Architecture of the Grauhof Collegiate Church
The Grauhof Collegiate Church of St. George was built from 1711 - 1717 by the Italian master builder Francesco Mitta.
The architecture of the Baroque collegiate church is unique in northern Germany, without precedents and without successors.
The single-nave hall church impresses already by its unusual width, height and abundance of light, but especially by its splendid baroque decoration, which is mainly the work of the sculptor Lorenz Franz Biggen.
The magnificent high altar and the splendid pulpit are proof of Biggen's mastery.
Under the elevated choir is the winter church.
The Treutmann organ, which was only installed later (1734 - 1737), forms a counterpoint to the high altar and blends in harmoniously.
History of the church
The former Augustinian Canons' Monastery Grauhof, as it presents itself today, is more than 300 years old. The construction of the present buildings began in 1701. After that, the collegiate church of St. George was built from 1711 - 1714. The builder was Bernhard Goeken, energetic and nationally important provost, who also renewed the monastic life and led the monastery to flourish.
The sober numbers hide the prehistory - so in short: the monastery Grauhof is much older, was in the Middle Ages the so-called Vorwerk (or also agricultural farm) of the empire-free monastery St. George. This monastery was located on the "Sassenberg" (since then Georgenberg), had been founded by Emperor Konrad II in 1205 and was later given by Emperor Heinrich V to Bishop Kuno of Hildesheim. Among other things, the monastery was given the forest Al (Ohlhof and surroundings). The magnificent octagonal building of the collegiate church on the Georgenberg outside the walls of the city of Goslar was destroyed by the citizens of Goslar in the political-religious turmoil of the Reformation period - in the dispute with Duke Heinrich the Younger.
The Augustinian canons then moved their seat to the farm in Grauhof, which was subsequently expanded into a new monastery.
In 1569, the Lutheran Reformation was introduced in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Grauhof Monastery now housed a Latin school and served as a training center for Lutheran preachers. In 1643, the prince-bishopric of Hildesheim was restored, and the Grauhof monastery, now under prince-bishop rule, was once again Catholic and given to Augustinian canons of the Windesheim Congregation, who rebuilt the monastery complex and collegiate church. The church also became a parish church for the Catholics of the surrounding area.
After the secularization in 1803, buildings and lands became part of the Hanoverian Monastery Fund, the church remained a Catholic parish church.
In 2007 - 2009 an extensive renovation was carried out by the Klosterkammer Hannover.