It's not exactly a sight you'll expect when driving or hiking in the Harz area, but there it is.
This Scandinavian looking stave church is located in the outskirts of Hahnenklee, a borough of Goslar. Hahnenklee became popular as spa town in the 19th century, so that a larger church was needed for the visitors to be able to attend service; the parish church had become too small.
The church was designed by Karl Mohrmann (1857-1927), an architect and university teacher, later headmaster of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, and architect of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hannover. Prior to these occupations he had been a teacher for architecture in Riga and did a lot of traveling in Scandinavia and the UK; but also Africa and the US.
Mohrmann was a representative of the historicist school which started in the 1850ies and imitated old styles of architecture, painting and such. The Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Gothic with its extra turrets and oriels are typical for that style (like the Neo-Romanesque palace in Schwerin which mixes some Classicist elements into the overdecorated fun).
In that context, it comes as no surprise that Mohrman would take his inspiration from Mediaeval stave churches in Norway, in particular the one in Borgund which he had seen in person. It dates to the 12th century though it had been enlarged during the Middle Ages. Mohrmann considerably expanded his model; the average stave church would allow room for some 50 parishioners, the one in Hahnenklee can seat 240 and accomodate 350 people.
The German empeor Wilhelm II was fond of Norway and spent several holidays there, mostly traveling the fjords with his yacht. He also donated to the rebuilding of the town of Ålesund which was destroyed by a fire in January 1904. His interest in Norway and in history overall created a bit of a fashion which may have played into the idea to use a stave church as model.
The church is officially called Gustav Adolf Stave Church. I suppose it's named for King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, of Thirty Years fame (who led a Protestant amry into Germany and fell at the Battle of Lützen in 1632). Construction of the church began in 1907; the consecration was held on June 28, 1908.
The short period of only ten months was mostly due to the material used. At first, the plans had been for a brick construction in the Neo-Gothic style, but when the plans were changed into the imitation of a stave church, locally harvested spruce trunks were used which sped up the process and were cheaper as well.
Mohrmann thought that stave churches had once been common in Germany as well, and thus the one in Hahnenklee a genuine revival of the ancient architecture of the country. He was wrong, of course, stave churches stand in a different cultural context than the churches built in Germany after the Christianisation. There are no archaeological finds that point at the specific stave style ever to have been used here.
The windows are larger than in the traditional stave churches, thus allowing more light to stream into the interior – which, as said above, is larger than most stave churches in the first place. The Gustav Adolf church is more like a grand hall when you enter it.
The style takes up elements of the Scandinavian stave churches like the carved dragon and snake ornaments and other elements inspired by viking ships (like the shape of the roofs that look like Viking ships turned upside down), and a number of 'Norse' ornaments and carvings in the interior of the church.
The great chandelier at the ceiling is inspired by a ship's steering wheel – which was not in use on Viking ships that had a rudder. But it's quite impressive.
Another nautic feature that is definitely not Mediaeval Scandinavian are the bullseye windows on the gallery.
In other decorative elements – carvings and paintings – the style gets mixed up with Art Nouveau designs and inspirations from the Byzantine mosaic art (see also the altar below with the 'Byzantine' figures), according to the fashion of the early 20th century when the Art Nouvau became popular.
And below we get a bird of prey inspired by the Norse carvings at the foot of the chancel.
The church has been constructed in the traditional way without nails and screws. All main elements like planks, boards, poles have been set up vertically. That too, is the traditonal way that gives those churches their name: stave churches (from Old Norse stafr).
The church in Hahnenklee has an organ and a carillon, a set of tuned bells that are played with a keyboard and pedals that set int motion levers and wires attached to the bells. The first smaller carillon (1975) was situated in the roof turret, but moved to the belfry in 2002 and expanded to a total of 49 bells encompassing a range of four octaves.
The church has been renovated several times; the last one took place in 2000 - 2006. The church is still used for services and weddings and remains a popular tourist destination. I was lucky that there were not many people around when I visited in early March some years ago.
And now I wish everyone a Happy New Year!
What fascinating post, thank you - loved reading about this building. Just beautiful, and so intricately detailed.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jo, and welcome to my blog.
ReplyDeleteNa, diese Kirche ist ja ein ganz besonderes Schmuckstück. Ich habe bisher gar nicht gewusst, dass es eine solche Kirche hier in Deutschland gibt. Sehr interessant auch wieder die geschichtlichen Details.
ReplyDeleteLiebe Grüße von der Silberdistel
Vielen Dank, liebe Silberdistel.
ReplyDeleteDer Harz ist ja von uns nicht so weit weg; da finden wir schon einge weniger bekannte Sachen.