Wernikow village church
The Protestant village church Wernikow is a stone church from around 1243 in Wernikow , a district of the municipality of Heiligengrabe in the district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin in the state of Brandenburg . The church belongs to the parish of Wittstock-Ruppin of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz .
location
The village road leads from the northwest in a southeast direction through the village. In the historic center, the church stands north of this street on a plot of land that is enclosed by a wall made of unhewn and non-layered field stones .
history
The Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum (BLDAM) states that the building was built around 1243. The community of Heiligengrabe limits the period and describes that the sacred building was built between 1245 and 1253. It is one of the first massive rural buildings in the former diocese of Havelberg . In 1377 the apse was given a new roof. In the early 15th century, the building was damaged several times and then repaired, including by robber barons in 1419. The community of Heiligengrabe is assuming a total of six significant construction phases. Dendrochronological studies of the roof structure showed that the oaks and pines were felled in 1522. Around 1600 the church received a new pulpit , which according to an inscription had to be repaired as early as 1608. Craftsmen continued to build new stalls, repainted the interior and built in a new floor. In the 17th century, craftsmen built four cabinet panes in the northern windows . In 1746, craftsmen erected a wooden church tower , which burned down on May 13, 1848 and was only rebuilt from brick in 1890 . In 1823 craftsmen enlarged the windows on the nave. In 1902 the parish bought an organ . During the First World War , the parish had to hand over the larger of the two bells as part of a metal donation by the German people . In 1921 she received two new bells as compensation. In the 1970s the roof of the church tower had become dilapidated and had to be replaced with an emergency roof. In 1979, craftsmen makeshiftly secured the roof of the nave with concrete roof tiles. In 2009 an initiative group of the Wernikower Heimatverein was founded, which has been taking care of the building since then. In 2011 they led to extensive renovation measures, during which a consecration seal from the 13th century was found. The monument conservator and building historian Gordon Thalmann describes this as "one of the most spectacular finds of recent north-east German church and state research." In 2018 the foundation was drained; the outdoor area is to be redesigned in spring 2019.
Building description
The structure was mainly built from field stones . These are not carved in the semicircular apse and are not layered in comparatively few layers. There are three small windows there.
This is followed by the nave to the west. It has a rectangular plan. Here the stones were carved comparatively carefully and largely layered. According to the Dehio manual , it is therefore conceivable that the apse was added at a later date. On the north side are four large, segment-arched windows. They were enlarged " baroque " at a later date - probably at the end of the 19th century. The south side is built almost identically. However, in the middle there is an ogival, stepped portal, which is likely from the construction period. On each side of the apse on the east wall a lancet window with reddish bricks can be seen, which should also still be original. The nave has a simple gable roof , which is decorated with pinnacles on the eastern gable . The west wall of the ship is windowless.
The west tower from 1890 has a square floor plan and is strongly drawn in opposite the nave. The lower storey was built from field stones. In the west, the craftsmen have built a segment arched gate profiled with reddish brick. However , they used reddish bricks above a surrounding cornice . On the middle floor there is a narrow and a high rectangular opening on each accessible side in the lower area. They are supplemented by two narrow windows in the section above. The bell storey is optically separated from the rest of the building by a frieze . On each side there are two segmental arcades of sound . There is a pyramid roof on top that ends with a cross.
Furnishing
The structure of the altarpiece is described as "squat" in the Dehio manual. It dates from 1722 and has three floors. The predella depicts the Lord's Supper and the altarpiece depicts the crucifixion of Christ . The work was created by the Havelberg painter Chr. L. Schlichting. On the side are cheeks decorated with cartilage and vegetable motifs; between them Corinthian columns. The wooden pulpit in the Renaissance style consists of a polygonal pulpit and was probably built at the beginning of the 17th century. It rests on a modern foot. The wooden fifth is badly damaged and was replaced by the parish with a simple stone one.
A capstone was loosened during restoration work on the cafeteria . Behind it were several relics , the authenticity of which has been confirmed by scientific research. The most prominent piece is a 6.05 cm × 7.4 cm seal. It shows a bishop with miter and regalia , who holds a crook in his right hand and an open Evangelistary in his left hand . To read about the bishop in Latin : "+ (H) EINR (ICV) S (DEI) (G) RACIA (HAVE) LBERGENSIS ECCLEE + C" ("Heinrich by the grace of God representative of Christ on earth of the Havelberg Church") . Experts suspect that it is Heinrich I. von Kerkow who held the pontificate from 1244 to 1245 and from 1271 and 1272 . The seal probably belonged to a certificate of consecration that has no longer been preserved. Furthermore, a cylindrical vessel with a height of 8.35 cm could be secured. It was made of Havelberg ash wood and could be dated to the year after 1213 with the help of a dendrochronological examination. Inside were linen-like silk fabrics and three pieces of bone. One of these bones turned out to be a human hip bone. The substances were also examined in the laboratory. A decomposed woolen cloth could be dated between 1225 and 1264; a piece of silk to the time between 1161 and 1210. Experts suspect that the fabrics come from the Near East and were imported to Wernikow via Italy . One of the pieces found also includes a parchment on which was written: "I, P.loci Eberhard Frost, have (h) today in the search for the Kronik u (ns) eres Dor (fes) (di) es (em) Altar gedj (.) N (.). Relic and seal from ancient times (g) found (un) d (w) ied back in (gl) eich (er) manner. Our (country) (is) divided (……) a (… ..) isse (.)! God grant us unity! The S (tein) (...) den d (..) T (r) ennun (g) and the coins from both parts of our (country) are added by me. Jesus wins! Eberhard Frost March 20, 1969. “From this it became clear that the pastor at the time opened the relic, but apparently had not reported it to anyone. However, he added two coins from the time of the division of Germany . Frost also added a broken, egg-shaped stone as a symbol of division.
The church furnishings also include four cabinet disks, which are dated to 1693 and are built into the north wall of the nave. The building has a wooden beam ceiling inside. On the western part of the horseshoe gallery stands an organ that the organ builder Albert Hollenbach from Neuruppin built in 1902. The instrument has a manual and five registers and cannot be played in 2019.
On the outer north wall, an epitaph commemorates Pastor Plümicke, who died in the first half of the 18th century. The granite gate in front of the entrance to the church was converted into a memorial to the victims of the First World War in 1932.
literature
- Georg Dehio (edited by Gerhard Vinken et al.): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 .
- Heiligengrabe community / Wernikow church initiative group (ed.): Wernikow village church , 2014, p. 6.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ In Wernikow there is one of the oldest village churches in all of Prignitz , article by Uta Köhn, published in the Märkische Allgemeine on December 23, 2009, accessed on January 13, 2019.
- ↑ Wernikow , website of the Heiligengrabe community, accessed on January 13, 2019.
- ↑ Wernikow village church , website of the German Foundation for Monument Protection, accessed on January 13, 2019.
- ↑ The spectacular reliquary find of Wernikow ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , (PDF), article by Gordon Thalmann, published on the website of the Förderkreis Alte Kirchen Berlin-Brandenburg, accessed on January 13, 2019.
- ↑ 2nd phase of renovation work on the Wernikow Church, Wernikow website, accessed on January 13, 2019.
Coordinates: 53 ° 12 ′ 30.6 " N , 12 ° 25 ′ 53.9" E