Old Johannes Church (Mußbach)

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St. John's Church

Basic data
Denomination Protestant
place Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany
Patronage John the Baptist
Building description
inauguration 14th Century
Function and title

Protestant Johanneskirche Mußbach , Pastor Alfred Schnörr

Coordinates 49 ° 22 '10.6 "  N , 8 ° 10' 13.2"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 22 '10.6 "  N , 8 ° 10' 13.2"  E

The old St. John's Church in the wine-producing village Mußbach ( Rheinland-Pfalz ) that in 1969 as a district to Neustadt on the Wine Route was incorporated, is from the Middle Ages derived church building . Originally a Roman Catholic religious order, the building was converted into a simultaneous church at the beginning of the 18th century by installing a partition . Since 2007 it has been the sole property of the Protestant Johanneskirchengemeinde Mußbach, which belongs to the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Protestant regional church) .

Geographical location

The old Johanneskirche is at 144  m above sea level. NHN in the center of An der Eselshaut and forms the northern end of the historic Herrenhof estate . The new Catholic St. John's Church has stood in the southeastern area of ​​the site since 1959 .

investment

The church, usually facing east, consists of a choir , a nave and a 36 m high tower with a clock , the four dials of which point to the cardinal points. The tower is built on the left side of the choir and contains the sacristy on its ground floor .

history

Old Johanneskirche (in the background), in the foreground parts of the manor

The church and tower were built in the 14th century by the Order of St. John and consecrated to the order's patron , John the Baptist . In 1290 Werner, Schenk von Ramberg , had transferred the entire manor house to the order, whose branch that remained Catholic after the Reformation was renamed the Order of Malta in 1530 .

In 1621, in the third year of the Thirty Years War , the troops of Ernst von Mansfeld, who stood up for the Reformed Church , and the Spanish general Fernández de Córdoba , who was on the side of the Catholic League , fought against each other in the area of ​​Mußbach; They not only devastated the agricultural areas around the village, but also the place itself. The choir of the church remained almost intact, but the ship burned out. It was later rebuilt a bit simpler and lower than before, so that the ridge heights of the choir and nave differ by almost 2 m. In 1689, during the War of the Palatinate Succession , the church was damaged again by fire.

Almost 200 years after the Reformation, in 1707, a partition was built between the choir and nave of the church; henceforth the choir was used by the Catholics and the ship by the Protestants .

Since the new Catholic Johanneskirche was consecrated in 1959, the front part of the old church, which has wall paintings and sculptures from the 14th century, has been empty and has become increasingly dilapidated . In 2007 it was sold to the Protestant Johanneskirchengemeinde Mußbach. This restored the entire building from the end of 2012 in cooperation with the Catholic parish and the Herrenhof support group. The work was completed in October 2017. Since then, the “old choir” can be used as an independent room for religious and cultural purposes.

literature

  • Otto Sartorius: Mussbach. The story of a wine village . Historical Association of the Palatinate, Speyer 1959.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description of the manor house. Fördergemeinschaft Herrenhof, accessed on May 30, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Steffen Gall: From bells and thieves . In: Die Rheinpfalz , supplement real estate market . No. 70 . Ludwigshafen March 23, 2018, p. 5 .