Gemalter Glaube. Mittelalterliche Kirchen in der Altmark

The Middle Elbe near Tangermünde, an ancient cultural landscape that can be seen west of the Altmark River. Architectural gems long lost elsewhere are preserved in this enchanting landscape. A large number of small churches from the Middle Ages, often still in their origin. The book depicts a church of St. Konstanz, in which medieval wall paintings are preserved, the monument conservators of the State Office for Monument Conservation and Archeology of Saxony-Anhalt familiarize themselves on site with the state of the paintings, since that north of the Alps, mural painting is one of the artistic genres with the greatest losses.

Only a fraction of what was created is preserved, which is special. Medieval remains that come from very different periods are already known in Menton. On the wall we have relatively large and very well preserved wall paintings from the mid-13th century, that is, Romanesque wall paintings. On the south side we have a representation of Saint Martin, a wall painting that we date to around 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. On the north side 1 1 we have a fragment of a representation of Christopher probably created around the year 1500. This treasure requires special care as a unique and valuable cultural heritage of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, all wall paintings are registered and systematically made .

Accessible to the public and experts in a database on a cooperation project with the action groups Easter Tanga Elbe and Middle Altmark, financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Protestant Church of Central Germany. Architectural tours or buildings are recorded. From the Romanesque period, from the 12th to the 13th century, 250 buildings and churches have also been identified, which means that an enormous and unique wealth is preserved here in Altmark. It is an enormous density. , so you can see it, you can almost see it as an area An address of church buildings not only in the Hanseatic cities we have seven Hanseatic cities in the Middle Ages that were also very important, but also in the entire area weeks finally in the They have around 60 buildings with medieval mural paintings have been preserved and in total another 20 are documented.

About 150 individual murals are registered in the database, the oldest dating from the first half of the 13th century, but the majority dating from the mid-15th century . The village church of Klein Rostock is a simple stone building from the late Middle Ages, with spectacular wall paintings inside. There are large paintings that give an idea of ​​what the interiors were like in the past. creation of the world of the world is exactly the fall of man who is the one who watches the scene of worship then it also falls that there are true learnings in the local parts then it may be that last year the red tones the victims the red tones are much better preserved it is surprising that the green is still there, yes, because I have a lot of green.

I think that right here, in this church, you can get a very nice vision of a completely painted medieval church, because all the areas around all the walls of the church are also there and this coloring and this richness of images that people had in the middle Ages. I think you will see very clearly how the polygonal painting changes the impression of the church. It's very nice for you to see that the walls are not there. Transformed only into monumental image bearers, the content of the images also refers to the liturgical orientation of the church interior, unique evidence of medieval piety that demonstrates a distinctive artistic creation in Altmark, a cultural and artistic treasure that also says a lot about The role of I think a unique selling point can also be assumed: it simply has the old brand with 60 medieval buildings on which you can still see wall paintings.

Of these 60 churches in which wall paintings are preserved. , 45 are located in rural areas, that is, rural areas in which research receives less attention are especially valuable here and, in any case, they are also a very important cultural carrier in the Middle Ages. Through the Medieval Mural Paintings research project, an inventory is carried out. For the first time, in addition to the database on mural paintings, interdisciplinary studies are also being carried out involving the departments of construction research, history, graphic design, art history and restoration sciences. St Jakobi in Stendal is one of the greats. Gothic hall churches that have undergone countless renovations since construction began in the first half of the 14th century until today.

The church of the former Hanseatic city belongs to the Protestant Church of Central Germany and is famous for its testimonies from the Middle Ages in particular. In its buildings objects from around the year 1500 are preserved, such as this mausoleum magnificently decorated with 13 figures carved to the left and right of the screen, you can see large mural paintings from the time before the Reformation, rediscovered in 1901. The figure is wrapped and the baby Jesus must sit on the shoulder in a very sporting manner and then the little man strengthens him and shows him the way to the other.

On the other side is a monumental world judgment. The diploma thesis from the restoration course at the Dresden University of Art was once again in the spotlight. The first public investigations were made possible by a private donation. The extensive restoration of the murals was then carried out with funds from the state of Saxony-Anhalt. the East German Sparkasse and the church. Research has shown that parts of the representation of Christ and also parts of the representation of the damned in front of the mouth of hell closely resemble another wood engraving by Albrecht Dürer from the year 1511.

