The Dionysius Church in Krefeld Mitte houses a very unusual historicism Marian altar: The altar, which is almost four meters high, consists entirely of gilded brass fittings on an oak wood core and is decorated with particularly large gemstones, filigree and beautiful and high-quality enamel work. Representatives of the church council asked us to draw up a multi-stage restoration concept for this remarkable goldsmith altar.
In this way, the damage that we currently see should be recorded, catalogued, and detailed suggestions made for remedying it, which the church council can later decide on separately as needed.
The interior of the Dionysiuskirche in Krefeld impresses above all with a light marbled and very imposing column architecture and the large and high-quality saint figures.
As a result, the interior of the church appears particularly spacious, extremely inviting and pleasantly friendly.
The altar of Mary stands to the right of the main altar and is currently mainly used to offer sacrificial candles.
Over time, the altar has darkened towards the top, probably due to the soot from the sacrificial candles. There is also some damage to the filigree jewelry as well as significant imperfections in the gemstone jewelry. Some of the gems are even missing along with their historical setting. The former precious stone frieze at the foot of the altar is now also only preserved in a few fragments.
Our restoration concept envisages gradually adding the missing gemstones in terms of quality, size and color of the gemstones, true to the original, restoring and patinating the partially missing gemstone settings on the basis of the historical models, straightening the filigree, the solid ones Check the position of all existing decorative elements as a precaution and secure them if necessary, and subject the altar to a thorough and particularly gentle cleaning.
Optionally, the precious stone frieze at the foot of the goldsmith altar, which has since been lost for the most part, should also be able to be restored true to the original.
In any case, we are very curious to see whether and which of our proposed restoration measures will ultimately be desired by the church council of St. Dinysius Church and from us are to be implemented. The remarkable altar more than deserved it in any case...