Altkalen village church
The Altkalen village church is a medieval village church in Altkalen in the Rostock district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It is one of the churches of the connected parish Altkalen-Boddin in the Rostock provost in the Mecklenburg parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany ( Northern Church ).
history
A church in Kalen is attested as early as 1232 when it was granted patronage rights to Abbot Thietmar of Dargun Monastery . After Kalen was raised to town in 1244 and Prince Heinrich Borwin III in 1253 . had given the city the law of Lübeck , the construction of a new church began a little later. The oldest part of the church is the two-bay nave in the middle of the church, which at the time of its construction and during the construction of other similar old churches in the area was probably planned as the choir of a much larger church. A sacristy was added to the south of this rectangular brick building . The further building history of the church follows the decline of the town of Kalen after the founding of Neukalen to the village of Altkalen: the construction of a large nave to the west was discarded. Instead, it was planned to build a square stone tower in the west, of which, however, only the substructure with the approach of a vault was completed in the 15th century. The tower structure was only made as a wooden structure. In 1864/65, during a renovation, a rectangular, somewhat narrower and lower choir was added to the east side of the church, which serves in particular to support the masonry of the old central building, as well as a vestibule on the north side. During the renovation at that time, very old, late Romanesque paintings were discovered on the walls of the central building, which were uncovered during the last renovation from 1988 to 1992. An altarpiece with a crucifixion painting by Gaston Lenthe from 1854, which was procured for the altar after the new choir was built, was removed from the altar during the renovation in 1990 and hung less centrally on a side wall of the choir, so that the view of the choir window has been free ever since is.
Building description
The village church in Altkalen is a rectangular brick building, which is spanned by two cross-ribbed yokes . In each of the eastern vaulted quarters there is a plastic cross. Yokes and church walls show numerous old paintings. In the west, the nave is adjoined by the square tower substructure, which is connected to the ship by a pointed arch, and which is the width of the ship and carries a modern wooden tower with a tent roof . To the east, a rectangular, somewhat indented choir with a neo-Gothic three-window group is attached to the nave, also accessed by a pointed arch . To the south of the nave is the old cross-vaulted sacristy, to the north a younger vestibule is added. The vestibule somewhat covers an old early Gothic north portal. This portal as well as various panels and friezes (arched frieze, German volume) allow the nave to be dated to the late 13th century. The brick walls of the various components have bases of field stones of different heights . A wooden organ loft was drawn into the western tower substructure, into which old components of lofts from around 1800 were incorporated and which has already been changed several times during various renovations.
Furnishing
The altar in the choir is kept simple and bears a cross from the workshop of the Zurich artist Renate Stendar , who also created other modern art objects for the church, including the sculpture The Eye of God hung to the right of the altar and the sculpture Salvatore mundi placed in the tower substructure . In the chancel there is also a neo-Gothic baptismal font , and a pulpit of the same style from 1865 is attached to the right arch of the choir . Alongside the old altarpiece by Gaston Lenthe, there is also a portrait of the long-time Altkalen preacher Heinrich Johann Ernst Storch (1758–1823) on the walls of the choir.
The organ with 15 registers on two manuals and a pedal on the gallery was made in 1900 by Julius Schwarz in Rostock. Since the instrument was in poor condition for a long time until it was recently revised, an additional smaller organ that had come to Altkalen as a gift from Bavaria was set up on the side of the nave.
In the tower of the church there is a bell from 1490.
Wall and ceiling paintings
The oldest paintings are the paintings on the vaulted yokes of the nave. In the eastern yoke, the judging and gracious Christ is shown surrounded by evangelist symbols and Mary as Queen of Heaven, as well as the apostles and allegories of judgment and grace. In the western yoke a woman with a crown, victory flag and chalice to the left of the plastic cross represents the victorious church. Opposite her, another woman with a synagogue hat, a sloping crown and a broken flag symbolizes the defeated synagogue. Furthermore, in the western yoke, the legend of St. Lawrence with his martyrdom can be seen on the glowing grate. In both yokes there are also small figures hanging upwards.
Some of the wall paintings are only preserved in fragments and cannot be clearly assigned. These are probably more recent versions of the pictorial program that can already be seen in the vaults. The gracious and judging Christ as well as scenes from the Laurentius legend appear again. When the ceiling painting program was repeated, older depictions could have been painted over, including that of Salome with the head of John the Baptist and that of Christophorus .
Because of the pronounced Laurentius symbolism, it is controversial whether the church was originally dedicated to Mary or Laurentius.
The paintings were probably painted over during the Reformation , rediscovered in the 19th century and uncovered and restored by Lothar Mannewitz around 1990 .
See also
literature
- Propstei Gnoien: Right and left of the B 110 - beautiful churches in the Propstei Gnoien
- Institute for Monument Preservation: The architectural and art monuments in the GDR - Neubrandenburg district , Henschelverlag, Berlin 1986
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 53 ′ 55.5 " N , 12 ° 44 ′ 31.7" E