Medenbach motorway church

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Exterior view of the Autobahnkirche

The motorway church Medenbach is a motorway church at the Medenbach-West service station on the A3 Cologne - Frankfurt . It was the first motorway church in Hesse .

history

The construction of a motorway church on the busy A3 initially failed because the Hesse-Nassau regional church or the Limburg diocese were unable to build such a church for financial reasons. It was then made possible by the private foundation of a businessman.

In 1998 an architecture competition called “Autobahnkirche Medenbach” was announced, in which 80 architectural offices took part and which the Hessian architect Hans Waechter won. As a result, he received the order in 1999 to carry out the design. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in February 2000, the consecration of the church on March 30, 2001.

The construction costs amounted to about two million DM.

layout

The motorway church is designed as a low-rise building in light-colored exposed concrete , which is surrounded by arcades and courtyard walls. It is symmetrical and has access from the gas station in the north and from the rest area in the south. The chapel has exposed brickwork both inside and outside.

In the atrium

The visitor first passes the arcades and arrives in an outside space that is covered by the crowns of seven trees. This outdoor space is equipped with a gravel floor and concrete benches. Two large openings lead into a square atrium with a covered walkway. In the floor of the atrium, there are nine soda makers, the noise of which is intended to drown out the noise from the motorway. Glass doors lead into the anteroom of the chapel. The actual chapel room has a glass roof that is inclined at an angle of 45 °. It is partly colored; A resurrection scene is indicated in shades of blue, below which can be seen the hands of praying people raised to heaven. The design comes from Johannes Schreiter .

In the direction of the atrium there is a slot in the wall of the chapel and allows a view of the soda makers.

The Munich sculptor Nikolaus Gerhart designed the interior of the chapel. The back wall of the altar is provided with four surfaces made of artificial stone plates, which are arranged in such a way that the space in between is cross-shaped. The same panels were used for the design of the floor. Parallel protrusions in the brick wall indicate Jacob's ladder. The block-like altar is made of granite and contains a lying cross.

A description of the Autobahnkirche reads: “The sun's rays create constantly changing shadows and the illumination of the glass roof from the inside [...] creates an extravagant external effect. The cross erected in front of the building marks the Christian church. "

The 81 square meter church has 24 seats. The enclosed space has a capacity of 1579 cubic meters.

A model of the Medenbach motorway church is in the German Architecture Museum . The building was awarded the Johann Wilhelm Lehr plaque .

use

The Medenbach autobahn church is operated by the Wiesbaden-Medenbach Evangelical Church Community. It is open around the clock, seven days a week. In addition to the A3, it is also accessible via a farm road. From March to December there is a prayer on the third Wednesday of the month in the Autobahnkirche. Around 40,000 people visit the Medenbach motorway church every year. Many also use the concern book that is on display in the church.

Web links

Commons : Autobahnkirche Medenbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Motorway Church Medenbach on www.wiesbaden.de
  2. a b water and glass. Near the Rhine and Main. Protestant motorway church Medenbach. History of origin on www.autobahnkirche.de
  3. a b archive of the church homepage at www.autobahnkirche-medenbach.de
  4. a b Silence in bright light on www.autobahnkirche.de
  5. Eva Wodarz-Eichner: 111 places in Wiesbaden that you have to see. Emons Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-863-58925-7 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  6. a b c Evangelical parish Medenbach, motorway church Medenbach. Information on architecture , o. O., o. J.
  7. Hans Waechter. Motorway Church Medenbach on archiv.dam-online.de
  8. epd, Autobahnkirchen are also architecturally interesting , July 24, 2015 on our.ekhn.de
  9. ^ Armin Schmidt (chairman of the church council), Autobahnkirche in Medenbach, Flyer 1, as of 09/2008
  10. ^ Elisabeth Böker, With Tempo 130 zu Gott , Frankfurter Rundschau , August 6, 2012 (online at www.fr.de )

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 '43.4 "  N , 8 ° 21' 7.1"  E