All Saints in Stuttgart

Yes, this post is about what happened over two months ago, at the beginning of November. Sorry! I got busy (busy or lazy? who can tell). Anyway, as I was saying, I got back into Munich from visiting Warsaw and Vienna on a Sunday night. Then on Monday morning N. and the kids and I packed into the car (J. stayed home to work) and drove the two hours or so to Stuttgart, where N.’s parents and sister live.

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I chronicle my musical adventures thus far

No, I haven’t charmed my family of five children by teaching them to sing. They already know how to sing, and J. (host dad) is really into all kinds of classical and traditional German folk music. I think it’s awesome, although I’m really very ignorant about traditional music. But over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to educate myself about it, and at the very least get used to listening to it. So it is kind of nice that I came to Germany, because I have something to tell you:

Germans love music. Of course, not every German is obsessed with Mozart or Renaissance polyphony or going to classical concerts, and if you go into a store or anywhere in public, there is a 90% chance that you will hear good old American pop music, but compared to many other places their musical tradition seems to be THRIVING. I will prove this by a series of anecdotes. But first I need to make a small detour, so bear with me.

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Freising Part 2: Domberg

Where were we…

The Domberg! It’s a self-contained complex of buildings on top of this hill, an episcopal quarter which includes: the Domkirche of St Korbinian and St Mary; the former episcopal residence and its attached chapel,  St John; cloisters for the former cathedral chapter; the cathedral library or Bibliotheksaal; and the Diözesanmuseum (in my previous post).

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Freising Part 1: Everything but the Dom

Way, way back at the beginning of October, I went to Freising. (Rhymes with “prizing,” not “freezing.”)

Ah, Freising. Freising was a significant medieval town long before Munich. It’s a cathedral town, the heart of the archdiocese for centuries, until it was joined with Munich in 1821. By that time there had been a cathedral (the seat of the bishop) in Freising for over a thousand years.

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Martinstag

I’m sorry about the gaps in posting — and I have so much backed up it’s crazy. But no worries. I am devoted to my task of showing you everything (or at least every church) I see on my exciting travels. It’ll get done eventually!

Yesterday, Nov 11th, was not only Armistice Day, but also St Martin’s Day, or Martinstag. (Or Martinmas, if you are from the UK and/or read lots of historical fiction as a kid.) Go ahead and read about it on Wikipedia!

I like St Martin. He’s an accessible and lovable character and one of my favorites. I read about him a lot. But for practical purposes, here is what you need to know: 

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Two medieval village churches: St Georg, St Wolfgang

The slightly irksome thing about these old churches, the ones out of the tourist circle, is that they’re locked up most of the week and only open for services. Which is fine, since I *go* to services, but I can feel awkward taking pictures of the whole place before or after.

Anyway, I showed up for an evening Mass at St Georg Dorfkirche, Obermenzing, a while back. There’s also morning prayer on Saturdays, which I haven’t gotten to yet.

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Altstadt München: Frauenkirche and St Paul’s

It’s my goal to get a lot of my backlogged pictures posted before I go to Warsaw at the end of the month (oh yeah! I’m doing that, did I tell you?) — because I’ll have two days (ish) there, a six hour layover in Vienna that I want to take advantage of, and then the first week of November I’m going with the family to Stuttgart, where N.’s parents live. Stuttgart may not be at the top of the list in terms of historical scenery, but N.’s dad is a history buff, and apparently knows a ton about local German history, so he might be able to guide me around and show me some things. N. told me that when he’s visited them here, he’s sought out all of the little medieval churches I’ve found here in Untermenzing and the surrounding neighborhoods, so I know he’s legit. I’m kind of excited about it!

Anyway, I know I’ll have a lot to post, and I want to have some of this other stuff out of the way. So let’s get going.

In this post I’m going to combine two churches because they are sort of similar. The first is the Frauenkirche (or officially, Dom zu unserer lieben Frau, “Cathedral of Our Dear Lady”), the seat of the archbishop of Munich-Freising, and a genuine Gothic church. However, it was badly bombed and had to be rebuilt after WWII, and sometime in the past several decades of liturgical reform it was altered quite a bit inside. The second is St Paul (not actually in the old city), a neo-Gothic church started in 1892 and finished in 1906. This was an era when historical styles like Romanesque and Gothic were revived all over Europe and the US, and all kinds of public and private buildings — libraries, university buildings, courthouses, even private homes — were built in an updated version of these styles. How exactly the updated styles are different from the original, I don’t know enough to say; but I can still usually recognize it. (And obviously location can be an easy giveaway. Hint: any Gothic-looking building in the US is not really from the 13th century.)

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Blutenburg Schlosskapelle

I’ve put this off for too long! I’ve decided to post it and just not bother with making perfect commentary.

The castle chapel at Schloss Blutenburg!

Here’s the outside (viewed from inside the castle walls). The onion dome towers like this one that you see in Bavaria are not medieval, but Baroque. Aside from minor exceptions like that, however, this is a beautifully preserved late Gothic chapel. When I walked in (probably three or four weeks ago, now) I could tell right away how old it was and I was dumbstruck. I’d love almost any old or beautiful church, but to walk into one that is so obviously medieval is a really cool feeling.

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Altstadt München: Marienplatz

I was told recently by a close blood relative (a sibling, in fact, a female sibling, and not the one with my DNA) that she, quote, skims my posts when I talk about, quote, church stuff. I can only assume she is referring to my fascinating, detail-oriented approach to sacred architecture.

Anyway, seeing as I have about four readers total, I’m pretty sure, I will try to make my posts more interesting.

THIS one will be interesting, it is about the MARIENPLATZ!

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Altstadt München: St Michael

St Michael, aka, The Jesuits Come to Germany.

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