Mosbach Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St. Juliana is an interdenominational church in Mosbach in the Neckar -Odenwald -Kreis. The Protestant part is called the Collegiate Church, the Catholic Church as part of St. Juliana.

History

History as a Benedictine monastery

One is not unlikely, but historically not hedged thesis according to which the Monasterium Mosabach was founded 736 by Saint Pirmin as part of the diocese of Constance. The Benedictine Monastery is in any case first mentioned in the year 825. From the Frankish central authority ( the Carolingians ) had been assigned four Benedictine monasteries the task to develop the uninhabited forest Odenwald: the Lorsch Abbey from the west, the monastery of Fulda from the north, the monastery Amorbach from the east and up to the monastery Mosbach from the south. 976, the far -reaching direct Mosbach Monastery was handed over by Emperor Otto II to the Bishopric of Worms. Between 1000 and 1025 it was converted by Bishop Burchard of Worms in a collegiate. The canons used initially the old monastery church for worship.

Collegiate and Collegiate Church

The oldest document in which the church was mentioned, comes from 1277th Already in 1295 are called expansion plans. 1297 were taken from the parish church in Neckarelz in the Mosbacher monastery church relics particles. From 1370 the collegiate church was built in several phases through the collegiate on the foundations of the monastery church. The choir is probably from the late 14th century. Of the original two planned towers only the southern was built. The church is built in Gothic style and was consecrated the holy Juliana. The nave was built in the time of Count Palatine Otto I in the early 15th century and was extended under Otto II in 1468 to today's market square, where the church was a basilica character. Inside there is a rood screen separated the alone the canons reserved choir from the nave.

The Reformation was officially first introduced in 1556 by the Lutheran confession. 1559 moved to the Reformed confession. From 1576 the town was again temporarily (until 1583 ) Lutheran. During the Reformation, the monastery was abolished in 1564. In Mosbach, the Evangelical Reformed confession prevailed. The assets of the congregation received the Reformed Church, and it was placed under the administration of a still existing Stiftsschaffnerei.

North of the church was the convent building, which was connected by an underground passageway discovered in 1967 with the church. Southwest of the church joined in the Middle Ages to the old inner city cemetery. After 1520 a new cemetery was created outside the city walls at the Gutleutanlage, the old cemetery was to the marketplace, the St. Cecilia Church once stood in on the cemetery was closed during the Reformation and 1557/58 converted to Mosbacher City Hall. Between collegiate church and marketplace the now-defunct pin winepress was built, which occupied the space of the leading collegiate church from the market square stairs in about.

Simultaneous Church

1685 allowed the Catholic Elector Johann Wilhelm, the practice of religion in all denominations. In the Peace of Rijswijk the equal exercise of religion was written after the Nine Years' War in 1697. In the Electoral Palatinate was in all the places that had only one church, sharing their prescribed ( Simultaneum ). But since it still came to conflicts between denominations, issued the Elector in 1705 a religious declaration. All simultaneous churches should be divided by a wall.

In Mosbach mainly to the efforts of the later official mayor Johann Michael Speicher was a Franciscan in 1686, was founded. The Fathers had exercised until 1688, the Catholic parish ministry, then posted secular priests came from the Diocese of Würzburg for the course. Until the introduction of Simultaneum the Catholic community took advantage of the private chapel of the monastery, the Julianakirche together with the reformed church. 1698, although a church was completed, but this was the Franciscans reserved so that the Julianakirche continued to be used simultaneously and divided as a result of the declaration in 1708. The choir of the abbey church was given to the Catholics and the Protestants separated from the nave by a wall reserved. The Protestants were also given to lying on the Catholic side tower with bells of 1580th The bells were rung and are, however, also to Catholic services. Regarding disputes in the separation occurred because of the organ. The instrument was located on the Protestant side, the bellows on the Catholic. After settlement of the dispute was built on the Protestant side in the 19th century rood screen to the organ loft from. Also the southeast adjacent to the church Stiftshof was divided among the denominations.

While the wall has been removed in the meantime in most other simultaneous churches, it consists in the collegiate church until today. The 300th anniversary of the 2007 opening of the separation wall of separation has been agreed between the Protestant and the Catholic community. The wall has been breached and installed doors and some steps that now connect the evangelical part with the slightly higher Catholic part. On 27 July 2008, the doors between the two parts of the church were opened for the first time.

The Collegiate Church is today the main church of the Protestant parish Mosbach. The Church of St. Juliana is a branch church of the Catholic parish of St. Cecilia Mosbach.

Equipment

The Catholic Church of St. Juliana part consists of the side chapels extended from the west to the old Gothic choir of the church. This is divided into four bays, to the eastward followed by a cross vault. In the choir there is also a Baroque altar from 1732, the grave slab of Pfalzgräfin Johanna. Other art treasures of the Catholic part also includes a richly decorated pulpit and baroque altars and historical pictorial decoration in the side chapels.

The Protestant part is formed by the three-aisled nave of 1468 and the bell tower. The nave is spanned by four transverse rectangular yokes. Architecturally valuable in particular the rood screen and the stone Gothic pulpit, built in 1468, the front frame shows the Veil of Veronica in the Protestant part. The inscriptions indicate the consecration date: Ascension Day (26 May ) 1468, next to the palatinate count's coat of arms. Various discovered during renovations historical grave plates are placed in the church.

The " evangelical " tower laterally adjoins to the southeast of the " Catholic " part choir. Due to the foundation situation on the north side of the choir, it is assumed that a second tower also was once at least in planning.

1958 frescoes were uncovered and restored. The fresco on the north wall shows the sending of the disciples. The baptismal as well as parts of the Creed are written in German language in the time a great rarity.

Pulpit

Late Baroque pulpit in the Collegiate Church of St. Juliana

Late Baroque Marie altar in the Collegiate Church of St. Juliana to Mosbach

High Altar in the Abbey Church of St. Juliana to Mosbach

Epitaph of Johanna Countess Palatine of Bavaria (1413-1444) in the church of St. Juliana to Mosbach

Epitaph storage (1644-1687) in the Collegiate Church of St. Juliana Mosbachl