The Frauenkirchhof was the oldest known cemetery in Dresden. It had existed since the first building of the Frauenkirche, which is dated to the 10th or 11th century. Until the 16th century, the Frauenkirchhof was the main burial place for the inhabitants of Dresden, who often buried their dead in the cemetery for several generations due to large family graves. The richly decorated and painted Schwibbogengräber were of particular art-historical value. Due to new buildings at the Frauenkirche, the cemetery was initially reduced in size several times and finally secularized by 1727 despite protests from the population in the course of the construction of the new Frauenkirche built by George Bähr. Epitaphs and gravestones have been preserved from the cemetery. Archaeological excavations since the 1980s have unearthed grave goods, including several funeral crowns.
History
Until the beginning of the 18th century Since the construction of the first Frauenkirche, which research places at the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century,.Reinhard Spehr: Grabungen in der Frauenkirche von Nisan/Dresden. In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, p. 211. The churchyard was used as a burial ground. Excavations carried out in 1987 on the former Frauenkirchhof uncovered grave remains probably from the 11th or early 12th century.
In the late Middle Ages, the Frauenkirche increasingly lost its importance as a city church to the Kreuzkirche, but enjoyed the highest reputation as a burial place; no cemetery could be built around the Kreuzkirche for reasons of space and burials inside the Kreuzkirche were also forbidden, as the church was to be kept "pure" as a place of assembly.Otto Richter: Der Frauenkirchhof, Dresdens älteste Begräbnisstätte. In: Dresdner Geschichtsblätter. No. 2, 1894, p. 126. Otherwise, in the late Middle Ages, only monasteries and hospitals were allowed to bury their dead in their own churchyard - apart from the Frauenkirchhof, only the Cemetery of the Bartholomäushospital existed at this time. Other permanent cemeteries, such as the Annen- and the Johanniskirchhof, were only established in the second half of the 16th century. While funeral services in Dresden were held in the Kreuzkirche, the funeral procession always followed through the city to the Frauenkirche, where the short burial ceremony took place. After the Reformation in 1539, the Frauenkirche and its churchyard were used exclusively for funerals for 20 years.
The Frauenkirchhof was enclosed by buildings on all sides from the middle of the 16th century. It was first reduced in size by the development of the area between Augustusstraße, Töpfergasse, An der Frauenkirche and Neumarkt. The church was no longer surrounded by the churchyard, but was located directly next to a row of houses to the west. The churchyard was also reduced in size towards Neumarkt.Heinrich Magirius: Die Dresdner Frauenkirche von George Bähr. Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 2005, p. 25. The churchyard was given a wall in 1561.Stadtmuseum Dresden, Stiftung Frauenkirche Dresden (ed.): Die Frauenkirche zu Dresden. Becoming - working - reconstruction. Exhibition catalog. Sandstein, Dresden 2005, p. 21. The churchyard could now be entered via four entrances: From Pirnaische Gasse at Neumarkt, from where the bodies were also brought to the churchyard, from Jüdenhof, from Töpfergasse and from Rampische Gasse. Two side gates connected the Maternihospital and the Kirchnerwohnung with the cemetery.
The Frauenkirchhof could no longer be extended due to the wall enclosure and the extensive development. The graves were therefore reburied at relatively short intervals. However, the excavated bones were not destroyed but kept in a deep vault in the so-called ossuary in the churchyard.Otto Richter: Der Frauenkirchhof, Dresdens älteste Begräbnisstätte. In: Dresdner Geschichtsblätter. No. 2, 1894, p. 125. The predecessor building of the ossuary was possibly a small chapel in the churchyard, which was consecrated in 1373, 1375 and 1388 and was dedicated to the Trinity and Saint Anne.Heinrich Magirius: Die Kirche "Unser Lieben Frauen" in Dresden - Der Vorgängerbau der Frauenkirche George Bährs. In: The Dresden Church of Our Lady. Yearbook 2002. Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, Weimar 2002, p. 63. It was probably demolished and replaced by the ossuary completed in 1514. On April 24, 1514, the ossuary was consecrated by Bishop Johannes von Meißen. The stonemasons and masons donated an altar of St. Anne, the four crowned martyrs and the Holy Chair of Peter to the ossuary in the Frauenkirchhof in 1514. In 1558, the ossuary was demolished above ground, but the underground vaults were preserved. In 1714, they were still "completely filled with bones and preserved with an iron door".Johann Gottfried Michaelis: Dreßdnische Inscriptiones und Epitaphia. Which on the Monumentis of those resting in God, who lie buried here in and outside the church of Our Lady .... Schwencke, Alt-Dresden 1714, p. 23/678. Above ground, a memorial stone was placed between two Linden trees around 1714. A wooden statue of St. Anne has probably survived from the altar of the ossuary. She is depicted as Anna selbdritt, an elderly woman holding Mary and Jesus in her arms. The origin of the statue, which is made of lime wood and is 131 centimetres high, is estimated to date back to 1510. The back of the sculpture is hollowed out; the statue used to be painted. It can be found in the Skulpturensammlung of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Initially, only clergymen were buried in the Frauenkirche itself. Later, nobles and court officials were also able to purchase a grave in the church for a high fee. The Frauenkirche was a popular burial site, so that the number of potential graves in the church far exceeded the number of interested parties. From 1561 to 1562, master mason Voitt Grohe therefore erected vaulted arches on the church wall and later on the entire cemetery wall. Stonemasons and bricklayers were also at work; Lewin Lehmann covered the arches from 1564 to 1565. 112 exclusive hereditary burial sites were thus created, which citizens and noblemen could acquire on the cemetery wall and next to the church. Four guilders had to be paid for a chapel-like vault with a deep crypt, which was around 11.5 square meters in size. Around 30 people could be buried in a vault.
