Suurhuser Church

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Suurhus church with a crooked church tower
View from the south

The evangelical-reformed Suurhusen church in Suurhusen , municipality of Hinte ( East Friesland ), was built on a terp in the middle of the 13th century and is widely known for the leaning tower of Suurhusen .

history

Originally the church was an apse with no tower and was 32 meters long and 9.35 meters wide. It has the character of a fortified church . The original patronage of the church is unknown. When the tower on the small terp was added to the late Romanesque nave around 1450, the nave had to be shortened to the west by a quarter for reasons of space. Since the soil on the west side of the tower was not compacted, the tower later got into a lopsided position. In addition, the oak planks used as foundations rot in the course of a groundwater lowering. On the north side of the tower there is a portal field over which a blind arch is attached. The sandstone plaque bears a coat of arms and a lily symbol as a symbol of rule, which indicates a foundation by a local chief .

A house-like gate extension in the entrance area, which is no longer preserved today, served as a Latin school for Dutch religious refugees in the 16th century. The tower originally housed three bells. Two older bells were remelted in 1733. One of them has been preserved to this day, the other bell was melted down during the First World War.

In 1855 the north wall was torn down and rebuilt with new bricks. The east wall, the gable of which has a rising console frieze, was partly renewed, the apse was torn down and replaced with a straight wall end. In 1975 a community center was built, which initially served as a replacement for the church when the church was about to be abandoned due to the tower damage. After several security measures for the tower, the church was inaugurated again in 1985. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the leaning tower in the world. With an inclination angle of 5.19 °, it inclines 2.47 m.

In 2004, a previously forgotten, narrow hagioscope was rediscovered during renovation work in the south wall .

Furnishing

Baptismal font
organ

The church interior is closed off by a flat ceiling with a haunch . The baptismal font made of Bentheim sandstone and two trapezoidal grave slabs with club head and tendril frieze date from the time the church was built. A first organ was built by Brond de Grave Winter in 1857/58 and replaced in 1964 by a new instrument by Karl Schuke , which was sold to the Reformed Church in Lengerich in 1977 . Today's organ comes from the workshop of Gustav Brönstrup (1959) and has seven registers on two manuals and a pedal . It was initially in the Pedagogical Academy in Oldenburg and then served as a house organ in Detern . In 1989/90 it was installed and repaired by the Krummhörner organ workshop, and the case and brochure were redesigned.

See also

literature

  • Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Heinz Ramm: Frisian churches in Auricherland, Norderland, Brokmerland and in Krummhörn , Volume 2. Verlag CL Mettcker & Söhne, Jever (2nd edition) 1983, p. 66.
  • Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1986, ISBN 3-925365-07-9 .
  • Kathrin Stemmler: The world's leaning tower is in Suurhusen. In: Nordwest-Zeitung (NWZ) of December 23, 1989.
  • Hartmut Ukena: Gothic brick church with the most crooked tower in the world. In: Ostfriesischer Kurier of December 24, 1992, p. 45.
  • Gottfried Kiesow : Architecture Guide East Friesland . Verlag Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz , Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-86795-021-3 .
  • Gottfried Kiesow: Building damage caused by wind loads and poor soil conditions, in: Learn to see cultural history, Volume 1, 11th edition, Verlag Monumente, publications of the German Foundation for Monument Protection, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-936942-03-3 , pp. 59 ff.

Web links

Commons : Suurhuser Kirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Genealogy Forum: Suurhusen ( Memento from July 31, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on March 9, 2019.
  2. ^ Haiduck: The architecture . 1986, p. 178f.
  3. ^ Homepage of the parish , as seen on October 10, 2010.
  4. ^ Ostfriesen-Zeitung of December 27, 2012 , viewed January 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ Manfred Lädtke: East Friesland churches. Protection from storms and floods . Deutsches Ärzteblatt, vol. 113, October 2016, p. 710.
  6. ^ Ingeborg Nöldeke: Hidden treasures in East Frisian village churches - hagioscopes, rood screens and sarcophagus lids - overlooked details from the Middle Ages . Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7308-1048-4 , p. 111 f.
  7. ↑ Ralph Nickles: Organ inventory of the Krummhörn and the city of Emden . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-929902-62-1 , pp. 299-302, 489.

Coordinates: 53 ° 24 ′ 48.8 "  N , 7 ° 13 ′ 24.6"  E