Cathedral of the Rhön
The Protestant church in Helmershausen , popularly known as the Rhön Cathedral, dates from the middle of the 18th century. It belongs to the parish Bettenhausen-Helmershausen in the parish of Meiningen of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany .
history
The old church was built in 1559 on the initiative of Pastor Caspar Sauer, who converted what was then a small Catholic chapel into a larger Protestant church with defensive walls and gates to store supplies in times of siege. After the Thirty Years' War Helmershausen had recovered and flourished, the number of inhabitants rose to around 800 at the end of the 17th century. Four aristocratic families lived in the village in castles as well as free- lance- holders (owners of the free yards ). Helmershausen was the economic and social center of the surrounding places. The old church did not meet the new requirements either in terms of size or structure. The noble families residing in four castles in Helmershausen wanted a representative place of worship.
It was not until Pastor Wilhelm Christian Höpfner took office in 1734 that the congregation found an energetic and responsible man who was willing to finance the construction of the church from the church treasury, whereby the political congregation only had to finance the timber and the hand and cart . The painting of the church was arranged in such a way that: the congregation for heaven / the nobles for their classes / the free people for their chairs / the men and boys for the galleries and the pictures on them / the women and single men for their chairs / a benefactor for the pulpit / the choir adjuncts (choir singers) for the organ / and the church treasury for the "singing choir" and the parish chair.
On April 16, 1736, the demolition of the old masonry began. The foundation stone in which the year 1736 is carved was laid on June 12, 1736 . The construction was extended to the west and expanded to the north. The extension can be seen on the south side. Pastor Sauer's grave slab was walled in between the two windows at this point.
Between 1736 and 1777, for a village church, an extraordinarily large and magnificent building in the Franconian baroque style was built.
Niklas Heim from Ostheim made the construction drawings for the church and tower. He was also entrusted with the entire construction management. The masonry work was done by Albrecht Baumbach from Helmershausen. The stones for the church were taken from local quarries, some of which were in the local hallway. The local Andreas Krämer was hired for the stone carving. He also designed the portal at the main entrance, which is adorned with columns that support a cornice roof and are crowned by stone flower pots.
The carpentry work was directed by the Wohlmuthäuser carpenter Johannes Grob. The timber was supplied from the community's own forest. However, as not enough logs of the required quality were available, logs from Stepfershausen, Rippershausen, Sülzfeld, Mehmels and Oberkatz were donated.
The glazier Valentin Scheidler made the windows from here. The roofing work was finally carried out by the three Helmershausen brothers Albrecht, Johann Heinrich and Johann Georg Baumbach. Their tasks also included throwing and whitening the church and the tower from inside and outside. But as early as 1744 the roof was leaking again. In 1748 the Wölfershausen carpenter Valtin Krell rebuilt the mansard roof with the 14 dormers and covered it again by Johannes Baumbach.
The last phase of construction on the new church was completed in 1777 with the construction of the church tower. The tower, in danger of collapsing, was torn down to the last hole and built in its present form by master mason Johannes Baumbach and master carpenter Martin Kleyensteiber based on drawings by Niklas Heim. The spire, an onion-shaped octagonal tail dome with a lantern and a similar dome above it, is typical of the 18th century. The tower was only made possible by numerous bequests and foundations . The gilded tower button donated z. B. the bachelors of the place. The new tower, which is adorned with a stately height of 48 m by the gilded tower button and the weather vane with a star, received a colored rococo stucco frame on the outside, which has been preserved to this day and has been restored since 1997. This is another reason why this church building in southern Thuringia is a specialty.
Furnishing
The Rhön Cathedral, as the imposing village church of Helmershausen is popularly known, impresses with its generous baroque interior and the three-story galleries supported by mighty round columns. A wooden barrel vault spans the center of the nave.
Between 1751 and 1753 the Meiningen painter Johann Jacob Gehres painted the entire interior with magnificent paintings. He painted a magnificent curtain around the Gothic choir arch, which was painted over in 1936 and was rebuilt during the restoration at the beginning of the century. The balustrades of the galleries were designed alternately with Bible verses and canvas pictures. They show the Passion of Christ, above it the apostles and on the third gallery the prophets. The pictures in the organ loft are biblical allegories of music. The crowned lute player under the organ on the left means King David . The representations in the cloudy sky: the Holy Trinity, Christ's resurrection and his ascension to heaven.