Khe church and churchyard could no longer hold all of Dresden's dead by 1572. Elector August therefore ordered that from then on, 15 thalers had to be paid for burials in the church; burials in the churchyard cost three thalers, child burials half that amount. However, free burials could take place in St. John's churchyard, which had been consecrated in 1571. In the following years, the burial costs increased more and more as the lack of space grew. In 1671, the fee for a grave in the churchyard had doubled to six thalers. At the Elector's behest, large gravestones were banned in 1679, with the exception of graves of "respectable persons". The fees were further increased and the number of people allowed to be buried in the cemetery was further restricted: Court servants, burghers and servants, even if they could afford the fees for a grave in the cemetery, had to be buried in St. John's Churchyard. In 1895, Otto Richter stated: "All in all, the Frauenkirche and its surroundings formed a veritable museum of time-honored works of art and historical memories. On the other hand, given the dilapidation of the building itself and the neglected condition of some of the burial grounds, its overall appearance may by no means have been magnificent."Otto Richter: Der Frauenkirchhof, Dresdens älteste Begräbnisstätte. In: Dresdner Geschichtsblätter. No. 2, 1894, p. 130.
Reduction and demolition from 1714 to 1727 In January 1714, the Dresden City Council first became aware of plans to demolish the cemetery. The plan was to build a newer, much larger main guardhouse to replace the old Corps de Garde (main guardhouse). This meant that not only the water houses and fish stalls that stood on the outer wall of the churchyard had to be removed, but also some vaults and graves of town clergymen. In the same year, Elector Friedrich August I extended his demolition plans to the entire cemetery, forbidding further burials in the Frauenkirchhof on November 21, 1714 and giving instructions to rebury bodies that were still unburied. Although the dissolution of the entire cemetery was not implemented, the demolition of individual gravesites for the Hauptwacheneubau began in 1715, despite complaints from the Oberkonsistorium under the leadership of Superintendent Valentin Ernst Löscher. It was built from 1715 under the direction of Johann Rudolph Fäsch. Field Marshal Jacob Heinrich von Flemming wrote to the city council asking them to prevent the demolition of the graves:
The cemetery wall and arches were first removed from the side of the Materni Hospital so that the ground work for the new Frauenkirche could begin there, as decided by the Dresden City Council at its meeting on June 27, 1726. In the period that followed, until 1727, henchmen repeatedly dug up corpses and reburied them. Grave goods such as gold and silver rings and chains were delivered in exchange for tips. There were still many epitaphs on the outer wall of the church at the time, so that the transport invoices from February 1727 record "30 loads of epitaphs from the church in front of the Wilsdruffer Thor".Gitta Kristine Hennig: Der Verlauf der Bautätigkeit an der Frauenkirche in den Jahren 1724-1727. In: The Dresden Frauenkirche. Yearbook on its history and archaeological reconstruction. Schnell und Steiner, Regensburg 1995, p. 103. The demolition work on the old Frauenkirche and the churchyard continued until the end of April 1727. Only the west wall of the church and the immediately adjacent churchyard wall remained at the end of April, probably initially to protect the building site. They were finally removed in August, so that the demolition of the old Frauenkirche and the secularization of the churchyard were completed in August 1727.
Archaeological investigations in the present The site of the old Frauenkirchhof was archaeologically investigated for the first time in the 1980s. The reason for this was the new construction of the Hotel Dresdner Hof (later Hilton Dresden) on the corner of Töpferstraße/Münzgasse, during which trenches were dug for pipes and cables and the former churchyard wall was also cut into.Reinhard Spehr: Grabungen in der Frauenkirche von Nisan/Dresden. In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, p. 207. The next investigations extended to the west side of the former Frauenkirchhof at the edge of the then rubble hill of the Bährschen Frauenkirche and took place in 1987. The section was 40 meters long. The explorations revealed closely spaced tombs and graves both inside the church walls and outside in the churchyard, even though the section of the churchyard investigated was very small and the main focus of the excavation was on the old church building.Reinhard Spehr: Grabungen in der Frauenkirche von Nisan/Dresden. In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, p. 212.