Location: Kämmereigasse 4
Tel. +49 921 63251
The Evangelical Lutheran city church of the Holy Trinity in Bayreuth is a three-aisled Protestant basilica in the late Gothic style and the largest church in the city. The previous building, dedicated to Saint Magdalene, a daughter church of St. Nicholas Church in Altenstadt, was destroyed in a city fire in 1605. Reconstruction of the church began in 1611 and on the First Advent in 1614 it was consecrated to the Holy Trinity.
The Bayreuth town church is located in the historic city center, not far from Friedrichstrasse on the edge of the pedestrian zone. The church square is surrounded by houses, the southern front facing Kanzleistrasse is open. Adjacent to the north is the Historical Museum in the former Latin school, not far from it are some of the castle estates of the city of Bayreuth.
A first church with only one tower was probably
consecrated on November 9, 1194 by Bishop Otto II of Bamberg. During
his stay in Bayreuth he signed a document which is also the first
mention of Bayreuth. The remains of that building are preserved in
the basement of the north tower.
After the destruction by the
Hussites at the beginning of February 1430, construction of the
church in its present dimensions began in 1437. A new church was
built according to the plans of the Bamberg stonemason Master
Oswald. It is 55 meters long, 20 meters wide and 16 meters high, the
two towers are around 50 meters high. The church is about three
times as big as the previous building; it could not be completed
until 1495 after years of construction interruption. The building
faces east, the chancel with the altar is at the east end. The 16
meter high central nave is separated from the two aisles by seven
pointed arcades; there is no transept.
The second tower, a
wooden bridge connecting the towers and the tower dwelling were
built between 1444 and 1529. The two towers are offset to the south
in relation to the longitudinal axis of the central nave. On May 12,
1448, a tower warden went into service for the first time.
In
1513 a chapel was consecrated on the south side of the church,
which, however, already had a previous building. It stood on the
site of the obelisk fountain built in 1788 and served as an ossuary
for the cemetery surrounding the town church. The two-storey
building, crowned by a turret, had a vault at the bottom in which
the bones were piled up. Above it was a flat-roofed sacred space
painted with frescoes. After the introduction of the Reformation by
Margrave George the Pious in 1528, the chapel was profaned. She was
made available to the newly established "Gemeine Almsenkasten"
(Communal Alms Box) that cared for the poor and infirm. Groceries
bought in advance were stored in the former chapel, which was now
called the alms box.
Margrave Christian moved his residence
from Kulmbach to Bayreuth in 1603. The church was severely damaged
in the first town fire in 1605. From 1611 to 1614, the margrave's
court architect Michael Mebart expanded the church into the court
church and main church of the Principality of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
The wooden ceiling was not renewed, but replaced by a vaulted
ceiling. The princely crypt was laid out under the choir room and
served as a burial place for a total of 26 members of the margrave
family until the middle of the 18th century.
In 1621 the
church was again affected by the second town fire. The two tower
domes caught fire due to flying sparks, and the north tower
collapsed onto the church roof. Inside, the organ and the pews were
destroyed. The ground floor of the North Tower is no longer
accessible due to being backfilled with rubble. A small stair tower
was therefore added to the outer wall.
In 1634, during the
Thirty Years' War, a cannonball smashed through a chancel window,
but did not cause any personal injury despite the full church. A
stylized broken window with the year in the glass in the chancel
reminds us of this event. Since 1668 the towers have had their
present form with Italian domes and a stone bridge.
In 1848
Johann Christian Wilhelm Dittmar became pastor at the church. A
comprehensive renovation and purification (style cleansing) in the
19th century eliminated essential features, such as baroque
decorative elements. The main portal between the towers was
decorated with neo-Gothic elements, the original more modest figural
decoration was lost. The post of watchman was abolished in 1932, the
last town watchman, Johann Münch, lived with his family from 1908
until his death in 1934 in the watchman's apartment in the north
tower.
In September 1969, a two meter high gilded cross was
also installed on the north tower. The galleries were removed during
the renovation of the church from 1975 to 1978. Until the 21st
century, the medieval anti-Jewish depiction of a “Judensau” was
located on the east side of the town church. The heavily weathered
sculpture was not removed until 2004.
Significant structural damage, which endangered the stability of the structure, led to the temporary closure of the building in 2006, followed by thorough renovation. The walls of the nave were each 16 cm out of plumb due to the poor derivation of the vault pressure, which led to fractures in the vault ribs and in the chancel arch. Individual parts had come loose from the stone frieze and masonry. Several initiatives advocated for the redevelopment. The church was ceremoniously reopened on the 1st of Advent 2014 with the participation of State Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm.
The church already had a
certain official function in the Middle Ages: the burgrave Johann III
issued a decree. in 1415 the Bayreuth town church together with the
parish of St. Peter zu Kulmbach became the meeting place. After the
Hohenzollern residence was moved from Kulmbach to Bayreuth, the church
became the main church of the Principality of Brandenburg-Bayreuth at
the beginning of the 17th century.
Today, the town church,
together with the hospital church and the Gottesackerkirche in the town
cemetery, belong to the Evangelical Lutheran parish of
Bayreuth-Stadtkirche. It is the seat of the regional bishop of the
church district of Bayreuth and the dean for 28 parishes.
The interior features the high altar from the 17th century, a neo-Gothic baptismal font, several paintings, an altar crucifix and two sandstone reliefs.
The high altar from 1615 was donated by Margravine Maria. It is reminiscent of a Gothic three-winged altar. However, the panel paintings date from the early 19th century and were painted by August Riedel from Bayreuth.
The pulpit with an artistically carved neo-Gothic pulpit cover was only added in 1871/72 together with the pews and the baptismal font. In the latter, eight alabaster reliefs from 1615 were used. This, like the main altar of the church, was created by the Nuremberg sculptor Hans Werner.
The church houses a
large number of well-preserved stone epitaphs. These date from the 17th
and 18th centuries. Among them is a large number of children's
tombstones. Frequently occurring families are Kanne, von Feilitzsch, von
Pudewels, but also other noble families of local importance, such as
Erffa, Künsberg and Lüschwitz.
In the church there are also some
older wooden epitaphs for the pastor and superintendent Justus Bloch and
the Bayreuth mayor Pankrazius Bidermann. The so-called Küffner epitaph
in the form of an altar contains two special features: The middle part
comes from the furnishing of the previous church around 1500. The
predella, made around 1615, shows the oldest surviving view of the city
of Bayreuth.