Dominikanerkirche Augsburg, Gothic church in Old Town, Augsburg, Germany
The Dominikanerkirche, formerly St. Magdalena, is a two-aisle late Gothic hall church built 1513–1515 on the foundations of a Templar predecessor. A slender central row of columns with Corinthian capitals divides the nave, and eighteen grated side chapels of Augsburg patrician families line three sides. The ceiling painting, after designs by Johann Georg Bergmüller and executed by Alois Mack, shows the twelve mysteries of the rosary; the stucco is by Franz Xaver and Johann Michael Feichtmayer.
A church stood here since the 13th century; in 1313 Bishop Friedrich I gave it to the Dominicans after the Templar order was dissolved in 1312. The present St. Magdalena was built 1513–1515 on the predecessor's foundations, funded largely by Augsburg citizens, as a plaque between the two main portals records. In 1536 Protestants used it and an iconoclasm stripped the interior; the monks returned in 1548, fled in 1633 and found the church ruined in 1635. The interior was remodelled in Baroque style 1716–1724.
The church is also called Predigerkirche, after the preaching friars; the street Predigerberg and the Dominikanergasse keep that name. From 1700, catechism sermons were held here every Tuesday under prior Hyazinth Ferler. The ceiling painting by Alois Mack, after designs by Johann Georg Bergmüller, shows the twelve mysteries of the rosary.
The church stands on the Dominikanergasse slope in the Lechviertel, eastern Ulrichsviertel, above the Predigerberg lane; a copy of a Roman milestone marks the Via Claudia Augusta just south of it. The building has been closed since December 2012 because of static problems in the floor, and the Roman Museum exhibits are shown in the Toskanische Säulenhalle of the Zeughaus. A new floor slab is planned by the end of 2025.
During the 2013/2014 investigations, wall paintings from the earlier Templar church were uncovered inside the building. The site had belonged to the Knights Templar before Bishop Friedrich I transferred church and house to the Dominicans in 1313.
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