Sankt Jakobus und Laurentius in Biberbach, Catholic pilgrimage church in Biberbach, Bavaria, Germany
Sankt Jakobus und Laurentius in Biberbach is a Baroque pilgrimage church built from 1684 to 1694 and consecrated in 1697. Its single-nave interior has three bays under barrel vaults, a three-aisled choir, and a double gallery at the west end. The bell tower's square base survives from the Gothic church of 1484, and much of the old castle chapel's rubble masonry remains in the walls.
A parish existed before 1141, when Matthäus von Pappenheim recorded its fief being donated to Augsburg Cathedral chapter. A 1484 Gothic church, built on the walls of a castle chapel to St Nicholas, preceded the present building. After a pilgrimage to the Herrgöttle crucifix grew, Valerian Brenner built the Baroque church from 1684; it was consecrated in 1697.
The church's full dedication names James, Lawrence and the Holy Cross, and the feast of the Herrgöttle crucifix has drawn pilgrims since the 16th century. In 1685 the parish priest Anton Ginther obtained papal recognition of the pilgrimage from Innocent XI in Rome. The double gallery at the west end, painted in 1693 by Johann Caspar Menrad, carries emblematic scenes that visitors can still read.
The church stands on a hill above Biberbach, in the Augsburg district of Swabia. The tower's square base survives from the Gothic building of 1484, while the upper storey dates from 1616. Visitors enter the single-nave nave of three bays, closed to the west by a double gallery.
The Herrgöttle is a Romanesque wooden crucifix carved around 1220. According to tradition it came to Biberbach in 1525 and was removed from the church by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War; parish priest Ulrich Zusemschneider was betrayed and killed. In 1655 pastor Sebastian Widmann rediscovered it, and his successor Anton Matthes mounted it on the south church wall.
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