Wallon Church

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Wallon Church

The Wallonerkirche (Sankt Augustini Church) is a Protestant church in Magdeburg 's old town . The church and the attached community center are used by both the Evangelical Lutheran old town community and the Evangelical Reformed community in Magdeburg. Since 2004 the Evangelical Student Congregation has also been using the premises of the church. The Wallonerkirche is next to the cathedral , the Sankt-Sebastian-Kirche and the Sankt-Petri-Kirche the only preserved church in the old town of Magdeburg.

architecture

South side of the Wallonerkirche

In the church there is a High Gothic , three-nave, with seven Jochen provided from quarry stone built church hall . It is 65 m long and 20 m high. As the former monastery church of a mendicant order , its appearance is simple. To the south of the church there were originally monastery buildings. Therefore there are only four narrow windows on this side. Remains of the old cloister can still be found on the south side .

The long choir was originally vaulted and is now spanned by a wooden beam ceiling. On the southern side of the choir is a ribbed vaulted chapel from the 14th century. The church has a small octagonal tower from the 15th century between the nave and the choir.

history

Augustinian monastery

In 1285 or shortly before that, a Sancti Augustini monastery of the order of the Augustinian hermits was founded on this site. For this, Saint Martin of Tours is said to have appeared three times in a dream to a brother Heinrich, called Pfau, with the request to found a monastery . Pope Martin IV campaigned for the city to accept the monks. Martin's chapel was inaugurated that year .

An important sponsor of the monastery was the knight Werner Feuerhake, who was buried in the choir of the church of that time in 1311. In 1355, the Augustinian monastery acquired parts of the library of the Berge monastery . These included annotated editions of Paul's letters and works by Augustine and Origen . For this purpose, a two-story library building was erected on the south wall of the choir to the west of the Martin's Chapel, with a chapel with a ribbed vault on the lower floor . On the keystone was a depiction of Christ on the lion throne .

West side of the Wallonerkirche

In 1366 the current church was completed as a hall church . The consecration was carried out by Archbishop Dietrich .

From September 1, 1395 to August 31, 1396, a so-called jubilee year of indulgence took place, approved by Pope Boniface IX. Magdeburg was for within 50 Miles to Grace site been appointed. Numerous pilgrims came to Magdeburg and the Sankt Augustini monastery to receive complete forgiveness of sins. The resulting substantial income for the monastery was partly used around 1400 to build a small octagonal tower, crowned with eight weather vanes . A vestibule was also built on the west side of the church. The rules of the order forbade the construction of an otherwise common west tower.

In 1516 Martin Luther visited the monastery in his function as district vicar of the order for the purpose of a visitation . During another visit to the city in 1524, he stayed in one of the cells of the monastery.

Dissolution and further use

In the same year the last prior handed over the monastery to the city of Magdeburg. The monastery was thus dissolved.

The facility now serves various worldly purposes. A grammar school , a hospital for the poor , a breeding and spinning house , the city ​​library and a cannon and bell foundry were housed here at times .

Thirty Years' War

During the extensive destruction of Magdeburg by imperial troops under Tilly on May 10, 1631, the monastery complex was only relatively slightly damaged. The church lost the roof in a fire, the church vault and the rest of the interior of the church remained undamaged. The church was therefore used again for church services from the 1st Sunday in Advent 1632.

The necessary repair work on the church was not carried out due to lack of money. Penetrating moisture and frost damage led to the partial collapse of the vault in 1639. Because of its dilapidation, the church had to be stopped.

Entry of the Walloon community

On the order of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, the ruins were handed over to Walloon Protestant refugees in 1690 . A restoration was completed on December 2, 1694. The church was now used by the Walloon Reformed community and has been known as the Walloon Church since that time .

At Pentecost 1699 a new bell weighing 500 pounds was consecrated. The elector contributed to the bell with a donation of 200 thalers. In 1754 an organ created by Philipp Wilhelm Grüneberg was inaugurated, which was used for almost 100 years until 1850.

