Halle Cathedral

Coordinates: 51°29′03″N 11°57′52″E / 51.4843°N 11.9645°E / 51.4843; 11.9645
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The cathedral
Interior

Halle Cathedral (German: Dom zu Halle) is an Evangelical Reformed Church, and is the oldest surviving church in the old part of the city Halle, Saale. Beside it resided the Archbishop of Magdeburg, who ruled the city for a long period. Albert of Brandenburg remodelled the church's exterior from 1520 onwards and built the neighbouring Neue Residenz, aiming to make the church one of the most influential and powerful monasteries north of the Alps.

History

It was founded as a

Dominican
monastery in 1271 and completed in 1330, with a simple three-aisle abbey church dedicated to Sankt Paul zum heiligen Kreuz (the order's rules prohibited a tower or a separate choir).

Around 1520 the then-archbishop Albert of Brandenburg had Bastian Binder remodel the church's exterior, adding rounded gables. It was reconsecrated in 1523 as the Stiftskirche of the Archdiocese. It was probably first referred to as a 'Dom' or cathedral at that time, although it was never the seat of the archbishopric. From 1523 onwards Albert also took on artists to improve the interior, commissioning The Meeting of St Erasmus and St Maurice from Matthias Grünewald, altarpieces from Lucas Cranach the Elder and stone sculptures by Peter Schro. Between 1519 and 1525 Cranach and his workshop produced 16 altarpieces for the church with a total of 140 panels, though only two central panels, some wings and a few sketches survive.[1] These alterations led to a church whose overall appearance was late Gothic and early Renaissance, an outstanding work of the Saxon Renaissance.

As an opponent of

Georg Friedrich Händel
was employed there for a year's probationary period.

The first abbess of the 'Freiweltliches adeliges von Jena’sches Fräuleinstift' was appointed in the church in 1703, the order having been founded by Gottfried von Jena with royal Prussian approval the previous year. The abbesses were also buried in the church.[2] The interior was 're-Gothicised' between 1883 and 1896 and the outer walls and interior were restored by the Denkmalpflege between 1957 and 1959. The Domstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt began a full renovation of the church in 1996, with work largely completed by 2005.

Description

Organs

Main organ

The Wäldner organ

In 1851 the parish replaced the church's baroque organ with a new instrument built by

University of Halle
.

Choir organ

Bibliography (in German)

References

  1. , S. 19
  2. ^ Johann Christoph von Dreyhaupt: Pagus Neletici Et Nudzici..., Halle 1750, S. 239, Ziff 43; Google Books

External links

51°29′03″N 11°57′52″E / 51.4843°N 11.9645°E / 51.4843; 11.9645