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Ulm Münster
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Ulm Cathedral is a Lutheran church, the tallest church in the world, with a steeple measuring 161.53 m (530 ft) and containing 768 steps. Located in Ulm, Germany, the church is not a cathedral in the technical ecclesiastical sense, as it has never been the seat of a bishop. (The responsible bishop of the Evangelical Church in Germany resides in Stuttgart.) However, it is a famous example of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture and is typically and mistakenly described as a cathedral.
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Encyclopedia
Ulm Cathedral is a Lutheran church, the tallest church in the world, with a steeple measuring 161.53 m (530 ft) and containing 768 steps. Located in Ulm, Germany, the church is not a cathedral in the technical ecclesiastical sense, as it has never been the seat of a bishop. (The responsible bishop of the Evangelical Church in Germany resides in Stuttgart.) However, it is a famous example of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture and is typically and mistakenly described as a cathedral. After climbing to the top level at 143m there is a panoramic view of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria and, in clear weather, a vista of the Alps from Säntis to the Zugspitze. The final stairwell to the top (known as the 3rd Gallery) is a tall, spiraling staircase that has barely enough room for one person.
Like the famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) - another building of the Gothic era - the Ulm Münster was not completed until the 19th century.
Measurements
- The church has a length of 123.56m and a width of 48.8m.
- The building area is c. 8,260 m2.
- The height of the central nave is 41.6m, whilst the lateral naves are 20.55m high.
- The volume of the edifice is some 190,000m3.
- The weight of the main steeple is estimated at 51,500 metric tons.
- The church seats a congregation of 2,000.
- In the Middle Ages, before pews were introduced, it could accommodate 20,000 people.
- The Ulm Münster is the largest Lutheran church and the second largest church in Germany (after Cologne Cathedral).
Gallery: Ulm Cathedral
Construction work
In the 14th century, the parish church of Ulm was located outside the walled city. The burghers of Ulm decided to erect a new church within the perimeters of the city and to finance the costs of the erection.
In 1377 the foundation stone was laid. The planned church was to have three naves of equal height, a main spire on the west and two steeples above the choir. In 1392 Ulrich Ensingen (associated with Strasbourg Cathedral) was appointed master builder. It was his plan to make the western church tower the tallest spire (which it is to the current day).
The church, consisting of the longitudinal naves and the choir, covered by a temporary roof, was consecrated in 1405.
However, structural damages, caused by the height of the aisles and the weight of the heavy vaulting, necessitated a reconstruction of the lateral naves. The side aisles were supported by a row of additional column in their centre.
In a referendum in 1530/1531, the citizens of Ulm converted to Protestantism during the Reformation and in 1543 construction work was halted at a time when the steeple had reached a height of some 100m.
The halt in the building process was caused by a variety of factors which were political and religious (the reformation, the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession) as well as economic (the discovery of the Americas in 1492 and of the sea route to India in 1497, leading to a shift in trade routes and commodities). One result was economic stagnation and a steady decline, preventing major public expenditure.
In 1817 work resumed and the three steeples of the church were completed. Finally, on 31 May 1890 the building was completed.
World War II
A devastating air raid hit Ulm on December 17, 1944, which destroyed virtually the entire town west of the church to the train station and north of the church up to the outskirts. The church itself was barely damaged. However, almost all the other buildings of the town square (Münsterplatz) were severely hit and some 80% of the medieval centre of Ulm was destroyed.
Works of art
- The tympanon of the main Western entrance depicts scenes from the Genesis. The central column bears a sculpture by the local master Hans Multsacher, the Man of Sorrows. These works originated in the late medieval era.
- The 15th century choir stalls by Jörg Syrlin the Elder, made from oak and adorned with hundreds of carved busts are among the most famous pews of the Gothic period.
- The original main altar was destroyed by the iconoclasts of the reformation. The current altar from the early 16th century is a triptych, showing figures of the Holy Family and the Last Supper in the predella.
- The five stained glass windows of the apsis, which is in the form of half a decagon, show biblical scenes and go back to the 14th and 15th century.
- The pulpit canopy is by Jörg Syrlin the Younger.
- The main organ of the church was destroyed by iconoclasts and replaced in the late 16th century. In 1763 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known to have played it. For some decades it was the largest organ in existence. In the late 1960s it was reconstructed to solve acoustic problems of reverberation.
- In 1877, the Jewish congregation of the synagogue of Ulm - including Hermann Einstein, the father of Albert Einstein - donated money for a statue of the Biblical prophet Jeremiah. The figure was placed below the main organ.
- Later renovations in the modern era added gargoyles and a sculpture, The Beggar, by the expressionist Ernst Barlach.
Gallery: Works of art
See also
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