St. Peter’s Church Blansingen: A Late-Gothic Protestant Parish Church in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
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- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Roman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page27 sections
History
St. Peter’s Church Blansingen is a late-Gothic church in Germany, completed in 1457 and dedicated to Saint Peter. It serves the Protestant parish of Blansingen, Welmlingen, and Kleinkems, a relationship that has continued since 1556. The parish now belongs to the Markgräflerland church district of the Evangelical Church in Baden. The church was first mentioned in writing in 1173, but archaeological and historical clues point to much earlier Christian activity on the site.
Early medieval origins
Grave goods and the dedication to Saint Peter suggest that a Merovingian church and cemetery may have occupied the site in the early seventh century. The Merovingians ruled much of the Frankish kingdom from approximately the fifth to the eighth century, placing this proposed first church in the early medieval period.
A notice from 1094 records Duke Berthold’s transfer of the Blansingen and Kleinkems Meierhöfe to St. George’s Abbey in the Black Forest. A Meierhof was a manorial estate administered by a steward or bailiff. The church masonry indicates that the building was probably enlarged around the tenth century, although this earlier phase was later incorporated into a more extensively rebuilt church.
Medieval parish and late-Gothic rebuilding
In 1275 Blansingen belonged to the Wiesental deanery, a regional administrative division of the medieval Church. Around 1350 the parish church was incorporated into St. Blaise Abbey, placing it under the abbey’s ecclesiastical authority. The Blansingen and Kleinkems estates were also recorded in that year. The late-Gothic choir and the pointed windows of the nave probably belong to this period of ecclesiastical reorganization and building activity.
Records from about 1360 to 1370 place Blansingen, together with its subsidiary church at Welmlingen, in the Bisgovia archdeaconry and Warmbach deanery. An archdeaconry, like a deanery, was a regional division of church administration. The continuing connection between the Blansingen and Welmlingen parishes therefore reaches back to the medieval period.
The chapel of St. Nicholas at Blansingen was first mentioned in 1432. In 1464, St. George’s Abbey transferred its estates at Blansingen and Kleinkems to Margrave Rudolf of Hachberg. Hachberg coats of arms remain on the old portal and in the choir. The present church had already been completed in 1457, and its wall-painting program probably began around 1440. The artists are unknown, but differences in style indicate that at least two painters worked on the decoration.
Reformation and later alteration
After the Reformation, the church became Protestant while its medieval paintings remained beneath whitewash. The building stands approximately 500 metres outside the historic village centre, an unusual position whose original reason is unknown. Its location beside the former tithe farm may reflect the importance of the surrounding ecclesiastical estate, but the evidence does not establish why the church was placed there.
In 1768 and 1788 the parish asked the princely foundation of St. Blaise to replace the nave. The petitions described the interior as exceptionally dark and the structure as dilapidated. The requests were refused, but large pointed-arch windows were inserted to improve the light. Their construction required the whitewashing of the wall paintings and destroyed parts of them.
Rediscovery and restoration
Repair work in 1924 revealed the medieval paintings beneath the later coating. The art historian and church-monuments conservator Joseph Sauer and the monument conservator Julius Wilhelm argued for their preservation. The parish could not initially pay for the work, and the uncovering therefore began in 1953. Walter Ueberwasser and Jürgen Brodwolf continued the work until 1955 with state and church funding.
The sacristy, which had been demolished in the nineteenth century, was rebuilt on its former site in 1956. That restoration also repaired the altar and pews. In 1984 and 1990, employees of the State Monument Office found remains of a small Roman stone building near the church, probably a villa rustica, or Roman rural estate centre. The discovery indicates that the church site also lies within a landscape of earlier Roman rural activity.
The church’s Protestant use, its medieval decoration, and the surviving parish relationship with Welmlingen bring together several periods of religious history. The building preserves the effects of medieval ecclesiastical administration, Reformation-era change, later attempts to modernize the interior, and twentieth-century efforts to recover its medieval appearance.
