Evangelical Church (Launsbach)

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South side of the Launsbacher church
View from the southeast

The Evangelical Church in Launsbach , a district in the community of Wettenberg in the district of Gießen ( Central Hesse ), is a late Gothic hall church from the 15th or 16th century, which was given its decisive shape after several renovations in the years 1617 to 1620. The church with its eight-sided roof turret is a Hessian cultural monument .

history

The place and a previous chapel are first mentioned in 1280, when Launsbach won its independence from the mother church Krofdorf . Although Launsbach received a certain independence through the baptism, marriage and burial rights, the chaplains from Krofdorf continued to carry out the casuals . The foundations of the chapel mentioned in 1280, "which was rebuilt there", but probably underwent a comprehensive renovation, were proven during excavations between 1979 and 1981. In 1289, Bishop Christian von Semgalen consecrated it to St. Nicholas and St. George . The Romanesque chapel was replaced by a Gothic style church in the 15th or 16th century, which was rebuilt and expanded several times. After Altenberg Monastery initially exercised the right of patronage, the parish belonged successively to Krofdorf, Grossen-Linden and Wieseck . Ecclesiastically, the place was assigned to the Archipresbyterat Wetzlar of the Archdiaconate St. Lubentius Dietkirchen in the diocese of Trier and belonged to the broadcasting area Grossen-Linden.

With the introduction of the Reformation , Launsbach switched to the Protestant creed. Justus Breul was the first evangelical pastor to work here from 1546 to 1560. In 1577, the place was a parish near the parish of Wißmar .

Between 1617 and 1620 the nave was extended after “jre Capell got into such a bawfellig being”. The late Gothic choir was laid down and the nave was extended to the east to its present size. It is possible that the ship was also extended in a westerly direction.

The tower received a new clock in 1703. For the renovation of the roof and tower, collections were carried out in 1706 and 1707 and both bells were re-cast in 1720. In 1737 the community applied for financial support to repair the tower. Another renovation is indicated by an inscription from 1773 on the south wall above the pulpit: "EST RENOVATUM ANNO DOMINI M D C C L X X III" The year 1792 on the headbands of the The wooden pillar supporting the girder suggests a renewal of the column. The community bought two new bells in 1864. From 1979 to 1981 an extensive renovation from the ground up took place. An inscription further west on the south wall indicates a further renovation in 2005: "EST RENOVATUM ANNO DOMINI MMV".

The parish belongs to the Evangelical Church District on Lahn and Dill in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland .

architecture

View to the west

The east- facing hall church is built on the eastern outskirts of quarry stone masonry with corner blocks made of red sandstone in the middle of a wall enclosure.

The foundations of the recessed, square choir of the previous building, excavated in the nave from 1979 to 1981, are 5.55 meters long and 4.95 meters wide. The constricted interior was 3.70 meters long and the passage 2.05 meters wide. It is unclear whether he had a stone Gothic vault or a wooden barrel. The ogival double window in the east side of the choir and the south window were taken over from the previous building. Construction joints on the north and south sides in the former eastern choir area indicate the renovation work from 1617 to 1619. Some of the walls seem to have been taken over from the previous building. In the south wall, an arched window with red sandstone walls to the left of the portal, a small arched window with gray lungstone to the right of the portal and an ogival window further east in the choir area illuminate the interior. A rectangular window with red sandstone walls is embedded in the west wall and a round-arched window in the eastern north wall.

The church is accessed through a rectangular south portal whose straight lintel is marked 1618: "ANO CHRISTI · 1618 · IANVA COELI CHRISTVS IESVS". The frame of the rectangular west portal has red sandstone on the top and right, gray lungstone on the left.

The hipped roof is covered with small dormers. A slate roof turret is placed on the west side, which was attached in the middle in front of the extension of the ship. The octagonal bell storey is structured by a cornice . The shaft has small rectangular sound holes and dials facing south and west for the tower clock. The bell storey merges into an eight-sided pointed helmet, which is crowned by a tower knob, a wrought-iron cross and a weathercock.

