Schellerhau village church
| Schellerhau village church | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Church from the west |
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| Construction year: | 1591/92 |
| Floor space: | 15 × 10 m |
| Location: | 50 ° 46 '35.8 " N , 13 ° 41' 25.08" O |
| Address: | Hauptstrasse, Altenberg-Schellerhau Saxony , Germany |
| Purpose: | evangelical; church service |
| Website: | www.kirche-altenberg.de |
The Protestant village church Schellerhau in the Altenberg district of Schellerhau was built in place of a wooden previous building towards the end of the 16th century. Over the centuries, it has undergone multiple changes and additions. With the original and well-preserved pictures on the ceiling and the galleries, it is one of the most beautiful village churches in Saxony and is a listed building. The church Schellerhau belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran parish Altenberg-Schellerhau with Zinnwald and Oberbärenburg and to the Evangelical Lutheran regional church of Saxony .
history
Church building
_Kirche_Adam_und_Eva.jpg)
The first Schellerhauer settlers attended the service in Johnsbach , 9 km away , whose pastor looked after the glassworks and some small towns in the area.
In 1561, the Schellerhauer erected a simple wooden church building in their place, whereupon Elector August of Saxony granted them recognition as an independent church trip . During his visit, he donated a small bell that was cast in 1543, weighs 300 kg and bears the inscription "Ave Maria, gratia plena 1543" ("Hail Mary, you gracious 1543").
This wooden church was torn down after almost 50 years, but the first bell and baptismal font have been preserved and were added to the new building.
Now the miners and farmers of the place built a stone church in the style of the early Romanesque , which was inaugurated in 1593. Initially there was a ridge turret in the middle of the roof , which was only dismantled in the 18th century and replaced by a stone church tower attached to the church building. The bronze church bells are located in it. In addition to the first bell from 1543, two more, larger ones had been added.
The oldest surviving church book begins with messages from 1725 and is, among other things, a source on the history of the church.
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In 1904 the church tower received a hood clad with copper sheet instead of the wooden shingles .
Since the 1980s, thanks to the commitment of the pastors Günzel and the current pastor family Hacker, the support of the church council and with many helpers, the church building and its surroundings have been gradually renovated or refurbished.
Rectory
The first rectory built next to the church fell victim to the Holck horsemen in 1632 - they looted and destroyed it. The residents built a new rectory, which burned down in a night fire on January 16, 1717. The decorations of the church building that have been handed down in writing, as well as the corresponding church registers, were also robbed by the flames.
A new rectory was built in 1721, but by 1891 it had become so dilapidated that a more compact building had to be built. The old rectory was sold to the private man Fritz Müller from Dippoldiswalde , who had leased hunting in and around Schellerhau . He had the house converted into summer apartments and rented them out to those seeking relaxation or hunting parties. In 1912, this building came into the possession of Alfred Meumann, who had it redesigned into a place for sports enthusiasts. The associated stables became the guest room and kitchen, and the barn was converted into the dining room. The resulting inn was named Sportheim , which was later changed to Gebirgshof . During the GDR times it was a restaurant with accommodation under the management of the HO . It still exists today and is to be restored to its historical state.
The rectory that exists today is located directly on the main street and was built at the end of the 19th century. It has a footprint of around 12 × 14 meters.
architecture
Nave
It is a single-nave hall church with a rectangular floor plan (15 meters × 10 meters) with an annex as a sacristy in the northwest (about 7 meters × 2.50 meters), in the southeast a covered entrance area and on the western narrow gable the almost square steeple are attached.
The pillars of the gallery divide the main room into the area for the pews and into smaller niches. Next to the altar there are prayer rooms that were originally reserved for the forest journeyman.
tower
The tower, which is attached to the west of the nave and has an almost square base area of around 5.50 meters by 5 meters, was started in 1724 and completed in 1756 or 1790. In it is the belfry for the three-part bell . The tower is closed off by an octagonal copper dome, on the top of which is a tower button and above it a weather vane and a gold-plated cross.
A memorial plaque for the 60 citizens of Schellerhau who died in World War II was placed in the tower niche .
Bells
The Schellerhauer village church has three bronze bells of different sizes that were cast at different times. The largest bell was removed during the First World War and delivered to be melted down. A new one had then been poured and installed in the 1920s. Shortly before the end of the Second World War , bell bronze was again needed for war purposes and the community now had to give up the medium and large ones. However, only the middle one was melted down for war purposes. After the end of the war, the big bell was found intact on the intermediate bell camp in Hamburg and was returned to the tower in 1949. Only the smallest bell has survived the centuries.
