A Cityscape Pioneer

A view of Nuremberg in the mid of the 17th century.

6 Egidienplatz

Egidienplatz in the year 1682
In spite of all the changes over time, the layout of this square is much the same today.

It is dominated by the façade of the Pellerhaus, which Graff already portrays as one of Germany's finest Renaissance mansions.

Graff's view portrays the aftermath of the catastrophic fire not just in the picture itself, but in an extensive legend from A to Z above the illustration.

King Konrad III endowed a foundation for Scottish Monks from Regensburg, who began building a Romanesque basilica here in 1150 with an adjacent monastery, including a monastery school. After the Reformation, the school was secularized in 1526, as the first school to follow the humanistic principles of Philipp Melanchthon. Johann Andreas Graff's father, a native of Thuringia, was the rector of this school, and Graff himself was probably born in the "Rectoris Hauß" (the "Rector’s House," item "r" in the legend).

Nuremberg merchant and city councilor Konrad Gross – one of the richest men in the Empire of his day, who even made large loans to two Emperors, Ludwig the Bavarian and his successor Karl IV – distinguished himself with his numerous pious endowments and foundations. The most important of these was the Heilig-Geist-Spital, or Hospital of the Holy Spirit, founded in 1339; it gave refuge to the infirm, to chronically ill patients with noncontagious diseases, and to impoverished disabled Nurembergers. Originally conceived for 200 occupants, further donations expanded the Spital to a considerable size. As a pious foundation, it also had a capacious Gothic church.

This view of the Baroque-decorated church shows in great detail what is known as the "Heiltumsschrein," a casket, suspended from the vault of the choir, containing the tip of the Holy Lance and a fragment of the Cross (see detail of the engraving). These were part of the Reichskleinodien, or imperial regalia of the Holy Roman Empire; the rest of the regalia, as well as further coronation vestments, were kept safe from theft behind a massive iron door on the uppermost floor of the sacristy to the left of the choir. They were stored here from 1424 to 1796. The church was entirely destroyed in World War II; rebuilt as a shell, it now serves as a multi-purpose meeting room.

This hall church is portrayed in "super-wide angle." The very high vantage point offers a good view of the galleries that were installed at a later date in the Gothic church but are no longer there today.

Although the organ in the right gallery is somewhat hidden by one of the four massive columns, Graff drew it with special care, because church music played a major role in the Nuremberg of his day.

This view looks down the nave, adorned with statues of apostles, memorial plaques and epitaphs, toward the "hall" choir that was completed in 1379. The lavish accouterments bear witness to Nuremberg's refusal to participate in the iconoclasm of the Reformation. The city's patrician-sponsored regiment spared the churches' artworks – largely endowed by wealthy Nurembergers – as mementos of the family forebears.

The casket with the bones of St. Sebald was especially honored; the Vischer family of metalworkers had made a Renaissance reliquary for it in 1519, shortly before the Reformation reached the city. Construction of a late-Romanesque church over the saint's grave had begun in 1230, although the church was originally consecrated to St. Peter in 1274. In the second half of the 14th century, this important sanctuary was rededicated to the city's patron Sebald, a legendary miracle-working hermit.

The Gothic baptismal font is still shown here in its original location, between the western pillars of the central nave; today it is in the western choir. The galleries and Baroque fittings, including the altarpiece, were removed in the 19th century.

At the time this was a popular new residential quarter known as the "Neuer Bau," or "New Construction." Graff gives a highly precise view of the area with superb perspective. Each building can be identified.

The engraving centers on the three fountains at the center – today, the two utilitarian fountains for drawing water are gone. Only the Baroque Tritonbrunnen of 1687, with its decorative Triton based on Bernini’s famous fountain of 1642-43 in Rome, is still in its original location.