Rochau village church

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Rochau village church
View from the northeast
Bell projectile

The Protestant village church Rochau is a late Romanesque stone church in Rochau in the Stendal district in Saxony-Anhalt . It belongs to the parish of Klein Schwechten in the Stendal parish of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany .

History and architecture

The place belonged to the monastery of St. Ludgeri in Helmstedt and was mentioned in 1238 as rocgave . The Rochau village church is a monumental, carefully executed building made of field stone, dendrochronologically dated to around 1205 (d). It consists of the nave with a retracted choir with apse and a mighty west transverse tower . The octagonal, transversely elongated bell storey, which is provided with round-arched sound openings and is closed off by a hipped roof , is unusual . The octagonal shape is typical of the Harz region and is comparable to the tower of the village church in Hämerten , which, however, as a choir tower church, is also a special case in the Altmark . Some of the windows were enlarged with arches in 1779, and a Romanesque window has been preserved on the apse. On the south side of the ship there is a now walled-up arched portal with a cornice , another walled-up portal is on the north side. A west portal in the tower was broken into in the 19th century. Restorations took place in 1967 and 1995.

Since the first floor of the tower originally had no access and the first floor of the tower was originally only accessible via entrance doors with locking bars, the church in Rochau is interpreted as a fortified church . In more recent publications, this approach is relativized to an interpretation as a “escape church”. In the thickness of the wall on the south side, a staircase leads to the second floor, which is illuminated with circular windows.

Inside the tower there are two storeys on top of each other with transverse barrel vaults . The lower room was originally opened to the ship with two arched arcades, one of which is now closed. Similar arcades in related places can be found in the village churches of Klein Schwechten , Insel , Wiepke and Nahrstedt . Flat wooden beam ceilings have been drawn in in the nave and choir ; Romanesque fighters can be found on the triumphal arch and the apse arch.

Furnishing

A finely crafted, unmounted pulpit dates from 1674. It was made by Caspar Hoppenstedt from Arendsee and restored in 1967. On the southern wall of the choir there are three almost fully plastic carved figures from around 1420 depicting Mary, Saint Barbara and Saint Anthony of Padua . The simple stalls , the gallery and the organ date from 1871. The former horseshoe-shaped gallery was partially demolished.

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Saxony Anhalt I. District of Magdeburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-422-03069-7 , p. 779.

Web links

Commons : Dorfkirche Rochau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Horst Scholke: Silent Beauty. Romanesque stone churches in the Altmark. Dr. Ziethen Verlag, Oschersleben 1993, ISBN 3-928703-16-1 , pp. 153-154.
  2. ↑ Thomas Hartwig: All Altmark churches from A to Z . Elbe-Havel-Verlag, Havelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-9814039-5-4 , p. 567-568 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Hartwig: All Altmark churches from A to Z . Elbe-Havel-Verlag, Havelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-9814039-5-4 , p. 395 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 42 ′ 27.4 "  N , 11 ° 44 ′ 30.8"  E