The earlier wooden belfry was replaced by a steel one in 1965 . This and the bell suspensions (yokes) were no longer safe after almost 50 years of use and urgently had to be replaced or renovated. Around 60,000 euros were required for a renovation in accordance with listed buildings with a new construction made of oak wood and revision of the bells, some of which was raised by the state of Saxony as funding, some by the parish and the greater part from donations. The renovation work was completed between July and October 2010 and on November 14th all three bells rang again.
Furnishing
altar
The altarpiece , painted by Chr. Männchen (Männigen) in 1681, depicts the crucifixion , below in the predella is the Last Supper and above the Resurrection .
Two pewter miners ' candlesticks , which were donated to the parish in Geising and Zinnwald in 1684, can be placed on the altar table . In 1813 French soldiers from the Napoléon Army passing through stole the pieces. In 1913 the two candlesticks were found in Cologne and the municipality could have bought them back for 400 Reichsmarks . At that time, however, there was no money; it was not until 1940 that they were able to return to the Schellerhauer Church after collecting donations.
Baptismal font
It was made of sandstone in 1560 and decorated with ornaments, fruit pendants, putti and sayings in German and Latin. A baptismal font embossed from copper shows a stylized dove as a symbol for the Holy Spirit.
Galleries
The church interior is equipped with carved and painted galleries. When the organ gallery was rebuilt in connection with the installation of a new instrument, some painting fields that were built into the roof structure were removed in earlier centuries. The paintings that still exist , including those on the ceiling , were first restored in the mid-1970s by the Dresden artists Max Merbt , Rudolf Gebhardt and Max Rosenlöscher .
The following motifs are shown on the painted wooden coffered ceiling :
- Adam and Eve (based on a motif by Albrecht Dürer )
- the crucifixion of Jesus
surrounded by apostles , evangelists and angels with instruments of suffering . Scenes from the Old Testament (north side) and from the life of Jesus (south side) are shown in the galleries . The smaller panels behind the altar show angels removing the instruments of torture from the risen Christ. During further renovation work at the beginning of the 1990s, the expanded sculptures were found, with the picture side down, as part of the roof boarding. Such a board served the wood sculptor Hans Kazzer from Munich as a template for his revisions and additions during later restoration work on the organ and the gallery .
pulpit
The crucifix at the pulpit was probably given to the community as an item of equipment when the first church was founded. At the door to the pulpit you can see a forester praying, who could be identified as "Carl Rudolf von Carlowitz, Churfürstlich Sächsischer Ober-Forst und Wild-Meister" according to the inscription "CRVCCFSO.FUWM" above. He financed the painting of the church in the years 1681 to 1684, the paintings could be saved from decay between 1974 and 1976.
On the occasion of the extensive renovation campaign in 1979, the Schellerhauer community bought the pulpit that is now in the church and comes from a church in Alt-Penig.
organ
An organ must already have existed in the first stone building, but the organ builder has not survived. Their prospectus was adorned with pictures that served as a "poor bible".
In 1973 the Schellerhau parish received a new organ made in the workshop of the organ builder Schuster in Zittau . It has 755 organ pipes , a manual and 10½ stops .
On this occasion, the organ gallery was renewed under the direction of the Dresden architect Christian Möller and integrated well into the old building.
Church life
The entire church association, consisting of nine churches in five locations, maintains a common church choir with around 25 singers, a common trombone choir with 20 wind instruments, a small children's choir and three flute groups. Public concerts using the organs are also held in the parish churches. Church services, confirmations, baptisms, weddings, funeral ceremonies, harvest festivals and some discussion groups complete the offer. The Spangenberg-Sozial-Werk eV is supported with regular clothing collections. The Schellerhau rectory is occupied by Markus Hacker and his wife Sabine (as of December 2011).
Churchyard
The cemetery is located on the south-east and north-west side of the church building .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schellerhau Church. Ev.-Luth. Altenberg-Geising Sister Church, accessed on June 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Explanation of Kirchfahrt from Meyers Lexikon 1905 on zeno.org
- ^ Postcard of the HO restaurant Gebirgshof in Schellerhau, 1968
- ↑ Schellerhau; Historical view, accessed on March 24, 2014 ( Memento from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d e year of the tower and further church details on an information board in front of the church entrance (2011)
- ↑ Year of the tower according to the plaster inscription
- ↑ [1] Information on the belfry renovation on the church website; Retrieved February 7, 2016.
- ↑ Schellerhau village church - photo of the pewter miner's candlesticks
- ↑ Tomas Gärtner: Advent music in a walk-in picture Bible, DNN , No. 284, from 7./8. December 2013, p. 14
- ↑ Kirchgemeindebote , Gemeindebrief, April / May 2010 edition; Page 7: Musical Christmas in the Schellerhau Church (PDF; 732 kB), accessed on December 28, 2011.
- ↑ Kirchgemeindebote , community letter from August / September 2011 (PDF; 906 kB) ( Memento from March 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )