Evangelical Church (Geilshausen)

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Church from the northwest
Church from the southeast

The Evangelical Church in Geilshausen , a district of the municipality of Rabenau in the district of Gießen ( Hessen ), is a hall church from 1953 with a squat Gothic choir tower from the 15th century. The tower reaches a height of 21 meters and has a defensive character. A battlement with battlements and four machicolations gives the Hessian cultural monument its characteristic appearance.

history

In the Middle Ages, Geilshausen belonged to the Londorfer Send district and was ecclesiastically assigned to the Archdiaconate St. Stephan in the Archdiocese of Mainz . The church was dedicated to St. Nicholas . With the introduction of the Reformation, Geilshausen switched to the evangelical creed. The church was parish in 1577 and later near Londorf, since 1925 near Odenhausen.

After severe damage in the Thirty Years' War, the church was repaired in 1667, during which it was "brought back to good condition". Another renovation of the church and tower is documented in 1826.

In the 18th century, Saints Catherine , Margaret and Nikolaus were venerated in the Protestant church , the latter still in the 20th century.

The medieval longship was replaced by a larger one in the 1950s. In this context, the choir was renovated, the organ loft was removed and the organ moved to the west loft, and the medieval paintings in the choir were exposed by church painters Faulstich.

architecture

Paintings on the choir vault
Vaulted choir

The east-facing church is built on Grünberger Straße in the center of the village in the middle of a fortified churchyard, the wall of which was moved in the 1950s. It consists of two structures, the medieval choir tower in the east and the 20th century nave attached to the west. Quarry stone masonry was used as building material, while Lungstein was used for the cornices, tracery and corner blocks .

The mighty, well-fortified tower on a square floor plan is one of the latest Gothic choir towers in the district, probably at the end of the 15th century. It is divided into three floors of different heights by surrounding cornices , which taper slightly towards the top. Originally, the defense tower was only accessible via the roof of the nave. The final parapet walk has wide battlements with two notches between them. In addition, the wide central pinnacle has another, narrow notch. Due to the tower structure, the battlements now appear like slotted windows. The steep hipped roof has four dormer windows that protrude from the eaves and are barbed out . For defensive purposes, they were opened downwards as foot notches and were used to pour boiling water or oil over attackers. The choir hall is probably older than the tower structure. It has a cross-rib vault with grooved ribs ending in a keystone covered with a head and foliage. A pointed arched, two-lane tracery window with nuns' heads on the east side dates from the 15th century and a simple pointed arched window in the south side from the 16th century. The north side has no windows. On the east, south and west sides of the third floor there is a small window with a straight lintel. The south side has slots on the second and third floors.

The rectangular church, which is narrower on the outside and wider on the inside than the tower, is closed off by a gable roof and illuminated through rectangular windows in the west and south. The rectangular entrance is on the south side and has a small canopy. Later, on the north side, a low extension with a flat pent roof was placed in front of it, in which the community rooms are housed. The extension has rectangular windows and allows passage into the church.

Furnishing

Interior to the east
Interior facing west

On the walls and vaults in the choir there are remains of paintings from the second half of the 15th century. In the base area of ​​the north wall they show angels and saints, among them Mary with the child, in the north vault cap the Last Judgment with the gate of heaven and the mouth of hell and on the walls scenes from the Passion of Jesus, which are structured by painting. The garden of Gethsemane, the Judas kiss and the capture, Jesus before Pilate or the Sanhedrin , the crowning of thorns, carrying the cross, crucifixion, descent from the cross and lamentation are depicted . The keystone is covered with a head of Christ, which is surrounded by vine leaves.

There are also five winged putti from the 18th century in the middle of the vault and on the pointed arch of the wall. In the southeast corner there are two square niches that indicate that the floor was originally a meter lower. The parabolic triumphal arch, which has been modified several times, is painted ashlar and opens the choir to the nave. It was originally round-arched and was probably raised irregularly in the middle during the installation of the organ. Its pillars are bevelled . The lower transoms are cranked and have plates over inclines, the upper transoms are not cranked. On the block altar made of red sandstone in the choir there is a wooden crucifix of the three-nail type .

The choir is one step higher than the nave. In both structures, the floor is covered with red sandstone slabs, in the area of ​​the chairs with a wooden floor. The nave is closed off by a flat arched wooden barrel. The wood-sighted furnishings in the longship are new. The parapets of the angular gallery are decorated with profiled strips. It rests in the north on four-sided concrete supports and bears an inscription on the lower panel with the Bible word from 1 Cor 3:11  LUT . The western area is separated at the bottom and has an adjoining room that can be connected to the ship. The west gallery is accessible via a separate staircase and serves as the installation site for the organ. In the lower end it has an inscription from Eph 5,2  LUT . A pulpit staircase leads to the three-sided pulpit, the fields of which, like the galleries, are decorated with profiled strips. The simple church stalls leave a central aisle free.

organ

Link organ behind historic prospectus

According to the hall book of 1741, the church did not have an organ at that time . Towards the end of the 18th century it was given an organ that was installed on a gallery behind the altar in the choir until 1956. The outside of the instrument is still influenced by the Baroque and has a prospectus structure that corresponds to the “Central German normal type”. Two curved consoles on the narrow lower housing mediate the wider upper housing part. A continuous, profiled cornice extends beyond the side curtain wall. The polygonal, elevated central tower is flanked by two low flat fields, to which the two corner towers adjoin on the outside. In 1912 the Link brothers installed a new organ with a pneumatic cone shutter behind the historic prospect . The single-manual instrument has six registers. The disposition is as follows:

I Manual C – f 3
Principal 8th'
Covered 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Octav 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
Pedal C – d 1
Sub bass 16 ′

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 a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 306.
  • Wilhelm Diehl : Construction book for the Protestant parishes of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt. (= Hassia sacra; 5 ). Self-published, Darmstadt 1931, p. 306.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen II. Buseck, Fernwald, Grünberg, Langgöns, Linden, Pohlheim, Rabenau. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2178-7 , p. 456 f.
  • Hartmut Miethe, Heinz-Gerhard Schuette: Gothic paintings . Ed .: Förderkreis Kunst-Mensch-Kirche (=  Christian art in Upper Hesse . Volume 1 ). Grünberg 2010.
  • Heinrich Walbe : The art monuments of the Gießen district. Vol. 1. Northern part. Hessisches Denkmalarchiv, Darmstadt 1938, pp. 60–63.
  • Peter Weyrauch : The churches of the old district of Giessen. Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Gießen 1979, p. 52 f.

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Geilshausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Lang (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. 2010, p. 457.
  2. ↑ a b c State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Ed.), Lang (Ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. 2010, p. 456.
  3. ↑ Geilshausen. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on June 17, 2014 .
  4. ^ Diehl: Construction book for the Protestant parishes. 1931, p. 410.
  5. ↑ a b Weyrauch: The churches of the old district of Gießen. 1979, p. 53.
  6. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1938, p. 62.
  7. ↑ Information board for the Lumda-Wieseck cycle path: The Geilshausen church .
  8. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1938, p. 61.
  9. ^ Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. 2008, p. 306.
  10. ^ Miethe, Schuette: Gothic paintings. 2010, [p. 62].
  11. ^ Weyrauch: The churches of the old district Gießen. 1979, p. 52.
  12. ↑ Walbe: The art monuments of the district of Giessen. 1938, p. 60 f.
  13. ^ Diehl: Construction book for the Protestant parishes. 1931, p. 411.
  14. ^ Organ in Geilshausen , accessed on June 16, 2014.

Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 49 ″  N , 8 ° 53 ′ 43.6 ″  E