The

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 ...

St. George's Church (french: Église Saint-Georges) is the most important religious building of the city of

Haguenau Haguenau (; Alsatian: or ; and historically in English: ''Hagenaw'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg, some to the south. To the ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Building history and description

A first church building, started in 1143, was replaced around 1200 by a flat-roofed

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 ...

with columns, recalling the architecture of

Hirsau Abbey Hirsau Abbey, formerly known as Hirschau Abbey, was once one of the most important Benedictine abbeys of Germany. It is located in the Hirsau borough of Calw on the northern slopes of the Black Forest mountain range, in the present-day state of B ...

and the influence of the

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this lat ...

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

, rather than the

Upper Rhine The Upper Rhine (german: Oberrhein ; french: Rhin Supérieur) is the section of the Rhine between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany, surrounded by the Upper Rhine Plain. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529 (the sc ...

regions and Alsace where basilicas were predominantly

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

d. The exterior of the nave is divided by

pilasters 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 wall ...

and archivolted

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

s. From 1250 to 1283, an expansion in

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

took place: a polygonal

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 ...

and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

and an octagonal

crossing tower A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church. In a typically oriented church (especially of Romanesque and Gothic styles), the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, ...

were added to the Romanesque nave, which remained intact, and the aisles were covered with a cross-ribbed

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

. The nave vault was built only in 1609–1611 in Survival Gothic forms (see

Jesuit Church, Molsheim The former Jesuit Church (''Église des Jésuites'') is the parish church '' Sainte-Trinité-et- Saint-Georges'' ( Alsatian: ''Sànkt-Georg- und Dreifàltigkeitskirich'') which is the main Roman Catholic sanctuary of Molsheim, France, and the pr ...

). During the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and the fighting around the city in 1945, the church suffered losses in construction and decoration material. Several severed sculptures, that initially decorated the Eastern part of the church, are kept today in the ''Musée historique de Haguenau''. The church was restored by 1963. Most noteworthy inside of the Church are the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

from the year 1500 by Veit Wagner, a huge crucifix (4 meters high, 2.75 meters wide) "Découvrir Haguenau"
(French) from the year 1488 by Klemens von Baden, a twelve-meter-high

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

from 1523 by Friedrich Hammer, and several carved

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

s, including a large-scale work by Diebold Martin, a

Last Judgment The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

, to which in the 19th century two late-Gothic paintings by a Franconian or Swabian

Anonymous master In art history, an anonymous master is an Old Master whose work is known, but whose name is lost. Renaissance Only in the Renaissance did individual artists in Western Europe acquire personalities known by their peers (some listed by Vasari in hi ...

were added, composing an altar which had originally not been designed in this form. The great

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 ...

is made by Alfred Kern & Fils (1988) in a case of 1867 by the workshop of Eberhard Friedrich Walcker; however, there was already in the 15th century an organ documented in the building.''Orgue de Haguenau, St Georges''
In 1845 the church received new

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows depicting the Emperors

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

, Konrad III,

Rudolf von Habsburg Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, he reigned from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which h ...

, and

Albert III, Duke of Austria Albert III of Austria (9 September 1349 – 29 August 1395), known as Albert with the Braid (Pigtail) (german: Albrecht mit dem Zopf), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1365 until his death. Biography Albert III was ...

. These windows did not survive the bombings of 1945. The windows to be seen today are the work of

Jacques Le Chevallier Jacques Le Chevallier (July 26, 1896 – 1987) was a French glassmaker, decorative artist, illustrator, and engraver. He was mobilized during World War I; after the war he became a master artisan in the studio of Louis Barillet, with whom he remai ...

, and were installed from 1956 to 1969. The bell tower over the crossing and includes the two oldest active bells of Europe; both were cast in 1268 and survived World War II unscathed.

Dimensions

The known dimensions are as follows: * External length: * External width: * Internal length: * Internal width:

Views

File:Haguenau StGeorges42.JPG, West façade of St. George's File:Haguenau St-Georges 02.JPG, View to the East with choir File:Haguenau St-Georges 06.JPG, View to the West with pipe organ File:Haguenau St-Georges 03.JPG, The pulpit File:Haguenau St-Georges 08.JPG, The "Judgement Day" altarpiece

Literature

* Ernst Adam: ''Baukunst der Stauferzeit in Baden-Württemberg und im Elsaß''. Stuttgart and Aalen 1977th

References

External links