Evangelical Reformed Church Bettenhausen (Lich)

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Church from the south
Church from the northeast

The Evangelical Reformed Church in Bettenhausen , a district of Lich in the district of Gießen ( Hesse ), consists of an early Gothic church tower from the 13th century and a late Baroque nave from 1748. It characterizes the townscape and is a Hessian cultural monument .

history

In the middle of the 13th century a stone church with a tower was built. From 1304, Bettenhausen is proven to be an independent parish. Before that the church was a branch of Muschenheim. From an ecclesiastical perspective, the place belonged to the Archdeaconate of St. Maria ad Gradus in the Archdiocese of Mainz in the Muschenheim district in the late Middle Ages . With the introduction of the Reformation , Bettenhausen changed to the Evangelical Confession in 1555 and was connected to the Evangelical Reformed Church in Langsdorf until 1561 . Under Konrad von Solms-Braunfels , the church was evangelically reformed in 1582 .

On April 5, 1635 the village was sacked, the church was the only building that remained intact. The medieval church was demolished in 1747 due to dilapidation and replaced by a new building, which was inaugurated on October 29, 1748.

In 1850 a north gallery was built. An interior renovation took place in 1968/69, in which the stalls were renewed taking into account the old cheeks and the old color scheme was restored.

architecture

South portal

The east-facing church is located in the middle of an almost circular, walled cemetery on the highest point of the village. It originally had a defensive character.

The three-storey, undivided east tower is built on an irregular rectangular floor plan and was created under the influence of the Arnsburg construction works. It has a semicircular east apse , which has a narrow arched window (0.33 meters wide, 1.62 meters high) and is closed off by a half-conical roof. The walls of the windows and doors, the base profile and the corner blocks of the tower are made of lung stone. In the middle floor there are loopholes on three sides, above four coupled pointed arch windows in round arched niches. The south window is covered by the dial. The tent roof from the time before 1400 with the medieval roof structure has gable hoods on all four sides and is crowned by a tower button, cross and weathercock. The tower hall is vaulted; the broad pear ribs rest on corner pillars with round plinths and bases and simple capitals .

A large round-arched triumphal arch , which was enlarged when the church was built, connects the choir with the hall church . The late baroque church on a rectangular floor plan is symmetrical on all sides and has corner pilasters made of sandstone. The lung stone base was probably taken over from the previous building. The slated roof is hipped on both sides , giving the nave a greater independence. It has small dormers with round windows. In the two long sides and the west side, large arched windows in sandstone walls illuminate the interior. In the center of the south side the portal area emerges like a risalit . The rectangular south portal is flanked by pilasters and finished with a classicist profiled cornice. Above it, two curved sandstone bands that end in volutes create a round window. The west portal has the same shape, but is simply designed.

Furnishing

Interior to the west
pulpit

The interior is closed off by a hollow ceiling, which is structured by stucco ornaments and decorated with shells, vases and branches. The profiled ceiling cornice is interrupted on the three free sides by a round window. The curved and coffered west gallery is staggered in several levels. It rests on square, marbled wooden posts. The north gallery, added in 1850 with simpler posts, is straight and destroys the symmetry of the west gallery. In terms of color, the interior is dominated by blue and yellow tones. The wooden furniture is painted in blue.

The pulpit from the time the church was built consists of the angled staircase, the eight-sided pulpit cage with concave fields and the octagonal sound cover. The pulpit fields are enlivened by narrow, profiled rectangles with rounded corners and a continuous scroll tendril. The curved altar from the same period is made of black, white and yellow veined marble. The Romanesque holy water font is placed in front of the church . The wooden church stalls set up in two rows leave a central aisle free.

The death's crown from the 18th century consists of a laurel hoop from which palm branches with angel heads rise, and is crowned by an angel blowing a trumpet. The wrought iron is set in gold, red and green. The crown was placed on the coffin of the unmarried deceased. The death's crown and the old altar Bible are displayed in small showcases.

organ

Förster organ from 1854

Nothing more is known about the organ in the previous church. In 1854 Johann Georg Förster built a new work with ten stops on one manual and pedal. Except for the old bellows and the principal , which was replaced by zinc pipes in 1935, the instrument is still original. The disposition is as follows:

I Manual C – f 3
Quintatön 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Hollow flute 8th'
Bourdon 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Octav 4 ′
Flauto dolce 4 ′
Cornett IV-V 2 ′
Pedal C – d 1
Sub-bass 16 ′
Octave bass 8th'

Bells

The tower houses three bronze bells. Bell 2 is a replacement for a melted down bell by FW Rincker from 1921, which in turn replaced a bell made by Jacob and Philipp Bach from 1823, which was melted down in 1917.

No.
  		Casting year
  		Foundry, casting location
  		Diameter
(mm) 		inscription
 
1 1712 Philipp Schweitzer , Werdorf 810 “ A DEATH METAL AND THONING ORE CALLS YOU O CHRISTIAN READY YOUR HERTZ ZV GOTT | | | | | D MENSCHENDIENST [sage leaf]
AO 1712 [about 32 unsuccessful letters]
[ sage leaf] PHL SCHWEITZER WERDORF GOS MICH [ sage leaf, relief with David with harp] "
2 1954
3 1712 Philipp Schweitzer, Werdorf 700 “ EVRE EARS ARE OPEN, HERTZ AHM VERMEINSTE
PHL SCHWEITZER WERDORF GOSM AO MDCCXII MEN AVG.
CONRAD ROTH BAUMEISTER [3 sage leaves] "

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I: Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 104.
  • Wilhelm Diehl : Construction book for the Protestant parishes of the sovereign lands and the acquired areas of Darmstadt. (Hassia sacra; 8). Self-published, Darmstadt 1935, p. 161.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Karlheinz Lang (Red.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen I. Hungen, Laubach, Lich, Reiskirchen. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2177-0 , p. 449 f.
  • Heinrich Walbe : The art monuments of the Gießen district. Vol. 3. Southern part . Hessisches Denkmalarchiv, Darmstadt 1933, pp. 10–15.
  • Peter Weyrauch : The churches of the old district of Giessen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1979, p. 30 f.

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Bettenhausen (Lich)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse: Cultural monuments in Hesse. 2008, p. 450.
  2. ^ Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. 1979, p. 30.
  3. ^ Gerhard Kleinfeldt, Hans Weirich: The medieval church organization in the Upper Hessian-Nassau area. (= Writings of the institute for historical regional studies of Hesse and Nassau 16 ). NG Elwert, Marburg 1937, ND 1984, p. 27.
  4. ↑ Bettenhausen. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on September 24, 2013 .
  5. ↑ lich- Bettenhausen.eu: history , seen September 24, 2013.
  6. ^ Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. 1979, p. 31.
  7. ^ Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008, p. 104.
  8. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 12.
  9. ^ A b c State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse: Cultural monuments in Hesse. 2008, p. 449.
  10. ↑ a b Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 13.
  11. ↑ Gießener Zeitung of June 24, 2011: Explored further churches in Gießener Land with Dean Norbert Heide , seen September 24, 2013.
  12. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 29.2 ). tape 3 : Former province of Upper Hesse. Part 2: M-Z . Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 , p. 117 .
  13. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1933, p. 14f.

Coordinates: 50 ° 28 ′ 48.5 ″  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 57.1 ″  E