St. Nicholas Church: A Late Gothic Hall Church in Döbeln, Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire, Margraviate of Meissen
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page12 sections
History
St. Nicholas Church is a medieval Christian church in Döbeln, Germany, at the eastern end of the old town below Burgberg. Its precise origins are unknown, although a priest is recorded there in 1293. A simple early church was destroyed by the town fire of 1333, after which construction began on a three-aisled basilica in the Early Gothic style. A basilica is a church with a higher central nave above lower side aisles.
From Early Gothic basilica to Late Gothic hall church
In 1479, the building was converted into a Late Gothic hall church. Unlike a basilica, a hall church has a central nave and side aisles of approximately similar height. Repeated repairs, additions, and alterations followed, but the church largely retained its fifteenth-century character.
The building’s tower and bells were repeatedly affected by fire and lightning. In 1629, a lightning strike caused four sixteenth-century bronze bells to fall from the tower and shatter. The upper tower structures were rebuilt after fires in 1629 and 1733. A further town fire on 21 June 1730 severely damaged the parish church, particularly the tower. Its square lower section survived, while the Gothic spire, bell frame, and four bells were destroyed, with the bells melting in the heat.
Rebuilding, restoration, and the bells
After the 1730 fire, the surviving square tower was given a new octagonal upper section beginning at the tower gallery, about 30 metres above ground. The Dresden foundry of Michael Weinhold cast four replacement bells. Two arrived in February 1731 and two more in May, and the complete peal first rang on 9 June 1731. Inscriptions on the prayer and evening bells commemorated the fire and their recasting.
During the First World War, a conflict from 1914 to 1918, the congregation surrendered the three largest bells in 1917 for conversion into military matériel. Four cast-steel bells made by the Schilling and Lattermann foundry in Morgenröthe replaced them in 1921. Donations from Döbeln residents, including Auguste and Robert Tümmler, Oswald Greiner Senior, Emil Stockmann, Georg Richter, and Alfred Richter, funded the installation. The new bells bore the donors’ names and biblical sayings.
Extensive restoration in 1885, directed by the architects Hugo Altendorff and Paul Hentschel, substantially changed the choir and nave windows and remodelled the smaller pointed-arch doors in a Neo-Gothic style. The church received monument protection in the 1970s, followed by fundamental maintenance in 1976 and 1977. Interior renovation in 1997, after German reunification, sought to bring the design and furnishings closer to their original appearance. Flooding in August 2002 caused numerous damages, which comprehensive work in 2004 and 2005 repaired.
The four steel bells were removed in October 2011 because of their poor overall condition and given an honorary location in front of the church. A new bronze peal, commissioned from the Rudolf Perner bell foundry in Passau, was consecrated on 18 March 2012. The church belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran tradition, the Lutheran branch of Christianity associated with the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther. The square before the church is named for Luther and contains a monument to him.
Remains
St. Nicholas Church survives as a three-aisled hall church with a central nave and two side aisles. Its exterior is enclosed by 24 buttresses supporting the nave, choir, tower, and the sacristy on the south side. The sacristy is also identified as the Marien Chapel. Inside, the nave has a star vault, whose ribs form a star-like pattern, while the side aisles have simple cross vaults. The main hall-vault supports have octagonal cross-sections.
Exterior and tower
West tower and roof structure
The west tower rises 68 metres and begins with an unusually large square lower section. At the height of the main nave’s roof ridge, it narrows into an octagonal Baroque upper structure. The transition creates a walkable platform, while the summit carries a double-vaulted roof structure with two lanterns and a spire-like helmet. A lantern is a small raised structure that crowns a roof or tower.
Portals and stair towers
The present main entrance stands at the foot of the tower and passes through a richly profiled Gothic portal dating from about 1370. Its gable and window framework, known as tracery, belong to the 1885 restoration. Two smaller pointed-arch portals are on the south side, while the former large sandstone south portal is concealed by the attached sacristy. A pointed-roof stair tower stands beside the church tower, and another, built in 1885, rises on the south side of the nave.
Choir and interior structure
The choir and its adjoining bay are covered by net vaults, in which the ribs form an extensive mesh-like pattern. The choir windows retain tracery originally dating from the fourteenth century. The tower entrance leads into a vestibule occupying the lowest part of the square tower, where a fifteenth-century star-shaped cell vault survives. Galleries run along both sides of the side aisles, and the present interior colour scheme follows the arrangement established in 1929.
Artistic furnishings and liturgical objects
Carved altarpiece
The double-sided, triple-winged carved altarpiece rises about 11 metres and was made around 1520 by the anonymous Master of the Döbeln High Altarpiece, probably a pupil of Lucas Cranach from the Freiberg school. An altarpiece is an ornamental work placed behind or above an altar. Its central shrine contains Wenceslaus with a spear and shield, Nicholas with a bishop’s staff, and Leonard holding an abbot’s staff. The decorative shafts beside them carry Jerome and Augustine on the left, and Gregory the Great and Ambrose on the right.
Each wing contains two standing carved figures, including Evangelists seated at writing desks. The left wing shows John the Evangelist with a cup of poison and Saint Florian with a flag. The right wing depicts Mary Magdalene holding an ointment vessel and Saint Barbara with a tower at her feet.
Renaissance pulpit and fonts
Daniel Schatz made the richly detailed Renaissance pulpit in 1599. Its multi-stepped sounding board and curved staircase retain abundant figural decoration with a vivid painted finish. A life-sized painting of the Apostle Peter appears on the inside of the pulpit door at the foot of the staircase.
The church contains a communion chalice dated 1470 and a relief from the beginning of the sixteenth century. Two baptismal fonts are present. The newer font in the altar area is made from Elbe sandstone and has four small green columns of Italian serpentinite. The Renaissance font in the south aisle dates from 1603 and was made by H. Köhler the Younger, also from Elbe sandstone.
Organ and bells
The Eule organ-building firm of Bautzen constructed the organ in 1929 at the suggestion and with the conceptual influence of cantor Paul Störzner. A cantor is a church musician who leads or directs liturgical music. The instrument has 59 stops, including two transmissions into the pedal, and pneumatic actions, which use compressed air to operate the valves. Its disposition, or specification of stops, combines late-Romantic voices with bright Baroque registers associated with the organ-reform movement. The builder comprehensively restored it in 2000 and 2001.
The bronze bells consecrated in 2012 carry inscriptions and pictorial designs. Their imagery includes the Lamb of God with a banner, Saint Nicholas, the Christ monogram, and the church’s baptismal font. Each bell bears the circumferential inscription “Evangelical Lutheran St. Nicholas Church Döbeln 2012.”
