Evangelical Church (Biskirchen)

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Church in Biskirchen
Church in Biskirchen

The Protestant church in Biskirchen , a district of Leun in the Hessian Lahn-Dill district , is a hall church that was built in the neo-Romanesque arched style between 1868 and 1870 . Friedrich August Stüler had a decisive influence on the design . Due to its historical, artistic, urban and scientific importance, it is a Hessian architectural monument .

history

The name of the place ("Bischofskirchen") probably goes back to the fact that the Würzburg bishop Rudolf I (892–908) founded a church in Biskirchen , which he handed over to the monastery for regular canons in Gemünden in the Westerwald . It is believed that he had a wooden church built. Later it was transferred from the monastery to the gentlemen of Runkel and Westerburg , who can be verified as patrons since the 13th century . In 1338, Dietrich Scherre was the first pastor to be attested by name. The Lords of Westerburg held the church patronage in 1338, 1459 and 1473. In the Middle Ages, Biskirchen belonged to the Archipresbyterate Wetzlar in the Archdiaconate St. Lubentius Dietkirchen in the Archdiocese of Trier . Already in the pre-Reformation period it formed a parish with Bissenberg and Stockhausen , which continued in the post-Reformation period.

Plan of the episcopal church based on the excavations

The excavations of the so-called "Bishop's Church" in the Lahn lowlands, as the predecessor building of today's church was called, funded a two-aisled Romanesque church (23.10 meters total length) with a square gate (outside 7.90 meters wide and inside 4.20 meters) , 8.00 meters long) and semicircular east apse (7.00 meters wide outside, 4.80 meters inside). The narrow north nave (3.50 meters wide) ended with an east apse at the same height as the two-part central nave (outside 12.25 meters long, 6.50 meters wide, about 4.00 meters clear width). In the south of the choir square, a transept-like semicircular apse was built (6.70 meters wide on the outside, 5.40 meters deep). A three-aisled ( basilica ) complex without a transept was probably originally planned. In a second construction phase in the late Gothic period, the north aisle was abandoned and in a third phase the southern extension was converted into a rectangle and the choir square was extended to the north with a narrow rectangular extension. Due to the sparse written records, dating is difficult, not excluded in the 10th or early 11th century, but most likely in the 12th century.

With the introduction of the Reformation in 1549, the parish changed to the evangelical confession. After three years of vacancy, Christophel N. was named as the first Protestant pastor in 1552, when the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg held the patronage. In 1582, Count Konrad von Solms-Braunfels officially introduced the Reformed Confession.

The "Bishop's Church" was repeatedly hit by floods and was increasingly lost in the 19th century. After several flood disasters in the 18th century, when the Lahn water was in the church, a comprehensive renovation was carried out in 1806/1807. In the winter of 1846/1847 it remained closed due to the risk of collapse. From 1858, the three parishes in the parish paid into a church building fund, which was supported by a large-scale appeal by the regional church. Pastor Karl Wetz (1821-1894) published a collection of sermons in 1867, the proceeds of which went to the building of a new church and a new organ. In 1862, the landscape draftsman Carl Theodor Reiffenstein recorded a view from the east. It shows a nave with a gable roof (14-15 meters high), a west tower with a baroque, octagonal dome (about 21 meters high), a Romanesque, retracted, semicircular east apse (10-11 meters high) and a southern extension.

Monument from 1884 for the old church

In 1867 the community acquired a high-altitude plot of land at a crossroads north of the town center. In 1867/1868 a new cemetery was laid out on Bissenberger Strasse and the old cemetery that surrounded the "Bishop's Church" was left out. The current church from 1868 to 1870 replaced the "Bishop's Church", which was demolished in 1876. The demolition material was sold by the civil parish in 1887 and was used to build houses. A first draft from the year 1861 by district architect Mayer from Wetzlar in the form of a cruciform church with a roof turret was rejected by the parish. Friedrich August Stüler changed Mayer's second draft, which was then accepted and carried out. The foundation stone was laid on October 9, 1868 and the inauguration on November 25, 1870. The new church offered space for 1000 people.

At the instigation of Pastor Wetz, a sandstone obelisk with an inscription was erected in the choir of the old church in 1884 as a memorial stone, reminding of the "Bishop's Church". After preliminary excavations by Heinrich Zutt in the 1920s, Helmut Schoppa carried out archaeological excavations in 1939, as the L 3020 bypass road was being planned, which would run across the church grounds and would destroy the remains of the building. The bypass road was built in 1946–1948. The memorial was moved in 1952 in the still-preserved corner of the old cemetery wall south of Weilburger Straße between the railway line and L 3020 and was given a bronze plate with an inscription on the occasion of the renovation in 1978/1979.

