Old Church of St. Johannes d. T. (mesum)
The old church of St. Johannes d. T. is a listed church building in Mesum , a district of Rheine in North Rhine-Westphalia . It is considered to be the oldest building in the city of Rheine.
History and architecture
The original chapel was 1373 Rheine abgepfarrt . The building was supposedly built from the stones of the Schwanenburg in Elte , which was destroyed in 1343 . The building is a small, three- bay vaulted hall with a 4/6 end. In the course of the reconstruction of the parish church in the village center, the sacristy and the west tower were demolished around 1900 in order to obtain building material for the new church. Until the consecration of the new parish church of St. Johannes Baptist in 1890, the old church was the local Catholic parish church. She was then z. B. used until 1956 (construction of the Samaritan Church) as a place of worship for the Protestant community or as a war memorial . Today services for smaller groups take place in the church at irregular intervals.
Layout
The church in 1893 with the stump of the tower, which was demolished in 1888
View of the choir in 1893
Interior of the church with high altar in 2011
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Furnishing
The church is surprisingly richly endowed. In the course of the planned demolition in 1888, however, Gothic and Renaissance images were transferred to the Westphalian State Museum in Münster.
- High altar by Bernd Meyering (* 1631, † around 1703) made of Baumberger sandstone . Central relief of the crucifixion of Jesus with Mary and the apostle John under the cross, above a depiction of the beheading of the parish priest John the Baptist as the predecessor of Jesus in sacrificial death. To the side of the crucifixion the figures of St. Joseph and John the Baptist, next to the beheading St. Catherine and the third of Anna . The twisted shape of the columns is modeled on the columns on the canopy of St. Peter's Basilica by Gian Lorenzo Bernini .
- Two candlestick angels by the sculptor Bernd Katman († 1609) made of Baumberger sandstone. Before they came to Mesum they were probably standing in the central nave of the cathedral in Münster as candle holders in front of the altar of St. Paul .
- Eight figures of saints by Bernd Meyering from the period 1675 to 1686, according to the inscription in the wall brackets, some donated by Mesum citizens. Most of the characters have lost their attributes over the years .
- Maria Immaculate
- St. Elizabeth
- St. John the Baptist. This figure was originally in the western part of the church, near the baptismal font.
- St. Peter
- St. John Evangelist
- St. Paul
- St. Andrew
- Mater Dolorosa
- St. Michael as dragon slayer (18 first-third century) by an unknown sculptor
- Kalvarienberg , oak group from 1737 from a workshop in neighboring Bevergern . This group of figures originally hung on the south wall of the same yoke , as the crucifixion took place around the sixth hour (i.e. at 12:00) and the sun is in the south at this time.
- Baroque Pieta from the middle of the 18th century, placed in the cemetery between two linden trees until 1941, today part of a war memorial in the church.
- Johannes Nepomuk . Lay carving from the 18th century, originally placed on the pulpit cover.
- Remnants of wall and vault paintings were uncovered in 1959.
- The keystone in the west yoke shows a little man riding on a very fat woman, probably the representation of the Middle High German legend of Alexander, Aristotle and Phyllis .
- Keystone in the eastern choir bay with the face of Christ
The high altar
One of the chandelier angels
St. Michael as a dragon slayer
St. Peter
St. Andrew
Ceiling painting (early 16th century) and grotesque keystone in the western vault
Grotesque keystone (rotated 180 °)
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Earlier equipment
Two retables were donated to Mesum from Münster Cathedral in 1699 . They formed two side altars in the apse of the church, which was already quite narrow due to the massive high altar (see picture view of the choir in 1893 ). The works from the workshop of Johann Brabender (called Beldensnyder = picture cutter ) depicted the conversion of Pauli and the adoration of the three kings . The first work is now in the cathedral chamber of Münster, the latter in the cross chapel of the cathedral.
The windows of the apse used to have simple ornamentation with stars, geometric patterns and crosses in the tracery.
organ
After the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) the Mesumer population had increased considerably and numbered around 650 souls. In order to gain additional space for the faithful, a gallery was built in the west yoke of the church in 1781 and thus also a place for an organ. However, it was not until 1812 that the community was able to acquire a used small instrument from the Clariss monastery in Münster, which was dissolved in the course of secularization in 1803 . This organ was sold to the Redemptorists in Glanerbrück near Gronau in 1893 after the parish church was rebuilt and a new, large organ from the Fleiter company was acquired . From there the instrument was later brought to the Antonius Hospital in Gronau, where it is still in use in the hospital chapel today.
literature
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of the German art monuments, North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume 2, Westphalia, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1969
- Rudolf Breuing, Karl-Ludwig Mengels (with the collaboration of Wolfgang Knitschky, Herbert Ebeling, Jürgen Gaffrey, Franz Greiwe, Karl Harenbrock, Gaby Hülsmann and Jörg Niemer): The art and cultural monuments in Rheine . Part III / IV, IVD GmbH & Co.KG, 2011
- Ulrich Terlinden: The Old Church of St. Johannes Baptist Mesum, 1998
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 42.2 ″ N , 7 ° 29 ′ 39.7 ″ E