The only baroque church in Bamberg
St. Martin Church was built between 1686 and 1693 and has a magnificent Baroque façade, designed by Georg Dientzenhofer. He was called from Prague to Bamberg for the construction, but died during the planning phase. The work was completed by his brother Leonhard, for whom the construction of St. Martin’s Church was the prelude to a whole era of construction projects in Bamberg, such as the New Residence and various monasteries such as St. Michael. In 1693 the church was consecrated and from then on served as a university and Jesuit church. In the course of the secularization in Bavaria (1803), the tasks of the parish church of Alt-St. Martin at Maxplatz were transferred to this church and parts of the movable inventory, such as the picture of the main altar, organ, bells and the statue of the painful Madonna, were taken over.
A look inside is worthwhile!
The choir of today’s church is located in about the same place as the former Carmelite church, except that today’s St. Martin is oriented west instead of east.
The illusory dome above the altar is particularly worth seeing, and should be inspected directly below. The artist of these paintings was Francesco Marchini. As his work in the Martinskirche was very popular, he was then awarded further commissions of this kind.
One of the paintings, that was already in the old church of St. Martin, is a vespers painting from about 1330. It is placed in the right side altar and shows a smiling figure of Mary holding her dead son Jesus in her arms. It symbolizes Jesus Christ as Redeemer.
In the sanctuary there are paintings by Oswald Onghers depicting the saints Ignatius of Loyola and Franz Xaver. To the left of the pulpit is the entrance to the crypt where Jesuit priests were buried. Below is a room with a sandstone lid, which is not accessible. Here were buried the remaining rests of graves which had to be emptied.
Since over the years serious damages to the architectonic structure of the Church had accumulated, it was renovated in 2012 through a complex construction project and now shines again in all its splendor.
Although Jesuit monks can no longer be found in the monastery wing today, the building still offers a lot of space for education. In addition to the Bamberg Natural History Museum, parts of the theological faculty of the University of Bamberg are also housed here.
