St. Mary’s Church: A Late-Gothic Hall Church in Dohna, Germany
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
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page8 sections
History
Medieval Foundation and Pilgrimage Church
St. Mary’s Church is an evangelical church in Dohna, Germany, probably founded in 1212 and completed in 1250. The early Christian church stood near the ancestral castle of the Donins on the Taschenberg. In 1735, Christian Bartsch wrote that an indulgence letter, a medieval church document associated with the remission of specified religious penalties, stated that the first church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Apostle Peter.
The original building later became a pilgrimage church. Successive alterations and extensions transformed it substantially, and the present late-Gothic church was built on the site of its predecessor and completed in 1489. Its builder is unknown. The church stands on the western side of Dohna’s marketplace, close to Dohna Castle, and is regarded as the city’s most important architectural monument.
Nineteenth-Century Restoration
A major restoration took place between 1833 and 1843. Joseph Thürmer, an architect and professor at the Dresden Academy, directed the early phase, while Gottfried Semper, a German architect and architectural theorist, continued the work after Thürmer’s death. The intervention changed both the building and its interior, including an extension of the nave toward the west, enlarged windows and entrances, alterations to the roof and exterior, wooden galleries, work in the choir, and a redesigned interior.
Further campaigns continued the church’s preservation. The interior was completely repainted in 1913 and restored between 1995 and 1999. The tower was restored from 2001 to 2003. The church has also housed an organ made by the Eule company of Bautzen since 1896. Its continued use connects the present church with the musical and liturgical life established during the late nineteenth century.
Bell Tradition and Later Changes
The church has been associated since the period of the burgraves of Dohna with a historic bronze bell cast in 1390. It stood outside the church until 2001, when restoration work enabled its return to the tower alongside three newly made bronze bells. The bell frame was renovated in 2003, completing the modern arrangement of four bells.
Remains
Late-Gothic Hall
St. Mary’s Church is a late-Gothic, three-aisled hall church, a design in which the nave and aisles are approximately equal in height and form a unified interior space. The building’s present form derives chiefly from the church completed in 1489. Its hall originally carried star-rib vaults, Gothic vaults whose ribs create radiating, star-like patterns, supported by six round piers. Two further piers were added when the hall was extended.
The nineteenth-century work remains part of the building’s architectural form. Thürmer directed a six-metre extension of the nave toward the west and changes to the windows, entrances, roof, and exterior architecture. Semper oversaw the wooden galleries, the restoration of the choir, and the redesign of the interior. The external staircase leading to the tower and the tower crown date from 1684.
Furnishings and Memorials
The elaborate late-Gothic baptismal font belongs to the period of the 1489 church. A three-storey winged altarpiece contains coloured and gilded figures carved in high relief. Its artist and workshop are unknown, while the year 1518 was identified during restoration in 1928. The wings are carved on both sides, and their closed sides display four saints, including Saint Nicholas in the upper right. In Saxony, Saint Nicholas was associated with travel and commercial routes, and churches along old transport roads regarded him as a patron of traffic and transport.
Sandstone coats of arms are mounted on the two eastern piers and on the southern and northern walls. They represent the noble families von Ziegler, Günter von Bünau, von Karras, von Staubitz, von Bernstein, and von Worgwitz. The arms of von Bernstein and von Worgwitz bear the date 1554. In the north-eastern prayer room, the most significant tomb monument depicts the standing figure of the knight Hans von Carlowitz, a Saxon nobleman associated with the Saukrieg, the final feud in Saxony, fought from 1555 to 1558.
Bell and Organ Installations
The historic 1390 bell bears the inscription REX GLORIE VENI CVM PACE AVE MARIA ANO MCCCLXXXX, meaning “O King of Glory, come with peace; Hail Mary, 1390.” It forms part of the four-bell installation with three newly made bronze bells. The Eule organ is a cone-chest instrument with 28 stops, mechanical action for playing and registration, and the couplers II/I, I/P, and II/P. Its additional playing aids are Tutti Manual I, Tutti Manual II, and Mezzoforte.
