patron of the church, identified by his X-shaped cross. On the south wall of the western bay, where the priest’s seat stood in a round-arched niche, are an archbishop carrying a double cross and Saint Nicholas of Myra, shown wearing a mitre and holding a crozier.
Consecration crosses and memorials
Eight consecration or apostle crosses survive below the Marian cycle and the saint figures. Such crosses marked places associated with the consecration of a church and were normally placed or painted at twelve locations, so four are thought to have been covered or destroyed by later installations.
Five epitaphs dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries remain on the walls. Two commemorate female members of the Sickingen family, while three are associated with Sickingen officials in Landstuhl. Inscriptions for Franz von Sickingen, who died in 1523, and Alberta von Millendonk, the second wife of Franz Konrad von Sickingen, who died in 1564, were also recorded in the old parish church.
