St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (french: Église Saints-Pierre-et-Paul) of
Wissembourg is frequently, but incorrectly, referred to as the second largest Gothic church of
Alsace after
Strasbourg Cathedral. However, the building, with its interior ground surface area of () most probably is the second largest Gothic church in
Bas-Rhin which is one of the two departments of the Alsace region. The former
abbey church (''abbatiale'') of
Wissembourg's famous Benedictine abbey now serves as the main
Roman Catholic parish church of the town.
The church displays a Romanesque bell tower, the sole remain of the church built in the 11th century under the direction of
abbot Samuel, and is thus a station on the ''
Route Romane d'Alsace
The Route Romane d'Alsace (Romanesque Road of Alsace) is a tourist itinerary designed by the Association Voix et Route Romane to link both the well-known and the more secret examples of Romanesque architecture of Alsace, in an itinerary of 19 st ...
''. The major part of the currently visible church is the work of builders under the command of abbot Edelin, in the late 13th century. During the 14th and 15th century, the church was richly decorated with
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 ...
, sculptures and mural paintings but only parts of the former abundance of works survived the vandalism which occurred during the
French Revolution; of the surviving stained glass, what is not seen in the church itself can be found in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
's
Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame. The wide Romanesque
crown chandelier representing the
celestial Jerusalem and for which Wissembourg had been famous was also lost during that period; the currently visible chandelier is a 19th-century work.
The church contains a fresco representing
Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is veneration, venerated by several Christianity, Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Deciu ...
: with its height of , it is the largest painted human figure on French territory.
Among the church's remaining treasures features a
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 ...
, built by Louis Dubois in 1766 in one of the largest baroque organ cases in Alsace. When this organ had become barely playable, another organ was installed in the south transept in 1953, in a design typical of its time. The Dubois organ was restored in its (almost) original state between 2010 and 2012.
Located in the south transept of the abbey, the new organ, built buy Roethinger on the principles and aesthetics of the 1950s was taken up in 1989 by
Yves Koenig. It remained totally authentic and is therefore a valuable witness of the organ building at the middle of the twentieth century.
[ (accessed February 7, 2015).]
An spacious and ornate but unfinished 15th century
cloister in Late Gothic style and an adjacent Romanesque
Chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
(12th century) now serving as a lateral chapel are the only other remains of the
monastery where
Otfrid of Weissenburg once studied and taught.
Gallery
File:Wissembourg 3.JPG, Seen from a distance
File:Wissembourg - Eglise Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul -2.jpg, Inside view
File:Wissembourg StPierre-Paul111a.jpg, Other inside view
File:Wissembourg Dubois Organ.jpg, The Dubois organ (1766)
File:Wissembourg StPierre-Paul49.JPG, The Roethinger organ (1953)
File:Wissembourg IMG 3654.jpg, Romanesque bell tower
File:Wissembourg - Eglise Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul -6.jpg, Porch of main entrance
File:Wissembourg - Eglise Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul -1.jpg, Rear view
File:Saint Christophe - Eglise St Pierre et Paul - Wissembourg.jpg, Saint Christopher
File:Cloister of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul, Wissembourg.jpg, The unfinished cloister
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Peter and Saint Pauls Church, Wissembourg
Wissembourg PeterPaul
Wissembourg PeterPaul
Wissembourg PeterPaul
Wissembourg PeterPaul
Wissembourg PeterPaul
Wissembourg PeterPaul