Remains
Building and interior arrangement
St. Peter’s stands at about 335 metres above sea level, east of Blansingen’s village centre and beside the former tithe farm. It follows the traditional eastward orientation of a church, with the raised Gothic choir pointing almost exactly east. The building is approximately 34 metres long from the entrance to the choir. Its choir is about 11 metres wide at its broadest point and has a semicircular-octagonal plan.
The church is a simple hall church. A triumphal arch, the main arch separating nave and choir, marks the transition to the altar area. The west tower forms the principal entrance and rises approximately 22 metres. Its masonry bears the years 1497 and 1498 and overlaps an older archway decorated with heraldic ornament. Hachberg coats of arms survive on the old portal and in the choir.
Wooden pews run along the north and south walls, leaving a narrow central passage toward the choir. They originally belonged to the Barons of Rotberg of Rheinweiler, who also possessed a private gallery known as the Barons’ Gallery. The gallery was removed during the renovation completed in 1955. The interior has no pulpit.
Altar, font, and organ
The altar is made from red sandstone and was donated by a stonemason from Schopfheim. Its cross is made of tombak, a copper-zinc alloy, and contains twelve jasper stones from the Istein Klotz. Hayno Focken and the Wintermantel gem-cutting workshop of Waldkirch made the cross.
A 1990 organ by Freiburger Orgelbau stands to the right of the triumphal arch when viewed eastward from the nave. It has eleven stops on one manual, a 16-foot subbass in the pedal, and additional registration through bass and treble couplers. Its case is made of self-supporting solid wood and has lindenwood pipe shades. The instrument replaced a Steinmeyer organ installed in 1956. A granite baptismal font stands beside it.
Bells and memorials
The three bells are tuned to G-sharp, B, and C-sharp, forming a short musical pattern associated with the Christian hymn Te Deum. The first was cast in 1686 by Hans Heinrich Weitenauer of Basel. The second is a memorial bell bearing the Blansingen arms and commemorating those killed in both world wars. The third is a baptismal bell cast in 1959 by the Bachert foundry in Karlsruhe. A cracked Evangelist bell from 1739 was returned to the Hamburg bell depot and recast.
Epitaphs and grave slabs are displayed on the exterior south wall, together with a memorial tablet to veterans of the German War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871. Further epitaphs and grave slabs are located in the tower entrance, the choir, and in front of the former pulpit area.
North-wall Passion cycle
The medieval paintings were made in secco, a technique in which pigment is applied to dry plaster. The four walls were arranged according to the cardinal directions as part of a theological program. The north wall, or Gospel side, carries a two-row cycle of Christ’s Passion. It begins at the upper left with the Entry into Jerusalem and ends at the lower right with the Resurrection and Noli me tangere, the meeting of the risen Christ and Mary Magdalene.
Window openings made around 1800 caused major gaps in the cycle, while the former gallery beams left further holes. Restoration filled the most conspicuous breaks with restrained additions without strong outlines, and the differing tones remain visible. The south-side paintings are partly hidden by the organ, and three picture fields were entirely destroyed by centuries of moisture.
Entry into Jerusalem and the Last Supper
In the Entry into Jerusalem, Christ rides a donkey’s foal. A man spreads his cloak before him, four figures in yellow pointed hats emerge from a city gate, and three disciples approach from the opposite side. Weather damage destroyed much of the centre. Analysis of the pigment remaining in the mortar nevertheless permitted the outlines to be reconstructed.
The Last Supper shows Christ and the disciples behind a laid table. A window cuts through part of the scene, but the symmetrical arrangement permits a reconstruction of its basic composition. Judas apparently occupied a separate place. The haloes are yellow-metallic, and a third disciple looks between two solemnly inclined figures.
Washing of the Feet and Gethsemane
The Washing of the Feet depicts Christ bending forward as he washes the disciples’ feet. Its gestures follow a visual language developed over several centuries. The heavy bench resembles one shown in the Codex Egberti, a manuscript made around 980.
