Old Saint Peter's Church, Strasbourg
The Église Saint -Pierre- le -Vieux is a church complex in Strasbourg, which consists of a Catholic and a Protestant church.
History
Origins and Middle Ages
For many historians, the Church is the first Christian cathedral of Strasbourg. The church was mentioned in records in 1130 but for the first time. The long-time Director of Town Planning of the Communauté urbaine de Strasbourg, Robert Jean Charles Will (1910-1998), discovered in the south wall of the sacred building remains from the Roman and Merovingian time.
Built along one of the most important Roman roads of the city houses the Protestant part - once the apse and choir of the original church - some medieval wall paintings and grave slabs. The authenticity of the preserved here relics of Amandus of Strasbourg is controversial.
The currently dominant Gothic construction in the Protestant part was built in 1382. Remarkably the flamboyant choir was in the Catholic part of the year 1455 from Jodokus Dotzinger (d. 1472 ), who made a name for himself as a builder of Münster.
Separation: a church - two confessions
The free city of Strasbourg played in the Reformation an important role and brought several Protestant thinkers such as Martin Bucer Matthew Zell and forth. 1529 were all churches, including the cathedral and Saint- Pierre- le -Vieux Protestant. After Strasbourg became French in 1681 under Louis XIV, won the dominant Catholicism in France in importance. They were looking at the use of religious buildings a compromise: In Saint -Pierre- le -Vieux this was that the two denominations share the church. Through a 1.50 m thick wall choir they separated ( Catholic part ) from the nave ( Protestant area).
The Catholic part of Saint -Pierre- le -Vieux
The increase in the number of Catholics led to the construction of a new larger Catholic Church. The then Director of Town Planning of Strasbourg, Jean Geoffroy Conrath (1824-1892), built in 1867 by 90 ° rotated to the old building a new church in the Gothic Revival style. A majority of the medieval choir was sacrificed. The plan for the design of the façade and the new tower was designed by the architect Fritz Beblo Breslauer (1872-1947), who from 1910 to 1918 held the post of city building director. In this Catholic church in the early 20th century were erected precious winged altars from the late Gothic and early Renaissance, which were rescued from dilapidated churches of the Upper Rhine. In the choir there are ten paintings which have the passion of Christ to the object. They are mainly associated with the painter Heinrich Luetzel man.
- Views of the Catholic part
Portal
Interior
Side altar
Look at the organ
Vault
Madonna statue
The Protestant part of Saint -Pierre- le -Vieux
The Protestant part was structurally changed little since the division: The nave and tower date from the 14th century. Remarkably the rood screen, which was created in 1500, and a relief of 1520, at the Hans Wyditz St. Anna is presented. Facilities include the historic organ, which was built in 1898 by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker organ builder (). The Orgelhäuse still comes from an organ of Andreas and Gottfried Silbermann from the year 1709. The present instrument has 24 stops on two manuals and pedal .. Since 2012, the Church is more used as a community hall. Services are held only on special occasions.
- Couplers: II / I, II 4 ' / I, I / P, II / P
- Views of Protestant part
Interior with view of the organ
Altar
Pulpit
Gallery of paintings
Fresco
Ecumenism
The two denominations used the church has long been a symbol of Strasbourg ecumenism that is comparable, stands out in their great intensity with the situation in neighboring Kehl.
2012 was a symbolic part of the separation wall torn, so that now there is a passage between the Protestant and Catholic part. Long before there were regular ecumenical services.