St. Andreas (Hildesheim)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Andrew citizens is one of the great main churches of Hildesheim. With 114.5 meters in height, the tower of St. Andrew's Church is the tallest church tower in Lower Saxony. It is 364 steps to access and provides a wide panoramic view of the city and region.

Architectural History

The earliest church building under the patronage of the Apostle Andrew was a simple pre-Romanesque chapel, whose existence is already assumed for the year of death of Bishop Bernward 1022. Bishop Godehard was laid here after his death in 1038 for the grief expressions of the people.

In the Romanesque period, the center of the market and artisan settlement shifted from the humid lowlands between Domburg and St. Michael's Church ( " Old Market " ) here, and the chapel was replaced by a Romanesque church with a mighty Westwerk.

Construction of the Gothic church was begun, involving the Romanesque west work and maintaining the basilica cross-section, the end of the 14th century, the choir in 1389, the north aisle in 1404, the tower 1503. 1504, the nave with the aisles was brought up to the tower. The tower reached its final height, however, until 1883, before he stood barely beyond the rest of the building. The interior is reminiscent with ambulatory and radiating chapels on the east by French cathedrals.

As the market churches in many other German cities represented Bishop of St. Andrew in the High Middle Ages, the bourgeois self-confidence against the sovereign authority of the bishop ( Bishopric ), which presented itself in the cathedral. During the Reformation, this ancient power of opposites united with the religious question. Consequently, St. Andrew was in 1542 the first church of Hildesheim, was preached in the Lutheran and from where Johannes Bugenhagen introduced the new evangelical church order. Because since 1995 a memorial fountain monument by Ulrich Henn on the southern front of the church.

During the Second World War, the St. Andrew's Church was damaged in an air raid on 22 February 1945 several windows. In the most severe air raid on Hildesheim on 22 March 1945, she was completely gutted, only the ailing enclosing walls and the tower remained standing. Apart from the cathedral no other church in Hildesheim was so badly damaged as St. Andrew. In the 1950s, it was rebuilt almost true to the original.

Organ

The basilica is one of the largest organs in northern Germany. It was built in 1965-1966 by the organ builder Beckerath (Hamburg) and now has 64 registers ( 4734 pipes ) on four manuals and pedal ( Tonkanzellenladen ). The Spieltrakturen are mechanically, electrically, the Registertrakturen. The mighty church gives the instrument an unusual sound volume. Regularly organ and choir concerts.

  • Couplers: I / II, III / II, IV / II, I / P, II / P III / P, bells / P
  • In addition to register: Glockenspiel (main station)
  • Accessories: 6400 times electronic combination system, sequencer

Bells

Inside the tower four bells, with three of them are Leihglocken from the former eastern territories of Germany. The sonorous Osanna comes from the St. Mary's Church. The big bell is a gift from the city of Hildesheim. The bells are tuned to that of the cathedral.

The dimensions of the church are evidence of the wealth and self confidence of the citizens of Hildesheim.

  • Length: 80 m
  • Width: 35 m
  • Height: 27 m
  • Tower (since 1883): 114,5 m
Bernward of Hildesheim Gotthard of Hildesheim Westwork Gothic art Protestant Reformation Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk Strike tone
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