Churches by the wayside

8/14/2019 Churches by the wayside

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Churches by the wayside


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"Churches by the wayside" is a collection of blog posts

and musings written and photographed by Manfred

Berndtgen.

Title image: Sant'Agnese in Agone reflected in a puddle at

Piazza Navona, Rome

Lion figure at Gro St. Martin, Cologne


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Churches by the wayside

Living nearby a church means impertinence.

They belong to the loudest buildings in town,

remembering us of the course of time and of

the great celebrations that are a vivid part of

Christianity.

A church is not only a House of God, it's also

a source of inspiration, a place that doesn'tfollow today's needs of usefulness and

restlessness.

This book contains various images of churches

in Germany and Italy. It's a journey through

centuries, architectural styles and the difficult

relationship of man and belief.

Coming from the distance:

St. Peter's in the sea of

houses in Rome.

Some rights reserved. Content of this book is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (by-nc-nd). Photos

and text: Manfred Berndtgen, [email protected]

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Chiesa Nuova

The Chiesa Nuova (its predecessor was the church Santa

Maria in Vallicella, a name that is sometimes used also for this

newer church) has been built in the last quarter of the 16th

century. Initially it was meant to be unpretentious and without

elaborate decor, but after the death of St Philip Neri (for

whom it was built) it was decorated as we can see now -against his will. I visited this place in the evening, it was

already dark outside and the church was lit only by these

lamps. So I sat there, thought about the treasures that were

hidden in the darkness and smiled about the irony, seeing all

this opulence in a church that was built for a man to whom

material property and richness meant nothing and who lived

in self-chosen poverty for the most time in his life.

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The name-giver of this church, Adolfus of Sevilla, lived in the 9th century as son of

a Muslim father and a Christian mother in the then Islamic Spain. Being a Christ,

he rubbed people up the wrong way, caused offence, and was eventually

sentenced to death, thus becoming a martyr in the eyes of his contemporaries.

Adolfus' multicultural background, his difficulties with the then Muslim mainstream

and the causes of becoming an outlaw would be worth investigating, parts of his

story are timeless, I think. Until then we may admire the beautiful realization of

Neo-Romanesque in this church.

St. Adolfus4


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On Plants and Stones

This trompe l'il ceiling can be found in the second most important Jesuit church in Rome,

Sant'Ignazio, where the founder of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius of Loyola, is glorified. The

painting by Andrea Pozzo (1685) makes you believe that you're looking right into heaven,

where Ignatius receives his epiphany (symbolized by light rays) and gets 'ignited' (hence

his name). The then known parts of the world (located in the corners) are witnessing the

scene. The beholder's eye moves immediately to Ignatius, though the Lord is exactly in

the midst of the scene. This is a beautiful example of baroque illusionist painting.

Sant'Ignazio

Many of my colleagues at work are dedicated amateur photographers. Most of

them have some features in common: they are married for some years and

usually are about 40. Their favourite photography subject is 'fashion and beauty',

that means: making photos of preferably pretty young women. They make huge

efforts on this, are very busy with contacting models, organizing their shootings

and locations, and of course working on their portfolio.

Maybe it's not always the glamour of Vogue or Playboy that might come from thiswork, but usually their photos are quite amazing and I can surmise what keeps

them them sticking to this often arduous work.

Their comments on this model or the other, their reports about missed deadlines

and stressful shootings often result in short and explicit comments on these

young women. Sometimes I listen to comments of exhaustion where the

photographer says once he's fed up with all this beauty stuff he'll return to 'birds

and bees' photography.

If fashion and beauty photography is that arduous, why do they take on this

burden? Obviously, the preoccupation with young women has its advantages, and

a beauty shot certainly has more glamour than a landscape or church capture.

However, I can't avoid the impression that at least some of my colleagues try to

get something back from their life while doing these shootings. But as the leopard

can't change its spots their machismo peeks through - and suddenly the

glamour's gone. What remains is their reservation (if not condescendence) against

the birds and bees photographers.

My favourite subjects are made of stone or herbal tissue. They usually don't pose

for me; most of them I know only by accident. I have to take them as they a re,

there is no make-up artist and generally I don't have to consider queasy

questions about nudity, recklessness and the like. My models are either short-

lived or way too old for glamour shots. I wouldn't want to look down at a nudie

photographer because I'm preferring photos of sacral architecture and primeval

plants. It's just my strange little world as the glamour is theirs.