We saw similarities down to the last detail and we suspect that this served as a model at least for the representation of the world court. We know that in the year 539 the Reformation entered Stendal. Therefore, if the wall paintings were created after this date, this is unlikely to be the case. between 15 11 and 15 39 around 1520 Stendal, like all of central Germany, is under the sign of the Reformation, the old ideas have passed away, damnation in hell and Christ as redeemer of the world are no longer at the center of the belief that the mural has not been destroyed but has only been whitewashed and has survived the times.

It is one of the true miracles. After 500 years, Salvator Mundi, the savior of the world, is once again enthroned in St. James, flanked. The Ipse village church was built at the end of the 15th century by the apostles as court advisors, partly on the basis of the walls of an earlier building. There are still remains of masonry from the Romanesque church. the remains of wall paintings The place itself was first mentioned in 1238, but unfortunately our record of the church we have does not begin until 1571. We assume that there was already a church here in 12 38, otherwise the mention actually It would be useless, but I can't prove that that's why we need it.

It is imperative to carry out construction research here on site in order to delve a little deeper into our history. The first hint of an unknown chapter in construction history came during the cleanup. Roof structure During the construction work on the tower, boards were discovered that are something very special. Construction work on the roof structure at the top and on the Britta piece which was painted on one side. These are the finds from the attic. of the church and represent the roof, which originally belonged to the building visible today and we assume that it was around 1510 together with the church, that is, with the construction of the roof structure.

We probably built it for a long time in the ornament piece, which is still completely authentic, which is so typical of stencils, there are always these little triangles here, these black things that is a stencil and it is also a free drawing. So this church is near Salzwedel in Maxdorf and it has also been examined dendrochronologically the wood dates back to 1498 and as our wood dates back to around 1506 and we assume that the church was probably finished in 1510, that is not that far away. The ornaments you see here are also very comparable to ours. Rarely have the wooden ceilings and painted medieval interiors been preserved, as here plant motifs and scenes of the Passion of Christ decorate the painted walls of faith as a testimony to the great piety that To rediscover the medieval village church in Altmark It is all objects in terms of monument conservation and is the first step in a careful renovation that serves to preserve these unique works of art.

In the village church of Graz, a district of the municipality of Arendsee, wall paintings are preserved. not easy to discover At first glance it seems quite discreet, a surprise yes, that is very very strange and also impressive, so these are not simple sketches, they have a sketch effect where you can see that the whole shape was drawn. It draws very precisely with just one sitting. It actually becomes a circle if we take this circle, round cut with the two eyes, curved beak indicated, pointed ears, it looks more like an owl and then we have another one here. that only becomes evident or further away Then it should belong to this fish yes and the fish is very big but now let's look at the head of the fish again there is the fish wine so there was a very monumental fish for this small church that of course now going through the window installation is very disturbed, yes that is the fragment and I probably have to imagine that the window in the school desk would certainly be higher if there was someone's window and that of course the correct one is, therefore, completely different.

The lighting inside the church and its wall paintings show that the Middle Ages were not dark at all, but Sandi's stone churches, colorful and full of symbols, also look completely different on the facade. that structured the plastered surfaces. The term stone church emerged when there was still very little about its original structure. The current appearance of the stone churches actually needs to be revised because they were actually plastered buildings and walls. the scales were designed in color, the joint because they indicated the support joint here as a joint in red and here we have the butt joint picturesquely executed again in red and that continues here again so this is a very good example of exterior design , unfortunately It is largely lost, but here in Altmark it is still surprisingly largely preserved, so we actually have to preserve this find and can it really do it?

Truly a very outstanding example of how one should imagine its original external version. This is where the search begins. Traces of the Middle Ages in Altmark aim to preserve the wall paintings for the future, develop them scientifically and make them accessible to the public. This unique research project was initiated by the State Office for Monument Conservation and Archeology of Saxony-Anhalt. It's better to come and see for yourself