In 1953 a parish hall was added to the north. Until 1958, the polygonal pulpit on the north archway was built on a six-sided high foot and was accessible through a wooden sacristy with an attached pulpit staircase below the north gallery. During an interior renovation in 1958/1959, the choir and an axis of the nave were separated to provide space for a sacristy and a community room . On the inserted partition wall, a sandstone-colored round arch is reminiscent of the original choir arch. The church interior was completely removed, the gallery was shortened by three axes to half and a flat ceiling was installed below the open roof structure . A 3.50 meter high cross made of 50 metal plates set in brass, designed by church painter Jörg Großhaus, was attached to the front wall.

In 1969 the twelve windows were given antique glass instead of stained glass. The stretch ceiling from 1959 was replaced ten years later by a wooden beam ceiling. The benches were pushed together in favor of a block. The church received new lighting with pendant lights. After the two renovations, the church had room for around 480 visitors. In addition, the bell cage was renewed and a steel frame was installed. From 2008 to 2010 an exterior and interior renovation was carried out. In a first construction phase, building-preserving measures were carried out, which included the damaged roof, the gable masonry, the entrance area, the windows and the securing of the crowning pinnacles . A renovation of the outdoor facilities followed. During the interior renovation in 2010, a new heating system was installed and the central aisle restored. The large cross on the east wall has been replaced by a small altar cross. A planned exposure of the choir had to be postponed for cost reasons.

The church belonged to the end of 2018 the parish of Braunfels , who in the 2019 Evangelical Church District of Lahn and Dill in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland came up.

architecture

Ev. Biskirchen church after completion

The hall building, facing northeast, is erected at a crossroads north of the old town center in a prominent position on a hill. The hall church with its polygonal choir is dominated by the slender west tower . The building, made of unplastered quarry stone masonry made of scarf stone, has a surrounding base area and is covered by a slated gable roof. The stones came from the “Lohrberg” quarry near Stockhausen. The walls of the windows and portals , cornices and friezes are made of red sandstone . The external dimensions are 35.23 × 13.53 meters and the tower height is 36 meters.

The long sides of the simple hall church are structured by pilasters that reach up to the eaves frieze. The gables on the narrow sides also have eaves friezes. The six-axis nave has slender, square turrets above the four corner pilasters with a four-sided pointed helmet and a finial as a crown. Halfway up the wall there is a surrounding cornice with evenly lined round arched windows . They have two-lane tracery and a round window in the arched field. Six windows on the long sides and two west windows flanking the tower illuminate the interior; the east wall is windowless. The portal at the western end of the south wall has arched walls. A bronze plaque in the shape of a coat of arms from 1996 to the left of the south portal commemorates the architect Friedrich August Stüler. The arched five-eighth end with three arched windows is drawn in and lower than the nave .

The west tower on a square floor plan takes up about a third of the west side. Individual elements of the church tower show characteristics of the neo-Gothic . The sandstone porch has two free columns with cube capitals and a triangular gable with a finial. The round arch field above the west portal is decorated with a four-leaf clover . The tower hall serves as the entrance area. The bricked-up tower is divided by two pilaster strips and corner pilaster strips, which lead into a round arch frieze and small triangular gables, which are decorated with a finial. A smaller octagonal structure has corner pilasters and a round arch frieze. The clock faces of the tower clock are placed in the four cardinal directions . The octagonal pointed helmet is crowned by a tower knob and a simple cross.

Furnishing

Interior towards the organ gallery
View of the liturgical area

The simply furnished interior is closed off by a flat wooden beam ceiling with transverse beams from 1970. The wooden, three-sided gallery rests on octagonal posts with cube capitals. The parapet has rectangular panels. The west gallery serves as the installation site for the organ . The church stalls formed a block from 1969 to 2010 and have since left a central aisle free again. A wooden parquet with a mosaic pattern was laid below the benches in 1959.

The liturgical area in front of the east wall is raised by three steps and covered with red sandstone slabs. The building block altar made of pink-gray Lahn marble with a base and protruding canteen plate is decorated with profiled geometric shapes: on the side square and in the front a circle, which is flanked by two square corners, the inner sides of which are concave . The altar stands in front of a large round arch, which is modeled on the choir, which was separated off in 1959. The wooden baptismal font with attached baptismal bowl and the horseshoe-shaped pulpit both date from 1959.

organ

Hardt organ from 1970

For the previous church, Johann Georg Bürgy built an organ with twelve stops on a manual and pedal in 1822 . The instrument was sold to the Evangelical Church in Daubhausen in 1871 , where it has been preserved. In the same year, organ builder Knauf from Gotha built a two-manual work with 18 stops for the new church. Today's organ comes from Orgelbau Hardt from 1970. It has 14 stops on two manuals and a pedal. The disposition is as follows:

