Evangelical Church Fechingen
The Protestant church in Fechingen is a listed church building in the Saarbrücken district of Fechingen . The building is one of the oldest Christian structures in Saarland.
history
As early as the 8th century there was a wooden chapel on the site of today's church. This is proven by round holes in the rock of the Römerberg. These originally took up vertical posts that formed a stud frame for the building. The size of the wooden church was approximately 5 × 8 meters. It stood in the north-west corner of today's nave. In the 9th century, a slightly larger stone church was built in place of the wooden church, of which only a small remnant of the foundations of the former southeast corner has been preserved. There was a crypt to the east. In the 12th century this church was extended a few meters to the east. A semicircular or horseshoe-shaped apse was also built. at that time the church belonged to the monastery of Sankt Arnual .
In the 13th century the church was lengthened again and reached today's length of 5 × 12 meters, but was not as wide as the current nave. The crypt was built over. At the north-west corner, the small church was given a tower with a square floor plan.
In 1712 the nave was partially renewed. A drawing by the Fechingen teacher Georg Friedrich Gottlieb from 1717 shows the church with an entrance with a keel arch on the northwest corner with a canopy, as well as an unplastered tower with corner blocks. The nave had two axes on the long side and a window with tracery and oculus above on the choir gable side. On the north side of the building there was a ramp that was level with the door, which protruded from the ground on the north-east side and had an entrance there. The resulting small room served as a warehouse. In the 18th century the crypt was used again as a burial place.
In 1779 the nave was extended according to plans by Johann Jakob Lautemann and received its current size. The sacred building became a hall church and received an oculus on the west side , which was directed towards the altar. The altar and pulpit stood on the east side of the church between the windows.
In 1940 the church was damaged for the first time and poorly repaired. In 1944 the building was damaged again by a shell impact and the roof beams collapsed. Soon after the end of the war, the church was again poorly repaired and restored at the end of the 1940s. The entrance with a round arched portal was on the north side next to the tower. A vestibule was installed inside there. On the west wall between the windows stood the pulpit, in front of it the altar, on the long sides there were benches and choir stalls. In the back of the church there was a horseshoe-shaped gallery with the organ supported by wooden beams. The building was covered by a hipped roof.
Extensive excavations took place inside the church in the summer of 1965. Numerous foundations of the previous churches were uncovered and the crypt with some graves was discovered. In 1966 the church was extensively renovated and rebuilt. The portal was moved to the middle of the northern long side, the church floor was placed approx. 0.5 meters lower. The roof beams were removed and replaced with a steel structure. The hall church was transformed from a longitudinal to a broad hall. The altar and pulpit were moved to the long south side. The gallery was shortened to the broad side and hung self-supporting in the room. Another gallery was installed on the opposite side.
architecture
The hall church is now a rectangular hall with a hipped roof. On the south side, four segmented arched windows illuminate the interior, all other sides have two windows each. The baroque portal of the church is formed by a double door with a round arch in the middle of the north longitudinal side. Pilasters flank the door and support high beams with a cornice.
The three-storey church tower made of sandstone blocks with a gable roof was easily placed in the nave and has clearly visible cornices. The top floor has acoustic arcades on all four sides. A clock tower sits on the east side. The lintel at the entrance to the tower, which has been relocated, is striking. It dates from around 1150 and was decorated with braided ribbon and notched ornamentation.
Crypt
The age of the tomb is unknown. As far as we know today, it was originally built as an independent building in the 8th century. The external dimensions were 4.6 × 5.1 meters. A barrel vault vaulted the small room, and a gable roof served as protection. In the 13th century the crypt was built over when the church was enlarged. As it stood further down on the slope, it was preserved and is now the sacristy. During the excavations in 1964, four coffins from the 18th century were found in the crypt. According to the church register, the last occupation took place in 1760. Two women and two children of the noble Bettendorf family were buried in the coffins .
Furnishing
The sandstone altar stands on a one-step pedestal. The plate originally covered the tomb. Several consecration crosses were found on it, which suggests that it was used as a cafeteria in the Middle Ages . After a revision, it was returned to its original function.
organ
An instrument built according to the system of a Silbermann organ with 18 stops and 3 movements was purchased in 1951. In 1954, 1957 and 1965 fixtures were made and the organ was expanded. As part of the renovations in 1966, a new organ (series organ model E 8) from the Walcker company was purchased. The game and stop action are mechanical.
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Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
Bells
A bell, cast in 1852, was melted down for war purposes in 1917. During the war years of 1939 and 1944, some of the church bells were melted down again. In 1952 and 1953 the baptism and the Lord's Prayer bell were donated. In 1961, the couple Mathilde and Eduard Röchling donated two more bells. The ring today consists of five bells, all of which were cast by the Mabilon company in Saarburg .
| No. | Surname | Weight (kg) | Diameter (m) | inscription |
| 1 | Death bell | 1380 | 1.32 | O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! (Jeremiah 22:29) |
| 2 | Prayer bell | 680 | 1.04 | Come here, let us exult in the Lord! (Psalm 95: 1) |
| 3 | Our Father Bell | 400 | 0.88 | Christ says: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, whether he dies soon. (John 11:25) |
| 4th | Wedding bell | 280 | 0.78 | Be joyful in hope, be patient in tribulation, keep praying. (Romans 12, 12) |
| 5 | Baptismal bell | 170 | 0.65 | Join the fatherland to the dear, hold on tight with all your heart! Donated to the indelible memory of the fallen heroes of my home village from a happy homecoming from the world war: 1920 Julius Freidinger |
literature
- Hans Caspary, Wolfgang Götz, Ekkart Klinge (arrangement): Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland . (= Georg Dehio (†): Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler ). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1984, pp. 272f
- Josef Baulig, Hans Mildenberger, Gabriele Scherer: Saarbrücken architecture guide . Historical Association for the Saar Region, Saarbrücken 1998, p. 65
- Ernst Schmerler: The old church. Landmark of Fechingen . Evangelical parish Brebach-Fechingen, Saarbrücken 1999
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saarbrücken sub- monument list ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , State Monument List of Saarland, State Monument Authority Saar, p. 43 (PDF)
- ↑ Dehio (1984), pp. 272f
- ↑ Schmerler (1999) , p. 15 (PDF)
- ↑ Schmerler (1999), p. 6
- ↑ The organ at organindex.de
Coordinates: 49 ° 11 '56.4 " N , 7 ° 3' 45.1" E