Baroque Churches: Kempten

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Kempten

St. Lorenz Basilica is a Baroque minor Basilica in Kempten,

Bavaria, named after the Christian martyr Lawrence of Rome.

The exterior of St. Lorenz Basilica

It is the former abbey church of the Benedictine Kempten Abbey,currently used as the parish church of the Roman Catholic parish of St. Lawrence in the Diocese of Augsburg.

A church was built on the site in the 13th Century but was burned down in 1478.

Roman Giel of Gielsberg, the Abbot of Kempten, commissioned the master builder Michael Beer from Graubünden to build a new church to serve the parish and monastery. The foundation stone of the Basilica of St. Lawrence was laid on 13 April 1652.^[1] This was one of the first large churches built in Germany after the end of the Thirty Years' War.

Michael Beer built the nave, the ground floor of the towers and the choir. He was succeeded by Johann Serro on 24 March 1654.

The church was consecrated on 12 May 1748.

Evidently the abbey church experienced some pomp on high occasions. Franz Xaver Richter was here early in his career and composed the Te Deum in 1742.

Kemptener Te Deum in D-major (1742)

Chorus: Camerata Vocale Günzburg

Orchestra: Johann Christian Bach-Akademie Köln

Conductor: Jürgen Rettenmaier

In 1803 the monastery was dissolved and the church became a purely parish church.

In 1900 the twin towers were finally completed.

In 1969 Pope Paul VI bestowed the honorary title of basilica minor.

Bedroom (alas no bed)

The abbey building included a residence for the Prince-abbots.It is a splendid example of the kind of Baroque magnificence that such a ruler enjoyed. This is the great tourist attraction especially since the major restoration in 2018. We must remember that the abbot was the ruler of the local area and required reception rooms.I started this post in 2016 and wrote "I look forward to the guided tours of these!"

We were not disappointed. This Princely suite bears comparison with any in England. It is the only such Baroque suuite in South Germany and is quite overwhelming.

The state appartments follow the usual strict order of bedroom, study or day room, audience chamber, anteroom and ballroom. They were commissioned by Abbot Anselm von Reichlin-Meldegg in 1732. The team of specialists included court painter Franz Georg Hermann, plasterer Johann Georg Ublhor and sculptor Aegid Verhelst. The ballroom was the last to be built in 1740-2. I canno;t overpraise this stunning suite of rooms.