Nordecker castle chapel

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Castle chapel from the west. In the center of the picture Part of the building dating back to 1100. Between the old part and the wall on the left, you can see an extension from 1708 with a separate entrance.

The Nordecker Burgkapelle is the castle chapel of Nordeck Castle in Allendorf , a town in the district of Gießen ( Hesse ). The hall building , which is essentially Romanesque , was built in the 12th century within the walls of the outer bailey. The Hessian cultural monument is one of the oldest sacred buildings in the region that is still in use.

history

The castle complex was probably built around 1100 by the Counts of Gleiberg and was then the headquarters of the Nordeck zur Rabenau . The castle chapel, which was probably built soon after the castle was built, was dedicated to St. Wendelin . It is possible that the Landgraves Hermann I of Hesse and Heinrich II donated an altar to Wendelin in or before 1350.

A first pleban is recorded for the year 1260. Nordeck was parish off to Ebsdorf in 1322 and, together with Allendorf, belonged to the parish of Winnen from 1577.

Coat of arms from 1708 above the entrance portal

In 1708 the church was extensively renovated. The chapel was extended towards the wall and received a new ceiling and a new roof with an octagonal tower structure and a Welscher hood . The west door and the windows were changed and sandstone jambs provided and installed a gallery inside. A coat of arms above the entrance is marked with the year 1708 and indicates the renovation work on the Rau von Holzhausen . Presumably the patron saints wanted to convert the castle chapel for regular Sunday services. Before that, services were only held here for the residents of the castle. Due to a complaint from the family, the church consistory in Marburg ordered that divine services be held alternately in Winnen and Nordeck between 1733 and 1780.

In the first decades of the 19th century, the chapel fell into disrepair until it was restored in 1842. Further restorations followed in 1888 and 1933/1934. A memorial plaque set into the castle wall near the chapel points to the measures taken in 1888: “RESTORED 1888 A NORDECK ZU RABENAU”. Volunteers made it possible to renovate and maintain the building in 1933/34. The type artist Rudolf Koch , who stayed at the castle in 1934, took part in the renovation and designed the altarpieces and provided the choir with two wall slogans.

After the chapel had not been used for worship for over 150 years, it has been used for chapels (baptisms and weddings) and special services since 1952 . Church services are occasionally celebrated in Nordeck on special holidays.

Together with Nordeck and Wermertshausen , Winnen formed a parish until the end of 2011 in the extreme southwest of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck . After 435 years, Wermertshausen was released from the parish of Winnen on January 1, 2012 and connected to the Protestant parish of Dreihausen / Heskem .

From 2012 to 2016, the owners, Christoph Graf von Schwerin and Anna Dorothea Gräfin von Schwerin, had the interior renovated , which included removing the dry rot , renovating the windows and painting the interior. A second construction phase for the external renovation is estimated at € 50,000. After the formation of a supporting association, future use for church services and baptisms, civil weddings and concerts is planned.

architecture

South side
Southeast view. The three windows on the south side and the outer bracing of the choir wall from the Gothic period to the left of the easternmost window can be clearly seen

The east- facing hall building on a rectangular floor plan is made of basalt quarry stone masonry with corner blocks made of lung stone northeast of the main castle as an independent structure and south of the northern castle wall. The wall, whose battlements are still partially preserved, originally enclosed part of the village on the southern slope. The dimensions of the chapel correspond to the Roman foot , which indicates that it was built before or around 1100. The chapel is 28 feet wide and the walls 3½ feet thick.

The rectangular floor plan of the 12th century is divided into a square for the choir and one for the community room, which is only slightly larger than the choir. The size of the altar and priest room indicates the importance of the eastern part. A saddle roof, on which an eight-sided, slated roof turret is placed in the west , closes the chapel. The bell storey rises above the eight-sided shaft with eight round-arched sound holes , which is crowned by a French dome. The roof turret houses a two-tone bronze bell. A bell from 1955 was cast to replace a bell confiscated in 1942. The other, from the 14th century, bears the inscription MARIA in the cord on the neck and shows a crucifix between Maria and John.

Three arched windows in the south wall and one arched window on the east side illuminate the interior. The west gable side has no windows. On this side, a rectangular portal with a straight lintel and a lunette-shaped skylight in a simple frame made of red sandstone opens up the chapel. The southern choir wall is supported by a buttress , which was probably butted on in Gothic times.

