The history of the
Gothic Parish/City church St. Dionysius dates back to the early
Middle Ages. In the 8th century a local Alemannic noble named
Hafti built a small single-aisled church here, which he presented
to the Carolingian Chancellor, Abbot Fulrad of St. Denis. The
latter in turn bequeathed the church to his monastery in his will,
incidentally recording these events for posterity. |
| Abbot
Fulrad's will (a copy can be seen in the City Museum) thus provided
the historical background for the excavations begun in 1960 inside
the church, performed in advance of the installation of a new
underfloor heating system. This was the first systematic excavation
of a medieval building in this federal state and led directly to the
founding of a Department of Medieval Archaeology within the Baden-Württemberg
State Monuments Department.
The architectural
development of the church can be divided into three main phases.
Abbot Fulrad invested the original singleaisled church with the
bones of a (Roman?) saint, the holy Vitalis, thus conferring the
status of a place of pilgrimage and worship on the church and the
growing settlement attached to it. The latter thus grew into a
connurbation of regional importance. Towards the end of the 10th
century a new, much bigger church was built on the site of the old
one, which was then in turn replaced by a still bigger church as
Esslingen developed into a city in the 13th century. This church
forms the core of the Building we see today. By this time St.
Dionysius had replaced St. Vitalis in the affections of the
citizens, thus the name of the church today.
|
Isometric drawing showing the various
phases of the church revealed during the excavations.