Emmaus Church (Borna)
The Emmaus Church in Borna is of great cultural and historical importance in Saxony . It was originally in Heuersdorf ; However, since this location had to give way to the Schleenhain lignite mining in the Central German district , the entire structure was moved in one piece to Borna in 2007. In monument conservation, this process is referred to as a building relocation .
history
The Romanesque Emmaus Church, which originally dates back to the 13th century, is most likely one of the oldest churches in Saxony . It was first mentioned in a document in 1297 and was also the oldest preserved building in Heuersdorf. The first mention is also the beginning of the documented history of Heuersdorf, a rich farming village. Heuersdorf's cultural assets in addition to the Emmauskirche are the Taborkirche, the Großhermsdorfer Rittergut with a manor house from the second half of the 19th century and several three-sided courtyards with a dwelling house, stables and ancillary buildings in Heuersdorf and Großhermsdorf, which were mostly built in the first half of the 19th century Century and have been largely preserved in their original structural condition as evidence of the rural culture of the Borna region.
The three million euro relocation of the church from Heuersdorf (previous location: 51 ° 7 ′ 7 ″ N , 12 ° 23 ′ 26.1 ″ E ) to Borna took place in 2007. It found its place next to the city church and was on Easter Monday Established again in 2008. The church is now to be used for peace prayers and exhibitions.
architecture
The Emmauskirche is a hall church with a retracted rectangular choir. The windowless west and north sides of the choir characterize it as a fortified church . The church was built from unprocessed field stones and later plastered.
In contrast to other medieval stone churches, the Emmaus Church has no priest gate, which is an indication of its use as a fortified church. The altar block and the recess of the sacrament niche in the south wall of the choir are evidence of the furnishings from the construction period.
The wooden coffered ceiling inside the church dates back to the Renaissance and is supported by a single column decorated with floral paintings. The roof turret with hood also comes from the Renaissance. In the Baroque period , the entrance gate and the windows on the south side were rebuilt and enlarged. The other formative interior fittings such as the pulpit altar , organ and the gallery in neo-Renaissance forms date from the 19th century. In the roof turret there are two bells that were cast in Apolda in 1829 .
Transfer
The medieval fortified church is of such cultural and historical importance that the Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlengesellschaft (MIBRAG) was obliged to secure this cultural asset in connection with the demolition of the village. The economic interest in using the United Schleenhain opencast mine with 50 million t of brown coal justified this promise in the contract. After the last church service was celebrated on Easter Monday 2007, the Emmaus Church was not dismantled, moved to Borna and was restored at the new location for several months.
The transport began on October 23, 2007 in Heuersdorf and ended on October 31, Reformation Day .
The Dutch company Mammoet was entrusted with the implementation and transport . Although all the technical work in this context was known and feasible, the type of wide "displacement" of a complete structure was previously unique. The church building weighs 665 tons, is 14.5 meters long, 8.9 meters wide and 19.6 meters high. The plan was to load the vehicle as a whole onto a 32 meter long and 800 hp special vehicle, the so-called Self-Propelled Modular Transporter from Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik , which is equipped with 40 axle lines and is self-propelled. Each pair of wheels is controlled by remote control. Due to the special nature of the vehicle and the load, the gradients on the transport route could not exceed 2 °. After expanding the inventory of the church and extensive stabilization measures, the building was separated from its original foundation and raised by 1.5 meters using hydraulic rams. Then the special vehicle drove under the detached church building, the building was placed on the transporter and the journey was prepared.
The Romanesque, almost windowless structure of the church was originally intended to be placed on a stable floor made of concrete and steel. However, preliminary building studies revealed that the condition of the 750 year old masonry could endanger implementation in this way. The proportion of voids in the three-shell field stone structure was between 30% and 40%. To begin with, 30 m³ of foam mortar was injected into 1,800 holes . Side walls and gable walls were hardly connected to each other because of the irregular field stones, and there was a risk that the building would break apart. Therefore, the planned inner bracing was replaced by five outer steel walings, three near the ground and two in the upper area. In addition, a steel lattice frame with two longitudinal girders secured the building's stability. The roof structure has a cultural and historical rarity and was stiffened together with the bell tower with 12 m³ of construction timber.
The 12 km long transport route from the old to the new location of the church presented a technical challenge with two railroad crossings and the overcoming of the rivers Pleiße near Lobstädt and the Wyhra before Borna. Two level crossings required the height adjustment with ballast beds and steel sheets over the tracks, and the overhead lines had to be removed. Due to the closure of the route between Chemnitz and Leipzig near Neukieritzsch , the railway had assigned fixed dates, which put the building security company under time pressure. Before that, they had already crossed the level crossing in Deutzen . The courses of the river were filled in for the two river crossings, thus enabling a ride at the same level. In order not to cause a jam, pipes were inserted into the embankments. After the successful arrival in Borna, driving into Martin-Luther-Platz through the narrow passage (2 cm to the building edges) and turning in was the last technical challenge.
As planned for Reformation Day, the Emmaus Church was located opposite the St. Marien town church. The then Saxon Prime Minister Georg Milbradt symbolically took over the control of the special vehicle for the last centimeters of the transport route. The transport platform was removed and the structure was lowered by the 1.5 meters raised in Heuersdorf onto its new foundation. After removing the building security aids outside and inside, the church was renovated and returned to its intended purpose. Easter 2008, after all restoration work had been completed, the church was reopened at the new location.
Web links
- Heuersdorf must give way ( memento from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), ZDF today from November 25, 2005
- Church on the move in: 20min.ch , October 24, 2007
- Implementation: A church leaves its village in: Die Welt , October 22, 2017
- Implementation of the Heuersdorf Church in Borna in October 2007 (photo gallery on Flickr)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Report in mdr on March 24, 2008
- ↑ Welcome to the Emmaus Church in Borna ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 27, 2015.
- ↑ Heuersdorf Church is consecrated at Easter in Borna (March 24, 2008)
- ↑ VDI News October 26, 2007 p. 4
Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 31 ″ N , 12 ° 29 ′ 49.7 ″ E