I main work C – f 3
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
octave 4 ′
Spindle flute 4 ′
Forest flute 2 ′
Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
II Breastwork
(swellable) C – f 3
Dumped 8th'
Paddock 4 ′
octave 2 ′
Sesquialter II
Sharp III 1'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Octave bass 8th'
Choral bass 4 ′

Peal

The previous church received two bells in the 18th century , which were cast in 1701 and 1735. The little bell bore the inscription: “I call to church and sing to the grave, O man, cast off your great sin. Biskirchen 1701 ". the inscription on the larger bell by Johann Jakob Rincker read: “soli deo gloria. Johann Jakob Rinker von Asslar poured me. Biskirchen 1735 ". Both bells were taken over in the new church. Kaiser Wilhelm donated twelve hundredweight of cannon metal for a large “peace bell” that Rincker cast in 1872 with the following inscription: “Concordia. Peace on earth! ”During the First World War , the bells from 1701 and 1872 were delivered. Two larger replacement bells from FW Rincker from 1927 suffered the same fate in 1942. Donations and a foundation made it possible in 1951 to purchase a new steel bell from the Bochumer Verein . The three new bells bear Bible verses and the names of the donors and the communities involved. They sound in the Te Deum motif. The bell from 1735 (88 kg, strike tone c 2 ) did not match the new bell because of its different sound, was dismantled in 1951 and moved to the newly built Kreuzkirche Stockhausen in 1956.

No. Surname Casting year Foundry, casting location Chime inscription
1 Death bell 1951 Bochum Association , Bochum g 1 " O LAND, LAND, HEAR THE LORD'S WORD
PRESENTED BY THE THREE KIRCHSPIELSGEMENEN "
2 Time bell 1951 Bochum Association, Bochum b 1 " JESUS ​​CHRIST YESTERDAY AND TODAY AND THE SAME ALSO IN ETERNITY DONATED
BY THE COMMUNITY BISKIRCHEN AND THE SINGER ASSOCIATION BORUSSIA-SINGER SALUTE IN 1951 "
3 Drawing bell 1951 Bochum Association, Bochum c 2 " THE LOUDEST FOUNTAIN IS THE WORD OF GOD
GIVEN BY FAMILY BROLL, KARLSSPRUDEL "

literature

  • Friedrich Kilian Abicht: The district of Wetzlar, presented historically, statistically and topographically. Volume 2. Wetzlar 1836, pp. 185-187 ( online ).
  • Rudolf Anschütz: History of the parish Biskirchen - Biskirchen-Bissenberg-Stockhausen. Biskirchen 1982.
  • Günter E. Th. Bezzenberger: Worth seeing churches in the church areas of Hesse and Nassau and Kurhessen-Waldeck, including the Rhine-Hessian church districts of Wetzlar and Braunfels. Evangelical Press Association, Kassel 1987, p. 161.
  • 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. 113.
  • Matthias Diehl: The “Stüler” church. Biskirchen 2007.
  • Evangelical Church Community Biskirchen (Ed.), Ida Sturm (Ed.): History of the Evangelical Church Community Biskirchen. Nowak, Biskirchen 1978.
  • Werner Franzen: Worship sites in transition. Protestant church building in the Rhineland 1860–1914. Part 3: Directory of the new Protestant church buildings in the Rhineland 1860–1914 (1927) . Publisher of the archive of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Düsseldorf 2002, pp. 91–92, on: duepublico.uni-duisburg-essen.de (PDF).
  • Historical Committee 750th Anniversary Celebration Biskirchen; Gerhard Heller, Gerhard Scharf, Wilhelm Weber (Red.): The history of the parish Biskirchen, Bissenberg and Stockhausen. Magistrate, Leun 1994.
  • Gerhard Kleinfeldt, Hans Weirich: The medieval church organization in the Upper Hesse-Nassau area (= writings of the institute for historical regional studies of Hesse and Nassau. Volume 16). NG Elwert, Marburg 1937, ND 1984, p. 193.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.); Reinhold Schneider (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Hesse. City of Wetzlar (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1900-1 , pp. 410-411.
  • Magistrat der Stadt Leun (Ed.): History and photo book of the city of Leun with the districts of Biskirchen, Bissenberg, Leun, Stockhausen, Leun-Lahnbahnhof. Meinerzhagener Druck- und Verlagshaus, Meinerzhagen 1986, ISBN 3-88913-106-9 .
  • Helmut Schoppa : The old church of Biskirchen, Wetzlar district. In: Heimatkundlicher Arbeitskreis Biskirchen (Ed.): Biskirchener Heimatkalender 2012. Biskirchen 2011.
  • Heinrich Zutt: History of the parish Biskirchen (Biskirchen, Bissenberg, Stockhausen). H. Schellenberg, Wiesbaden 1926.

