St. Augustine's Church (german: St. Augustin) is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg The Archdiocese of Bamberg (lat. ''Archidioecesis Bambergensis'') is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria and is one of 27 Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. In 2015, 32.9% of the population identified as Catholic, and 15.6% of tho ...

located in the

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 ...

n town of

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

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 ...

. It was built between 1856 and 1860. Originally designed in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, the church was remodelled in 1960 due to a liturgical reform. There is a

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

under the church that contains the remains of fifteen members of the Koháry branch of the

House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (; german: Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) is a European royal house. It takes its name from its oldest domain, the Ernestine duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, its members later sat on the thrones of Belgium, Bu ...

, a Roman Catholic branch of the originally Protestant ducal house.

History

After the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, Catholic worship was curtailed in Coburg and the last service was held in 1582, at the . It took almost three hundred years for a new Catholic parish to be reestablished in the town. In 1851, a committee headed by

Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha August Victor Louis of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: August Viktor Ludwig; 13 June 1818 – 26 July 1881), was a German prince of the Catholic House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry. He was a General Major in the Royal Saxon Army and the own ...

set out to plan the construction of a Roman Catholic church. His son, Prince Ludwig August, paid for the construction of a burial vault underneath the church. The vault was completed in 1858. The church was opened on 28 August 1860 (

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 ...

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

) by the

Archbishop of Bamberg This is a list of bishops and archbishops of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg in Germany. __TOC__ Bishops, 1007–1245 * Eberhard I 1007-1040 * Suidger von Morsleben 1040-1046 (Later Pope Clement II) * Hartw ...

Michael Deinlein Michael von Deinlein (26 October 1800, Hetzles, Upper Franconia – 4 January 1875, Bamberg) was a German Roman Catholic priest, bishop and archbishop. Life He studied theology and philosophy in Bamberg and was ordained a priest on 18 Nov ...

. On 15 July 1909, the Protestant

Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Princess Beatrice Leopoldine Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (20 April 1884 – 13 July 1966) was a member of the British royal family, a male-line granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She later married into the Spanish royal family, and was ...

married the Roman Catholic

Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain, Duke of Galliera (12 November 1886 – 6 August 1975), was a Spanish prince, military aviator and first cousin of Alfonso XIII of Spain. Early life Alfonso was born in Madrid, Spain, the elder ...

, in a civil ceremony at Schloss Rosenau, followed by a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

religious ceremony at St. Augustin and a Lutheran one in Schloss Callenberg.'The Marriage of Princess Beatrice of Coburg', in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' dated 17 July 1909, p. 5; 'Princess Beatrice Married', in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' dated 16 July 1909, p. 4 After Coburg joined Bavaria in 1920, the parish St. Augustin was assigned to the

Burials

Prince August and his wife,

Princess Clémentine of Orléans Princess Clémentine of Orléans (french: Marie Clémentine Léopoldine Caroline Clotilde d'Orléans) (3 June 1817 – 16 February 1907), princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and duchess in Saxony, was the sixth child of ten and youngest daughter of ...

, are buried in a double

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

on the right side of the vault. In 1948, the remains of their youngest son, Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, were placed at their feet. Twelve more members of the

are buried on the left side of the vault. Prince Ludwig August (second son of August and Clémentine) and his wife,

Princess Leopoldina of Brazil Princess Leopoldina of Brazil (Leopoldina Teresa Francisca Carolina Miguela Gabriela Rafaela Gonzaga; 13 July 1847 – 7 February 1871) was the daughter of Emperor Pedro II and Empress Teresa Cristina. She shared the first name of her grandmother ...

, are buried alongside their sons –

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, August Leopold and Joseph Ferdinand. The remains of Prince August Leopold's teenage son August Clemens were interred in the vault in 1908. A few years later, his remains were joined by those of his murdered cousin, Prince Leopold Clemens. The remains of August and Clémentine's eldest son and Leopold Clemens' father, Prince Philipp, can also be found on the left side of the vault. The remains of Philipp's daughter

Dorothea Dorothea (also spelled Dorothée, Dorotea or other variants) is a female given name from Greek (Dōrothéa) meaning "God's Gift". It may refer to: People * Dorothea Binz (1920–1947), German concentration camp officer executed for war cr ...

and those of Ludwig Gaston (son of Ludwig August and Leopoldina), Ludwig Gaston's second wife, Maria Anna Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, and August Leopold's daughter Maria Karolin are located in the lower part of the vault's left side.

References

External links

{{Commons category, St. Augustin (Coburg)
Official website
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1860 Roman Catholic churches in Bavaria Coburg Burial sites of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry Burial sites of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Bulgaria) Burial sites of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg Buildings and structures in Coburg 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany