Apollinaris Church (Remagen)

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Apollinare Church from the east
evening atmosphere
Location on the Rhine
crypt
Image of Christ in the altar apse
Chapel on the Martinsberg around 1830
Aerial view of the Apollinaris Church with the new monastery from the 1970s
Crypt of the von Fürstenberg-Stammheim family at the Apollinariskirche

The Apollinaris Church is located above the city of Remagen about 40 m above the Rhine on a hill that is now called Apollinarisberg. The present church was built around the middle of the 19th century in the neo-Gothic style and painted in the Nazarene style. Christian graves from Roman times were discovered at the foot of the mountain in 1892. Benedictines have lived on the Apollinarisberg since the early Middle Ages .

First churches on the Apollinarisberg

The construction of the first church, which was dedicated to St. Martin, the patron saint of the Franks , cannot be precisely determined. It was probably built in the 9th century. Around the year 1110, the Benedictines of Michaelsberg Abbey in Siegburg built a provost's office in Remagen on the initiative and with great support of the population of Remagen. In the 13th century, the relics of St. Apollinaris probably came to the mountain. The earliest documented mention of the saint in Remagen comes from the year 1295. The sarcophagus with the main relic in the crypt of the church dates from the 14th century.

Neo-Gothic building in the 19th century

In the course of the Napoleonic Wars and the secularization , the Benedictine provost was abolished in 1802. After the abolition, the brothers Sulpiz and Melchior Boisserée bought the entire property in 1807 . In August 1836 they auctioned the property for 24,200 thalers to baron Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Stammheim , who was elevated to the rank of count in 1840 . His plans to install a major work of new religious painting in the existing old church could not be carried out because the church was dilapidated. So he decided to demolish the church and replace it with a new one. The foundation stone was laid on July 22, 1839 and it was consecrated on March 24, 1857 . The Düsseldorf architect Rudolf Wiegmann presented a design in the neo-Romanesque arched style for the building . The romanesque was considered but in Catholic areas as a Protestant style; therefore Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Stammheim decided on the neo-Gothic , which was considered a Catholic architectural style. He commissioned the architect Ernst Friedrich Zwirner , who at that time in Cologne the Cologne Cathedral built finished the construction of a neo-Gothic church with as many panels for the frescos.

As early as 1837, the client had contacted the students of the painter Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow - a son of the Berlin sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow - who was rector at the Düsseldorf Art Academy at the time . The Nazarene group included the painters Ernst Deger , the brothers Andreas Müller and Karl Müller, and Franz Ittenbach . For almost ten years they worked on the extensive cycles in the summer half-year: 69 pictures with around 580 figures. The frescoes consist of the main parts: the life of Jesus , the life of Mary and the life of St. Apollinaris. The apse is dominated by the depiction of Jesus as the judge of the world, surrounded by Mary and John the Baptist . Below, in the middle, are St. Peter and St. Apollinaris, the four evangelists Matthew , Mark , Luke and John can be seen on both sides , above the side altars: Our Lady and St. Joseph . The result was a total work of art that is still unique today.

When building the church, prefabricated cast iron elements were used on a larger scale. The openwork pyramid helmets of the towers (height 45 m), the balustrades between the towers, the pillars of the organ loft, the choir barriers and the railing of the stairs to the crypt come from the foundry Isselburger Hütte von Nering, Bögel u. Cie on the Lower Rhine. The structure has a ribbed vault inside , on which a blue and gold starry sky has been painted. The keystone of the crossing is adorned with a dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit .

Franciscans and Apollinaris Church

From March 25, 1857 to December 31, 2006, the Franciscans of the Saxon Franciscan Province ( Saxonia ), from 1929 of the Cologne Franciscan Province ( Colonia ) supervised the pilgrimage on the Apollinarisberg. Since then, the two-week Apollinaris pilgrimage has taken place every year in July and August. The Franciscan monastery was closed during the Kulturkampf , but thanks to the great solidarity with the Remagen population, a small group of religious could continue to provide pastoral care here. In 1884 the von Fürstenberg-Stammheim family, who own the Apollinariskirche, had a crypt built on the site of the church, in which Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Stammheim, who died in 1859, found his final resting place.

The Second World War , from which the city of Remagen was badly affected because of its strategically important Rhine bridge , also had serious consequences for the Apollinariskirche and the monastery. A V2 that hit nearby partially destroyed the roof and glazing. Since the repairs could only be carried out in 1947, the penetrating moisture seriously damaged the frescoes. The Franciscans offered the population protection in their rooms and stood by their side with pastoral care.

In 1972 the monastery buildings in which the Franciscans lived were demolished and a new convent was built on the site of the former Benedictine provosty, directly north of the church. For several years it served as a "juniorate" for the order's offspring who studied at the University of Bonn . The Apollinariskirche has been extensively renovated since 1985. The exterior renovation was completed in 2005. Since mid-2005, further extensive restoration work has taken place inside the church. The renovation work was supported by the German Foundation for Monument Protection and the Friends of the Apollinari Church.

At the end of 2006 the Franciscans left the monastery and church. On Boxing Day they were bid farewell in a solemn pontifical mass in the presence of Auxiliary Bishop Jörg Michael Peters . In February 2007, the Community of Crucified and Risen Love , a "private association of believers " from Maastricht , took over the care of the pilgrimage site.

