A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - Angus FOWLER: The preservation of churches particulary timber-framed ones in Hessen

terms of the Peace of Westphalia in the second half of the 17th century for Lutherans in Swidnica (Schweidnitz) and Jawor (Jauer) in lower Silesia. Other examples in Poland include the well-preserved large church of 18th century date in Picz (Johannesburg) in the Masurian region or the small timber-framed chapel of late 17th century date in Tylowo north-west of Gdansk, now threatened by plans for a new church. Wooden towers, belfries or bellhouses more in the Slav tradition of wooden architecture and much like those in Poland and the Czech Republic and Moraiva are to be found in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg. One of the oldest wooden church towers in Germany dating from about 1420 in Wolkenberg, Kreis Spremberg, Lower Lausitz/Brandenburg was recently saved from destruction for browncoal mining. The gratest concentration of timber-framed churches in Europe is to be found in the state of Hessen in central Germany where some 250 such buildings still survive, mostly in the central and northern parts of the state, particularly in the Dill and Biedenkopf districts west of Marburg, in the central upland Vogelsberg region of volcanic origin and then scattered in northern Hessen. The oldest surviving timber-framed churches in Hessen are in Butzbach (between Giessen and Frankfurt) and Wagenfurth on the river Fulda. St. Wendelin in Butzbach was a chapel for a medieval hospital. The timber-framed chapel ca. 1440 replaced a stone one of 1208 and is built onto the main hospital building as was common in medieval hospitált. In form it is similar to contemporary choir ends of medieval churches with a 3 sided end. Unfortunately the timber-framed sturcture was much altered and much wood replaced during the restoration of 1982/83. The form of the timber-framed chapel in Wagenfurt ca. 1450 is closely related to contemporary timber-framed town or market halls and houses of 15th century date. The lower storey was used as chapel, the upper as granary. The building narrowly escaped demolition and transfer around 1872 and again around 1953. It was used in the late 19th and 20th centuries as fire-engine house and barn and was only restored to religious services again after renovation in 1962-63. A few buildings survive from the 16th century, the majority from the 17th and 18th centuries. Often stone churches which had been damaged in the 30 Years' War were rebuilt and heightened with timber-framed upper storeys and galleries inserted to hold larger congregations. Several churches have fine painted panels in the galleries showing apostles and evangelists. Compared with the large timber-framed churches in England, France or the Peace Churches in Silesia the timber-framed churches in Hessen are relatively small, they were usually chapels-atease and not parish churches which were usually built of stone. In form and plan the Hessian timber-framed churches are closely related to the local vernacular traditions of house or barn building. In the 18th century particularly in the Dill and Vogelsberg regions but also in areas in northern Hessen settled by Huguenot or Waldensian refugees in the 17th and 18th centuries some buildings were built to combine not only the functions of church but also of school, teacher's or priest's house, village hall etc. The majority of timber-framed churches in Hessen were Protestant (Lutheran/Reformed) but there are a few Catholic ones in areas ruled by the Catholic archbishops of Mainz or the abbots/bishops of Fulda. Oak was the main constructional timber. Before the 19th cent, some churches will have had thatched or shingle roofs. As a result of stricter building and fire regulations particularly in the 19th century (but already beginning in the 16th cent.) tiles and especially slate are now found as roofing materials. Timber-framed churches continued to be built in Hessen into the 19th century when many were giwen stone or brick infillings („Gefache") instead of the traditional daub and wattle (,JHechtwerk"). Some were built in the early 20th cent, (in the course of „Historicism") and a few even after 1945. There were also a large number of Jewish communities in villages in Hessen from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Many of them had timber-framed synagogues of which a number still survive. Altogether some 420 synagogues existed in Hessen before 1933, of which some 160 still survive.