It survived iconoclasm and the bombing raids of the Allies. But now a valuable and culturally unique winged altar in Rudolstadt-Volkstedt, Thuringia, has burnt down. The police are investigating. Was it arson?
“It happened between 11.30 a.m. and 12 p.m.,” Michael Wirkner, press spokesman for the city of Rudolstadt, tells the JUNGE FREIHEIT. “A fire alarm in the church had sounded. The priest in charge heard it, he lives directly opposite, ran into the church and saw the fire by the altar. He then alerted the fire brigade.”
The Protestant village church is a new building. On April 10, 1945, US bombers destroyed Volkstedt. The church, which dates back to the 12th century, burned to the ground. The altar from the 15th century, however, was spared by the bombs because it had already been evacuated in 1943. The altar comes from the so-called Saalfeld School, a medieval workshop that decorated churches in the Saalfeld area with sacred art in the late Gothic period.
Nicht nur das Blitzeis sorgt heute für Ärger, in Rudolstadt hat es auch noch gebrannt. Dieses Video hat das Landratsamt gerade geteilt:
Gepostet von OTZ Saalfeld | Rudolstadt am Montag, 19. Dezember 2022
Within minutes, the first firefighters arrive. The wooden altar is already on fire. A total of 45 firefighters from four fire brigades are on the scene. Fortunately, they were able to extinguish the fire quickly. However, they are unable to save the central part of the work of art, which is completely destroyed. After the fire, the firefighters examine the church with thermal imaging cameras. But they cannot discover another source of the fire.
“Fire investigators from the criminal investigation department are on the scene,” a spokeswoman for the Saalfeld police department, which is investigating the fire, told the newspaper Junge Freiheit. “How the fire broke out, we cannot say at this point.”
https://jungefreiheit.de/kultur/gesellschaft/2022/altar-zerstoert-thl/