Berger Church (Werschau)
The Berger Church is a small Romanesque church consecrated to St. George in the area of the village of Werschau in the municipality of Brechen in West Hesse. The building, first mentioned in 910, is one of the oldest preserved churches in the region. It is the last remnant of the deserted, fallen town of Bergen.
location
The Berger Church rises on a prominent rock spur west of Niederbruch and northwest of Werschau. Today the church is located directly on Bundesstraße 8 , which goes back to the Via Publica from Cologne to Frankfurt. The Berger Church is easy to see from Autobahn 3 , which passes a few hundred meters southwest . It is also striking because its rock spur lies on the western edge of the significantly lower Emsbach valley . A churchyard, which is still in use today and is enclosed by a wall, surrounds the building.
Structure
The original construction of the Berger Church is an east-facing, simple Romanesque hall church . The church building at that time roughly corresponds to today's main nave . A side aisle was added to it in the north. Both ships are covered in the west by a massive tower with a Gothic pointed helmet . The narrow, rectangular choir also comes from a later construction phase. The flat ceiling of the interior of the church is supported by three irregular arcades of pillars. Paintings from the 15th century can still be seen. They show, among other things, Saint Martin, Jesus and Maria, a crucifixion group on the wall of the choir room and Saint George on horseback fighting the dragon on the north wall above the arcade arches. Important pieces of equipment are a small but artfully crafted baroque altarpiece from around 1670 and a statue of the Virgin Mary in the style of Maria Immaculata from around 1700. A carved figure of Saint George on horseback fighting the dragon is a copy of one from around 1420 The resulting oak carving, which is now in the Limburg Diocesan Museum . A sandstone protective cloak Madonna dates from the 1980s.
History of the church
The Berger church was first mentioned in a document of donation in 910. In it, Ludwig gave the child to Count Konrad Kurzbold, together with the royal court of Oberbruch, also the Berger Church for the construction of his Georgsstift, today's Limburg Cathedral . For 1193 the occupation of the pastorate by the provost of the Georgsstift is guaranteed. The Georgspatrozinium was first recorded in 1476. There is also a mention in 752, albeit relatively unsecured in a document from 1652. Originally the church was consecrated to Saint Martin .
Regular processions from surrounding communities to the Berger Church are first guaranteed in 1586. This procession tradition on St. George's Day, which extends as far as the 4.5 kilometers northeast of Villmar , suggests that the Berger Church was originally the mother church for a very large parish. On the other hand speaks z. B. Petrus patronage for an early direct episcopal Trier foundation of the Villmar church. There is evidence that the village of Panrod, about twelve kilometers south, belonged to the Berger church district. Since its own parish was established in Niederbruch, which also belonged to the processional congregations, shortly after 893, the Berger Church presumably had this central function before this point in time. Possibly, together with the Blasius Chapel near Frickhofen, the St. Severus Abbey in Gemünden and the Lubentiusstift near Dietkirchen, it is a center of Christianization in southern Niederlahngau . The original Martin's patronage in Bergen can be interpreted as an indication of a Mainz foundation. In the early days of the Limburg Georgsstift, its provost was also appointed by the Archbishop of Mainz.
In the period after the donation of the Berger Church to the Georgsstift, the church was occupied by canons of the monastery at the latest in 940. In 1232 the church was tied even more closely to the Georgsstift, through which it also took over the Georgspatrozinium. Presumably in the second half of the 14th century, with the desertification of the town of Bergen, the Berger Church became the parish church of the town of Werschau, which it remained until 1571. In that year Werschau and with it the Berger Church became a branch of the parish in Niederbruch.
To this day, Whitsun is the most important pilgrimage festival in and around the Berger Church. Until after the Second World War, it was the target of Pentecostal disputes with several hundred horses. In 1981 the “Freundeskreis Berger Kirche” was founded, which takes care of the church as a registered association.
The Berger Church is a listed building . In addition, it has received protection status in the event of war under the Hague Convention .
Building history of the church
The original Romanesque hall church was possibly built as early as the 8th century. Dendrochronological studies date beams from the oldest surviving building sections to the 10th or 11th century. The masonry was erected in an ear-shaped wall composite made of stones from a nearby quarry. The only access was a small door with a round arch in the north side wall. The inlays for a transom on this door, which are still visible today, indicate the protective function of the Berger Church as a fortified church for the surrounding population. To the east there was apparently a small, semicircular apse . The south and north walls each had three small cliff windows , one on the west and two on the east. There is evidence of a tower from this early church. It can no longer be proven today that this tower already existed as a watch tower on the strategically advantageous rock spur. Opposite to today's entrance, the path led to the presumably walled cemetery area and the church from the north and came straight to the church door in the north wall.
In the 10th century, a building was possibly built next to the church, which served as a residence for the canons delegated from the Georgsstift. During this time, the apse was torn down and replaced by the larger rectangular choir that still exists today, which increased the area of the church by about a third, but was clearly separated from the main nave by a brick arch and probably also by a grating. The massive altar made of gray-green scarf stone also comes from this construction phase. In addition, another door opening, which still exists today, was created in the south wall, close to the choir, which presumably served as a separate entrance for the canons.
The next major change took place in the 12th century with the addition of a side aisle in the north. The access door was again placed in the north wall, which has now been moved outwards. The northern upper arcades of the original building remained as the new side aisle was very flat. Four arcades were created in the lower part of the old north wall. The herringbone plaster applied during this period has been preserved to this day.
After the Berger church was no longer a Werschau parish church in 1571, but was mainly used as a cemetery church for the burials that continued there, the building largely fell into disrepair. Repair work only followed after the Thirty Years War, which lasted from 1657 to 1701. At this point in time, the tower in the northeast of the building, which can no longer be precisely identified, collapsed. The massive tower was then built on the west side with a rectangular shape at the bottom and a square shape at the top, a pointed helmet and four dormers. For structural reasons, the west wall of the church was reinforced to a thickness of up to two meters in the course of this work and an intermediate wall was drawn in in the west of the main nave, which made it considerably smaller. The flat Romanesque ceiling was also replaced by a vaulted ceiling to reinforce the entire structure. The church roof has been completely renewed and the previously separate roofs of the main and north aisles have been combined. The northern cladding windows were thus robbed of their lighting function and were therefore bricked up. However, they remain recognizable to this day.
Another phase of renovation followed in 1842 on the personal initiative of Limburg Bishop Peter Joseph Blum . The old entrance in the north was closed and a new, two-wing entrance was broken through the outer wall of the tower. The ground floor of the tower was given the character of an anteroom and was also closed off from the church with a two-winged gate. The enlargement of the windows in the south wall and in the choir room should improve the lighting conditions in the church. In 2011 the murals were restored.
The originally two bells were moved to Niederbruch in 1652 and to Werschau in 1841. A bell that had meanwhile been procured again was melted down in 1942 for armaments production. In 1984 the Berger Church received the bell that is present today.
The place Bergen
The place Bergen is mentioned for the first time in 1129 as the Fronhof of Mainz Archbishop Adalbert I of Saarbrücken . It was probably located between the church hill and the Emsbach. The exact position can no longer be determined today.
In 1305 the Counts of Diez were sovereigns. Later on, Bergen was probably part of the Electorate of Trier, part of the property of the Lords of Limburg , but by the middle of the 15th century at the latest, it was clearly an area of the Electorate of Trier. In 1354 Bergen was still inhabited. Later, the tenants and tenants of fields in the district as well as pastors and officials of the Berger Church are only guaranteed with residences in the surrounding areas. Presumably, the residents moved to the nearby Niederbruch after it was granted city rights in 1363 and 1376. Fields, gardens and also a vineyard in the area were mainly cultivated from there. While the Berger church became the parish church of the village of Werschau, the Berger field markings went to Niederbruch.
An own noble family from Bergen may appear for the first time in 1285, but certainly in 1356. From 1422 the name "Kessel von Bergen" is common for the family. The house seems to have been largely related to the von Bubenheim and Specht von Bubenheim families. The Bergen cauldrons mostly appear as servants in Kirberg . However, possessions are documented as far as the Eifel, Dreieich and the Wetterau. The family died in Kirberg in 1643 with Philipp Wilhelm Kessel from Bergen. The family's coat of arms showed a black bar in gold, accompanied by two at the top and a black star at the bottom.
literature
- Hellmuth Gensicke: From the history of Werschau. Brochure, 44 pages, 1985.
- Heinrich Eppstein: The Berger Church. A memorial and sanctuary in the Nassauer Land. Brochure, 2008.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Matthias Kloft : reason - justification (lecture on the occasion of '950 years first mention of Villmar'), Villmar, March 16, 2003, unpublished transcript.
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 44.5 ″ N , 8 ° 8 ′ 50 ″ E