Freising Cathedral, also called Saint

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

and

Corbinian Saint Corbinian ( la, Corbinianus; french: Corbinien; german: Korbinian; 670 – 8 September c. 730 AD) was a Frankish bishop. After living as a hermit near Chartres for fourteen years, he made a pilgrimage to Rome. Pope Gregory II sent him to B ...

Cathedral (German: Mariendom), is a romanesque

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising ''Landkreis'' (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Is ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. It is the co-cathedral of the Catholic

Archdiocese of Munich and Freising The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising (german: Erzbistum München und Freising, la, Archidioecesis Monacensis et Frisingensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria, Germany.

. Freising Cathedral is also known for being the place where

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

was ordained a priest.

History

An early church was present on the site by AD 715, consecrated as episcopal church by

Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

in 739. A triple nave was constructed in 860 and rebuilt after a fire in 903. The church was completely destroyed by fire on

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy ...

, 5 April 1159. Construction of the current romanesque building started in 1159 and completed in 1205. The romanesque wooden ceiling was replaced by a gothic vault in 1481–3. The tomb of St. Corbinian, the patron saint of the

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, is located in the four-nave crypt of the cathedral. In the centre of this crypt one of the most distinguished sculptures in Europe is located: the ''Bestiensäule'' ("pillar of beasts"), carved in the high Middle Ages. Substantial reconstruction was undertaken during the Baroque period, beginning in 1619. A complete renovation begun in 1621, and its nearly completed high altar was consecrated on 1 January 1624. In 1623, Prince-Bishop Veit Adam von Gepeckh of Freising commissioned

Hans Rottenhammer Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale. Biography He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Eld ...

(1564-1625) to paint a vast altarpiece. Rottenhammer was near the end of his career (and life) and possibly an alcoholic, and his work was delayed. The commission was transferred to

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

at an unknown time. Rubens completed the painting of the

Woman of the Apocalypse The Woman of the Apocalypse (or the woman clothed with the sun, el, γυνὴ περιβεβλημένη τὸν ἥλιον; Latin: ) is a figure, traditionally believed to be the Virgin Mary, described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelati ...

, a subject that had been very popular in German iconography since the 15th century. The bishop had commissioned a subject "applicable to all feast days of the Blessed Virgin" (''so sich auf alle unser Lieben Frauen Fest applizieren liesse''), which made the Madonna of the Revelation, associated in

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

iconography with both the

Assumption of the Virgin The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Catholic_Mariology#Dogmatic_teachings, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and d ...

and the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

, an apt choice. The finished painting is first mentioned in 1632, when it was evacuated from the advancing Swedish troops. It is now kept in the

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinak ...

, Munich.Peter C. Sutton
Peter Paul Rubens, The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse
, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Another renovation was undertaken in 1724, in view of the church's thousand-year anniversary. The

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, ...

decoration of the interior created is a work of

Cosmas Damian Asam Cosmas Damian Asam (29 September 1686 – 10 May 1739) was a German painter and architect during the late Baroque period. Born in Benediktbeuern, he lived in Rome from 1711 to 1713 to study at the Accademia di San Luca with Carlo Maratta. ...

and

Egid Quirin Asam Egid Quirin Asam (1 September 1692 – 29 April 1750) was a German plasterer, sculptor, architect, and painter. He was active during the Late Baroque and Rococo periods. Born in Tegernsee, Bavaria, Asam worked mainly together with his brothe ...

. In the 1920s, some of the frescoes were painted over and severely damaged. These were restored in 2006.

References

* Mark Bankus: ''Der Freisinger Domberg und sein Umland. Untersuchungen zur prähistorischen Besiedlung''. Leidorf, Rahden 2004, . * Hermann-Joseph Busley: ''Die Geschichte des Freisinger Domkapitels von den Anfängen bis zur Wende des 14./15. Jahrhunderts''. Dissertation, Universität München 1956.

External links

* {{Authority control Roman Catholic cathedrals in Bavaria Romanesque architecture in Germany Buildings and structures in Freising (district)