Since the expansion in 1708, the chapel and castle wall have been connected to each other by an approximately three-meter-wide, transept-like extension to the north, which has found its outer wall in the castle wall. This gave the chapel an approximately angular floor plan. The extension with a gable roof has a round-arched entrance door on the west side and a round-arched window in the east as well as windows in the northern gable triangle.

Inside, the choir and community room are connected by a choir arch, which may originally have been round-arched and which was raised in the Gothic era to form a pointed arch. While the community room is flat, the choir has a groin vault that rests on corner templates.

Furnishing

Altar cross based on a design by Rudolf Koch (1934)
Looking towards the choir
View of the west gallery with the arms of Schwerin and Eulenburg

The flat-roofed community room is simply designed. In the early 1950s, the remains of a Gothic fresco were uncovered on a corner template in the choir , which were then whitewashed for conservation. A skull wears a small-pronged crown between the horns. Eyes protrude from deep sockets and an open mouth shows two pointed boar tusks. The English red devil's head had an apotropaic function and pointed to the salvation-relevant dimension of the altar acts.

The wooden west gallery built in 1708 rests on three round pillars that also support the roof turret. The floor has been covered with sandstone slabs since the 1930s, replacing the old cobblestones.

The baptismal font, the altar cross and other altar items were designed in 1934 by Rudolf Koch, who painted the lettering on the choir wall in Gothic letters in less than 20 minutes without a preliminary drawing. To the left of the east window the Bible verse from Ps 103,13  LUT can be read, to the right Isa 40,31a  LUT . The wooden altar table and the patronage chair on the gallery, which bears the coat of arms of Schwerin and Eulenburg, also come from this year of renovation. The gallery parapet bears the coats of arms of those of Nordeck and Schwerin. The barred rectory on the north wall of the choir also serves as a sacristy . A crucifix from the 18th century is attached above it.

The altar cross based on a design by Koch was made in 1934 by the local goldsmith Schönwandt. It consists of wood that is coated with shiny gold brass and thus becomes a triumphal cross. The beams are decorated with round rivets. The four ends of the beam bear the names of the four evangelists , and the Christ monogram is placed in the middle . The base is a four-tier pyramid on which water waves and the names of the streams of paradise ( Gen 2,10–14  LUT ) are engraved.

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I: Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 706 f.
  • Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Allendorf (Lumda) eV (Hrsg.): Allendorf an der Lumda. The middle of the valley. Deissmann, Allendorf 1987.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen III. The communities of Allendorf (Lumda), Biebertal, Heuchelheim, Lollar, Staufenberg and Wettenberg. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 3-8062-2179-0 , p. 75.
  • Peter Weyrauch : The churches of the old district of Giessen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1979, p. 138 f.
  • Markus Zink; Evangelical parish (ed.): The parish of Winnen. Church art history. A church leader. Evangelical Media Association, Kassel 2004.

Web links

Commons : Nordecker Burgkapelle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. 2010, p. 75.
  2. ↑ zinc; Evangelical parish (ed.): The parish of Winnen. 2004, p. 5.
  3. ↑ a b Dehio: Handbook of the German Art Monuments. 2008, p. 707.
  4. ↑ a b c Weyrauch: The churches of the old district of Gießen. 1979, p. 138.
  5. ↑ Nordeck. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on June 30, 2014 .
  6. ↑ a b zinc; Evangelical parish (ed.): The parish of Winnen. 2004, p. 48.
  7. ↑ a b c d zinc; Evangelical parish (ed.): The parish of Winnen. 2004, p. 49.
  8. ↑ a b c Weyrauch: The churches of the old district of Gießen. 1979, p. 139.
  9. ↑ burgen-und-schloesser.net: History of Burg Nordeck , accessed on 6 April 2018th
  10. ↑ Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Allendorf (ed.): Allendorf an der Lumda. 1987, p. 233.
  11. ↑ Oberhessische Presse of April 13, 2012: After 435 years, the common path ends , accessed on April 6, 2018.
  12. ↑ Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung : Nordeck Castle: This is how the old chapel should be saved , accessed on April 6, 2018.
  13. ↑ zinc; Evangelical parish (ed.): The parish of Winnen. 2004, p. 47.
  14. ↑ zinc; Evangelical parish (ed.): The parish of Winnen. 2004, p. 50.

Coordinates: 50 ° 41 ′ 34.2 "  N , 8 ° 50 ′ 36.5"  E