Old parish church St. Petronilla (Wettringen)
The old parish church of St. Petronilla in Wettringen , Steinfurt district was built in the 11th century and a south aisle was added in 1520. In 1861 it was completely demolished. The neo-Gothic hall church of St. Petronilla stands a little southwest of the original location .
prehistory
The Christianization of the Münsterland reached after attempts by Anglo-Saxon missionaries such. B. the Ewaldi brothers (end of the 7th century), later the Frisian Liudger (end of the 8th century) achieved their breakthrough when Widukind broke the Saxon resistance under Charlemagne . Around the year 800, an army road from the mouth of the Lippe to the Ems was set up to secure the territorial security of the conquered Saxony areas. The Franconians built royal courts or castles at intervals of about a day's ride. The selection of suitable locations was based on strategic considerations, such as B. the Aa loop in Wettringen, the Emsfurt in Rheine or an old consecration site of the Saxons, such. B. the wave (source) in Schöppingen. At the same time, chapels or churches were built in these places to fulfill Christian duties. The churches were consecrated to Franconian church patrons. The church in Rheine dedicated to St. Dionysius, which Schöppingen gave to St. Brictius, from the betting rings of St. Petronilla.
location
The old church in Wettringen was on the edge of the village settlement. The Münsterland was hardly developed in the early Middle Ages, so the small church was built directly on the Steinfurter Aa on a small hill that was easy to find. In addition, there was the strategically good location on an Aa loop.
Building history
In the 11th century the originally existing wooden church was replaced by a stone church. Essentially, it was probably a Romanesque church building with a fortified tower. Around 1520, a south aisle and a Gothic choir were added. Finally, in 1861, the old church was demolished and a new neo-Gothic church was built. The demolition was carried out so thoroughly that there are hardly any remains. The basis of the following reconstruction is a questionnaire from the Westphalian government from 1854 and eyewitness reports collected by Bernhard Wiggenhorn in 1933 and 1934. Bernhard Wiggenhorn has summarized the results in a small church guide.
The size of the old church
Different information is available about the size of the old church, which contradicts one another. According to the records of the new church building, the old church was only 3,000 square feet and far too small for the congregation. A letter from a Mr. Niermann to the Wettringer businessman Martin Kruse. According to the stated dimensions, the church had an interior space of 4,400 square feet and was hardly inferior to today's parish church. However, it is not certain whether the recipient's church was really meant. Therefore this source is probably ruled out.
A third source contains the reply from Pastor Schepers to a survey sent by the state government in 1854. Accordingly, the church was 78 feet (25.6 m) long, 44 feet (14.5 m) wide and 77 feet (25.3 m) high, excluding the tower. The tower had a square footprint with sides of 20 feet (6.6 m) and a height of 93 feet (30.6 m). The basis for converting feet into meters is the Prussian length measurement of feet (1 foot = 0.329 m).
The exterior of the old church
The church was made of quarry stone, without any surface. The roof was covered with red tiles, while the top of the tower was covered with slate. There were four windows on the south side, two on the choir and three windows on the north side. A window on the north side was probably walled up, as a new sacristy was built in front of it in 1852. The windows on the north side were from Romanesque times and were 3 ½ feet high and 1 ½ feet wide and worked without ornamentation. On the south side and the choir, the windows were made with bars and rose windows and were 5 feet wide and 10 feet high. The church had three entrances, a small door on the north side that was perhaps only used by the clergy, an entrance through the tower and the south portal. This was likely offset during the southern expansion in 1520. The portal was framed with two colossal figures, popularly called "Adam" and "Eve". The cross stone bore the year "Anno Domini MDXX" (1520). A statue of Lazarus was probably attached to the north outer wall in memory of an epidemic.
