Critzum Church

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Critzumer Church from the southwest

The Critzumer Church is an Evangelical Reformed church in the village of Critzum in the municipality of Jemgum in the district of Leer in East Friesland , which was built in the 13th century on a terp .

History and description of the building

Buttresses on the east side
Critzum Church with west portal in 2005

In the Middle Ages Critzum belonged to the provost Hatzum in the diocese of Münster . In the course of the Reformation , the community turned to the Reformed Confession. Evangelical clergymen are attested by name for the year 1555.

In the 13th century, the rectangular hall church in the center of the village was laid out on a round terp and served the local chiefs as a fortified church . The brick building is still surrounded by a wide moat. Since the church has no foundation, three mighty buttresses support the building on the east side. Most of the small arched windows and portals on the long sides were bricked up later. The Romanesque windows have been preserved on the south side . A major renovation took place in the 15th century. The squat bell tower of the "closed type" is said to have been higher in the past and served as a lighthouse for the Ems ships. A bell from the 13th century has been missing since 1917 and was probably melted down for armament purposes.

Furnishing

Walcker organ from 1939

A slightly arched wooden ceiling has been drawn into the simple interior. The white-framed pulpit with gilding dates from the second half of the 17th century and shows female mythical creatures with claws, possibly spinxes or sirens as mythological figures of antiquity.

The organ was created by converting a Hamburg school organ from 1853 by Christian Heinrich Wolfsteller and was rebuilt in 1939 by the Eberhard Friedrich Walcker company behind the neo-Gothic prospect . The Krummhörner organ workshop has renovated it. The Vasa Sacra includes a beaker from 1668 with inscription and maker's mark, a bread plate donated in 1783, a pewter baptismal bowl (1831) and a nickel silver jug (1869).

See also

literature

  • Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . 2nd Edition. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebs-GmbH, Aurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-940601-05-6 , p. 10 .
  • Gottfried Kiesow : Architecture Guide East Friesland . Verlag Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz , Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-86795-021-3 .
  • Monika van Lengen: Rheiderland churches. Journey of discovery to places of worship from eight centuries in the west of East Frisia . H. Risius, Weener 2000.
  • Insa Segebade: Reformed churches on the Ems . Evangelical Reformed Church, Leer 1999, ISBN 3-00-004645-3 .
  • Anna Sophie Inden (text), Martin Stromann (photos): God's houses in the Rheiderland. In: Ostfriesland Magazin, 2/2015, SKN Druck und Verlag, Norden 2015, p. 48ff.

Web links

Commons : Critzumer Church  - collection of pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Menno Smid: Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte (= East Friesland in the protection of the dike. Vol. 6). Self-published, Pewsum 1974, p. 42.
  2. ↑ a b c d Ortschronisten der Ostfriesischen Landschaft : Critzum , accessed on November 6, 2018 (PDF file; 34 kB).
  3. ^ Segebade: Reformed Churches on the Ems. 1999, p. 12.
  4. ↑ The parish's website at reformiert.de , accessed on November 6, 2018.

Coordinates: 53 ° 17 ′ 23.7 "  N , 7 ° 21 ′ 29"  E