Windecken Collegiate Church

View from the west

View from the east

Gouache by Ludwig Wörner 1810; From left to right: Collegiate Church, Lutheran Church, Kilianstädter Tor

The Windecken collegiate church is the Protestant church in what is now the Windecken district of Nidderau .

Surname

Its designation as “collegiate church” is misleading. It was only given this name in 1819 due to a historical error made by the pastor at the time. After the Hanau Union had eliminated the ecclesiastical dual structure of two regional churches in the former county of Hanau-Munzenberg , there was no longer a Reformed and a Lutheran church here, but only one Uniate church . Since up until then each of the two denominations had named their church building after their denomination, a new name had to be found; the later “collegiate church” was the “reformed church”. The incumbent pastor assumed that such a large, medieval church must have once served a monastery and named it accordingly. There is no evidence that it actually was before the Reformation , and its long subordinate position in canonical law speaks against it. The former Lutheran Reinhardskirche , located in the southeast of the old town, was sold for 2000 guilders for demolition in 1833 .

history

On August 5, 1288 King Rudolf von Habsburg granted Ulrich I von Hanau town and market rights for Windecken as the first place in his rule Hanau . Up until the 15th century, Windecken assumed a “capital city function” for the Hanau rulership. The construction of the church dates back to this boom: the oldest surviving documentary mention as capella nova comes from 1282 . So there had already been an “old church”, a previous building. Until the Reformation, which was the Church of the Holy Cyriacus ordained . In addition, there were altars dedicated to the veneration of Mary , Saint George , Saint Catherine , the Holy Trinity and the Holy Cross .

Despite the imposing church building, Windecken was part of the Ostheim parish until 1489, before it became an independent parish.

The county of Hanau-Munzenberg joined the Reformation . In 1540 the first Evangelical- Lutheran pastor was appointed for Windecken , Johann Widmann. He came from the Schlüchtern monastery, which had also converted to the Reformation . However, at the beginning he still had colleagues who continued to read the Roman Catholic mass . At the end of the 16th century, Count Philipp Ludwig II made use of his right to change the denomination of his territory to Calvinism .

The church was badly damaged several times during the Thirty Years' War , in particular in 1634, on May 15, 1635 and 1638, and was only rebuilt very slowly due to the significant population losses that wind corners suffered during the war. From 1722 there was a second Lutheran church in Windecken. The county has been ruled by the Lutheran line of the House of Hanau , the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg , since 1642 . Before it was demolished in 1834, its church bells were moved to the collegiate church.

The last major renovation of the church took place from 1995 to 2001.

Building

The oldest structural parts, parts of the nave and choir and part of the roof structure made of oak logs that were felled between 1265 and 1268 ( dendrochronologically dated), date from shortly after 1268. The choir and nave are separated by a choir arch , the keystone of which is the Coat of arms of the Hanau rulership . Even older than chancel and nave and probably from the previous church which dates torso of a Christ figure made of sandstone , which is even dated in the first half of the 13th century and is now left of the chancel arch.

In 1484 the mighty tower with a 35 meter high body was added, from 1495 to 1500 the side aisles were added. The year "1500" is on the floor of the entrance to the south aisle. Originally a further construction to the west was planned, but this was not done. From 1595–1603 a stairwell was built into the south nave. On the north side there is a large, semicircular niche, possibly for a holy grave . A wall tabernacle was subsequently installed there.

After the destruction of the Thirty Years' War, the building was not completely rebuilt until 1720. 1706 the tower received its current, three-tiered baroque spire . The equipment of the choir and the organ of Ratzmann are novelty and originate from 1895. Behind the historic organ case, however, is since 1975 one organ of Walcker , in 2001 by five to 23 register has been extended. It is placed in the center of the choir.

Bells

With the construction of the gothic (today's) church at the end of the 15th century, Windecken received a bell so that "from now on you no longer had to rattle the two St. Peter's keys from the chapel on the Schlossberg to worship". Today's oldest, only 404 kg heavy plague bell with the tone G sharp ¹ was cast by Putron in France and originally comes from a Catholic church; It has both Latin and French inscriptions. The Frankfurt merchant Daniel Dorville acquired it in Worms in 1660 for 195 Reichstaler 75 Kreuzer. During the Second World War, several bells were confiscated, including two bells that were cast as the last works in 1891 by the local bell caster Philipp Heinrich Bach II . They were cast around the cracked bells, cast by Johann Peter Bach for the Reinhard Church in 1777 and taken over from there in 1834. These were in turn the first works of the foundry founder Johann Peter Bach in 1745. In 1950 the Rincker brothers cast three bells with the striking notes e ¹ , b ¹ and c sharp ² for the remaining plague bell . This gives rise to the wake up motif.

Noteworthy

At the guise of the West Portal is an inscription and mark that on the state of Nidder indicating -Hochwassers of 28 May 1761st

literature

Folkhard Cremer u. a .: "Dehio". Hessen II - Darmstadt district . Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 , p. 833.
Ulrich Bitter, Helmut Brück (Red.): Church in the city. Festschrift for the reopening of the "Stiftskirche" Windecken in 2001 (= Nidderauer Hefte. Volume 10). Geiger, Horb am Neckar 2001, ISBN 3-89570-736-8 .
Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country. Cultural history and chronicle of a Franconian weatherwave city and former county . Reprint of the 3rd extended edition, Hanau 1919. Verlag Peters, Hanau 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2