Johanniskirche (Chemnitz)
The Protestant St. John's Church is a sacred building in Chemnitz , the previous building of which dates back to the 13th century. It is located at the Park of the Victims of Fascism on Theresenstrasse.
history
A previous building was first mentioned in a document in 1264. The church is dedicated to John the Baptist and belonged to the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary . At that time it was still in front of the city limits of today's Chemnitz. The building was destroyed several times, for example by the Hussites in 1430 or during the Schmalkaldic War and rebuilt several times, most recently after the Reformation in 1566.
From 1756 there was only one cemetery in the city in the immediate vicinity of the church. The congregation no longer held services here , but only used them for burials at the Johannisfriedhof .
Due to the population growth associated with industrialization at the end of the 18th century, the church was again used by its own community from 1875 and heavily rebuilt. In 1913, under the direction of the Chemnitz architect Erich Basarke, the neo-Gothic forms were removed and elements of Art Nouveau were added , which were removed again in the 1970s.
The church has been used as a youth church since 1997 .
architecture
Only a few elements of the originally Gothic shape of the church are still recognizable. The church shows itself as a largely simple building with a light gray plaster and a cuboid floor plan . The gable roof is covered with black slate . Four high, plain white lattice windows are let into the north side . Below the west tower is a small extension, the opening of which is walled up. Above that there are two smaller rectangular windows that are symmetrically arranged over the former entrance.
At the choir you can also see a rectangular extension with several smaller windows and a simple brown wooden door. The choir itself has an apse . Only here are there still three ogival windows that give an indication of the former Gothic design. On the south side there are also simple, white windows that reach down to the floor. Another, also rectangular extension towards the west tower serves as a side entrance and access to the youth café and the youth parish on the 1st floor.
The tower was built from Hilbersdorfer porphyry tuff, each with two mighty pilaster strips . These are set off in two stages towards the top. The rectangular roof is clad with copper and is crowned by a cross. Below the roof there is an ogival sound opening for the bells on each side of the tower . Below that, on the west side, there are two rose windows as a further relic of the Gothic. The other sides have a simple, rectangular opening.
The portal is also designed with a pointed arch and a simple, dark double-leaf wooden door.
Furnishing
Only a few pieces of equipment have survived from the original furnishings, such as the bell , which was cast in 1475 and is considered the oldest bell in Chemnitz, and the baptismal font from 1566. The Gothic winged altar was moved to the St. Jakobi town church .
organ
In 1879 the community sold the organ , built by Gottfried Silbermann in 1722 , to Auligk , from where it was brought to St. Kilian's Church in Bad Lausick in 1957/58 . In 1913 a Jehmlich organ was installed.
Web links
- Evangelical Lutheran parish of St. Johannis Chemnitz
- www.evjuc.de Homepage of the Protestant Youth Chemnitz
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chemnitz History in Numbers ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website of the city of Chemnitz, accessed on May 12, 2014.
- ↑ Johanniskirche. In: Altes-Chemnitz.de. Retrieved on July 2, 2014 (inscription: "A. dni MCCCCLXXV for the glory of God and sct. Johis this bell is cast.").
- ↑ Frank-Harald Greß : The organs of Gottfried Silbermann. Sandstein, Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-930382-50-7 . Quoted in the organ portrait ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Gottfried Silbermann Society, accessed on May 17, 2014.
Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′ 54.7 " N , 12 ° 55 ′ 33.7" E