In the scene of Gethsemane, a roofed gateway leads into the garden. An armed group carrying swords and poles follows Judas, who wears yellow. Christ is dressed in royal purple and Peter in green. Judas’s red face uses a slightly oxidizing pigment. Much of the essential content survives despite the damage.
Arrest, trial, and execution
The Kiss of Judas is substantially preserved. Christ and Judas form one group, while Peter draws his sword against the high priest. The following image, Christ before Caiaphas, is poorly preserved. A circular window in the north gallery cuts through Christ’s central figure. The surviving baldachin represents the high-priestly palace, while the restoration only lightly indicates the damaged connections.
The Flagellation shows the naked Christ surrounded by tormentors wearing hats, clothing, and leg coverings. The lower row begins with the Crowning with Thorns. The enthroned figure is damaged at the head by the former west gallery, and the restored passages are only lightly indicated.
The Ecce Homo scene presents the pale Christ beside Pontius Pilate, who wears a green official robe. A stout Pharisee in a black cloak acts as an advocate for the shouting crowd. Christ’s head required restoration. The Carrying of the Cross is interrupted by a window opening. Christ suffers beneath the cross as people pull at him and others, including Simon of Cyrene, assist him; pale soldiers form the background.
Crucifixion, Entombment, and Resurrection
The Crucifixion is the best-preserved scene in the cycle. A stylized semicircular hill represents Golgotha, with a disproportionately large cross in the foreground. Christ appears as a delicate figure being fastened to the wood by several people. John and Mary stand behind the hill, with Pilate on the left. Christ’s feet are shown extended on the wood without wounds while four nails are driven in. The composition influenced a roughly contemporary panel painting associated with the Master of the Karlsruhe Passion.
The Entombment focuses on the emotional encounter between Mary and her dead son. Its arrangement recalls Sienese-influenced pattern books associated with Pietro Lorenzetti’s Descent from the Cross at Assisi.
In the Resurrection, Christ rises from the tomb holding a staff and banner in his left hand. Three guards remain, although the front guards have lost their heads. Restoration indicates the continuation of the scene across a damaged break in the wall. Noli me tangere shows the risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in a garden. He holds a gardener’s spade in his left hand and God’s banner in his right. Only Mary Magdalene’s head and the lower edge of her garment survive. Fungus-like trees behind the fence draw on an antique visual tradition.
South-wall life of Saint Peter
The south wall carries a cycle devoted to the legend of Saint Peter. It begins near the triumphal-arch wall and extends westward to the monumental figure of Saint Christopher. Irregular wall thicknesses restricted the composition, and the organ conceals part of the cycle.
Peter’s miracles and preaching
The first image is almost entirely hidden behind the organ. It is often interpreted as Peter raising Tabitha, a skilled woman in the apostolic legend. On that interpretation, the mountainous landscape represents the Byzantine mountains Peter crossed from Lydda. Another surviving fragment is understood as the Four Saints with Staffs.
The scene of Peter preaching to women shows the aged apostle in green behind the yellow lattice of his pulpit. Four women wear white head coverings against a black background. The Golden Legend, a widely circulated medieval collection of saints’ lives and legends, associates them with the conversion of the prefect Agrippa’s concubines. The scene resembles Lukas Moser’s Tiefenbronn Altarpiece of 1431, and its yellow cross-shaped pulpit also appears in a Basel manuscript.
Enthronement and the journey from Rome
The Enthronement of Peter shows him taking the Roman episcopal seat for forty years. His successors Linus and Cletus hold the tiara above him, while Christ appears as the giver of the power of the keys. The keys refer to Peter’s traditional authority to bind and loose sins, symbolized by the large key he holds with Christ. The tiara has a sugar-loaf form also used by Herrad of Landsberg in the Hortus Deliciarum. The faces differ from those in the other scenes and resemble representations of the Vera Icon, the Christian tradition of showing Christ’s face on the cloth associated with Saint Veronica. The image type was further developed in prints by Master E. S. in 1467.