Furnishing

View to the east
Monk in the south window

The interior is closed off by a flat wooden beam ceiling with an ocher-colored longitudinal beam , which rests on a round, wooden, red-marbled central post. The designation with the year 1792 on the two headbows probably indicates a renewal. The two-sided gallery in the oldest, western part dates back to 1618. The gallery on the northern long side was built in 1726 and later extended. The 27 pictures in the panels, which were renovated in 1906, have not been preserved.

The simple late Gothic sacrament niche in the north wall by the window has original door fittings. It was taken over from the abandoned choir in 1617/1619 and set into the new church wall. The polygonal wooden pulpit dates from 1603 and rests on an octagonal marbled base. Your design is probably based on the Krofdorf pulpit. The polygonal pulpit has coffered fields that end with triangular gables. The pulpit is accessible via an attached wooden parsonage with a barred diamondwork. The church stalls with curved cheeks were renewed after the renovation in 1981. The solidly walled-up block altar is plastered white and covered by a red sandstone slab over a slope.

The mural paintings in naive secco painting, uncovered from 1979 to 1981, show a view of the city above the northern gallery with a fortified church and some towers, further down to the right a large sailing ship with rigging, which is cut from the gallery extension, a three-master next to the sacrament niche with waving flags, rigging and a cross on the stern and a fishing boat on the east wall to the left of the window, in which a human figure is holding a trap. Of the stained glass with which all windows were originally provided, only the depiction of a monk on the south window to the right of the pulpit has survived.

organ

Hardt organ

The church did not have an organ in 1836 . The community purchased its first organ in 1862, which Fr. Woller from Wetzlar built with seven registers for 400 Reichsmarks. The instrument was in service until the renovation in 1979/1981. Today's instrument in the southeast corner was made by Günter Hardt from Möttau in 1963 and was taken over second-hand. It has seven registers on mechanical slider drawers . The disposition is as follows:

I Manual C – f 3
Dumped 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
Octave 2 ′
Mixture IV 1 13
Pedal C–
Sub-bass 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'

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. 545.
  • Günter Hans: The Church Development. In: Günter Hans (Ed.): Launsbach an der Lahn. The history of a village from the beginning to the present. 1242-1922. Community council, Wettenberg 1992, ISBN 3-9803023-0-X , pp. 13-84.
  • Christian Gerhard Kaufmann: Thoughts on the wall paintings in the Launsbacher church. In: Günter Hans (Ed.): Launsbach an der Lahn. The history of a village from the beginning to the present. 1242-1922. Community council, Wettenberg 1992, ISBN 3-9803023-0-X , pp. 85-95.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen III. The communities of Allendorf (Lumda), Biebertal, Heuchelheim, Lollar, Staufenberg and Wettenberg. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 3-8062-2179-0 , p. 310.

Web links

Commons : Evangelical Church Launsbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse (ed.), Karlheinz Lang (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Hesse. 2010, p. 310.
  2. ^ 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. 199.
  3. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, pp. 14-16.
  4. Launsbach. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on July 14, 2014 .
  5. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, pp. 21-22.
  6. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, p. 46.
  7. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, p. 52.
  8. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, p. 56.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, p. 43.
  11. a b c Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. Hessen I. 2008, p. 545.
  12. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, p. 63.
  13. Hans: The Church Development. 1992, p. 62.
  14. Kaufmann: Reflections on the wall paintings in the Launsbach church. 1992, pp. 85-88.
  15. Friedrich Kilian Abicht: The district of Wetzlar, presented historically, statistically and topographically. Volume 2. Wetzlar 1836, p. 42 ( online ).
  16. ^ Franz Bösken : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 7.2 ). tape 2 : The area of ​​the former administrative district of Wiesbaden. Part 2: L-Z . Schott, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7957-1370-6 , p. 548 .
  17. ^ Organ in Launsbach , accessed on July 29, 2016.

Coordinates: 50 ° 37 ′ 19.9 ″  N , 8 ° 39 ′ 42.9 ″  E