The Marienstiftskirche is a Lutheran three-aisled hall church in Lich, Middle Hesse, Germany. It was built between 1510 and 1537, making it the last Late Gothic hall church to be built in Hesse.Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008, p. 558. The architectural style straddles the transition between Gothic and Renaissance. It is a Hessian heritage site and contains objects of national art historical significance.Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen (Hrsg.): Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Landkreis Gießen I. 2008, p. 404. The neighbouring , with its historic triple peal serves as a clocktower for the Marienstiftskirche.
History A parish is attested in Lich in the year 1239, which presupposes a church existed by that date.Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen (Hrsg.): Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Landkreis Gießen I. 2008, p. 401. In 1316, the Marienstift was founded by Philip III of Falkenstein, as a collegiate church (German: Kollegiatstift) with ten canons, which was intended to educate young men for the priesthood. Three neighbouring churches were incorporated along with Lich.Weyrauch: Die Kirchen des Altkreises Gießen. 1979, p. 118. A large amount of property of the surrounding churches and districts was donated for the maintenance of the college. In the year of the college's foundation, a new, stone church was begun which was roughly two-thirds the size of the present building. The hall church, with a long choir and rood screen was consecrated to Mary on 7 May 1320. It survived less than two hundred years. In 1510 it was entirely demolished to make way for the construction of the present building on the same site. Only a few sections of wall in the west wall survive.
Philip, Count of Solms-Lich was responsible for the new structure and contributed to the plans.Küther: Das Marienstift Lich im Mittelalter. 1977, p. 185. Meister Michael of Nürnberg produced a plan for the new building in 1509 at the instruction of the Count, which was modified in 1510 by Nikolaus of Wetzlar. The construction began in 1510 and was completed in 1537. Models for the new Marienstiftskirche include the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg, the Stadtkirche in Wittenberg and former Barfüßerkirche in Eisenach - all three-aisled hall churches with a northern sacristy and no transept.Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen (ed.): Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Landkreis Gießen I. 2008, p. 402. The plans were not followed exactly, but were modified in 1515 during construction, to incorporate novel Renaissance elements. The construction of a gallery in the choir was not ultimately realised. After the foundations were dug in spring 1511, the walls of the long sides of the church were under construction until October of that year. The construction of the arcades, the vaults of the side aisles and the roof work was undertaken in 1512. Philip, who was the guardian of the Amt of Coburg until 1514, sourced timber from the distant town of Lichtenfels. On 20 September 1512, 88 carts of lumber arrived in Lich from Hanau.Küther: Das Marienstift Lich im Mittelalter. 1977, p. 189. In 1514 and 1515, stone was quarried in Hardt and Lower Albach. Contrary to the usual order, the non-vaulted nave was built first in 1514 and the choir and sacristy were completed subsequently, in 1525. The buttresses on the north, east and south walls were only added in 1537.
In the later Middle Ages Lich belonged to the Archdeaconate of in the Archbishopric of Mainz with its own Send district - in 1435 it was not included in the Send jurisdiction of the archdiaconate.Gerhard Kleinfeldt, Hans Weirich: Die mittelalterliche Kirchenorganisation im oberhessisch-nassauischen Raum. (= Schriften des Instituts für geschichtliche Landeskunde von Hessen und Nassau 16). N. G. Elwert, Marburg 1937, ND 1984, p. 24. The collegiate church possessed four altars, dedicated to Our Lady, the Holy Trinity, St John, and St Anne.Diehl: Baubuch für die evangelischen Pfarreien. 1935, p. 201. As a result of the Reformation, the collegiate church was converted to Lutheranism in 1555. The first Lutheran priest was Heinrich Götz who served from 1564 to 1567.Lich. Historisches Ortslexikon für Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessisches Landesamt für geschichtliche Landeskunde (HLGL), accessed on 22. April 2015. The church was renovated in 1594, as recorded by an inscription in a medallion above the choir, "One thousand five hundred four and Ninety years after Christ's birth, This church building's Renovation was With god's help brought to completion entirely in the same Year that saw The Groundstones Beginning to be laid." Galleries were built, the floor was plastered, and the church was painted.Görlich (ed.): Licher Heimatbuch. Die Kernstadt und ihre Stadtteile. 1989, p. 129. In 1622, a gallery was added for the new organ.Diehl: Baubuch für die evangelischen Pfarreien. 1935, p. 202.