The pulpit altar , in the middle of the east wall in front of the chancel and probably by the sculptor Georg Wagner, is flanked by the figures of Moses and John the Baptist and encompassed by a magnificent curtain around the Gothic archway of the choir. The pulpit parapet is adorned with the carved statues of the four evangelists by wood sculptor Christian Bauß from Kaltennordheim. The construction of the pulpit above the altar underscores the importance of the sermon in Protestant worship. An hourglass attached to the side was used to measure the time during the sermon. As a special feature you can see Christ and the Reformers above the altar: on his right Martin Luther, on his left Philipp Melanchthon. The three-storey aristocratic and free booths with their leaded glass windows and separate entrances arranged on both sides of the altar were the places of the local nobles in worship.
The center of the chancel is the sandstone, richly decorated baptismal font from 1657. It was donated by the Freihöfer Martin Wagner and his wife. Christian Bauß also decorated the lid made in 1752 with rich Rococo carvings and a statue of John the Baptist.
organ
The crowning glory of the design of the church could only be completed on August 10, 1786, when Johann Michael Voit set up the new organ on the western gallery, the singing choir. With 26 registers on two manuals and pedal, the slider chest instrument is the most important work of the Schweinfurt organ builder. With this organ, Voit created an unusually large work adapted to the size and height of the church, which is the only work by the Schweinfurt organ builder in the southern Thuringian region that has remained almost original.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling : II / I, I / P
- Effect register: Glockenspiel in C major, Glockenspiel in G major
Bells
There were two bells from the old church, with one of the bells being cast over because it had cracked a long time ago. A new one was made in 1777. The oldest bell was the so-called "silver bell", which was supposed to come from the pilgrimage church on Wallenberg. It was probably in the 13./14. Century cast and carried the inscription "Ave Maria gratia plena dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus", d. H. “Hail Mary, full of graces, the Lord is with you, blessed among women”. This and the new big bell fell victim to the so-called bell murder in the Second World War , when many bells and sacred objects were melted down for armament purposes. It is thanks to the persistent efforts of the pastor at the time and the hard-working donors of the place that three bronze bells could be inaugurated again in 1953. The new big bell was cast in 1601. It came from the Hamburg bell camp and is one of the "dubious bells". These are bells that were delivered to be melted down during the war, but could then be saved and whose owners could no longer be determined. The middle bell was re-cast by the company Schilling and Sons in Apolda and the small bell was re-cast. The three bells ring in the tones "g sharp", "h" and "c sharp" and call the believers to prayer with their melodious bells, as from time immemorial.
From the files of the parish office in Helmershausen
Church chair regulations have existed since ancient times, which were valid until the middle of the 19th century and were loosely maintained until the middle of the 20th century. All window boxes to the right and left of the altar were reserved for the nobles and free people of the place. The other window stands were intended for the parish family, the parish wives or bride and groom and other respected families of the place. Downstairs in the nave only the women and young girls sat, in the galleries only the men sat, namely the older and more respected men on the first gallery, the younger ones on the second gallery and the youths and servants on the third gallery. The Zwöferrat had its place on the first northern gallery, which was separated from the other places by a wall and door and was previously provided with bars. The choir adjuvants and musicians took their seats directly on the singing choir. The church chairs had to be removed for one year each. After the aristocratic families died out, the window boxes were rented to respected local families. Citizens were forbidden to enter any other stand than the one they had solved.
swell
- Collection of materials on the history of the market town of Helmershausen by Pastor Joh. Jakob Illhardt
- Files of the parish office in Helmershausen
literature
- Wolfram Hädicke and others: Meiningen church district - churches, art, church life. A church leader . Published by Ev. Meiningen church district. Verlag Evangelischer Medienverband, Kassel 2010, pp. 30–34.
- Paul Lehfeldt , Georg Voss : Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia . Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. District court districts Vacha, Geisa, Stadtlengsfeld, Kaltennordheim and Ostheim vd Rhön. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1911, p. 198 ff . ( Digitized version [accessed on May 6, 2020]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfram Hädicke and others: Meiningen church district - churches, art, church life. A church leader . Published by Ev. Meiningen church district. Verlag Evangelischer Medienverband, Kassel 2010, pp. 30–34.
- ↑ Unique in South Thuringia: Funding for the Rhön Cathedral in Helmershausen. In: German Foundation for Monument Protection . March 21, 2012, accessed May 6, 2020 .
- ↑ Information sheets of the church
- ↑ Information on the organ. In: orgbase.nl. Retrieved May 6, 2020 (German, Dutch).
Web links
- Rhön Cathedral on the website of the church district. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
- Helmershausen village church. In: German Foundation for Monument Protection. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
- Helmershausen Church. In: Rhönlexikon. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
- Cathedral of the Rhön. In: Thueringeninfo. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 33 ′ 46 ″ N , 10 ° 14 ′ 9 ″ E