Mainz-Augustinerkirche von Suedosten-20130602

Nave and main altar - Augustinerkirche - Mainz - Germany 2017

The church of St. Augustin known in German as Augustinerkirche, was the minster of the Augustine friars in the city centre of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

. Today it is the seminary church of the Catholic theological seminary of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...

History

The church was built from 1768 to 1771 on the site of a Gothic church building on the Augustinian Street, dating to 1260. The builders were Augustinian hermits, who had already built the predecessor building and whose fraternity endured from 1260 to the Imperial

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

of 1803. The name of the

master mason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

is not known. After the secularization of the monastery in 1803, the building ensemble became a seminary comprising a church of the diocese of the newly created bishopric in 1805. The church was not destroyed in World War II.

Architecture

Despite its late origins, the exterior of the church is very much associated with the

baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. Due to the surrounding property with the

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

and seminar buildings and other houses, it is only possible to see the church with its mighty towerless façade that overlooks the other buildings of the old town. Above the portal rises a group of personalities created for the church by Nikolaus Binterim. It is essentially the coronation of Mary,

Queen of Heaven Queen of Heaven ( la, Regina Caeli) is a title given to the Virgin Mary, by Christians mainly of the Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Catholic teaching on this subject is expresse ...

, flanked by

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

, patron saint and ruler of the Augustinian order, and his mother

Monica of Hippo Monica ( – 387) was an early North African Christian saint and the mother of Augustine of Hippo. She is remembered and honored in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, albeit on different feast days, for her outstanding Christian virtues, partic ...

. In the south and east of the church are the former convent buildings and rooms of the seminar, which were built between 1737 and 1753. The wing of the monastery complex has a beautiful portal with figures, which also come from Nikolas Binterim, after the façade of the church itself. The interior of the church tends to

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

, which is expressed by a fusion of

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

a concept that is increasingly found in the Rococo stylistic.

Interior

The altars are according to the Rococo style, but the late construction of the church is illustrated here in that the echoes of

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

can be found. The furnishing makes a very rich impression through the large altars and the ceiling paintings created by Johann Baptist Enderle in 1772. In the church a

Mary, mother of Jesus Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

sculpture of 1420 is displayed, which was transferred to the Augustin church in 1807 from the demolished Gothic ″Liebfrauenkirche″ ( St. Maria ad Gradus), located beneath

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Pipe organ

As one of the few examples of a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, one of the famous organ manufacturer family

Stumm Stumm is a municipality in the Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historical ...

is placed in the Augustinian church; since 1773, the organ has been preserved to a large extent in the original form. The instrument has 31

stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...

on two manuals and pedal. The key and stop

tracker action Tracker action is a term used in reference to pipe organs and steam calliopes to indicate a mechanical linkage between keys or pedals pressed by the organist and the valve that allows air to flow into pipe(s) of the corresponding note. This is ...

s are mechanical. * ''

Couplers Coupler may refer to: Engineering Mechanical * Railway coupler, a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train device ** Janney coupler ** SA3 coupler ** Scharfenberg coupler for multiple unit passenger cars * Quick coupler, used in constru ...

:'' manual shift coupler, pedal coupler

References

External links

Augustinerkirche Seminary website

MainzTourism.de: Augustinerkirche website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mainz Augustinerkirche Augustinian monasteries in Germany Augustinian churches in Germany Roman Catholic churches completed in 1771 Baroque church buildings in Germany Aug