Wybelsumer Church
The Evangelical Reformed Wybelsumer Church in the East Frisian town of Emden was built in 1700 after Geerdsweer was dyed.
History and description of the building
Wybelsum originally belonged to the parish of Geerdsweer, whose church was built from tuff and dedicated to St. Nicholas. After the storm surge of November 16, 1699, the dyke line was relocated and the place abandoned. The church was demolished in 1700 and the stones and a bell were sold to the Netherlands. The tall tuff church tower had served as a landmark until then .
In 1700 a new church in the Baroque style was built in Wybelsum . The rectangular brick structure is 22.10 meters long and 7.40 meters wide. The building is closed by a hipped roof with a ridge turret, which is crowned by a rooster as a weather vane. Light falls into the church through four large arched windows in the south wall, while the north side has no windows. There is also a small raised window in the very east of the south side. The church is entered through a round arched portal on the west side, which was built in 1700.
The pulpit, the communion table and the benches were taken from Geerdsweer. The bell dates from 1494. A baptismal font from the 13th century, which was given to the city museum around 1900, has been missing since the Second World War.
The town of Emden has owned the church and the property since 1970, which the community exchanged for a property in the nearby Kloster-Langen-Straße. A new community center, the “New Church”, was built here in 1974. In addition to the community rooms, there is a separate worship hall available for services. Here is a small organ with double doors by Ahrend & Brunzema from 1965 with six registers, some of which were taken over from an older organ by P. Furtwängler & Hammer . The city of Emden receives a rent for the use of the old church near Kasualien , but is also responsible for the maintenance of the building. In the 1980s, parishioners began renovating the dilapidated church. They installed heating, refurbished the stalls, bought two chandeliers and renewed the missing tower. In 2009 pensioners volunteered to lay the floor. As part of the village renewal planning of the city of Emden, costs of € 40,000 for the renovation of the outside of the church (windows, wall jointing, gutters) were estimated in 2009.
Today the church is mainly used as a mortuary and for funeral services. Services are held in it on the occasion of weddings and on some memorial days. The Wybelsumer community shares a parish with the neighboring community of Logumer Vorwerk . Both parishes belong to the Synodal Association of Northern East Friesland of the Reformed Church, to which 39 parishes with around 37,000 members belong.
Furnishing
A wooden beam ceiling has moved into the simple one-room hall. A gallery is built into the east side . The room is dominated by the colors white and pigeon blue. The blue-framed church stalls with white traljean lattices are horseshoe-shaped and aligned with the plain white pulpit on the south wall. It has a hexagonal floor plan and a sound cover. Fluted pilasters delimit the simple fields of the pulpit cage.
The Vocalion from 1894, a pressure wind harmonium made by Mason & Risch in Worcester (Massachusetts), is of outstanding art historical importance . The instrument has eight registers and is possibly the only one of its kind in Europe.
See also
Web links
- reformiert.de: Ev.-ref. Wybelsum community
- Genealogy forum: Wybelsum
- Michael Till Heinze: Wybelsum
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Michael Till Heinze: Wybelsum , accessed on February 14, 2011.
- ↑ Ostfriesen-Zeitung of November 26, 2009: Wybelsumer worry about the old church , accessed on February 16, 2012.
- ^ Reformiert.de: Synodalverband Nördliches Ostfriesland , accessed on February 14, 2012.
- ^ Reformiert.de: Ev.-ref. Wybelsum municipality , accessed on October 2, 2011.
Coordinates: 53 ° 21 '15.1 " N , 7 ° 6' 37.7" E