The Mannheim Jesuit Church is a Catholic church of historic and artistic importance in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
,
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 betwe ...
. Church construction was begun in 1733 and completed in 1760. It was consecrated to St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. During the Second World War, the church suffered severe damage from air attacks; after the war it was rebuilt in its historical style using original parts.
The church displays many Baroque features in its exterior and interior. The exterior includes a twin towered facade, statues of the four cardinal virtues, and a 75 m high dome. The interior includes marble pilasters, a dome decorated with scenes from the life of the order's founder, and several organs. The most important sculpture is the 1747 "Crowned Silver Madonna." The Mannheim Baroque bell was cast in 1754, and recast in 1956 into five bells. In 1975 another two bells were cast. The bells are now distributed between the exterior two towers.
History
The church was built between 1733 in 1756 as the Court Church of the Mannheim electors
Charles Philip III and
Charles Theodore to a design of the Italian architect
Alessandro Galli da Bibiena
The Galli–Bibiena family, or Galli da Bibiena (also spelled "Bibbiena"), was a family of Italian artists of the 17th and 18th centuries, including:
"Ferdinando Galli Bibiena Online" (overview), John Malyon,
''Artcyclopedia'', 2005, Artcycl ...
. It was completed in 1760 and consecrated to St.
Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...
and St.
Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin: ''Franciscus Xaverius''; Basque: ''Frantzisko Xabierkoa''; French: ''François Xavier''; Spanish: ''Francisco Javier''; Portuguese: ''Francisco Xavier''; 7 April 15063 December ...
by the
Prince Bishop of
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...
,
Joseph of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Features of the exterior are the twin towered facade of red sandstone, the statues of the four cardinal virtues, the
Pheme
In Greek mythology, Pheme ( ; Greek: , ''Phēmē''; Roman equivalent: Fama), also known as Ossa in Homeric sources, was the personification of fame and renown, her favour being notability, her wrath being scandalous rumours. She was a daughte ...
, by Baroque sculptor
Paul Egell, which adorns the 75 m-high dome.
The
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
ed interior is in a late Baroque-early
classical style.
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 ...
from Munich was instructed to decorate the church. He decorated the dome with scenes from the life of the order's founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, while the nave had an over 400 square metre fresco whose content referred to the subject of the high altar, namely the Mission of St. Francis Xavier to India.
On the occasion of city's 300th anniversary in 1906 the church was extensively renovated. The two statues of the founders of the Jesuit order in the lobby are by the sculptor
Thomas Buscher. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the church suffered severe damage from British and American air attacks, especially the choir and the dome. After the war it was decided to rebuild the church in its historical style with the use of original parts in the reconstruction of the approximately 20 metres high marble altar of
Peter Anton von Verschaffelt
Peter Anton von Verschaffelt (8 May 1710 – 5 July 1793) was a Flemish sculptor and architect.
Verschaffelt designed, among other things in Mannheim, the high altar of the Jesuit church ('' Jesuitenkirche''), the arsenal and the Bretzenheim Pala ...
, and the electoral pews.
Furniture
Even today, this church is still very rich in Baroque art. It still has the six side altars and font by Verschaffelt. In the crossing beneath the dome there are four frescoes representing the continents by the Mannheim Baroque painter
Philip Jerome Brinckmann. The confessionals were reconstructed like the electoral pews. The most important sculpture is the 1747 "Crowned Silver Madonna" of Augsburg silversmith, Joseph Ignaz Saler. The destroyed frescoes by Egid Quirin Asam were not restored. Today's
pulpit was only placed here after the war. It was created in 1753 and originally came from the Carmelite convent in Heidelberg. In the lobby there are very richly ornamented wrought iron gates made by the Mannheim master locksmith Philip Reinhard Sieber in 1755 and two monuments of the church from 1906.
The
main organ case in the west gallery is built according to a design of the elector’s court sculptor Paul Egell. It survived the bombing and the small damage it suffered was repaired in 1952. In 1965 an instrument from the workshop of
Johannes Klais of
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
was installed. In 2004 this was optimized acoustically. The four manual organ has 62 registers. In the left side gallery is the choir organ. The case is by an anonymous artist. It was constructed for the Catholic Church in
Fuerth in Odenwald in 1751/52. In 1961 it was transferred to Mannheim and contains 16 registers from the case of the post-war Egell organ. The instrument is now technically unreliable and will be replaced by a new one.
To take into account the current requirements of the
liturgy the high altar was reconstructed and the choir redesigned. Klaus Ringwald created an altar of silver and bronze, with a new design of the sanctuary and four very large
candlestick
A candlestick is a device used to hold a candle in place. Candlesticks have a cup or a spike ("pricket") or both to keep the candle in place. Candlesticks are less frequently called "candleholders".
Before the proliferation of electricity, candl ...
s. In the new marble floor of the nave a memorial plate with the names of the Jesuits buried in the crypt together with the name of the longtime rector and the Mannheim honorary citizen Fr.
Joseph Bauer
Joseph Bauer (April 18, 1845 – October 12, 1938) was a German-American labor organizer and politician.
Life
Bauer was born on April 18, 1845, in the Grand Duchy of Baden. When he was seven, he immigrated with his parents to America, settling i ...
.
Bells
The largest Mannheim Baroque bell, cast 1754 by Johann Michael Steiger, was recast in 1956 by Frederick William Schilling into five bells and in 1975 the Heidelberg Bell Foundry cast another two bells. The eight bells are distributed between both towers; the two largest hang in the North West tower, the other bells in the south-west tower.
Notable clergy
In the Jesuit Church and the separate parish, inter alia, the following priests have worked:
* 1839-1846
Johann Baptist Orbin
Johann Baptist Orbin (22 September 1806 in Bruchsal – 8 April 1886 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman. From 1882 until his death he was Archbishop of Freiburg, a post which had been sede vacante
''Sede vacante'' ...
, later
Archbishop of Freiburg (1882-1886)
* 1864-1893 Caspar Koch, spiritual counsellor
* 1893-1895
Karl Fritz Pfarrverweser, later archbishop of Freiburg (1920-1931)
* 1895-1951
Joseph Bauer
Joseph Bauer (April 18, 1845 – October 12, 1938) was a German-American labor organizer and politician.
Life
Bauer was born on April 18, 1845, in the Grand Duchy of Baden. When he was seven, he immigrated with his parents to America, settling i ...
, the first dean of the City deanery and
honorary citizen
Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...
of Mannheim
* 1951-1974 Charles Nicholas, dean
* 1974-1984 Charles Munch, spiritual counsellor
* 1984-2005 Mgr. Horst Schroff, dean
* Since 2005 Karl Jung, dean
Literature
* Eva-Maria Günther: ''Die Jesuitenkirche in Mannheim''. Lindenberg 2005,
* Karl Weich: ''Mannheim - das neue Jerusalem. Die Jesuiten in Mannheim 1720–1773''. Mannheim 1997,
External links
Parish Homepage (German)
Information on the Church Music (German)
Information on the Jesuit Church on the City of Mannheim website
History of Jesuit Colleges (German)
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Mannheim
Mannheim Jesuit
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
Mannheim Jesuit
Tourist attractions in Mannheim