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The former Benedictine

monastery at Tegernsee,

Bavaria, today hosts the local

Catholic parish church of Saint

Quirinus and is a fine example of

Baroque refurbishment after the

disastrous Thirty Years' War

(1618-1648). Views of theceiling, where folk belief and

tradition meets masterly

painting.

Benedictine

Monastery,

Tegernsee6


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Above: A fine example of Bavarian late Gothic: the 15th century painting was done by Gabriel Angler,

several additional superstructures were executed by Gabriel Mlekircher. The monstrance below the

painting (in the middle) is the only remnant of the former treasury of the Church: it was fabricated by Hans

Kistler, a famous goldsmith of the 15th century. All other dcor was done in early Baroque style during

the refurbishment in the late 17th century.

Next page: Side aisles.


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Il GesIl Ges (or, in its complete name, Santissima Nome

di Ges) is the main church of the Jesuit order in

Rome. Following Charles Borromeo's Instructions of

religious building workthis church became

archetypical for churches built between the age of

Counter Reformation and Baroque. Constructionwas begun in 1568 by Vignola. The church was

finally finished by Giacomo della Porta in 1575

The exuberant decoration has been added later in

Baroque times. When built, Ges first was almost

without decors.

The fresco The Triumph of the Name of Jesus on

the vault was painted by il Baciccio in 1672-1685,stucco figures by Antonio Raggi.

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Above: Il Ges's High Altar is seen from every spot of the church. That sounds obvious but it is nonetheless a break

with traditional architecture of then, because liturgical needs were put before the personal preferences of the architect.

Thus one of the insights of Counter-Reformation became architecture.

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Above: The cupola was designed by Vignola and

completed by della Porta. Frescoes depiticing biblical

scenes executed by il Baciccio.

Left: Chapel of St Ignatius, designed by Andrea Pozzo, a

work of more than 100 artists. The Ignatius altar holds his

relics; the statue above the altar (made by Pierre Legros)

was initially made entirely of silver, then after the turmoil of

the French invasion, reconstructed in bronze by Canova. At

the tip is the Holy Trinity, the globe held by the Father is a

single piece of lapis lazuli.

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Sant'Andrea

della Valle

Sant'Andrea della valle (St. Andrew in the valleys)

is a big Titular church with the second largest

dome in Rome (after St. Peter's; 16.10 metres in

diameter and 80 metres high). Three large

paintings in the half-dome of the sanctuary depict

the martyrdom of St. Andrew. They are executed

by Mattia Preti, also known as Calabrese.

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St. KunibertCologne offers more than just the Cathedral: at least a dozen Romanesque

churches (the "big" ones, there are many smaller ones in the suburbs) are ready

for a visit. Most of them were gravely damaged during the war, some of them

totally. So 1985 was an important year for the city of Cologne when the last of the

twelve churches was fully restored. (One tower of St. Kunibert followed some

years later. This answers the question if it's still possible to build like our

forefathers: yes, it is.)

St. Kunibert is the youngest of the Romanesque churches, consecrated in 1247,

only one year before construction of the Cathedral begun. Dedicated to Kunibert,

one of the first bishops of Cologne, it offers a very light, pure Romanesque

architecture. Fortunately, many pieces of original art from the past survived the

times, like the upper windows in the choir apse. We'll have a closer look at this in

the near future. Another Kunibert image. The unusual location of the organ has

been chosen to not disturb the spatial impression of the nave. When I made this

photo the organist was practising, it was an impressive demonstration of his and

the organ's capabilities. Since today is Good Friday in the Orthodox Church we

use this as an opportunity to visit St. Kunibert again and have a look at the nave's

ambulatories. A closer look to the choir apse of St. Kunibert, Cologne, Germany.

The triptych that had been sold during secularization came back in 1998: it shows

a depiction of the crucifixion, painted by a nameless master. The stained-glasswindows in the upper 'storey' are originals from the early 13th century (ca. 1230),

they are dedicated to various saints, the middle one shows the tree of Jesse. (A

better photo of the windows can be found at Wikipedia.) The small shrines left and

right from the altarpiece are from the 19th century and contain the relics of St.