Quo vadis, Domine? shows Peter leaving Rome through a city gate in despair. Christ meets him and asks, “Where are you going, Lord?” Peter replies that he is going to be crucified again.
Miracle, arrest, and martyrdom
The fragmentary image called the Seven Heads of an Attentive Congregation contains a central podium, probably representing the apostle and the magician Simon. It appears to show an audience witnessing a miracle, although its precise content cannot be determined. The seventh, eighth, and ninth lower picture fields lie behind the organ. The first two are entirely destroyed, while the ninth retains a canopy with black-and-white diamond-patterned coverings.
The Arrest of Peter shows the apostle wearing the two garments attributed to him in the legend, rendered in white and green. A dark-skinned henchman appears in contrasting Naples yellow. The cycle ends with Peter’s Crucifixion and Beheading. Peter is bound upside down to the cross, following the tradition that he was crucified under Nero. A figure in an ornamented green robe, possibly an official or Nero himself, watches the execution. The executioner wears a short slashed tunic in white and yellow and a white-and-green cap. Only the folds of a white cloak with a green interior identify Paul.
Triumphal arch and theological program
Wise and Foolish Virgins
The triumphal arch combines three related gateway images: the Wise and Foolish Virgins, diamond-like masonry, and Moses facing Peter. The Wise Virgins occupy the right side and the Foolish Virgins the left when viewed toward the choir. They look from small arcades toward the choir and hold oil lamps. Their long sleeves hang down, and their forms resemble figures in the Stuttgart Card Game of around 1430.
Diamond wall and precious stones
Large painted sandstone blocks are shaded to resemble diamonds, giving the gateway an apocalyptic character. Twelve precious stones on the symbolic foundations refer to the wall described in the Book of Revelation.
Moses and Peter
Moses and Peter appear on opposite sides of the gateway. Moses lies barefoot while praying to Yahweh on the summit of the earth and receives the tablets of the Law from above. Peter holds a large key and is accompanied by two saints. The tablets and the key form a visual contrast between Mosaic law and Peter’s power to bind and loose sins. The mortar ground of Moses’s image is damaged, but its outlines remain secure.
West wall and surviving saints
Last Judgment
The west wall, to the left after entering, contains the Last Judgment. Christ the Judge sits on a rainbow with an apocalyptic sword and a lily in his mouth. Angels blow trumpets beneath a starry sky. Mary and John serve as intercessors, although the relevant part of the wall containing Mary has been destroyed.
The scene extends across the western side beneath a painted diamond wall corresponding to the walled heavenly scene on the north wall. The surviving remains probably include Michael’s battle with the dragon, the heavenly fortress, the procession of the blessed, and a small angel in a window. The later tower severely damaged this composition.
Hell
The Hell scene is extensive. A huge dragon rises from a sea of flames, with men and women visible behind its teeth. The central figure is the bound Lucifer, represented with three faces on his head, belly, and hind leg.
Saints in the lancet niches
Four saintly figures survive in the niches of former lancet windows, two on each of the north and south walls. Saint Barbara appears as a crowned princess with a tower and martyr’s palm. A saintly pope in the second north-wall lancet is not securely identified, and the suggestion that he is Pope Urban I remains uncertain.
Saint Apollonia appears with dental attributes opposite a young abbot. These figures are among the finest surviving works of the south-wall painter. Vining plants decorate the white mortar background of the niches and symbolize the heavenly realms.
Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher occupies the full height of the westward south wall, extending from the base to the painted triforia beneath the ceiling. A triforium is an upper-level passage or arcade within a church interior. Christopher carries a staff and bears the Christ Child on his shoulders, symbolizing a life-saving passage between this world and the next. Fish, seahorses, and especially pike swim between his feet. The composition has affinities with ancient animal imagery and the Buxheim single-sheet print of 1423.
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