The inner
The floor was covered with heavy stone slabs, the room was whitewashed. The windows may have been framed with tendril ornaments. The church had three altars, the altarpiece at the high altar was made of stone, the side altars were made of wood. They probably all came from the same period, the end of the 17th century. The top of the high altar consisted of two columns wrapped with foliage and closed in a semicircle. The pillars contained a picture depicting Christ on the Mount of Olives. The picture is more recent and was painted by the painter Franz Wieschebrink (1818–1884). You have probably removed an older picture or baroque figures and chose this picture for it. The fact that a picture of the Christ of the Mount of Olives was made, although an identical stone depiction was available, seems strange. The question arises whether the stone sculpture was perhaps lost.
One of the side altars probably had a simple cross with Christ, framed on both sides by the disciple John and Mary, the mother of Jesus.
The other altar was dedicated to Saint Catherine. The baroque sculpture of the engagement of St. Katharina, the so-called Katharinenminne, shows the mystical engagement of Katharina with the baby Jesus. The work was probably created in the 17th century and is awarded by experts to the workshop of Heinrich and Bernd Meiering .
Near the high altar there was a sacrament house on the north side, which is still preserved today in the new parish church.
The pentagonal, white-lacquered, otherwise unadorned pulpit was attached to the choir, on the north wall, just advancing into the nave. A way of the cross was preserved until 1925, it was a series of plaster reliefs that were considered worthless and lost. The then sexton Franz Böwering says about the organ as follows: "In 1812 the local parish church was improved and a new organ came from the Capuchin monastery Coesfeld, which Napoleon spared"
The old Romanesque font stood in the tower. The round baptismal font rose on square feet, supported by four supports with human heads. Rope-like ribbons and a palmette and tendril frieze ran around the basin. The font corresponds to the so-called Bentheimer type, in which, however, the font is usually carried by lions. The baptismal font is still preserved in the new church, but the square foot is missing.
Bells
The old church had 3 bells.
The oldest, the St. Petronilla bell, dates from 1511 and received the inscription:
Sct. Petronella mihi nomen
Procul pello omnia noxia
Mortales ad sacra templa cito
Anno Domino MCCCCCXI
The translation is:
St. Petronella is my name
Keep all damage away
I call mortals to the house of God
AD 1511
The second bell was dedicated to St. Catherine and dates from 1684. The inscription read:
Laudo Deum; Catharina vocor, quae convoco coetum;
Defunctos ploro, pestum fugo, festa decoro.
Bernhardus Schründer pastor; Andreas Buchholts
prefectus urbanus. Hardnick me Coesfeldy in 1684
The translation is:
I praise God, my name is Katharina and I call to church services,
I weep the dead, drive away the plague, I beautify the festivals.
Bernhard Schründer Pastor, Andreas Buchholtz Vogt.
Hardinck made me in Coesfeld. 1684
The inscription does not reveal who the third bell was dedicated to. If, however, the first two were taken over when purchasing the new bells for the new church, the same will have been done for the third bell, all the more since the inscription has remained the same. Accordingly, the third bell was dedicated to St. Joseph.
The inscription reads:
Vox mea, vox vitae
Voco vos ad sacra, venite
JR (?) SPW
FM Rinker from Osnabrück gos me after Wettr. 1773
The translation is:
My voice is the voice of life
I call you to worship, comes
Johan Bernhard Schmitz, Pastor Wettringen, 1773
The church clock
The old tower clock was 100 to 200 years old and was still built into the new church tower. It was in operation there until 1934. Due to old age it was exchanged for a new watch.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Kohl: Small Westphalian history. Düsseldorf 1994
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggenhorn: The old parish church in Wettringen Westf. Wettringen 1934, p. 10 ff.
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggenhorn: The old parish church in Wettringen Westf. Wettringen 1934, p. 13 ff
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggen Horn: The old parish church to Wettringen Westphalia. Wettringen 1934, p 12
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggen Horn: The old parish church to Wettringen Westphalia. Wettringen 1934, pp 13-14
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggenhorn: The old parish church in Wettringen Westf. Wettringen 1934, p. 15 ff.
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggenhorn: The old parish church in Wettringen Westf. Wettringen 1934, p. 20 ff
- ↑ Bernhard Wiggenhorn: The old parish church in Wettringen Westf. Wettringen 1934, p. 19 ff.