Almost ten years ago they only wanted to install underfloor heating in Mainz's Johanniskirche.

Since then, twelve million euros have been invested in research into the building, which has probably been used as a central meeting place by believers since late antiquity, in ever-changing forms.

Last but not least, half a million finds that could be recovered from the ground of the church, which has meanwhile been laid much deeper, testify to this. 

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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Until the construction of St. Martin's Cathedral, which was ceremonially inaugurated in the immediate vicinity in 1036 AD, the cathedral located at the Leichhof and popularly known as the Alter Dom was the city's episcopal church.

This is proven, among other things, by a sarcophagus embedded in the ground and opened in 2019 with great media interest, in which lay the mortal remains of the former bishop Erkanbald, who found his final resting place there in 1021 - after ten years in office.

According to archaeologists and historians, the "second oldest surviving bishop's church on German soil" is "a jewel", agrees Dean Andreas Klodt of the Protestant Church in Mainz, which has owned the then important Catholic church since 1828.

Because almost 200 years ago, the former collegiate church, which was empty at the time, came into the possession of the Protestant community, which was looking for suitable premises in the city.

Changed again and again in more than 1500 years

The "an earlier state" does not exist because the St. John's Church has changed again and again, especially inside, over the more than 1500 years, said Klodt during a visit to the excavation site at Leichhof, to which several media representatives had also appeared.

According to Klodt, it is hoped that the structural renovation of the cathedral, which has been touched by many master builders from different eras, will be completed next year.

After that, it will be about a viable concept for the future, which on the one hand makes it possible to present the church, which is worth seeing, to tourists, for example, but at the same time to ensure "normal community life".

Workers are currently in the process of restoring the former relationships between the central nave and the side aisles in the building, which has been completely cleared and scaffolded up to the roof. 

At least two passageways that were once bricked up on the south and north sides will be reopened.

To do this, two new central pillars, each five meters high, made of Maintal sandstone and brick-built round arches must be installed, which are able to absorb the enormous load of the masonry above.

"The height of the church has impressed us for a long time, now the width is also important," said Dean Klodt.

At the end of the revitalization process, much of the interior should look the same as it did in the early Gothic period, explained research director Guido Faccani and architect Christiane Wolf.

The exposed clay floor from the 13th century fits in with this.

This construction phase alone, including the necessary strengthening of the foundations, should probably cost around one million euros.

As usual, the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau is counting on financial support from the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Rhineland-Palatinate and the federal government. 

According to the dean's office, most weekends there is the opportunity to take a look inside the historic church on Johannisstraße: this is usually on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The evening event "Des Erkanbald's clothes - lecture on the 1001st anniversary of death" has also been announced there for August 17 with free admission;

with "mortuary feast".