Walddrehna village church
The Protestant village church Walddrehna is a Gothic stone church in Walddrehna , a district of the municipality Heideblick in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in the state of Brandenburg . The church belongs to the parish of Lower Lausitz the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz . It has a bell tower on round pillars, which is unique for the southern Brandenburg region, the building history of which is controversial among experts.
location
The Walddrehna main road leads in a west-east direction through the village. The church stands south of the street on a site that is fenced in except for the north side by a simple fence .
history
Construction began in the 12th and 13th centuries
There are various, sometimes contradicting, information on the architectural history of the sacred building . The Dehio Handbook assumes that the core of the structure was not erected before the end of the 13th century. The book Brandenburgische Dorfkirchen (see literature) only speaks of a building from the end of the Middle Ages. These assumptions are justified by the type of construction, in particular the ashlaring of the field stones , which in earlier buildings was mostly turned out carefully, became more uneven over the centuries and ultimately often led to buildings made of mixed masonry. However, there are also buildings in the region that do not correspond to this sequence - for example the Waltersdorf village church . There the base is little carved; a carefully hewn stone masonry is placed on it. Other experts can imagine that the structure was built in the late 12th century and justify this with the striking round pillars.
14th Century
According to a probe , it is certain that there was a structural intervention in the building in the 14th century. Craftsmen broke a small portal in the south wall of the nave , which can be seen, among other things, from the lack of lawn iron stones on the base of the vestments compared to all other medieval openings . Probably at the same time a sacrament niche was built in the southern arch of the apse . Around 1470, all doors and window openings were shaped with arched arches using archivolts . During this time, the tower tower was built on the two existing round pillars. Craftsmen demolished the west gable and used wooden formwork to erect the arcade arches. While lawn iron and field stone were primarily used in the lower area, more and more masonry stone was used further up. Then all joints were plastered , albeit not as a visual version. The numerous uses of the molded bricks, which were comparatively expensive at the time, resulted in a considerable upgrading of the structure. In connection with the open vestibule, experts suspect that more pilgrims came to the church. This seems logical, especially since Walddrehna was at the crossroads of two important trade routes at that time.
15th and 16th centuries
Around 1500 the entire facade with the exception of the inside of the tower was plastered. Investigations in the 2000s showed that the craftsmen went from top to bottom and then applied a red lime wash into which scratches were made with three- pass and four-pass . The portals were given an ornamental design. At the same time, craftsmen renewed the plaster in the interior or applied it for the first time. A comparison with other churches in the region allows the conclusion that the work could have been based on the church of St. Nikolaus in Stendal , which was completed around forty years earlier .
17th century
According to tradition, the place was devastated by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years War in the winter of 1636/1637, except for the church, the forester's house and the tavern. At this time, Walddrehna was under the rule of Sonnewalde , and so the church was repaired under the direction of Count Solms von Sonnewalde. Dendrochronological tests on the roof structure showed that the wood for the roof structure was felled in the winter of 1698. The construction should therefore have taken place in the following summer 1699. Before that, the wall crowns on the nave were bricked up. In the course of this work, the apse received its tail hood. The interior was then redesigned and a gallery was built in.
18th century
1708 poured Michael Weinholdt in Dresden from bronze a new bell for the church. It has the strike note C and weighs around 120 kg with a diameter of around 60 cm. It is a foundation of Heinrich Wilhelm Graf zu Sonnewalde and Tecklenburg, who had his initials HWGZSVT and the Solm coat of arms attached. In the middle of the 18th century, the church patron bought a baroque altarpiece and a matching pulpit . The east window of the apse was closed at the same time with bricks and a clay mortar. Then craftsmen plastered the outer window frames. They used a large number of smaller pieces of brick so that the plaster took on a pink-reddish color.
19th and 20th centuries
Krause states in his investigations that the inventory of the church was supplemented “from the middle of the 19th century”. This also includes a baptismal angel with a baptismal bowl that bears the year 1853. The Brandenburg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and the State Archaeological Museum (BLDAM) dates the angel to the middle of the 18th century. In 1888 the church received an organ . In the 1930s, the greengrocer Berthold donated a second bell. It had a diameter of 67 cm, had to be given in the course of a metal donation by the German people and was lost. In World War II hardly damage occurred. Only the altar sheet was hit by three floors, which were removed during restoration work in 2004. In 1953 and 1954 the parish had the gallery and the stalls renewed. The church received a tiled floor and a new wooden ceiling. A pastor's seat attached to the pulpit was expanded and the stairs to the pulpit were renewed. In 1955 the church received a second bell with a diameter of 66 cm. From 1963 to 1965, craftsmen installed an electric heater and set up a community room. At the end of the 1980s, the roof was re-covered and the tower was given a new plaster. In 1992 and 1993 the organ was overhauled and the painting from the 1950s was painted over.
21st century
From 2006 to 2010 the church was the focus of a structural history study by the TU Berlin . On the one hand, it aimed to plan a renovation and, on the other hand, to draw a regional comparison of characteristic features of the village churches in the region.
Building description
The structure was essentially built from uncut and not layered field stones, some of which were plastered. The layer height is on average 35 cm; Gaps were filled with small field stones or fragments. The apse is semicircular and slightly drawn in opposite the nave. The top window was originally ogival and has been blocked with reddish brick. On the north and south sides there is a pointed arch-shaped window with walls made of masonry, which was partly shaped as a pear rod. There is a curly hood on it.
To the west is the 15 meter long and 8 meter wide nave. The east wall is windowless, individual corner stones are made of hewn lawn iron stone. There is a small, upright rectangular opening in the gable . There are two ogival windows on the north side. The openings on the south side initially consist of a pointed arch window in the eastern area of the building. The walls are plastered and chamfered . A pointed arched gate follows to the west, to the west of it a large and baroque lattice window, which was worked in with brick over a large area . The conclusion is made by a pressed segment arch-shaped window in the western area. The ship carries a simple gable roof , which with beaver tail is covered. In the interior, the longitudinal walls in the upper area jump back around 30 cm. The reason for this is not yet known. It is possible that the parish wanted to vault the building at a later date . This would also explain the relatively deep-seated windows on the ship. But it is also conceivable that this was done to make work easier.
The most noticeable component is the west tower , which is square in plan . The Evangelische Verlagsgesellschaft describes it as "strange and interesting". It consists of a vestibule open on three sides, on top of which is an octagonal bell tower. In the west, the craftsmen erected two round brick pillars with a diameter of 1.4 m. Their function is quite controversial among historians. In the 19th century, for example, there was a presumption that it was the remains of a Slavic complex on which the tower was placed. An interpretation of their function is also difficult because there is no comparable construction in southern Brandenburg. Comparable pillars can only be found in Jerichower Land , for example in Jerichow Monastery from the 12th century - albeit there in a different function than separating the central and side aisles. Due to the massive design, it is conceivable that they served as a substructure for a wooden tower top or a narthex . They put three pointed arches on the round pillars, which almost reach the height of the nave. The entrance is below the vestibule from the west through an ogival portal. Its walls consist in the lower area of a three-tiered base made of lawn iron stone, above which profiled bricks with a round bar and two pear bar stones were used as archivolts. Above you can see the remains of a plaster scratch with a rosette. There are different opinions among experts about its origins. Some assume that this component was built in the 13th century. However, others believe it was built in the 15th century. Above it is the bent spire , into which sound arcades were built. Two bells hang behind it. The bell from 1708 bears the inscription on the opposite side next to the already mentioned inscription: "ALONE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD, THIS BELL HAS BEEN CASTED IN ANNO 1708". It is decorated with a surrounding acanthus frieze and a frieze of tendrils and putti . The tower ends with a weather vane .
Furnishing
The three-way altar retable , like the pulpit, dates from around 1747 and has the shape of a double aedicula that was placed over a high predella . The twisted columns are flanked by carved cheeks. The altar panel from the middle of the 19th century shows the praying Jesus Christ in oval pictures ; The crucifixion of Jesus can be seen in the altar extract . The polygonal pulpit stands on a thin, twisted column; its corner pilasters are decorated with masks. The parapet areas are also oval and contain a “painted cycle of unusual iconography ”, the Dehio manual continues. You can see the sermon, the taking of the cross, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the last judgment . Above is a sound cover with a buckle crown. In the southern reveal of the apse arch is a sacrament niche , which is closed with a wooden door.
The church also includes a seated Jacobus major , which was probably made at the end of the 15th century. The figure is placed on the north wall and was restored in 1960. The Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, however, is of the opinion that the figure was created at the beginning of the 16th century. It assumes that the artist was based in the main area. Due to the “sharply characterized face” in connection with the “strong nodded folds of the garment”, the experts assume that the work must have been created in the vicinity of the Riemenschneider workshop .
A baptismal angel measuring around 0.79 m was probably made in the middle of the 18th century. Its origin is unclear. As a child angel, according to the BLDAM, he is an “exception” among the baptismal angels in Brandenburg. A pewter baptismal font with the inscription “Great God take protection of the children - dedicated to his 50th anniversary by B. König” can be placed between the two hands in Drehna 1853 “. The experts of the BLDAM point out that based on the inscription no conclusion can be drawn about the origin. Rather, it is also possible that the angel held a conch shell or a laurel wreath in his hands at an earlier time. The baroque design could therefore coincide with the construction of the altar retable and the pulpit around 1747. A new version took place in 1960. The baptismal font is functional and can be lowered with the help of a crank at the pulpit.
On the neo-Gothic west gallery is an organ of Robert UIBE with a brochure in the style of historicism ; both originated in the first half of the 19th century. The parish has set up a winter church below the gallery .
The inside of the building is clad flat with a wooden ceiling; a half-dome is built into the choir.
literature
- Georg Dehio (arr. Gerhard Vinken et al.): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 .
- Wolfgang Gericke, Heinrich-Volker Schleiff, Winfried Wendland: Brandenburg village churches. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Berlin 1975, 3rd edition 1978.
- Annegret Gehrmann (ed.), Dirk Schumann (ed.): Village churches in Niederlausitz, history - architecture - monument preservation. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-054-2 , p. 429
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Krause: Walddrehna village church - The building history of a unique architectural monument. In: Dorfkirchen in der Niederlausitz, History - Architecture - Monument Preservation. by Annegret Gehrmann (ed.) and Dirk Schumann (ed.), Lukas-Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-054-2 , p. 429
Coordinates: 51 ° 46 ′ 38 " N , 13 ° 37 ′ 28.9" E