Pilgrimage

The veneration of St. Apollinaris was first mentioned in a deed of indulgence in 1295. All who attended certain devotions here were granted a 40-day indulgence . This suggests that “pilgrims” came to Remagen. The large organized pilgrimages did not emerge until the following centuries. There has been a pilgrimage from St. Georg (Cologne) since the beginning of the 16th century. The pilgrims from Auenheim have been coming from 1630 until today, and have been coming again on foot since 2008. Since the Franciscans came to Remagen in 1857, the pilgrimage has taken place annually in the two-week Apollinarisoktav in July and August. The head relic of St. Apollinaris is raised from the shrine in the crypt and placed in a silver reliquary in the shape of a head for worship in the church. During the heyday, up to 100,000 pilgrims came to pilgrimage to the head of St. Apollinaris on the Apollinarisberg. In 2014, around 12,000 worshipers were counted during the pilgrimage (July 19 to August 3).

Furnishing

The organ was built and expanded in 1984 by the organ builder Simon. The instrument has 21 stops on two manuals and a pedal .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
01. Principal 08th'
02. Reed flute 08th'
03. octave 04 ′
04th Dumped 04 ′
05. Sesquialter II 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
06th Forest flute 02 ′
07th Mixture IV 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′
08th. Trumpet 08th'
Tremulant
II Swell C – g 3
09. Wooden dacked 08th'
10. Viol 08th'
11. Beat 08th'
12. Gemshorn 04 ′
13. Principal 02 ′
14th Fifth 01 1 ⁄ 3  ′
15th Scharff III 1'
16. Rohrschalmey 08th'
Tremulant
Pedals C – f 1
17th Sub bass 16 ′
18th Octave bass 08th'
19th Dacked bass 08th'
20th Choral bass 04 ′
21st bassoon 16 ′

literature

  • Athanasius Bierbaum: The Apollinarisberg: its church, its provost, its relics and its monastery. Ahrweiler 1907 ( online edition dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate )
  • JA Birlo: The guide in the St. Apollinaris Church near Remagen and its surroundings: a very necessary manual for the visitor. Bonn 1857 ( online edition dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate )
  • Wolfgang Brönner: The Apollinariskirche in Remagen (= preservation of monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Research reports 7). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2005, ISBN 978-3-88462-201-8
  • Aloys C. Krumscheid: The St. Apollinariskirche near Remagen on the Rhine and the romantic Ahrthal. A handbook for visitors to the church and the Ahr valley. Linz approx. 1860 ( online edition dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate )
  • State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate (Ed.): The Apollinariskirche in Remagen. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2005 (series 'Monument Preservation in Rhineland-Palatinate - Research Reports' Volume 7, with contributions by Wolfgang Brönner , Paul-Georg Custodis , Herbert Dellwing , Wolfgang Franz, Klaus Häfner, Dieter Kastner, Franz Ronig , Barbara Schock-Werner , Eduard Sebald and Arnold Wolff , 246 pp., 209 ills.)
  • Heinrich Josef Langen: On the history of the Apollinarisberg and its inhabitants in the years 1807–1836 - Brothers Boisserée and Count Reinhard. C. Dreesbach, Remagen 1927. ( online edition dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate )
  • Stephanie Rösler-Schinke: The Apollinaris Church in Remagen - a total work of art from the 19th century. Dissertation, Munich 1994.
  • Heinrich Schrörs, On the building history of the churches on the Apollinaris Mountains , in: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine, in particular the Old Archdiocese of Cologne. Issue 67. Cologne, 1899 (online edition Düsseldorf: University and State Library, 2015 )
  • Bettina Vaupel: Every picture is a service . In: Monuments 23/1 (2013). ISSN  0941-7125 , pp. 75-81 (79).
  • Erhard Wacker: 850 years of the Apollinaris relic on the Apollinarisberg near Remagen , Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Ahrweiler 2015, 2014.
  • Erhard Wacker: St. Apollinaris in Remagen. The story of the relic and the pilgrimage , Remagen 2014.
  • Erhard Wacker: The wall texts of the Nazarenes frescoes in the Remagener Apollinariskirche , Remagen 2012.
  • Erhard Wacker: The consecration of the pilgrimage church St. Apollinaris in Remagen , Remagen 2012.

Web links

Wikisource: Apollinaris (legend by Heinrich Pröhle)
Commons : Apollinariskirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erhard Wacker: The consecration of the pilgrimage church St. Apollinaris in Remagen
  2. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The Apollinariskirche in Remagen, page 197ff.
  3. ↑ German Foundation for Monument Protection: Monuments - Magazine for Monument Culture in Germany , December 2018 issue, 28th vol. No. 6, ISSN 0941-7125
  4. ↑ Own representation of the community ( Memento from April 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  5. ↑ Erhard Wacker: St. Apollinaris in Remagen. The Story of the Relic and the Pilgrimage , page 22.
  6. ↑ Erhard Wacker: 850 years of Apollinaris relic on the Apollinarisberg near Remagen .
  7. ↑ Information on the organ

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 '51.8 "  N , 7 ° 13' 16.8"  E