St. John's Church, Dresden
The St. John's Church in Dresden, built in the years 1874 to 1878 by God Help Louis Moeckel and was the first major neo-Gothic church in Dresden. Until their war -related damage demolition in the 1950s, she stood at the intersection Güntz-/Pillnitzer street in the district Pirnaische suburb, approximately at the site of today's St. Benno -Gymnasium.
History
Moeckel was awarded the contract to build a church after a competition, with his designs of rabbit from Hannover, Schmidt from Vienna and the Association for Church Art in Saxony had been approved. The architect wanted to introduce the neo-Gothic style with this building in Dresden. The church facade consisted of Elbe sandstone.
The sacred building took an intermediate position between Dreischiffigkeit and single nave. His plan was that of a single-aisled vaulted basilica hall with low aisles with galleries. Four-piece ribbed vaults resting on clustered piers. Pointed arches decorated the spaces between the pillars. Next there was the parapet of the triforienartig designed aisle - galleries. The building also had a transept, wherein before the south transept stood a church tower with octagonal spire. Role models for the 65 -meter-high steeple was the cathedral of Laon and the Naumburg Cathedral. Figures of the Twelve Apostles, with John the Baptist enriched the interior.
The nave is 47 meters long and at its widest point in the plan 22 meters. The interior offered 900 seats including the galleries. On the gallery in the south transept there was the organ. Access to the galleries in the aisles was possible two crops they grow stair towers.
The pulpit was located at the southern crossing piers, on the opposite north-east pillar of the ambo. The baptismal font with bronze lid was in the choir at the central axis of the nave. The pews of St. John's Church is made of oak. Among the peculiarities of their equipment included three colored carpets and Porting and vestments with rich embroidery.
On the pillars in the interior 13 sculptures were installed from a French limestone. They showed the Apostles, the Evangelist and John the Baptist. At the western portal, there was a relief. Sculptures in the church came from the workshops of Gustav Adolph Kietzmann, Oskar Rassau, Theodor Heinrich Bäumer and Karl Friedrich Gustav Broßmann.
The consecration took place on 24 April 1878. For the construction and equipping of DM 600,000 was spent, which could cover about 75 percent of the sale proceeds of the old Johannis cemetery on the outskirts of the city after the demolition of the church standing on it.
In the Anglo-American air raids on Dresden, the church building was destroyed by fire in February 1945, with the losses remained low because of the roof structure of steel. The tower remained intact. After the nave had been canceled in 1951, it blew up the tower on April 8, 1954.
The name lives in St. John's parish continues, which includes part of the former town area of St. John's Church.