St. Bartholomew's Church, Berchtesgaden
Encyclopedia
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
church in the Berchtesgadener Land
Berchtesgadener Land
Berchtesgadener Land is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the district of Traunstein and by the state of Austria.- History :The alpine regions of the south were Bavarian territory from the early Middle Ages. The 11th and 12th centuries saw the founding of numerous mountain villages...
district of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It named for Saint Bartholomew the Apostle (Bartholomäus in German), patron of alpine farmers and dairymen. The church is located at the western shore of the Königssee
Königssee
The Königssee is a lake located in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land district of the German state of Bavaria, near the border with Austria...
lake, on the Hirschau peninsula. It can only be reached by ship or after a long hike across the surrounding mountains.
Berchtesgaden Provostry
Berchtesgaden Provostry or the Prince-Provostry of Berchtesgaden was an immediate principality of the Holy Roman Empire, held by a canonry, i.e...
. From 1697 onwards it has been rebuilt in a Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
style with a floor plan modelled on Salzburg Cathedral, two onion dome
Onion dome
An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles the onion, after which they are named. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the drum upon which they are set, and their height usually exceeds their width...
s and a red domed roof. The church features stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
work by the Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
artist Joseph Schmidt and a three-apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
quire
Quire (architecture)
Architecturally, the choir is the area of a church or cathedral, usually in the western part of the chancel between the nave and the sanctuary . The choir is occasionally located in the eastern part of the nave...
. The altars in the apses are consecrated to Saint Bartholomew, Saint Catherine
Catherine of Alexandria
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius...
, and Saint James respectively.
An annual pilgrimage to St. Bartholomä is held on Saturday after August 24, starting from the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n municipality of Maria Alm
Maria Alm
Maria Alm am Steinernen Meer is a municipality in the district of Zell am See , in the state of Salzburg in Austria, located about east of Saalfelden...
and crossing the Berchtesgaden Alps
Berchtesgaden Alps
The Berchtesgaden Alps are a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the market town of Berchtesgaden located in the centre...
.
Near the chapel lies the old hunting lodge of the same name. The lodge, which was first erected in the 12th century with the church, has been rebuilt multiple times. Until 1803, it was a private residence of the Berchtesgaden Prince-provosts; after their territory had been incorporated into the Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
in 1810, the building became a favorite hunting lodge of the ruling House of Wittelsbach; today it is an inn.