During the Seven Years' War and the French occupation, the monastery complex served as a flour store and store for provisions. Repair work began in 1851 to restore the church for religious purposes. On March 13, 1853 it was handed over to the parish. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Walloon Reformed community, a heater was installed and a rood screen was erected in 1894 . During the tenure of the organist Ludwig Hermann Otto Finzenhagen , a new organ was installed in 1904 by the organ building company Wilhelm Sauer . At the same time, the northern church windows were given a color scheme.

Destruction in World War II

In the heaviest bombing raid on Magdeburg in World War II on January 16, 1945, the Wallonerkirche was also badly damaged.

Reconstruction in the GDR

In order to prevent the tower from collapsing, the triumphal arch between the choir and nave was bricked up in 1951. Reconstruction of the church began in 1961, with the vaulted western entrance hall not being rebuilt. The first service could be celebrated again on October 20, 1968. At the same time, the foundation stone was laid for the neighboring evangelical community center.

The Wallonerkirche is today the last reformed church building in Magdeburg. The German Reformed Church (St. Pauli), which was damaged in World War II, was demolished in 1955, while the French Reformed Church, built in 1705, was blown up in 1960. The German Reformed Congregation founded in 1681 and the French Reformed Congregation founded in 1687 merged with the Walloon Reformed Congregation in 1950 to form a united Evangelical Reformed Congregation. This has been using the southern chapel as a room for church services since August 3, 1975. On October 25 of the same year, the use of the choir by the Evangelical Lutheran old town began. A late Gothic carved altar from the St. Ulrich Church in Halle was also consecrated. In 1976 a baptismal font, cast in Magdeburg in 1430 , was also set up from the Ulrichskirche in Halle (Saale) .

The church tower was struck by lightning in 1978 and had to be renovated from 1980 to 1991.

Post-turnaround time

On June 19, 1994 a new organ was inaugurated on the west wall of the choir room . The slider chest instrument was built by the organ building company A. Schuster & Sohn (Zittau) and has 17 sounding stops on two manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.

Disposition
I main work C – f 3
1. Principal 8th'
2. Reed flute 8th'
3. octave 4 ′
4th Pointed flute 4 ′
5. Mixture IV 2 ′
6th Octave (from No. 5) 2 ′
7th Fifth (from No. 5) 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
II breastwork C – f 3
8th. Dumped 8th'
9. Capstan whistle 4 ′
10. Principal 2 ′
11. Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
12. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
13. Cymbel II 1 ⁄ 3 ′
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
14th Sub bass 16 ′
15th Pointed Principal 8th'
16. Choral bass 4 ′
17th bassoon 8th'

In 1998 the restoration of the carved altar began.

The Protestant student community has been located in the renovated adjoining rooms since 2004 .

New construction of the community center in the church

Community center

The new community center was completed in 2015. This is a two-story, almost cubic installation in the central nave, largely delimited with glass. The parish office, kitchenette, storage room and salon are located on the upper floor. The ground floor is filled by the community hall. The seven meter height of the installation corresponds to about a third of the total height.

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Krenzke: Churches and monasteries in Magdeburg. City Planning Office Magdeburg, 2000. pp. 77–82. ( PDF )
  • Sabine Ullrich: Magdeburg - architecture and urban development. 2001, ISBN 3-929330-33-4 .
  • Monika Soffner: Magdeburg - Wallonerkirche , Peda art guide No. 88 / ²2005, ISBN 3-927296-95-3

Web links

Commons : Wallonerkirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Augustinian Hermits St. Augustine Magdeburg Germania Sacra
  2. ↑ Description and disposition in: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau 29 (1908/09), p. 1228 f.
  3. ^ Hans-Joachim Falkenberg: The organ builder Wilhelm Sauer, 1831-1916: Life and work. Rensch 1990 ISBN 978-3-921848-17-3 , p. 234
  4. ↑ Information on the organ of the Wallonerkirche
  5. ^ Parish hall in the Wallonerkirche. In the right place. In: Archive «Bau der Woche» on www.german-architects.com. March 16, 2016, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  6. ^ Parish hall in the Wallonerkirche. In: Hannes Meyer Prize 2018 - Honorable Mention on the homepage of the Association of German Architects (BDA) . Retrieved February 3, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 3.9 "  N , 11 ° 38 ′ 46.5"  E