The whole ceiling was replaced between the 1720s and 1740s, the sacristy was renovated in 1736 and the church interior in 1740. The Fürstenstuhl and the pulpit were repainted by the Lich-based church painter Daniel Hisgen in 1765, the organ in 1780. Between 1859 and 1861, the interior was drastically redesigned. The organ was transferred from the choir to the west gallery. The Fürstenstuhl had been located here, but it was now moved to the north wall, between the nave and the choir. The pulpit and altar were also moved. The present pulpit originally derives from the nearby Arnsburg Abbey. After secularisation, it was donated to Marienstiftskirche and moved there in 1859/60. The old pulpit dated to around 1600 and is now located in .Walbe: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Gießen. 1933, p. 255. In renovations between 1879 and 1881, the glass panes of the southern window and the south side of the slate roof were repaired. For Martin Luther's 400th birthday in 1883, a window on the east side of the church was donated. In 1930, the roof and organ were repaired.Diehl: Baubuch für die evangelischen Pfarreien. 1935, p. 204.
During a renovation of the interior in 1952, Renaissance and Rococo paintings were revealed and the consecration crosses were restored. The church was most recently renovated between 2001 and 2002. In 2011 the church celebrated its 500th anniversary.
In 1883, for Martin Luther's 400th birthday, a linden tree was planted to the south of the church, which forms a recognised natural monument along with the oak tree beside it, which was planted in 1913 on the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. Also on the south side of the church is a monument to those who died in the First World War. Southeast of the choir, a memorial to the Jews of Lich who were victims of National Socialism was erected in 1988.
Architecture
The Marienstiftskirche is a late Gothic hall church with three aisles and seven bays. It is not oriented exactly to the east, but slightly east-north-east on account of the city wall. There is no transept; the whole structure is in line with the choir space, which was originally separated off from the nave by a choir screen. The nave has a steeply pitched roof, which also covers the side aisles and is slightly hipped at the west end. The roof is dotted with small dormers and is crowned by a small, eight-sided flèche at the east end. The "Welsh canopy" topping the flèche dates to 1520, making it the oldest in Hesse.Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen (ed.): Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Landkreis Gießen I. 2008, p. 403. The choir is the same width as the nave. The sacristy was built on the north side of the choir under a cat-slide roof; it is now a chapel. The main building material was basalt, which is covered with white plaster. The buttresses, tracery, doors, pillars, arches, and vaults are made of grey , except for the choir window tracery, where red sandstone was used instead.Walbe: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Gießen. 1933, p. 251.
The plaster-coated wooden barrel vaults in the central nave replaced a massive stone vault in 1555 or 1594.Walbe: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Gießen. 1933, pp. 245, 249. The Renaissance scrollwork (which was revealed in 1952) is cut off by a faux-marble wooden cornice, which supports the idea that the barrel were added as part of a renovation.marienstiftskirche.de: Baugeschichte, accessed on 31 March 2014. This cornice rests on wooden columns with Corinthian capitals. Above the wooden barrel, the original ceiling beams are still in place.Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008, p. 559. In the side aisles there is late gothic rib vaulting, which was probably originally intended to be installed in the central nave as well, but never added due to financial limitations. The narrow side-aisles allow access to the ambulatory, which is separated off by narrow, almost round arches, and in this way reflects a novel Renaissance influence. The galleries above the side aisles, which terminate at the choir and are accessed through three spiral staircases in the west wall, are supported by solid round columns. These columns extend up to the abutment of the main aisle's barrel vault, which forms a secondary arcade above the gallery. At the top of the eastern pillar on the southern side, indications of the original plan for rib vaulting in the central nave can be seen. The pillars of the choir also show signs of the planned rib vaulting.Weyrauch: Die Kirchen des Altkreises Gießen. 1979, p. 119. Under the altar there is a crypt, containing the bodily remains of the counts and their family.Görlich (ed.): Licher Heimatbuch. Die Kernstadt und ihre Stadtteile. 1989, p. 131.
The nave is lit by two levels of windows with pointed arches in the side galleries, which are separated by a cornice. The choir has five large windows with pointed arches. In the northeastern choir window are the remains of the old stained glass windows, which include a depiction of Mary with Child in the aureole from the previous church and one of Elizabeth of Hungary from the date of the present church's original construction, flanking depictions of the coats of arms of (above) and of (below).Magistrat der Stadt Lich (ed.): Licher Heimatbuch. 1979, p. 135. The rest of the window paintings date to the nineteenth century. In the southern side aisle there are stained glass depictions of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, as well as the risen Christ.marienstiftskirche.de: Fenster, accessed on 31 March 2014. At the west end there is a pointed arch window inserted high up in the wall.
The church is entered through two pointed-arch doorways: the sumptuous main door on the south side and the smaller, plainer west portal. The door frame is grooved and decorated with ribbing and ivy leaves.marienstiftskirche.de: Außenbau, accessed on 31 March 2014. It was once thought that the south door was part of the previous church which had been incorporated into the present structure, but this has now been refuted.Küther: Das Marienstift Lich im Mittelalter. 1977, pp. 191–192. The two spiral staircases in the west corners of the church are entered from the inside of building through pointed-arches. The central staircase, which leads to the Fürstenstuhl, is also accessible from outside the building.Walbe: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Gießen. 1933, p. 250.
Furnishings