Schreiber

If you're not interested in my maunderings about either of the above topics, this might be a good post to skip.

Last Monday, I skipped out on the official tour of the city to spend some more time looking at churches. Went into the Regensburger Dom (cathedral). Lengthwise, not all that impressive (compared with, say, Cologne, or even the other churches in the city). But very, very high. The towers (as so often, completed in the 19th century--this time in a slightly different color of sandstone) are something like 150m. high. The exterior is currently covered in scaffolding, where they're cleaning industrial smoke off the stone (I wish they'd do the same with some of the windows!) The interior is a good example of "how to do it tastefully in the baroque period". "If you're going to build an enormous-@$$ tomb in the middle of the nave, have it include you praying before a life-size crucifix, so that it becomes a usable devotional object." and "If you're going to put in a massive baroque altarpiece, let it be shiny, and more importantly, NOT obscure the windows."
Then wandered around the city a bit. In the rain (depressing). Eventually wandered into the Niedermünster, feeling kinda like Frank McCourt’s relatives—looking for something to do, out of the rain. But it felt good to be in an actual church service (even one that I only stay for the beginning of, devoted to a doctrine I don’t necessarily believe, in a romanesque church remodelled—admittedly RELATIVELY tastefully—in the 18th century or therabout.

I had a similar experience of walking around disconsolately this morning. I’d planned to go to church at St. Oswald’s--the only Protestant church in the city in an actual medieval building. But due to a combination of late buses, missed stops and a sudden loss of my sense of direction, I wound up walking in exactly the wrong direction until the time the service was due to start. Eventually figured out where I was and made it back to city center. I have rarely been so glad as when I saw the remains of the city gate. And it really says something, when it’s only once you LEAVE the totally unplanned, chaotic alleys of the medieval city that you get lost. Anyway, I eventually went to a service at the (likewise Lutheran) Neupfarrkirche. It’s an interesting building: built on the site of the synagogue (demolished, I think by a mob, 1519), it was briefly a major pilgrimage church (the schöne Maria of Regensburg is now in the St.Ulrichmuseum, of which more anon), and remodelled for Protestant use late in the century. By that point, they’d figured out that renaissance architecture was different, but hadn’t quite twigged to how…so the windows, for example, are basically gothic in their structure, but with round arches. It’s quite nice overall, but a little strange. Oh, and perhaps appropriately, they have the Name of God, in Hebrew, written over the crucifixion over the altar.
The service: Had a heck of a time figuring out where to find the text, since the order of service is printed in the back of whats labelled as “Evangelisches Gesangbuch”…but I suppose first-timers also have problems with the BCP. More or less followed the liturgy and the reading (yes, singular), since they were basically familiar, but completely lost the thread of the sermon. Kinda cool: at communion, the minister gave each bunch of people communion, then had them hold hands and blessed them collectively, before moving onto the next bunch. More effective if you can fit a row of sixteen+ people… Oh, and of course they take wine SERIOUSLY in Germany. Not cool: using white wine (tacky), lack of coffee hour (to be expected).

I’d been informed of the existance of St. Oswald’s in the FIRST place the previous day, when I passed up a trip to Salzburg (I know, I know…but I wanted to shop, and have some unstructured time) to wander through the old city, not knowing I would be doing the same thing the next morning. The museum in St. Ulrich had a display on the city’s various churches, adding points to its already innate coolness. It is
a) free
b) ought to be renamed “museum of medieval shinyness”
c) in a VERY cool defunct church. It was apparently built by a 12th century duke of Bavaria as a palatine chapel, and according to the placard he originally designed it to be like St-Chapelle in Pparis, with upper and lower levels. I’m inclined to wonder, though, whether it wasn’t designed from the beginning with Aix-la-Chapelle in mind, since the middle’s cut out, with galleries instead of the putative second story. Assorted baroque-ish overpainting somehow fails to clash with either the architecture or its medieval predecessor.

And yes, there WILL be pictures of some of these, once I figure out how one puts them on LJ.

Incidently, it turns out that “Email” in German originally means “enamel”. Oh, and “Frosch” (like my dish liquid), means frog. Those who went to williams will know why this is amusing.