The new church of the Holy Trinity ( German: Propsteikirche St. Trinitatis ) is a Roman Catholic parish church in the center of the German city of Leipzig in the west of Saxony . Built in 2012-2015 opposite the building of the New Town Hall , it is the largest religious building in eastern Germany , erected after the unification of the country .
| Sight | |
| Church of the Holy Trinity | |
|---|---|
| him. Propsteikirche St. Trinitatis | |
 (photo 2016) | |
| A country | |
| Location | Leipzig , Nonnenmühlgasse 2 |
| Denomination | Catholicism |
| Diocese | Diocese of Dresden-Meissen |
| Architectural style | postmodern architecture |
| Project Author | Schulz und Schulz Architekten GmbH |
| Architect | Ansgar and Benedict Schulz |
| Building | 2012 - 2015 years |
| Status | parish church |
| Site | propstei-leipzig.de |
Content
Background
The current church in the inner Ring is a kind of "heiress" of the two previous Leipzig temples dedicated to St. Trinity. The first of them was built in 1847, located to the west of today's New Town Hall, and was badly damaged during the bombing of Leipzig in 1943 . Although the community received permission to rebuild the church, it was soon recalled, and in 1954 the ruin was demolished. [2]
In the next almost 30 years, the Catholic community used other churches of the city for worship: including the university church on Augustusplatz , which was blown up in 1968. Finally, in the late 1970s, permission was granted to erect a new church of its own, consecrated on the border of Rosenthal Park in 1982. But after a few years, massive problems appeared regarding the statics and general content of the building, which made it difficult to use the church.
After the Peace Revolution - in the wake of a general fascination with history and seeking to restore "historical injustice" - talk began about the return of the community of St. Trinity to the center of Leipzig. However, since a significant part of the old church site today is occupied by the primary school named after Anna Magdalena Bach , the city government proposed an empty site to the building south of the New Town Hall, where until the Reformation there was a convent of St. George.
Church Design
In 2009, an international competition was announced, attracting more than twenty architectural bureaus and won by the Leipzig architects Ansgar and Benedict Schulz ( German: Schulz und Schulz Architekten GmbH ), who offered to functionally and at the same time keep the church building in an unusual in shape a section resembling a very elongated triangle. The solution was to place the bulk of the construction in the eastern part of the plot (the church itself with the community center), which is adjoined by lengthy side wings partially devoid of the first floor, creating a kind of open patio-type courtyard and going back to the fifty-meter high bell tower . [3]
Site preparation for construction, pile driving and foundation laying began in November 2012, and an official laying ceremony was held on April 23 of next year. The construction of the main volume of the church from reinforced concrete continued until 2014, followed by technical equipment, interior decoration and lining of the outer surfaces with Rohlitz porphyry .
The minimalist interior design was developed by the Kuban - American artist Jorge Pardo ( Spanish Jorge Pardo , born 1963).
Church of st. Trinity was solemnly consecrated on May 9, 2015, and on May 25-29 of the same year hosted the 100th anniversary congress of German Catholics ( German: Deutscher Katholikentag ).
Public Assessment
Although among the townspeople the building of the new church came up against a very critical attitude, especially because of the windowless facade towards Wilhelm Leuschner Square, the professional architectural community appreciated it rather positively: for example, it received the Leipzig Architectural Prize and the Balthazar Neumann European Prize. In 2016, the Church of St. According to the prestigious World Architecture Festival , Trinity was called the “Church Building of the Year" [4] . The Association of German Architects ( German: Bund Deutscher Architekten BDA e. V. ) awarded the prestigious Nike Prize to the Schulz und Schulz Architekten architecture bureau for the symbolic significance of the project. [five]
Previous Buildings
Old church of st. Trinity (destroyed in 1943)
The second church of st. Trinity at Rosenthal Park (demolished in 2018)
Literature
- Bartetzky, Arnord: Die neue Leipziger Propsteikirche St. Trinitatis // Sächsische Heimatblätter. 61, Nr. 2, 2015, S. 128-132.
- Brogiato, Heinz Peter: Leipziger Spaziergänge. Südvorstadt. Leipzig, Lehmstedt Verlag, 2019 .-- S. 7-9. - ISBN 978-3-95797-072-5