St. Stephan Church

St. Stephan, also known as St. Stephen's Church, is a former collegiate and parish church in the old town of Konstanz. Today it belongs to the Catholic pastoral care unit Konstanz-Altstadt. St. Stephen's Church is considered the oldest church foundation in Konstanz.

Roman Period

The origins of St. Stephan date back to the late Roman period. The site is located south outside the first settlement and later cathedral district. The earliest building is presumed to have been either a profane market and court hall or a cemetery church. The house of worship, dedicated to St. Stephen, was already present at the founding of the Diocese of Konstanz at the end of the 6th century. It may have been a wooden structure.

Early Middle Ages

The oldest documented mention of St. Stephen's Church dates from 680 (Gallus-Vita). From about 900, a regulated community of clerics (collegiate church) was established at St. Stephan. The pre-Romanesque church was damaged or destroyed during the Hungarian invasion in 926 and probably restored under Bishop Noting. At this time, a market already existed near the church, which was still located outside the walled city.

High Middle Ages (Romanesque)

From the 11th century, the market and artisan settlement around St. Stephan grew strongly and was incorporated into the city. The collegiate church now also served as the parish church of Konstanz's largest parish. Around 1130, the transformation of the old church into a Romanesque basilica reflected this development. It had its portal on the main street on the east side; the square choir with the main altar was in the west. The nave corresponded approximately to its current size; the side aisles were half as wide.

Late Middle Ages (Gothic)

From the 13th century, St. Stephan, in contrast to the episcopal cathedral area, was a civic and market church and thus a symbol of patrician self-confidence. The canons now largely came from the city's bourgeois families, who also buried their leading members here.

During the Council of Konstanz (1414–1418), the Roman Rota met in St. Stephan.

In 1428, extensive expansion work on the building began, which lasted over three-quarters of a century and gave the exterior its current form. The side aisles were doubled in width. The nave was extended by three meters, and the church was now oriented to the east. A polygonal choir was added on the east side. The clerestory windows received Gothic tracery. In 1483, the construction of the tower added to the south was begun. However, all these works reflect chronic lack of funds. The Gothicization was limited to a minimum and kept in simple early Gothic forms.

Reformation Period

The Reformation found early entry into Konstanz from Zurich and, in the Free Imperial City, combined with opposition to episcopal influence. From 1527, St. Stephan was Zwinglian. The canons were expelled. The entire furnishings – paintings and statues, liturgical books and vessels – fell victim to the iconoclasm. Ulrich Zwingli himself preached in St. Stephan in December 1529.

After the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League in 1548, Konstanz was re-Catholicized under Habsburg rule. From 1550, St. Stephan was again Catholic, and the canons returned. However, the diminished importance of the city and the Thirty Years' War prevented a significant artistic re-furnishing.

Baroque

From the mid-17th to the mid-18th century, only the most necessary maintenance work was carried out on St. Stephan. A new impetus was given in 1763 by the donation of Nicholas and Stephen relics by Weingarten Abbey; Nicholas of Myra, patron saint of merchants, had been considered a secondary patron of St. Stephan since about the 15th century. From 1770, a thorough renovation of the church began, which was accompanied by a partial Baroque transformation. Especially the choir received a completely new spatial effect with a bright stucco ceiling and a colorful ceiling painting by Franz Ludwig Herrmann.

19th and 20th Century

In 1807, the St. Stephen's Collegiate Church was dissolved. The church remained a Catholic parish church. The structural changes since then have been minor and primarily served to secure the building. The 19th century supplemented the interior furnishings in the spirit of Neo-Gothic. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new larch wood ceiling was installed, decorated with wood reliefs by the Freiburg sculptor Joseph Dettlinger.