Evangelical parish church Obersontheim
The Evangelical Church Obersontheim is the Protestant church building in the central town of Obersontheim .
location
The Evangelical Church Obersontheim is located on the southern corner of the town hall square in the village of Obersontheim on the lower slope of a hill, on the further rise of which is a soft pattern of hedge-bordered gardens, between which the footpath of the so-called Pfarrgässchen leads uphill. The area of Obersontheim Castle begins about fifty meters northwest of it with an approximately parallel axis, a little less to the north at the other end of the town hall square is the town's historic town hall, between the two of them the old village linden tree stands on a pedestal in the middle of the falling square Remains of the walls of the preceding St. Cyriacus chapel.
history
The Limpurg taverns , Speckfelder Linie, sold their ancestral castle Limpurg Castle to the nearby town of Schwäbisch Hall in 1541 and moved their headquarters to Obersontheim. Initially (1447–1596) there was only a small early mass chapel St. Cyriacus, the responsible church as well as the cemetery were in the neighboring village of Untersontheim, which in turn was a church branch of Bühlertann . The now evangelical taverns also pursued the expansion of their place of residence ecclesiastically, in particular by exchanging patronage rights with the provost of Ellwangen in 1578, which enabled Obersontheim to create its own parish. The present church was built in 1585–1586 by Schenk Friedrich VII von Limpurg and presumably inaugurated in 1587. As one of the first new Protestant church buildings in the region, the church was no longer consecrated to a saint.
The church not only served as the residential church of Limpurg's taverns, but also as their burial site, as the evangelical nobles could no longer be buried in the traditional tavern burial place in the Catholic Komburg monastery after the change of faith. The last donor to be buried on the Komburg was Erasmus († 1553), the father of the church builder, who was still the patron of the Komburg monastery. His wife Anna von Lodron († 1556) followed him in the burial place on the Komburg. The oldest and most ornate epitaph in the church of Obersontheim is that of the builder Friedrich VII. Schenk von Limpurg († 1596) and his two wives Margarete von Erbach († 1564) and Agnes von Limpurg († 1606). Margarete, who died in 1564, is buried in the town church of Michelstadt. The epitaph was probably commissioned from Sem Schlör during Frederick VII's lifetime and erected immediately after Frederick's death. The tombs are the defining art treasures of the church, which from the beginning in the spirit of the Reformation were otherwise only simply furnished.
In 1602 the stair tower leading to the manorial gallery (demolished in 1956) was erected, and in 1618 the church building was expanded to include a sacristy . In the same year Obersontheim also got its own cemetery, which was created around the church at Schießbach on the southwestern outskirts due to lack of space. In 1750, a wooden double staircase leading to the large gallery was added to the outside of the church. In addition, there was once a small residential extension at the church tower, which was demolished around 1830. In 1922 the altar and pulpit were renewed, from 1953 to 1956 the entire structure was extensively renovated. On the night of December 8th to 9th, 1967, a fire broke out in the gallery. The development of smoke and extinguishing water caused considerable damage to the organ from 1740 and in the interior, so that renewed renovation was necessary.
Construction and equipment
The axis of the church, roughly parallel to that of the neighboring castle, follows the fall of the hill and is oriented to the northeast, with a covered wooden double gallery staircase from 1750 on the southwest side of the mountain and the apse on the ground floor of the square below, octagonal choir tower with a domed roof in the Northeast. To the southeast of the tower is the sacristy , where the tower staircase begins. Not far from the apse, on the outside of the church wall in the north-west, there is a low turret with a polygonal floor plan and a helmet, through which another gallery in the front part of the church was previously accessible; This is no longer available today and the staircase is just as inoperative as the outer gallery staircase, because a staircase inside now also allows access to it. Two entrances are axially symmetrical opposite to the front of the ship on the northwest and southeast side, two others in the rear part on the axis of the ship, one above the other at gallery height and - outside at ground level - below. The donation board is attached above the northwest entrance.
In the interior on the right on the front of the nave there is the Renaissance grave monument for the builder Friedrich VII of Limpurg with his wife, above the right entrance the baroque tavern Vollrath with wife protrudes into the interior for the last Limpurg tavern. The organ stands on the remaining gallery. Inside the wall of the nave are some grave slabs, more of them in the apse, where some also cover the floor.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Location based on visual inspection and topographic map 1: 25,000.
- ↑ Building description based on a leaflet available in the church Evangelical Church Obersontheim and inspection.
literature
- Emil Schleehuber: The Evangelical Church in Obersontheim , in: Obersontheim - Citizens write for citizens , Obersontheim community, Obersontheim 2000
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 3 '24.2 " N , 9 ° 53' 52.9" E