Barefoot Church (Pforzheim)
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The Barefoot Church in Pforzheim in Baden-Württemberg goes back to the medieval Franciscan monastery in the city, which was abolished during the Reformation. When the monastery buildings were destroyed in the town fire in 1689, only the imposing choir of the church remained, which again served as a place of worship for various faiths from the 18th century and is now a cultural monument under monument protection.
history
After the Pforzheim Monastery was founded in 1270, construction of the associated monastery church began soon. The church was originally 60 meters long and 15 meters wide. There was an imposing 60 meter high turret between the nave and the choir . After the Reformation and the abolition of the monastery, the church was mostly used for secular purposes, as a granary and haystack. During the Thirty Years' War , during victorious phases, the Catholic imperial troops made several attempts to re-establish a Catholic monastery, which came to an end with the victories of the opposing Swedish troops and ultimately with the peace treaty of 1648. When the Swedes moved in on January 23, 1632, the Prior Petronius Widemann was strangled by the Swedes in the choir of the church. After the Peace of Westphalia , the church again served secular purposes. Most of the monastery buildings and the nave of the church were destroyed by flames in the town fire in 1689. From 1764 the Reformed congregation used the remaining choir for their services, after the merger of Lutherans and Reformed to form the Protestant regional church in 1821 the church was empty again.
After Catholics were able to settle in Pforzheim again from the late 18th century and they were given their own parish in 1823 , the Catholic community acquired the Barfüßerkirche in 1825 for 3,300 guilders. Initially, the church no longer had a patron saint, as the original patron saint of the monastery church had already been forgotten. In 1852 the church was dedicated to St. Consecrated Francis. In the course of industrialization , the Catholic community grew rapidly. In order to have more space for all believers in the church, the community planned to rebuild the nave in 1860, but the state building authorities objected. The community then acquired a building site in 1872, on which the Church of St. Francis was built in 1888 .
When the Franziskuskirche was no longer sufficient for all believers in 1925, a new parish office was established for the believers south of the Enz. The Barfüßerkirche served this later parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a house of worship from 1925 until the Sacred Heart Church was built in 1928/29.
In 1942 the church received new glass windows from Sepp Frank . However, these were no longer installed, but relocated to Neuhausen so that they survived the war.
Towards the end of the Second World War , the church was badly damaged in the air raids on Pforzheim . Restoration followed from 1949 to 1957. In 1955, the State Health Department was added to the church, following the building layout of the earlier monastery buildings.
literature
- Parish of St. Franziskus Pforzheim (Ed.): 100 years of St. Francis 1891–1991. Catholic life in Pforzheim. Pforzheim 1991.
- Hermann Diruff and Christoph Timm: Art and cultural monuments in Pforzheim and in the Enzkreis. Theiss, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 47-48.
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 53 '30.6 " N , 8 ° 42' 4.4" E