Bell Church
The Bell Church is a late Gothic church ruin, which is 300 m south of the village "in the open field". It is the landmark of Eckelsheim . There is little specific information about its history, but many conjectures and legends.
The construction of the church
A recently rediscovered document from 1490 speaks of “the construction of a chapel and an altar in it in honor of Our Lady , named in the bells”. On Wednesdays and on all Marian holidays , a mass is to be read “for eternity”. At the time of the notarization, probably only the choir room was completed and closed off with a wooden wall in the choir arch. The construction of the nave lasted until 1519, as evidenced by the inscription on the west portal. The church and sacristy were protected by vaults and brick roofs.
The location of the church is well chosen because it stands on solidified sand and near a formerly abundant spring ("Beller Brünnchen"). Presumably there was already a previous wooden building at this point. Prehistoric finds show that this place has been used for a long time.
The name
There are almost a dozen theories about the origin of the name. The reference to the mighty poplars (= barking), which still shaped the image at the foot of the church at the beginning of the 20th century, is mentioned most frequently. But also “Bella Maria” in connection with the patronage of the church and the Celtic source god Belenus appear in current or earlier discussions.
The Bell Market
For the birth of Mary (September 8th), believers from far and wide made a pilgrimage to Bell's Church. These people needed to be cared for, and they were receptive to entertainment and product offers after the ceremonies. This is how the Beller Markt came into being, a fair of supraregional importance, which earned the small town of Eckelsheim the name “market town”. The Beller Markt was held here in the open until 1902.
The ruin
At this point the church had long since fallen into disrepair. There is no information about their condition for the period between 1584 and 1774. The Palatinate War of Succession also left its mark on the region. Presumably, after the Reformation at the end of the 16th century, the church lost its spiritual importance and fell into disrepair over time.
It is quite noticeable that the ruins appear to have been prepared. The outer walls have stood in full height for at least 200 years and testify to the use of the ruin. Only the stones of the sacristy were broken off and reused to build the house. As a storage place for field crops, as a dance floor at Beller Markt and even as a place for an underground flax and hemp kiln, the ruins were saved from further deterioration. After the end of the Beller Markt, the Beller Church was left to its own devices again.
Since 1982 the ruin has been gradually rediscovered for events. Some, in some cases complex, renovation measures followed to secure the existing building. Today the Bell Church is (again) a popular place for cultural and church events - within old walls and under the open sky.
The “Förderverein Kulturdenkmal Beller Kirche eV” would like to preserve this evidence of the past for future generations.
reception
The local poet Heinrich Bechtolsheimer chose the Beller Church several times in his historical story "Between the Rhine and Donnersberg" (1903) as the location for the action. In Chapter 5 he describes them as follows:
“ Not far from the village there is an old, crumbling church, the so-called Bell Church, in the middle of the open field. It is said that in the place where the church stands there once stood a village called Bellen, which was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. The matter is uncertain, in any case a village with that name has disappeared from people's memory. It is much more correct to assume that the church got its name from the Bellen, the poplars that once surrounded it. Nor can anyone remember that the church was still in use. Presumably in times long past it was a pilgrimage church to which the pious made a pilgrimage every year. The roof has been destroyed, the windows are smashed, everything that belongs to the interior of a church has disappeared, but the walls, although gray and weathered, are still undamaged, and the window frames are still preserved. "
Around 1869, Eduard Adolay had part of his story "Judged and Saved - A Picture from the Hundsrück Robber's Life" also played at the Bell Church (Chapter 8).
photos
North side
North northwest
South southwest
West southwest
literature
- Georg Wilhelm Justin Wagner : The devastation in the Grand Duchy of Hesse , Darmstadt, 1865, Volume 3, p. 2 u. 3; (Digital scan)
- Kai Kappel, Lorenz Frank: The late Gothic "Beller Church" near Eckelsheim (Rheinhessen) . In: Art in Hessen and on the Middle Rhine, Vol. 36/37, 1996/1997, pp. 87–93.
- Eckelsheim community (ed.): Eckelsheim and its history 1293-1993 . 1993.
- Beate Wridt and others: Bell Church - mystery along the way . 2007
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Pfälzischer Kurier , Ludwigshafen am Rhein, year 1869, p. 335; (Digital scan of chapter 8 of the narrative)
Coordinates: 49 ° 47 ′ 20.8 " N , 7 ° 58 ′ 56.3" E