St. Stephan at Mainz. View of the great belfry, the highest spot in the city for centuries, and the nave. The Collegiate Church of St. Stephan, known in German as St. Stephan zu Mainz, is a

Gothic 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 ...

hall

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

located in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

city of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

. It is known for windows created by Marc Chagall.

History

St. Stephan was originally built in 990 at the order of Archbishop

Willigis Willigis ( la, Willigisus; german: Willigis, Willegis; 940 – 23 February 1011 AD) was Archbishop of Mainz from 975 until his death as well as archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. Life Willigus was born in the Duchy of Saxony, possibly at ...

, who also initiated the building of

Mainz Cathedral , native_name_lang = , image = Mainzer Dom nw.jpg , imagesize = , imagelink = , imagealt = , caption = , pushpin map = , pushpin label position = , pushpin map alt = , pushpin mapsize = , relief = , map caption = , iso regi ...

. The church was founded on top of the highest hill in the town (in
charter
of 992 by Otto III the church is described as being ''infra muros Mogontię in summitate eiusdem civitatis''), most likely on behalf of

Theophanu Theophanu (; also ''Theophania'', ''Theophana'', or ''Theophano''; Medieval Greek ; AD 955 15 June 991) was empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Emperor Otto II, and regent of the Empire during the minority of their son, Emperor O ...

, the widow of

Otto II Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Ita ...

. Willigis intended the church to be a ''site of prayer for the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

''. The provost of the Collegiate Church administered one of the archdiaconates (a medieval organizational form similar to today's diaconates) of the Archbishopric of Mainz.

The building

The current church building dates from the late medieval era; construction of the main area of the church began in about 1267 and was completed in 1340. The successional building kept the guidelines of the floor plan of the original Willigis building and with it the design as a double

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 sp ...

church. St. Stephan is the oldest

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

in 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 ...

district, and is (besides Mainz Cathedral) the most important church in the city of Mainz. View of the Gothic cloister of St. Stephan, rebuilt 1968-71 after heavy destruction in World War II Only a few changes have been made to the church since the 14th century. The cloister, for instance, was added between 1462 and 1499 to the southern side of the church, and the outer face of the church was updated during the Baroque period. In 1857 a great explosion in a nearby powder magazine (Mainz was a

federal fortress Under the terms of the 1815 Peace of Paris, France was obliged to pay for the construction of a line of fortresses to protect the German Confederation against any future aggression by France. All fortresses were located outside Austria and Prussia ...

in the 19th century) destroyed the baroque facing of the church. St. Stephan was heavily damaged in the cause of the

bombing of Mainz in World War II The German city of Mainz was bombed in multiple air raids by the Allies during World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF), as well as the United States Army Air Forces. These led to numerous victims and heavy damage throughout the cityscape. Ove ...

. The cloister was heavily damaged and was rebuilt between 1968 and 1971; the restoration of the huge western belfry was also completed at that time, albeit with some difficulty. The arches over the nave and the choir could not be saved and have been replaced by a flat wooden ceiling. The church features a Gothic hall with a triple nave and quires at both the west and east ends. A large octagonal bell tower rises above the western choir.

Decorations and furnishings

Chagall windows

The Chagall choir windows in St. Stephan are unique in Germany. Between 1978 and his death in 1985,

Belorussia Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

artist Marc Chagall created nine stained-glass windows of scriptural figures in luminous blue. The figures depict scenes from the Old Testament, demonstrating the commonalities across Christian and Jewish traditions. Chagall intended his work to be a contribution to Jewish-German reconciliation, made all the more poignant by the fact that Chagall himself fled France under Nazi occupation. He chose St. Stephan due to his friendship with Monsignor

Klaus Mayer Klaus Mayer (24 February 1923 – 16 December 2022) was a German Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Mainz and was an . Biography Mayer was born in Darmstadt on 24 February 1923. Due to his half-Jewish heritage from his father, Karl Jakob M ...

, who was then the presiding priest of St. Stephan. Chagall's work has been continued after his death by his pupil Charles Marq and by others.

Others

Despite the immense damage caused by both World War II and the powder explosion to St. Stephan, the 13th-century altar mensa (or table) and the huge

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.), ...

dating from about 1500 have both survived. Archbishop

was buried in the church in 1011. His resting place is no longer known, but it is believed he is buried in the collegiate area.

References

*Josef Heinzelmann: ''Spuren der Frühgeschichte von St. Stephan in Mainz. Ein Beitrag zu einer noch nicht geführten Diskussion'', in: ''Archiv für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 56'' (2004), S. 89–100.

Literature

* Klaus Mayer: ''St. Stephan in Mainz''. Kleine Kunstführer Nr. 523. 15., erweiterte Auflage. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2009, 59 S., ; English: 6. Aufl. 2007, ; French: 3. Aufl. 2002,

External links

St. Stephan
on the city website

from the

Diocese of Mainz The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Stephans Church, Mainz 990 10th-century churches in Germany 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany Stephan Romanesque architecture in Germany

Mainz St Stephen's