Morizkirche: Coburg’s Evangelical Lutheran Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page13 sections
History
Morizkirche is Coburg’s oldest church, an Evangelical Lutheran parish church in Coburg, Germany, dedicated to Saint Maurice. Its name was first recorded in the early fourteenth century, while a 1323 papal indulgence document specifically identified its dedication to Saint Maurice, the Christian martyr and soldier traditionally associated with the Theban Legion. The present Gothic hall church developed through several building phases, and its western towers have made it a prominent landmark of the city.
Early church and medieval rebuilding
A church probably stood in Coburg by the eleventh century. It was mentioned in 1189, and a Romanesque basilica replaced the earlier building around 1250. Foundations of this predecessor survive beneath or within the present church complex, whose earlier ecclesiastical ensemble also included a churchyard and administrative buildings.
The later Gothic rebuilding proceeded in stages. The eastern choir dates from about 1380 to 1400 and served as the monks’ choir for the Benedictine community of St. Peter and Paul until the monastery was dissolved in 1525. From 1217, the monastery’s provost also held the office of parish priest of St. Moriz.
From around 1420, the western part of the earlier church was renewed, beginning with the south tower. The two-tower western front, its entrance portal and hall, and the upper Michaelskapelle with its west choir were completed in successive stages. The chapel roof was in place by 1454, although its vaults were not finished until 1519. The north tower reached the level of the bell-stage walkway between 1450 and 1456, while the south tower remained unfinished.
The Reformation and completion of the nave
The late Gothic nave was begun in 1520 under Hans Gris, a master builder from Königshofen. After Gris died later that year, Konrad Krebs continued the work. The roof structure was completed in 1532, and a stone floor was laid in 1541.
The Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement that produced Protestant churches in western and central Europe, reached Coburg at an early date. Balthasar Düring preached in the city from 1518 and became its leading reformer. The first service held according to the new Protestant order took place in 1524. Church ownership then passed to the Coburg town council, which became responsible for maintaining the churches and schools and supporting the clergy.
Martin Luther spent half a year at Coburg Fortress and preached seven times at Morizkirche during Easter Week in 1530. This association has made the church an important Luther memorial site in southern Germany.
Ducal church and burial place
In 1585, Duke Johann Casimir commissioned the Heldburg painter Wolfgang Sichelschmidt to decorate the nave’s wooden ceiling with a coffered pattern. At the end of the sixteenth century, Johann Casimir converted the choir of his principal church into a ducal burial place. In 1598, he replaced the high altar with a monumental epitaph for his father, Johann Friedrich the Middle.
Duke Albrecht commissioned a crypt beneath the choir in 1687. Morizkirche remained the burial place of the ducal house until 1860. Because the church had become too small, a new mausoleum was built at Friedhof am Glockenberg during the 1850s, with financial support from the royal houses of Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Baroque remodelling and later parish history
Between 1740 and 1742, Duke Franz Josias commissioned the Ansbach architect David Steingruber to remodel the interior as a Baroque gallery hall with a preacher’s room. The work removed or substantially altered much of the Gothic interior, including the pulpit from which Luther had preached. Most of the remaining medieval furnishings, including fifteen altars and valuable figures, had already been lost during the Reformation.
From 1671 to 1685, the hymn writer Kaspar Friedrich Nachtenhöfer served as pastor of Morizkirche. The church remains the main church of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of St. Moriz. Its parish district covers central Coburg and had approximately 3,400 members in 2017.
On 20 October 1932, Swedish Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were married at Morizkirche.
Restoration and continuing use
The interior was renovated between 1926 and 1929, while exterior renovation of the western section began in 1934. A major interior campaign in 1970 and 1971 included a reconfiguration of the altar area beneath the triumphal arch, designed by Johannes Ludwig. The stucco ceiling above the organ was secured in 1988 and 1989. Further exterior repairs followed in 1992, and the choir exterior was restored in 2003 and 2004. Between April 2014 and April 2016, the interior and the epitaph were renovated.
Remains
Choir and medieval fabric
Morizkirche is a Gothic hall church, a church whose nave and side aisles are approximately equal in height. It measures 62 metres in length and up to 33 metres in width. The long choir has a five-eighths termination and a rib vault, a ceiling supported by intersecting stone ribs, arranged in three bays with plate-shaped bosses. Four buttresses divide its longitudinal sides. The southeastern buttress originally formed the churchyard portal, while a small spiral-stair tower stands at the southwestern junction with the nave. A two-bay, two-storey sacristy occupies the northwestern corner.
The choir is covered by a steep gabled roof approximately 9.2 metres across, 9.8 metres high, and 21 metres long. A pointed triumphal arch separates it from the nave. On the north side, a stone sedilia, a built-in seat for clergy beside the choir, probably dates from about 1360 to 1380. The clothing of its two male figures supports this dating.
The choir contains several metal funerary plaques. In its northeastern corner is a monumental sculpted plaque for Duke Johann Casimir by the Coburg bronze founder Georg Werther. Beside it stands a two-part engraved plaque for Johann Ernst by the Nuremberg gunsmith Bernhard Eberlein. Plaques for Johann Friedrich the Middle and Elisabeth of the Palatinate occupy the south wall. They were made in 1595 by the Nuremberg caster Benedikt Wurzelbauer after a design by Peter Sengelaub. Duke Albrecht’s sarcophagus lies in the crypt.
