St. Mary's Church Lübeck

About

The Lübeck Marienkirche (officially St Marien zu Lübeck) is a medieval basilica in the city centre of Lübeck, Germany. Built between 1265 and 1352, the church is located on the highest point of Lübeck's old town island within the Hanseatic merchants' quarter, which extends uphill from the warehouses on the River Trave to the church. As the main parish church of the citizens and the city council of Lübeck, it was built close to the town hall and the market. The church was almost destroyed by Royal Air Force bombs in 1942, and reconstructed between 1947 and 1959. The church was built as a three-aisled basilica with side chapels, an ambulatory with radiating chapels, and vestibules like the arms of a transept. The westwork has a monumental two-tower façade. The height of the towers, including the weather vanes, is 124.95 metres (409.9 ft) and 124.75 metres (409.3 ft), respectively. It has the tallest brick vault in the world, the height of the central nave being 38.5 metres (126 ft). St Mary's epitomizes north German Brick Gothic and set the standard for about 70 other churches in the Baltic region, making it a building of enormous architectural significance. It is referred to as the...

In 1160, Henry the Lion moved the Bishopric of Oldenburg to Lübeck and established a cathedral chapter in the south of the old city island.

After 1160, a wooden church was built on the site of the Marienkirche in the middle of the town, which was first documented in 1170 together with St. Petri as a market church. Already at the end of the 12th century it was replaced by a Romanesque brick church that existed until the middle of the 13th century. Romanesque sculptures from the furnishings of this second Marienkirche are now on display in the St. Annen Museum. The sixth pair of pillars in the nave (from the west) dating from around 1200 can be seen as a remnant of the Romanesque Marienkirche in today's High Gothic building.

The design of the three-aisled basilica was based on the Gothic cathedrals in France ( Reims ) and Flanders, which were built of natural stone. St. Mary's is the epitome of ecclesiastical Brick Gothic architecture and set the standard for many churches in the Baltic region, such as the St. Nicholas Church in Stralsund and St. Nicholas in Wismar.

No one had ever before built a brick church this high and with a vaulted ceiling. The lateral thrust exerted by the vault is met by buttresses, making the enormous height possible. The motive for the Lübeck town council to embark on such an ambitious undertaking was the acrimonious relationship with the Bishopric of Lübeck.

The church was built close to the Lübeck Town Hall and the market, and it dwarfed the nearby Romanesque Lübeck Cathedral, the church of the bishop established by Henry the Lion. It was meant as a symbol of the desire for freedom on the part of the Hanseatic traders and the secular authorities of the city, which had been granted the status of a free imperial city ( Reichsfreiheit ), making the city directly subordinate to the emperor, in 1226. It was also intended to underscore the pre-eminence of the city in relation to the other cities of the Hanseatic League, which was being formed at about the same time (1356).

The Chapel of Indulgences ( Briefkapelle ) was added to the east of the south tower in 1310. It was both a vestibule and a chapel and, with its portal, was the church's second main entrance from the market. Probably originally dedicated to Saint Anne, the chapel received its current name during the Reformation, when paid scribes moved in. The chapel, which is 12 metres (39 ft) long, 8 metres (26 ft) deep, and 2 metres (7 ft) high, has a stellar vault ceiling and is considered a masterpiece of High Gothic architecture. It has often been compared to English Gothic Cathedral Architecture and the chapter house of Malbork Castle. Today the Chapel of Indulgences serves the community as a church during winter, with services from January to March.

In 1289 the town council built its own chapel, known as the Bürgermeisterkapelle (Burgomasters' Chapel), at the southeast corner of the ambulatory, the join being visible from the outside where there is a change from glazed to unglazed brick. It was in this chapel, from the large pew that still survives, that the newly elected council used to be installed. On the upper floor of the chapel is the treasury, where important documents of the city were kept. This part of the church is still in the possession of the town.

Before 1444, a chapel consisting of a single bay was added to the eastern end of the ambulatory, its five walls forming five-eighths of an octagon. This was the last Gothic extension to the church. It was used for celebrating the so-called Hours of the Virgin, as part of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, reflected in its name Marientidenkapelle (Our Lady's Hours Chapel) or Sängerkapelle (Singers' Chapel).

