Hans Niessenberger

Hans Niessenberger was an architect of the latter part of the Middle Ages.

Life

Niessenberger's name is mentioned with comparative frequency in contemporaneous literature, but information about his personality and his works is somewhat more difficult to find. It seems however, that he was born in Graz, Styria.[1] He worked on the choir of the Freiburg Minster from 1471 to 1480; in the latter year he was compelled to leave the task of building and to swear that he would not try to revenge himself for this. In 1480 he worked on St. Leonhard's Church in Basle; in 1482, on the Strasbourg Cathedral; and in the following year he probably was engaged on the Milan Cathedral with a yearly salary of 180 guilders.[2] The choir at Freiburg was turned over to him in 1471; the contract is interesting and instructive showing as it does the manner in which buildings of this kind were erected during the latter part of the Middle Ages, and how the working hours, wages, etc. were determined upon.[3] The choir possesses great beauty, but it also manifests the peculiarities of Late Gothic architecture. It is long, like the main church, with the nave higher, the side aisles lower and somewhat narrower than in the front, and surrounded by twelve chapels, enclosed on two sides by fluted columns. The arched roof, supported by beautifully carved columns, forms a network. The windows are characteristically Late Gothic, and the arches are wonderfully delicate.

References
  1. Seckauer Kirchenschmuck, 1880, p. 56
  2. There is a "Johannes of Graz" mentioned as architect in Ricci, Storia dell' archit. italiana, II, 388
  3. Schreiber, Münster zu Freiburg, Appendix, 15 sq.
Attribution
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gietmann, Gerhard (1913). "Hans Niessenberger". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
    • Schreiber, op. cit.
    • Kubler, Gesch. der Baukunst, II (1859)
    • Otte, Kunst-Archaeologie (5th ed., 1884)
    • Kempf, Das Munster zu Freiburg im Breisgau (Freiburg, 1898).
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