Nave and façades
The nave is a flat-ceilinged gallery hall with three aisles of equal height, although its axis is offset from that of the choir. Its north and south façades each contain five bays. The north side, which faces the old town, has the more elaborate design and uses three-stepped buttresses. Busts, half-figures, and mythical creatures on its middle sections represent the seven deadly sins.
A new entrance portal was inserted into the third bay of the south façade in 1740, producing a more symmetrical relationship with the north side. A sundial was added to the eastern buttress in 1917. Inside, the side aisles contain two-storey galleries, while eight columns support the flat ceiling and its stucco panel. The nave roof has four collar-beam levels, a span of about 24.1 metres, a height of approximately 19.8 metres, and a length of 27.2 metres.
Few medieval interior features survive. They include the tombstone of the knight Albrecht von Bach, who died in 1441, and a fresco. A coloured font from 1539 carries a relief of a children’s round dance by Jörg Diener. The present altar, made in 2016 by the Munich artist Werner Mally, is constructed from light maple wood. Its five movable elements stand on the steps between the choir and nave.
Western towers and Michaelskapelle
The western double-tower façade combines massive tower blocks with a finely articulated central section. The towers follow a similar arrangement up to the fifth storey, with tracery windows and cornices separating the levels. Their ground floors contain star vaults.
The north tower rises 72 metres and changes to an octagonal plan in its upper section. It contains a lower stage, a bell stage with four tall tracery windows, a tower chamber with rectangular windows, and a double lantern. A statue of Saint Christopher stands at the northwestern corner of its ground floor. The 42-metre-high south tower, known as the Rabenturm, has only the beginning of an octagonal upper section. A statue of Saint Nicholas stands at its southwestern corner, and the tower’s ground floor contains the ducal epitaph.
Between the towers, the central section contains the main portal on the ground floor and the Michaelskapelle above it. The funnel-shaped open entrance hall contains fifteenth-century figures of Adam and Eve on the right and Mary and Saint Barbara on the left, each placed on a console. Figures of Saint Peter and Saint Maurice, the latter holding a lance, stand on the buttresses above the entrance hall beside a gallery with a tracery parapet. A polygonal spiral-stair tower to the right of the main portal gives access to the chapel.
The organ case conceals the west choir. Behind it is a large three-part tracery window with smaller two-light windows at the sides. The chapel is covered by a ribbed vault.
Renaissance epitaph
The Renaissance alabaster epitaph in the church is 13.66 metres high and 6.55 metres wide. Johann Casimir commissioned it in 1598 for his parents, Johann Friedrich the Middle and Elisabeth of the Palatinate. Nikolaus Bergner created the monument from alabaster quarried near Heldburg. Planning and construction began in 1594, and the work was completed in 1598.
The praying family group places Johann Friedrich the Middle at the centre, facing his first wife Agnes of Hesse and his second wife Elisabeth of the Palatinate. His two eldest sons, who died as children, appear behind him, alongside the adult Johann Casimir and his younger brother Johann Ernst. Above the family, the central relief depicts the transfer of the bones of the biblical patriarch Jacob, or, in another interpretation, the transfer of his son Joseph to a Canaanite tomb. The subject refers to the return of the duke’s body after he died in Austrian captivity and was buried before the epitaph was completed.
Organ
The earliest documentary evidence for an organ at Morizkirche dates from 1429 and 1481, when an instrument stood on a stone gallery in the north aisle. In 1487, Master Friedrich built a large organ with one manual and pedal for the north gallery. Matthias Tretzscher installed a new instrument with 18 stops on two manuals and pedal in 1665, and it was inaugurated in 1666.
Between 1740 and 1742, Wolfgang-Heinrich Daum built a new organ on the west gallery after a design by his father, Paul Daum. It had two manuals, pedal, and 30 stops. Anton Hasselbarth added a third manual during a major repair in 1873 and 1874. In 1929, Oskar Walcker replaced the historical Daum instrument with one having two enclosed divisions, 57 stops, three manuals, and pedal. The historic case was retained but moved back by 1.5 metres.
In 1989, the Karl Schuke organ workshop in Berlin installed the present instrument in the historic nine-part, two- to three-storey case of 1742, which has decorative veilwork. Four stops from the Daum organ survive in the present instrument. It has 54 stops and approximately 3,800 pipes on three manuals and pedal. A general overhaul in 2006 expanded the setter system from 32 to 800 combinations. In November 2019, two bass stops were added to the pedal division, and a new setter system with 80,000 combinations was installed. Sixty-four pipes and a second wind system with its motor and motor box were placed behind the existing case.
Bells and earlier foundations
Five bells hang in the north tower. The largest, the 2.5-ton Mauritius Bell, was cast in Nuremberg by Paulus in 1437. Its rich decoration includes two Latin inscriptions separated by four reliefs of Saint Maurice carrying a shield and flag lance.
The foundations of the Romanesque basilica survive within the church complex and preserve the footprint of an earlier phase of the site. Together with the remains of the former churchyard and administrative buildings, they connect the present Gothic church with the medieval institution that preceded it.