Web links

Commons : Evangelische Kirche Biskirchen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Evangelical Parish Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
  2. ↑ Heller, Scharf, Weber (Red.): The history of the parish Biskirchen, Bissenberg and Stockhausen. 1994, p. 197.
  3. ^ Georg Wilhelm Sante (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany. Volume 4: Hesse. 3. Edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-520-27403-5 , p. 54.
  4. ↑ a b c Heller, Scharf, Weber (Red.): The history of the parish of Biskirchen, Bissenberg and Stockhausen. 1994, p. 198.
  5. ↑ Kleinfeldt, Weirich: The medieval church organization in the Upper Hessian-Nassau area. 1984, p. 193.
  6. ↑ Schoppa: The old church of Biskirchen, Wetzlar district. 2012. pp. 22-23.
  7. ↑ Schoppa: The old church of Biskirchen, Wetzlar district. 2012. p. 26.
  8. ↑ Biskirchen. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on March 22, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Heller, Scharf, Weber (Red.): The history of the parish Biskirchen, Bissenberg and Stockhausen. 1994, pp. 203-204.
  10. ^ Diehl: The "Stüler" church. 2007, p. 1.
  11. ^ Line drawing by Reiffenstein , accessed on March 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ Heller, Scharf, Weber (Red.): The history of the parish Biskirchen, Bissenberg and Stockhausen. 1994, p. 204.
  13. ↑ a b c Franzen: Places of worship in change. Part 3. 2002, p. 91.
  14. ↑ Matthias Diehl: The “Stüler Church” in Biskirchen initially offered space for 1000 people. In: Home to Lahn and Dill. No. 338, June 1997.
  15. ↑ Schoppa: The old church of Biskirchen, Wetzlar district. 2012. p. 21.
  16. ↑ Coordinates: Monument Bishop Church Biskirchen .
  17. ^ Franzen: Places of worship in change. Part 3. 2002, p. 92.
  18. ↑ Heller, Scharf, Weber (Red.): The history of the parish Biskirchen, Bissenberg and Stockhausen. 1994, p. 212.
  19. ^ Anschütz: History of the parish of Biskirchen. 1982, p. 33.
  20. ^ Diehl: The "Stüler" church. 2007, p. 7.
  21. ^ A b Siglinde Zutt: 125 years of the (new) parish church in Biskirchen. In: Heimatkundlicher Arbeitskreis Biskirchen (ed.): Biskirchener Heimatkalender 1995. Biskirchen 1994.
  22. ^ Anschütz: History of the parish of Biskirchen. 1982, p. 35.
  23. ↑ Uta Barnikol-Lübeck: House of God with a remarkable architectural history , accessed on March 27, 2020.
  24. ↑ Cornelia Heynen, Jürgen Ambrosius: The renovation of the church in Biskirchen. Local history working group Biskirchen (ed.): Biskirchener Heimatkalender 2010. Biskirchen 2009, pp. 92–96.
  25. ^ Frank Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. Wetzlar's church history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tectum, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-9950-6 , p. 27.
  26. ^ Anschütz: History of the parish of Biskirchen. 1982, p. 29.
  27. ↑ a b Diehl: The "Stüler" church. 2007, p. 9.
  28. ^ Anschütz: History of the parish of Biskirchen. 1982, pp. 32-33.
  29. ↑ Jürgen Ambrosius, Cornelia Heynen: Biskirchens church has a central aisle again. Local history working group Biskirchen (ed.): Biskirchener Heimatkalender 2012. Biskirchen 2011, pp. 82–83.
  30. ^ Franz Bösken : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 7.1 ). tape 2 : The area of ​​the former administrative district of Wiesbaden. Part 1: A-K . Schott, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7957-1307-2 , p. 81 .
  31. ↑ Abicht: The district of Wetzlar, presented historically, statistically and topographically. Volume 2. 1836, p. 185 ( online ).
  32. ↑ Hellmut Schliephake: Bell customer of the district of Wetzlar. In: Heimatkundliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Lahntal e. V. 12th yearbook. 1989, ISSN  0722-1126 , pp. 5-150, here p. 132.
  33. ↑ Local history working group Biskirchen (ed.): Biskirchener Heimatkalender 1992. Biskirchen 1991.

Coordinates: 50 ° 31 '59.92 "  N , 8 ° 18' 48.68"  O