The Waldsassen Basilica, ''Mariä Himmelfahrt und St. Johannes Evangelist'' (

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...

and

St. John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...

) is the parish church in

Waldsassen Waldsassen (Northern Bavarian: ''Woidsassen'') is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria. Geography Waldsassen is the northernmost municipality of the Upper Palatinate region. In the northeast, it borders ...

, Bavaria. It was built in its present form from 1685 to 1704 as part of the

Waldsassen Abbey Waldsassen Abbey (German: ''Abtei Waldsassen'') is a Cistercian nunnery, formerly a Cistercian monastery, located on the River Wondreb at Waldsassen near Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz, in Bavaria, Germany, close to the border with the Czech Republic. ...

. With the secularization in 1803, the Cistercian abbey church became the Catholic parish church. In 1969, Pope

Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...

made it a papal ''

basilica minor In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular b ...

''. The basilica is known for its display of jewelled skeletons.

Architecture

The building was designed as an abbey church by

Georg Dientzenhofer Georg may refer to: * ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker See also * George (disambiguation) George may refer to: People * George (given name) * G ...

and Abraham Leuthner in the Baroque style of Bavaria known as "böhmischer Hochbarock mit italienischer Prägung" (Bohemian high Baroque with Italian flavour). It was built from 1685 to 1704. The church has a total length of . The nave has chapels and galleries on either side. The choir has decorative choir stalls. Under the nave is the largest crypt in Germany. The decoration of the interior involved artists from various parts of Europe including Giovanni Battista Carlone who created the stucco works and Jakob Steinfels from Prague who painted the frescos. Those on the ceiling of the choir depict scenes of the legendary founding of the monastery Waldsassen. The church contains ten reliquaries of richly dressed and bejewelled skeletons, the largest such display in Europe. The skeletons were removed from the catacombs of Rome and were ornamented by Adalbart Eder, a Cistercian lay brother and skilled goldsmith, in the 18th century.Paul Koudounaris,
Bones with Bling
'', June 2011, (retrieved 14-10-2012) It was believed at the time that clairvoyant priests could, through prayer, determine the identities of these skeletal remains.

Organ

The main organ was built in 1738 by Johann Konrad Brandenstein. From 1975 to 1976, E. Pfaff the organ was extensively rebuilt in the rococo housing. From 1982 to 1983, Georg Jann (Laberweinting) built new organs in the choir. From 1988 to 1989, Jann rebuilt all three organs after plans by Günther Kaunzinger, using partly the old pipes. In 1992 to 1993, two consoles were installed, both with six manuals, one on the gallery, and a movable one in the nave. The main instrument has 141 ranks, 101 stops and 7,720 pipes. In addition to the church worship services, concerts are regularly held.

The basilica on film

On 4 and 5 April 1990, Unitel visited the basilica to film

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

conducting three pieces of sacred music by

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

- his ''

Great Mass in C minor ''Great Mass in C minor'' (german: Große Messe in c-Moll, links=no), K. 427/417a, is the common name of the musical setting of the mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is considered one of his greatest works. He composed it in Vienna in 1782 ...

'', his ''

Exsultate, jubilate ' (Exult, rejoice), K. 165, is a 1773 motet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. History This religious solo motet was composed when Mozart was staying in Milan during the production of his opera ''Lucio Silla'' which was being performed there in the T ...

'' and his ''

Ave verum corpus "" is a short Eucharistic chant that has been set to music by many composers. It dates to the 13th century, first recorded in a central Italian Franciscan manuscript (Chicago, Newberry Library, 24). A Reichenau manuscript of the 14th century att ...

''. An 86-minute DVD of the film was released by

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family o ...

in 2006. Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (Leonard Bernstein recording)

References

External links

Pfarrei Waldsassen

Waldsassen

Waldsassen {{Authority control Roman Catholic churches in Bavaria

Architecture

Organ

The basilica on film

See also

References

Further reading

External links