Teutonic Order Church of St. Vitus (St. Veit)

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St. Vitus Church

The St. Vitus Church is a Roman Catholic church in St. Veit , a district of Pleinfeld in the central Franconian district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen . It was built on behalf of the Teutonic Order in the 1780s in a classicist style with baroque elements. The church is the parish church of the parish St. Veit in the parish association Weißenburg in the deanery Weißenburg-Wemding of the diocese Eichstätt . The Ramsberg am Brombachsee , Walkerszell and Gündersbach branches belong to the parish of St. Veit . The church building is registered under the monument number D-5-77-161-103 as an architectural monument in the Bavarian monument list. The previous buildings of the church are also registered as a ground monument (number: D-5-6831-0184).

Building history

Facade with the church portal

St. Veit was owned by the Teutonic Order Commander Ellingen. The previous church, about which nothing has been handed down, was torn down to make room for a new building. On October 20, 1783, Landkomtur Franz Sigismund Adalbert von Lehrbach approved the designs of the master builder Johann Michael Keller from Schwäbisch Gmünd . However, the plan was not carried out. In 1786 the Landkomtur transferred the new building to the master builder Pickel from Konstanz , who came with 24 bricklayers and a foreman from Bregenz and built the church according to his new, simplified plans. After only two years of construction, the church and altar consecration took place at Pentecost 1788.

Building description

The church is a hall building with a flat roof in the classical style; the nave is 20 meters long and 11.60 meters wide. The choir, closed on three sides, has moved in. The interior of the four-bay nave shows pilasters with Ionic capitals . In the main facade, which faces south-west, there is a portal made of sandstone with Tuscan half-columns , which presents the coat of arms of Freiherr von Lehrbach, the builder of the church, in the gable triangle and on the wall above the coat of arms of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Maximilian Franz of Austria . Inside is the double gallery on this wall . The sacristy is attached to the choir to the north. The large roof turret with a dome with a blunt lantern and arched sound openings above the east gable defines the townscape. A tombstone marked 1829 is embedded in the western churchyard wall.

Furnishing

Pulpit, left side altar and high altar
Figure St. Vitus under the double gallery

The three rococo altars of the church and the pulpit were created by Dominikus Biber in 1755 and installed here in 1818 from the secular Franciscan monastery in Ellingen . The high altar was assembled from the Ellingen parts to a new unit, but without the original altarpiece; the new altar painting, which depicts the church patron St. Vitus in the oil kettle, was painted by the Constance artist Franz Ludwig Herrmann in the 19th century. The figures of St. Nicholas and St. Katharina date from the early 16th century and were probably already in the previous church. On the tabernacle with the two large accompanying angels (around 1730; "good baroque angels") there is a pelican representation symbolizing redemption through Jesus . Above the altar tables of the side altars stand statues by the sculptor Leonhard Meyer in the wall , on the right the Jesuit missionary Franz Xaver, on the left Maria Immaculate with a wreath of stars. The choir arch is decorated with classical stucco elements that show emblems of secular and spiritual violence.

The four evangelists are depicted in relief busts and without attributes on the polygonal pulpit body in the form of antique cameos . The two tablets of the law , a cross and a vase are attached to the sound cover . Franz Anwander from Landsberg am Lech , who obtained all the versions of the church in 1788, has portrayed himself on the pulpit parapet . The round baptismal font on a fluted stand, from the time the church was built, is located in the choir room to the right of the simple choir stalls. In 1993 a people's altar and an ambo by Hans Kreuz from Herrsching am Ammersee came into the chancel.

In the church there is also a statue of Vitus and a crescent Madonna from the 17th century as well as a life-size crucifix with Madonna from the Franciscan Church in Ellingen , flanked by four putti with the tools of the Passion (around 1730). Twelve Apostle Crosses in the form of black, gold-edged Teutonic Crosses mark the places where the bishop anointed the building with chrism during the consecration of the church . The classical church organ on the gallery was created in 1863 by the Eichstätter organ builder Joseph Bittner ; it has two manuals and 10  stops and was overhauled in 1993.

literature

  • Arthur Schlegel: The parish church of St. Veit. in: Das Bayerland , Volume 36 (1925), pp. 83f.
  • Felix Mader and Karl Gröber (editor): The art monuments of Middle Franconia. V. City and District Office Weißenburg i. B. Munich: R. Oldenbourg 1932, pp. 446-450.
  • Johann Schiele and Willibald Brems (text): St. Veit parish church. Teutonic Order Church of St. Vitus. [Church leaders], 1999.
  • Gotthard Kießling: Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen district (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume V.70 / 1 ). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-87490-581-0 .

Web links

Commons : Teutonic Order Church St. Vitus (St. Veit)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catholic parish St. Vitus, St. Veit , Diocese of Eichstätt, accessed on September 27, 2014
  2. ↑ a b Schiele / Brems, p. 6
  3. ↑ a b c d Pleinfeld list of monuments in the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation
  4. ↑ Mader / Gröber, p. 446
  5. ↑ Schlegel, p. 83f.
  6. ↑ Schiele / Brems, p. 2
  7. ↑ Schiele / Brems, p. 3
  8. ↑ a b c d Mader / Gröber, p. 448
  9. ↑ Schiele / Brems, p. 4
  10. ↑ a b c Schiele / Brems, p. 5

Coordinates: 49 ° 6 ′ 11.3 "  N , 10 ° 57 ′ 23.1"  E