Kunibert and the Saints Ewald. The most distinguished sanctuary of the treasury

of the cathedral contains the assumed mortal remains of St. Victor (Viktor of

Xanten) in a gemmed shrine that is one of the oldest preserved ones in the whole

Rhineland. Besides the shrine busts of Victor and his relative Helena were erected.

The paintings in the wings of the altar are done by Barthel Bruyn the Elder (1534),

depicting various stages of life of Victor and Helena.

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Santissima Trinitdegli Spagnuoli

There are churches that

are totally overwhelming.

Others make you believe

you're already in (a

bavarian version of)

heaven. Others let you

witness the salvific history.

And when the splendor isjust too much but you

urgently need a place of

peace and calmness, you

may go to this church.

Santissima Trinit degli

Spagnuoli is a very small,

built for the Spanish

Trinitarian friars in the

middle of the 18th

century, and it's quite like

a living room, not far away

from S. Carlo but

completely different. This

small house of God is pure

contemplation, an intimate

place for just a few people

and far away enough from

the hubbub. Such a place

would habe been ideal forme today, because there

were as many as three

major events in my city

today and there were

perceived 5 million people

running through the

streets.18


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A small church located at Rome's Corso. San Marcello

has a long and chequered history. Making a photo here

was difficult, there wasn't much light I could use.

However, it is a quite intimate location that invites you

to have a rest from the hustle outside.

San Marcello al Corso

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Built during the Thirty Years' War

(1618-1648) as Jesuit convent church,

St. Andreas shows an iconography that

represents the 'universal idea of the

church'. The visitor is surrounded by

saints, the stucco depicts the trinity,

prophets, evangelists and the holy

kings. You can read this as an

interpretation of Augustinus' 'civitas

dei', the City of God.

When consecrated in 1629, there

possibly was a small organ installed, as

Georg Friedrich Hndel stayed here for

a while and played it. The case of the

instrument we can see here is from

1782. It experienced several

refurbishments since then. The first

organ (built by Peter Kemper

(1734-1820), an organ-builder from

Bonn) was a mechanical construction

with bellows that had to be treated by

kalkants, or bellows treaders.

In 1900 the keyboard was pneumatic

and the bellows operated electrically.Heavily destroyed by war, the Fabritius

workshop from Kaiserswerth rebuilt it in

the early 1950s. 1970 - 1971 Rudolf

von Beckerath, organbuilder in

Hamburg, built the actual organ and

installed it into the historic case.

The builders and designers built a

French Baroque organ that is provided

with a disposition commemorative of

Cavaill-Coll's tone ideal, but that also

consists of the concise registers of a

North German character in the mannerof Arp Schnitger. The organ is adjusted

to the complex spatial relations of the

church that has a reverberation of only

four seconds. It is praised by many

well-known organists. In 2003 some

digital enhancements were added.

The total number of organ pipes is

3480. The longest pipe measures 5.40

meters (17.7 ft), the shortest one just

2.2 cm (0.8 in).

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St. Marien in downtown Bonn, hidden behind an architectural abberation of the

Seventies. It was built 1887-1892 and although it doesn't look too exciting from the

outside, it is one of the finest Neo-gothic churches I've ever seen. Absolutely pure

design, very well preserved, fabulous handcraft and an exquisite interior.

Left: A few years ago the walls and pillars were painted in the sense of its

designer, Joseph Prill. This room creates a reverberaton of at least 7-8 seconds.

Top: The High Altar, depicting scenes of the life of the Christ.

Opposite, left: Choir with High Altar

Opposite, right: A look back towards the gallery. The organ at the gallery is made

by the renowned Klais Orgelbau company that resides just a few streets away.

Considering the reverberation effect of 7-8 seconds in that room this church has

very good acoustics.

St. Marien

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La Maddalena is dedicated to St Mary Magdelene. It is Rome's only

true Rococo church.

Top: The fresco in the vault shows The raising of Lazarus at the prayer

of his sister Mary,

Right: cupola

Santa Maria Maddalena

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The author of this book is information scientist and

currently working as systems engineer.Always wanting to

capture spirit and atmosphere of churches, this turned out

to be a difficult task. Only diigital photography and the

measures of digital image processing opened a window toa whole new world and made the photographs that are

collected in this book, possible.

Above: St. Victor at St. Victor's Cathedral, Xanten

Back cover: Altar, Cologne Cathedral


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Churches by the wayside

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