The Catholic Church Église Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur is a fortified church from the 14th century, which overlooks the Alsatian town Hunawihr is enthroned and is its main attraction. The church was named in 1929 Monument Historique classified.[1]
The church was built on the remains of a previous building from the 10th century.[1]
history
The founding of the church or the previous building is said to go back to St. Huna, who, according to legend, washed the clothes of the sick at a well at the foot of the church. Excavations in the 1980s unearthed foundations of a smaller building in the choir and central nave the 11th century as well as remains of a Romanesque altar. During these excavations, a presumption was confirmed that the pastor Michael Härter, who died in Hunawihr in 1750, had been buried in the choir.
The first documentary mention of the church and the village was in 1114 in a letter of protection from Emperor Henry V to the church of Saint-Diedolt (today Saint-Dié-des-Vosges). During the Middle Ages, the pilgrimages to the grave of St. Huna in the church were very well attended and contributed to the wealth of the village. However, part of the not inconsiderable income had to be transferred to Saint Diedolt.
On April 15, 1520, the canonization of Huna took place with great participation of the population (estimated: 20,000 people) and in the presence of high ethics, in connection with a papal indulgence, which brought the parish a considerable amount of money for the necessary repair of the church.
After the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War and the French Revolution, from which Hunawihr and his church also suffered, calm returned: the church tower roof was renewed in 1806 and received its hexagonal shape. In the mid-1820s, the ring and cemetery walls were repaired and today's access gate with two iron wings and the five-step staircase were installed. In the middle of the 1850s the plaster ceiling of the main nave was renewed and a large part of the sandstone tiles of the whole church. A small door in the south wall was closed and the benches, stairs and doors that still exist today were installed.
The most recent renovations took place in the 1980s: 1985/86 roof and beams, 1987/88 interior, choir, heating, sandstone floor, painting and ceiling paintings. 1989/90 the organ.
location
1 The church is located in the SSE of the locality on a hill and is surrounded by a cemetery wall, which is one of the most beautiful of its kind in Alsace and the neighboring areas.
Outside the cemetery wall is the Protestant cemetery. The church is used as a simultaneous church, and services of both faiths take place in it. The church has had this status since the end of the 17th century.
Before you get to the curtain wall, walk through a short stone staircase, next to which there is a memorial to the dead on the right, a straight path, on the left of which the mentioned Evangelical cemetery is laid out.
Curtain wall
The hexagonal enclosure wall is fixed at each corner by a three-quarter circular bastion. You enter the area from the north through a portal in the wall, which is the remains of a defense tower with the slides of a portcullis and two shooting shafts.[1] Dating from the 13th century, this is probably the oldest part of the complex.[1] The wall surrounds the church and the inner, Catholic cemetery. In the middle part of the western wall section there are traces of an earlier main entrance to the churchyard.[1] This gate was opposite today's main portal of the church. Residents could seek protection behind the wall in the event of impending danger. The wall was restored in the 16th century.
Steeple
The massive church tower is the oldest part of today's church and dates from the 14th century. It has two storeys and has a tower clock on its north and east side, each with only one hand, an hour hand decorated with grapes.
The inner
You enter the church through a side portal of the nave on the north side. The church was probably planned as a three-aisled pilgrimage church, but was not completed because of the Reformation turmoil. Two pillars stand in the northern third of the main nave, while one, which carries the pulpit, stands in the southern third.
Between the main and the small south aisles is the pulpit, which is incorporated into a supporting pillar so that the preacher climbs up through the pillar. The east wall of the aisle bears a painting by the painter w: Charles Corty out Rippoltsweier (1757-1836). It shows the saint James the Elder on the way to his execution by the sword. The informer kneels in front of him and asks his forgiveness.
At the east end of the main nave is the choir with the main altar from the 18th century and three Gothic church windows. The middle one from the middle of the 19th century shows St. James and St. Huna. The choir is spanned by a cross vault that contains a fine network supported by consoles with family crests. An inscription on one of the coats of arms shows the year 1524. The keystones show the coat of arms of the empire as well as those of the Spanish rulers of the Habsburgs and Württemberg. A side door on the south side of the choir leads into the sacristy, the door is inscribed with the year 1525. In the crypt under the sacristy there is a chapel with a square floor plan. The relics of St. Huna, who was canonized by Pope Leo X. in 1520, lay here until the Reformation - probably a clear sign during the Reformation. Leo died in 1521.
The walls of the lower floor of the tower are adorned with frescoes from the 15th century, which were uncovered in 1879. It is a total of 14 amazingly well-preserved representations in two rows on top of each other, which describe the life of St. Nicholas and the miracles after his death. The bell tower houses the oldest and largest of the three bells made in the Strasbourg bell foundry in 1700 on the ground floor. Since it was torn, it had to be replaced in 1970, but it was kept in this place as a witness of three centuries. The bell bears the German inscription:
"If you o Christ hear my sound
to the church service straighten your walk. "
On the west side of the main nave you can see the organ loft above the old (?) Main portal. The instrument is the workshop of the two Alsatian organ builders Louis Dubois and Jacques Besançon and was completed around 1765. Because of a pipe theft in 1803, it was renewed by Joseph Rabiny and François Callinet and completely renovated in 1900 by Gaston Kern.
Pictures and description of the frescoes
- See also: The legends of Nicholas at Wikipedia
Dowry for three virgins whose father wanted to force them into prostitution (excerpt from the next motif)
Above left: as before,
Bottom left: Resurrection of the Scholars,
Bottom Mi .: unexplained
Above Mi .: election as Bishop of Myra
Above right: calming the sea storm
Bottom right: A robber baron persecuted by knights can jump into the Danube with the help of Nikolaus
Calming the storm at sea
Lending money to a Jew
Coronation of the Virgin (or St. Huna)
View with cross vaults and frescoes
Individual evidence
swell
- Brochure on the Church, ed. Association des Amis de l'Église Historiques de Hunawihr
