Bamberg - St Martin's Church

In 1611, the Jesuits took over the former Carmelite monastery in Bamberg, whose church faced the Austrassa. In 1685, after they had managed to buy a large enough plot of land in the market square (today Grüner Markt), the Jesuits recommended Father Nivard Christoph from the monastery in Waldsassen as the builder Georg Dientzenhofer from Prague for the design and construction of their collegiate church Namen Jesu in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. At that time Georg was involved with his construction company in the building of the monastery in Waldsassen.

In 1686, Georg was appointed by the Bamberg Jesuits as master builder of the Namen Jesu church, today's St. Martin's Church (Martinskirche) and the Jesuit college in Bamberg. The foundation stone of the building according to Georg's design was laid on 4 August 1686.

The construction of St. Martin's Church was subsequently taken over from Georg by his brother Leonhard, which may be related to Georg's taking over the construction of the church in Trauttmannshofen near Amberg, which was designed by Leonhard for a change. In 1689 Georg died prematurely.

The first service was held in the church of St. Martin in Bamberg on New Year's Eve in 1691. The church was consecrated on 17 May 1693 and fully completed in 1696. The Jesuit college in Bamberg was not completed without the Dientzenhofer family until 1720.

With the construction of St. Martin's Church in Bamberg, the Dientzenhofer family finally establishes itself in Franconia. The collaboration of the Jesuit order with Georg and Leonhard begins the transformation of Bamberg, which is also known as the Rome of Franconia, into a Baroque city whose Baroque appearance is essentially determined by the architecture of the three Dientzenhofer brothers Georg, Leonhard and Johann. The transformation culminated in the reign of Prince-Bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655-1729) after 1693.

After secularization, the function of the old market church of St. Martin, which stood on today's Maxplatz and was demolished in 1804, was transferred, as was its patron, to the former Jesuit church of Namen Jesu on Grüner Markt, which has been the main parish church of the city ever since.

St Martin's Church is a brick pillar church with a gabled roof, a distinctive facade and a tower with a stepped dome with a lantern at the top of the choir dominates the Grüner Markt in the centre of Bamberg.

Some of the artworks from the old St. Martin's Church on Maxplatz were saved and installed in St. Martin's Church (originally Namen Jesu) on Grüner Markt, especially the Pieta on the right side altar. It was made in Cologne around 1330 and is one of the oldest of the so-called death agony panels, carved depictions of Christ's Passion, which were modeled after Dürer's (1511).

The austere interior of St Martin's is dominated by the theatrical and sumptuous wall of the high altar, a work in stucco marble by Italian Giovanni B. The illusory dome above the crucifixion, painted in 1714 by Francesco Marchini after a copy by Andrea Pozzo, was the first of its kind in Germany.

Kostel sv. Martina je farním kostelem Římskokatolické farnosti sv. Martina v Bambergu.