In total, St Mary's Church has nine larger chapels and ten smaller ones that serve as sepulchral chapels and are named after the families of the Lübeck city council that used them and endowed them.

In an air raid by the RAF on 28–29 March 1942 – the night of Palm Sunday – the church was almost completely destroyed by fire, together with about a fifth of the Lübeck city centre, including Lübeck Cathedral and St. Peter's Church.

Among the artefacts destroyed was the famous Totentanzorgel ( Danse Macabre organ ), an instrument played by Dieterich Buxtehude and probably Johann Sebastian Bach. Other works of art destroyed in the fire include the Mass of Saint Gregory by Bernt Notke, the monumental Danse Macabre, originally by Bernt Notke but replaced by a copy in 1701, the carved figures of the rood screen, the Trinity altarpiece by Jacob van Utrecht (formerly also attributed to Bernard van Orley ) and the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem by Friedrich Overbeck. Sculptures by the woodcarver Benedikt Dreyer were also lost in the fire: the wooden statues of the saints on the west side of the rood screen and the organ sculpture on the great organ from around 1516–18 and Man with Counting Board.

Also destroyed in the fire were the mediaeval stained glass windows from the St. Mary Magdalene Church [ de ], which were installed in St. Mary's Church from 1840 on, after the St. Mary Magdalene Church was demolished because it was in danger of collapse. Photographs by Lübeck photographers like Wilhelm Castelli [ de ] give an impression of what the interior looked like before the War.

The glass window in one of the chapels has an alphabetic list of major towns in the pre-1945 eastern territory of the German Reich. Because of the destruction it suffered in World War II, St. Mary's Church is one of the Cross of Nails centres. A plaque on the wall warns of the futility of war.

The church was protected by a makeshift roof for the rest of the war, and the vaulted ceiling of the chancel was repaired. Reconstruction proper began in 1947, and was largely complete by 1959. In view of the previous damage by fire, the old wooden construction of the roof and spires was not replaced by a new wooden construction. All church spires in Lübeck were reconstructed using a special system involving lightweight concrete blocks underneath the copper roofing. The copper covering matched the original design and the concrete roof would avoid the possibility of a second fire. A glass window on the north side of the church commemorates the builder, Erich Trautsch [ de ], who invented this system.

In 1951, the 700th anniversary of the church was celebrated under the reconstructed roof; for the occasion, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer donated the new tenor bell, and the Memorial Chapel Against War with broken bells in the South Tower was inaugurated.

In the 1950s, there was a long debate about the design of the interior, not just the paintings (see below). The predominant view was that destruction had restored the essential, pure form. The redesign was intended to facilitate the dual function that St. Mary's had at that time, being both the diocesan church and the parish church. In the end, the church held a limited competition, inviting submissions from six architects, including Gerhard Langmaack [ de ] and Denis Boniver [ de ], the latter's design being largely accepted on 8 February 1958. At the meeting, the bishop, Heinrich Meyer [ de ], vehemently – and successfully – demanded the removal of the Fredenhagen altar (see below).

The redesign of the interior according to Boniver's plans was carried out in 1958–59. Since underfloor heating was being installed under a completely new floor, the remaining memorial slabs of Gotland limestone were removed and used to raise the level of the chancel. The chancel was separated from the ambulatory by whitewashed walls 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. The Fredenhagen altar was replaced by a plain altar base of muschelkalk limestone and a crucifix by Gerhard Marcks suspended from the transverse arch of the ceiling. The inauguration of the new chancel was on 20 December 1959.

At the same time, a treasure chamber was made for the Danzig Parament Treasure from St. Mary's Church in Danzig (now Gdańsk), which was transferred to Lübeck after the War. The Parament Treasure is now exhibited at St. Anne's Museum, where a large organ loft had been built. The organ itself was not installed until 1968.

The gilded roof spire, which extends 30 metres (98 ft) higher than the nave roof, was recreated from old designs and photographs in 1980.