St. Lamberti is a parish and church in

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

, Germany, the parish of the town's (new town). It is named after

Lambert of Maastricht Lambert of Maastricht, commonly referred to as Saint Lambert (; Middle Dutch: ''Sint-Lambrecht''; ; 636 – c. 705), was the bishop of Maastricht-Liège (Tongeren) from about 670 until his death. Lambert denounced Pepin's liaison with his mis ...

, the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

. The church is a late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

building, the only

hall church A hall church is a Church (building), church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height. In England, Flanders and the Netherlands, it is covered by parallel roofs, typically, one for each vessel, whereas in Germany there is often one s ...

of the town. Since the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, it has been a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

parish church. It is situated in the Goschenstraße (Goschen Road), on the (New town market).

History

The Hildesheim town seal of 1300 depicts the previous twin-towered Romanesque church on the site; while excavations in the summer of 1952 revealed that the first Church St Lamberti was similar in design to the nearby with the cruciform design of a Romanesque

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

. To a degree, this plan corresponds to the design of the present church; the crossing of the older church corresponds exactly to the site between present

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

; the present church has side aisles, but no transepts to form a true crossing. The foundation stone for the new building was laid (according to an inscription on the north eastern

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es of the choir) on 13 May 1474. On completion of the choir in 1488, the church was consecrated and dedicated to

; however overall completion was to take over 30 years; during this period, those parts not yet demolished of the older church continue to be used. The nave, with its

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic a ...

of seven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

was completed in 1505. As a result of the Reformation, in 1542 the church became

, as did all parish churches of the town, except the Cathedral and most monastic churches. St Lamberti's churchyard was used for burials until 1812, and in 1816 was transformed into a garden. Hildesheim-Lambertikirche-Sakristei

The church was almost destroyed by Allied bombing on 22 March 1945. It had already suffered significant damage to the choir's roof and windows in February of that year, but the latter air-raid razed all but the base of the tower and some remnants of the nave's walls. A rebuilding program, sponsored by the Protestant Church, was completed in 1952. However, a southern annex, dating from 1482, was left in ruins as a memorial monument. The tower was left with a provisional roof, but was given a new

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

in 2007.

Interior

The principal entrance is on the western side of the building while the choir, of Peter and Paul, faces east with the Passion altar constructed in 1420. The pulpit, used on special occasions, was built by Carl Dornick; it is engraved with figures. The baptismal font was constructed in 1502; it is mounted on three lion masks and has an impressive cover made in 1550 by Hans Meissner of Brunswick. The unique features of the font are the embossed figure of St. Lambert (wearing shoes), the

of the Church, and an unusual cruciform. The cover of the font has images of 36 dancing angels, four times nine, four representing the evangelists and the

rivers of Paradise Rivers of Paradise, the four rivers of Paradise, or "the rivers of/flowing from Garden of Eden, Eden" are the four rivers described in Genesis 2 (Bible), Genesis 2:10–14, where an unnamed stream flowing out of the Garden of Eden splits into fo ...

, nine for the choirs of angels. Eleven of the angels are male (12 disciples minus

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...

) and twenty-five are female (the five senses multiplied by five). Above the angels are eight additional figures of saints: John the Baptist, St. Luke, Andrew the Apostle, John the Evangelist, St. Peter, St. Matthew, Paul the Apostle and Markus the Evangelist.

Church music

Church music has a long tradition at the church. A small organ was built in 1590 by Henning Hencke (1550-c.1620). It was sold in 1715 and replaced by a large Baroque organ, built by Johann Matthias Naumann, a pupil of

Arp Schnitger Arp Schnitger (2 July 164828 July 1719 (buried)) was an influential Northern German organ builder. Considered the paramount manufacturer of his time, Schnitger built or rebuilt over 150 organs. He was primarily active in Northern Europe, especial ...

. It was restored several times, but destroyed in 1945. The present instrument was built by Ernst Palandt, who used material from several Baroque organs, trying to create an instrument similar to the destroyed one. He finished his work in 1960. The ''Kantorei'' (chorale) performs in services, but also concerts of Bach's

Passions ''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and ...

, masses of the classical period and works by

John Rutter Sir John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. Biography Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, R ...

, among others. They offer weekends with a

Bach cantata The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas ( German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest can ...

rehearsed with a project choir and performed in a service the next day.

Erhard Egidi Erhard Egidi (23 April 1929 – 8 September 2014) was a German cantor, organist and composer of sacred music. He was ''Kantor'' at the Neustädter Kirche, Hannover, from 1972 to 1991, where he focused on music in church services, but also conduct ...

was

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

until 1972, when he moved to the Neustädter Kirche, Hannover. Cantor as of 2013 is Helge Metzner, who is also regional cantor. The church runs a weekly concert series (music during market time) on Saturdays. The 1500th event took place in 2012.

References

Literature

* Fritz Garbe: ''St. Lamberti in Hildesheim von der Väter Tagen bis in unsere Zeit.'' Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1960 * Johannes Heinrich Gebauer: ''Geschichte der Neustadt Hildesheim.'' Lax, Hildesheim/Leipzig 1937, * Nicolaus Heutger: ''Aus Hildesheims Kirchengeschichte.'' Lax, Hildesheim 1984, * derselbe, ''500 Jahre Hallenkirche St. Lamberti in der Hildesheimer Neustadt 1488-1988.'' Hildesheim 1988

External links

Ev.-luth. St. Lamberti Gemeinde Hildesheim
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Hildesheim, Lamberti Buildings and structures completed in 1488 Churches completed in the 1480s 15th-century churches in Germany Gothic hall churches in Germany Lutheran churches in Hildesheim Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism