Trinity Church (Alsfeld)

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Alsfeld, Dreifaltigkeitskirche

The Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Alsfeld is the church of the former Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld from the 14th century. The two-aisled, early Gothic hall construction with a high Gothic five- eighth closure is one of the few facilities of this type in Central Hesse that were still used for worship after the Reformation . It serves as the winter church of the Protestant community in Alsfeld.

history

The monastery was probably founded at the end of the 13th century and had a church before 1300. In the second half of the 14th century the three-bay hall and around 1400 the choir were renewed. Between 1415 and 1436 the nave was lengthened by three more bays and a three-bay aisle was added.

After the introduction of the Reformation in 1525 and the abolition of the monastery in 1527, the church remained unused. It was only restored after the Thirty Years' War from 1662 due to a foundation by Volkmar Stamm from Lauterbach. On May 30, 1664, the Augustinian Church was inaugurated as a Protestant Trinity Church by the representative of Landgrave Ludwig VI. , the bailiff Hans Berghöfer.

In the course of a renovation in the style of late classicism in 1852, galleries and in 1855 a new organ with a neo-Gothic prospect in the choir were installed.

Building surveys were carried out in 1957 to repair the roof and moisture damage. The structural construction was secured by steel rings from 1960 to 1962. The choir was exposed again in these years and the built-in galleries and the organ were removed. Instead, a rood screen was installed. The pulpit was given a new location on the south wall in front of the rood screen. The parish bought two new organs and two new bells.

architecture

Only the large Gothic sermon church, the hospital and individual parts of the building remain from the monastery complex.

The east- facing two-aisled hall church with a steep gable roof is built in the southwest of the city. The nave of the 14th / 15th centuries Century includes six yokes with a five-eighth ending . The church is 45 meters long and 10.5 meters wide. Up to the keystones , which are covered with Christian symbols, it reaches a height of 14 meters. The ribbed vault rests on consoles that attach to the upper third of the walls. The three-bay aisle attached to the north is much narrower and connected to the nave via two octagonal pillars.

The exterior of the church shows rustic quarry stone masonry, which is only profiled in the manner of a stone mason on the windows, buttresses and portals. The three previously existing connecting doors from the monastery to the church are walled up. Since the monks' services began early in the morning, a staircase led directly from the adjoining dormitory on the upper floor above the chapter house to the church choir. For the other services there were doors from the cloister to the church. The square staircase has been preserved on the south side and is closed by a small dwelling- house roof. Today's portals in the north wall are simply designed. The church is illuminated by 14 richly decorated Gothic pointed arched windows. The windows in the choir are filled with tracery . The current spatial impression is shaped by the glass windows created by Charles Crodel in 1962/1863 .

The ship was built without a church tower and in the Baroque style was given an octagonal roof turret that is completely slated. The weather vane is designed as a lion with the letter A. The roof turret houses four bells from 1962, 1747 and 1742 in the watch-up motif (strike note sequence: es 2 –g 2 –b 2 –c 3 ).

Furnishing

The interior has a simple equipment. On the walls there are remains of medieval frescoes with the crucifixion scene and a depiction of the devil. A sacrament house with a crowning eyelash is built into the choir wall to the north and an epitaph from 1695 reminds of Barbara Vogdin called zu Honoldstein, wife of the Alsfeld bailiff Schaffalyzky. In the east wall of the choir there is a niche with a cloverleaf arch, which may have served as an early side altar. A picture on the south wall symbolically represents the Trinity .

The stone pulpit from 1663 is set up on the south wall in front of the wooden rood screen made of openwork diamondwork from 1962. The wooden sound cover from the Baroque period with the pelican nourishing its young with its blood is an ingredient from later times.

The block altar with protruding plate in front of the rood screen is raised by one step. The large baroque wooden crucifix comes from southern Germany.

The simple wooden church stalls in green frames leave a central aisle free.

Organs

The monastery church had an organ before the Reformation in 1525 . In the course of the repair of the church in 1661/1662 it received a new instrument with five registers , which was probably taken over from the city church. This instrument may have been from 1466 and was rebuilt in 1552 and 1634. Johannes Schlottmann repaired the work, which was increasingly lost and was replaced in 1772 by a used organ by Johann Georg Stertzing (1727) from the Lauterbach town church . In 1855 Friedrich Wilhelm Bernhard installed a new organ in the choir, which had 18 stops on two manuals and a pedal . In 1908, Förster & Nicolaus Orgelbau carried out a major reconstruction , who installed new wind chests, converted to a pneumatic action and rearranged the organ. Today's instrument was built in 1964 by the Förster & Nicolaus workshop on the west gallery. The slider chests -instrument has 26 stops on two manual stations and pedal. The actions are mechanical.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Pommer 16 ′
Principal 08th'
Pointed 08th'
Octave 04 ′
Dumped 04 ′
flute 02 ′
Sesquialtera II
Mixture VI
Trumpet 08th'
II Positive C-g 3
Dumped 08th'
Quintad 08th'
Principal 04 ′
Reed flute 04 ′
Nassat 02 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Principal 02 ′
Sif flute 01'
Sharp IV
shawm 08th'
Pedals C – f 1
Principal 16 ′
Pedestal 16 ′
Octave 08th'
Dacked bass 08th'
Principal bass 04 ′
Mixture IV
trombone 16 ′
Clairon 04 ′

In the choir is a small organ made by Förster & Nicolaus in 1963 with six registers on a manual and pedal.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peer Zietz: Cultural monuments in Hessen. City of Alsfeld. Wiesbaden 2002, p. 122.
  2. ↑ a b State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Dreifaltigkeitskirche In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
  3. ↑ Berghoffer, Hans. Hessian biography. (As of April 27, 2010). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Internet presence of the parish , accessed on January 11, 2019.
  5. ^ August Pabst, Karl August Mengel: The Augustinian monastery in Alsfeld. Alsfeld 1958, p. 1.
  6. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 29.1 ). tape 3 : Former province of Upper Hesse. Part 1: A-L . Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 , p. 33-36 .
  7. ↑ Information on the organ in Alsfeld , accessed on January 6, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Dreifaltigkeitskirche  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 58.9 ″  N , 9 ° 16 ′ 12 ″  E