The Holy Cross Church (German: ''Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche'') is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church in the Fröttmaning district of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

(

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

). It is now the oldest preserved church in the city as Fröttmaning has been a part of Munich since 1931.

History

The history of the church begins before 815, when the village of Fröttmaning was first mentioned officially (''ad Freddamaringun; in loco Freddimaringa''). A deed of donation in connection with the church from the year 815 is the oldest document in the Bavarian State Archive. The Fröttmaning noble Situli at that time had offered a wooden church, together with the farmland, to the

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 ...

bishopric, which was consecrated by Bishop

Hitto of Freising Hitto of Freising (died 835) was the sixth Bishop of Freising from December 811 to 835. He was descended from the Huosi family, part of the Bavarian upper aristocracy (''Hochadel''). In 794, the cleric became the deacon of Freising Cathedral an ...

. Today's late Romanesque building with its thick walls was built for the most part at the beginning of the 13th century. The Church of the Holy Cross is one of the churches with steeple above the choir which was typical for the Bishopric of Freising at that time. The Romanesque spire with round arch windows and frieze is eighteen meters high, the church itself is fifteen meters long and nearly seven meters wide. The battlement with its embrasures is still visible in the inner wall. Particularly rare and unique in Germany are the Romanesque frescoes painted directly on the red bricks of the interior with lime paint, which were discovered only in 1981 during renovations and then partly exposed. The painted circles around a ''tree of life'' symbolize the sun. One of the wall paintings is the oldest representation of Christ in Bavaria. The rest of the church is predominantly from the

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 ...

period. The ceiling fresco painted by pupils of the

Asam brothers The Asam brothers (Cosmas Damian Asam and Egid Quirin Asam) were sculptors, workers in stucco, painters, and architects, who worked mostly together and in southern Germany. They are among the most important representatives of the German late B ...

around 1740, it shows the worship of the Holy Cross. File:Kirche Heilig Kreuz, Fröttmaning-2.JPG, Interior of the church File:Kirche Heilig Kreuz, Fröttmaning-3.jpg, Fresco

Sunken village

With the construction of the nearby

Allianz Arena Allianz Arena (; known as Fußball Arena München for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely known for its exterio ...

, an international competition for an artwork was initiated which was won by Timm Ulrichs. The focus was on the disappearance of the former village of Fröttmaning. Approximately 150 meters south of the Holy Cross Church, in 2006, an inaccessible replica of the Romanesque church was created in original size from painted precast concrete parts. The surreal-melancholic work of art "sunken village" at the foot of the Fröttmaning mountain of rubble is a kind of a loss display, the disappearing in this place. The copy was arranged in such a way that the building seems half buried from the mountain.

Literature

* * Jakob Wetzel: ''Im Nirgendwo: Heilig Kreuz ist die wahrscheinlich älteste, ganz sicher aber die erstaunlichste Kirche im Münchener Stadtgebiet. An diesem Wochenende feiert sie ihr 1200-jähriges Jubiläum'', in:

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. Hist ...

, 17. April 2015, Seite R5.

References

{{Authority control 9th-century churches in Germany 13th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany Romanesque architecture in Germany Roman Catholic churches in Munich Cultural heritage monuments in Munich Tourist attractions in Munich