Old Church Weidenhausen

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Church from the southwest
View from the northwest

The old church in Weidenhausen , a district of Hüttenberg in the Lahn-Dill district ( Central Hesse ), is the local Protestant church. The medieval hall church with roof turret is a Hessian cultural monument for historical, artistic and urban planning reasons .

history

Nothing is known about the beginnings of the church; a medieval origin is assumed. Weidenhausen was parish off to Volpertshausen in the late Middle Ages . The parish belonged to the Archipresbyterat Wetzlar of the Archdiakonat St. Lubentius Dietkirchen in the Diocese of Trier .

With the introduction of the Reformation , Weidenhausen probably switched to the evangelical creed around 1540. In 1706 the church was rebuilt and renewed, which was made possible by the legacy of two residents who died childless.

The church was electrified in 1922, and in 1923 the congregation acquired a used organ that was taken over from the teachers' seminar in Wetzlar. In the same year the church received an oven. After no major renovations had been carried out in 230 years, the roof had become leaky and the plaster on the wall and ceiling was peeling off. In addition, the church stalls were missing. From 1936 the mayor of Weidenhausen sought a state grant for a comprehensive renovation; the construction load lay with the bourgeois community. The renovation measures from November 17, 1947 to August 22, 1948 included the renewal of the chairs and galleries as well as the brick floor. The western entrance porch was built in 1949.

After the inauguration of the new Protestant church on December 19, 1965, the old church was no longer used for worship services. The roof including the ridge was completely renewed in a first construction phase in 1981. Thanks to a new construction of the bell chamber, the vibrations are no longer transmitted directly to the roof structure. In a second construction phase starting in 1982, a ring drainage was laid, the external plaster was renewed, the organ was removed, part of the inventory was installed, the ceiling beams were protected and in 1985 a portal was broken into the northern niche. The church served him as a storage room in the following years, as there was no usage concept.

The further interior construction from 2002 to 2003 was initiated by the establishment of a support and friends group. After clearing out the church and relocating the inventory items, the interior plaster was renewed, the ceiling removed and raised by 0.36 meters including the joist , a new altar erected, wall lamps installed, the windows renovated, wood damage removed and clay plastering carried out.

Since the renovation, the building has been used for church again. The churches in Volpertshausen, Vollnkirchen and Weidenhausen merged into one community in 2015. This is connected to the parish of Reiskirchen / Niederwetz and belongs to the Evangelical Church District on Lahn and Dill in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland .

architecture

North portal from 1985

The white-plastered, almost east- facing hall church is built in the center of the village to the east of the street development made of quarry stone . A squat, four-sided roof turret, which is completely slated, is placed in the center of the slated gable roof. A pyramid roof rises above the cube-shaped shaft with sound openings, which is crowned by a small tower knob, an ornate cross and a gilded weathercock.

The western porch from 1949 is not built in the middle, but ends with the north wall of the ship and is drawn in in the south. It serves as a vestibule and has two openings under a slated canopy. The right one leads down a few steps to the old west entrance and the left one up a few steps to the gallery. The porch also provides access to the attic. There is a square window in the north. The lower part of the porch is bricked up, the upper part partly made of wood.

The church is accessed through the low west portal and the ground-level north portal created in 1985. The drapery is designed in the Romanesque style of light stone and a straight lintel over which a round arch is attached. In front of the north portal is a round-arched gray gravestone from the 18th century, which reminds of the mayor Johann Caspar Schäf (f) er (1659–1750), who died at the age of 90. Rectangular windows of different sizes with red painted wooden walls illuminate the church, two in the north, one in the east and three in the south.

Furnishing

Pulpit from 1706
View of the galleries

The flat-roofed interior is closed off by a beamed ceiling that rests on a longitudinal girder that is supported by an eight-sided post with bows . The angled gallery built into the north-west on bulged columns belongs to the wooden church furnishings . The eastern capital is marked with the year "ANNO 1706", the middle one with "ANNO 1948" and the western one with "ANNO 2003", which reminds of the renovations in these three years. The gallery has coffered panels, every second of which shows a painting with a New Testament scene: the birth of Christ, crucifixion, resurrection, Pentecost. The gallery is only accessible via the western porch, which leads up a few steps. The reveals of the windows in the east and south are painted with tendrils on the inside. To the right of the east window, the first request from the Our Father can be read as an inscription : "Hallowed be your name!"

The polygonal pulpit dates from 1706. The pulpit on a six-sided foot has high rectangular coffered panels on the pulpit fields, on the front field the monogram of Christ is affixed in gold letters . The pulpit staircase in the southeast corner is hidden behind barred diamondwork and continues the upper profiled cornice of the pulpit cage.

A wooden lecture cross marked 1688 has been preserved. A simple wooden table with a simple altar cross without a crucifix serves as the altar . A large wooden cross is attached to the south wall, flanked by the Greek letters Alpha and Omega . A medium-sized crucifix hangs on the west wall under the beamed ceiling. Movable single chairs serve as church seats. In the north-east corner there is an electronic organ that was donated.

Peal

Bells in the roof turret

In 1595 a bell was cast by Hans Kerle from Frankfurt, a second in 1723. A cracked bell was cast in Sinn by Rincker in 1888 . After the small bell had been delivered for armaments purposes in 1917, the Rincker company delivered two new bronze bells in 1923, of which the larger had to be delivered in 1942. As a replacement, the community bought a new bell in 1953.

No. Casting year Foundry, casting location Mass (kg) Chime inscription
1 1953 Gebr. Rincker , Sinn 199.5 d 2 " After war and suffering and hard times I call again to bliss "
2 1923 Rincker, Sinn about 115 f 2 " Lord, God, you are our refuge for and for "

literature

  • Friedrich Kilian Abicht: The district of Wetzlar, presented historically, statistically and topographically. Volume 2. Wetzlar 1836, pp. 89-90 ( online )
  • Manfred Klingsöhr: The village church Weidenhausen. If the Weidenhausen Church could tell. For the Friends of the “Old Church Weidenhausen”, leaflet [2003].
  • Maria Wenzel; State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. Lahn-Dill District II (old district of Wetzlar). (Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany). Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 978-3-8062-1652-3 , pp. 354-355.

Web links

Commons : Alte Kirche (Weidenhausen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Former Evangelical Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
  2. ↑ Weidenhausen. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on August 14, 2018 .
  3. ^ Gerhard Kleinfeldt, Hans Weirich: The medieval church organization in the Upper Hessian-Nassau area (= writings of the Institute for historical regional studies of Hesse and Nassau 16 ). NG Elwert, Marburg 1937, ND 1984, p. 205.
  4. ↑ a b Abicht: The Wetzlar district. Volume 2. Wetzlar 1836, p. 90 ( online , accessed August 14, 2018).
  5. ↑ a b c d Klingsöhr: The village church Weidenhausen. 2003.
  6. ^ Frank Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. Wetzlar's church history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tectum, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-9950-6 , p. 27.
  7. ^ Oswald Schieferstein: Orts-Familienbuch Volpertshausen-Vollnkirchen-Weidenhausen 1650-1900 (= writings of the Hessian Family History Association, Volume 54). Cardamina-Verlag Susanne Breuel, Plaidt 2013, ISBN 978-3-86424-151-2 , p. 365 (No. 1258).
  8. ↑ Hellmut Schliephake: Bell customer of the district of Wetzlar. In: Heimatkundliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Lahntal e. V. 12th yearbook. 1989, ISSN  0722-1126 , pp. 5-150, here p. 142.

Coordinates: 50 ° 30 '28.2 "  N , 8 ° 33' 6.31"  E