Evangelical parish church in Wels

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Evangelical parish church in Wels

The Evangelical Parish Church of Wels in the municipality of Wels in Upper Austria dates from 1849–1852. The parish is part of the Evangelical Church AB in Austria and belongs to the Evangelical Superintendentur Upper Austria . The Wels church is also called the Christ Church. Under the title Evangelische Pfarrkirche AB Christuskirche it is a listed building .

The Protestant Church

The Protestant parish church was built in the years 1849-1852. The sacred building in the area of ​​Bahnhofstrasse and Martin-Luther-Platz was erected according to the plans of the Nuremberg architect Carl Alexander Heideloff in the neo-Gothic and old German style. The church tower has a special historical relevance . At about the same time as construction began, the ban on church towers for Protestant churches that had been in effect until then was lifted. The Wels church was therefore the first Protestant church in Austria that was allowed to be built with a bell tower from the start.

The design of the altar was the responsibility of the Nuremberg artists Ziegler (carpenter and carver) and Hütter (gilder). The pictures come from the Munich curator Mattenheimer. Seven points on the top are reminiscent of the seven-armed candlesticks of the temple in Jerusalem.

The inauguration of the Christ Church took place on Peter and Paul Day in 1852. The first organ came from the organ builder Bittner from Nuremberg. The nave has three aisles and five bays. The west tower is 60 meters high. In 1930 the organ was replaced. The important organ composer Johann Nepomuk David worked as an organist at the church from 1930 to 1934. At Christmas 1944, the church building was damaged by a bomb attack and was restored in the post-war period. In 1985 the organ was renovated.

History of the Protestant Congregation

As early as 1527 it is on record that the (Catholic) city pastor and the two chaplains were followers of Lutheran teaching. The noble family of Pollheimer supported the movement and appointed preachers at their castle. On October 4, 1624, in the course of the Counter Reformation, the last Protestant pastor had to go into exile and the Protestant parishes were dissolved. In 1626 the religiously motivated Upper Austrian Peasants' War was a particular affliction for Wels. In the years 1752 to 1757 124 people from Wels and the surrounding area were forcibly sent to Transylvania because they adhered to the so-called secret Protestantism .

The tolerance patent of 1781 issued by Emperor Joseph II allowed the reestablishment of Protestant parishes in the Habsburg lands. In today's Austria a total of 48 tolerance communities were created by 1795. From December 1781 onwards, hundreds of Welsers registered as "Evangelicals", which enabled the Wels tolerance community to be constituted as one of the first Austrian parishes as early as 1782.

The old St. George's Church in the Welser Vorstadt served as the first prayer house from the 1780s, the first Protestant pastor was Johann Michael Felbinger. The construction of the Christ Church began in 1849, at that time already with a church tower as a novelty in Austria. In 1938 the Protestant elementary and secondary schools were taken over by the state. After the Second World War , a large number of Lutheran war refugees had to be integrated into the parish. The bomb damage to the parish church had to be repaired. In 1961 the previous Marchtrenk preaching station was spun off from the Wels district as an independent parish. The new building of the Wels rectory took place under the name "Cordatus House" in 1967. The preaching station Stadl-Paura was raised in 1971 to a parish.

literature

  • Leopold Temmel : Evangelical in Upper Austria. Career and existence of the Evangelical Church . 1st edition. Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag , Linz 1982, ISBN 3-85214-334-9 .
  • Helmuth K. Koehrer: Evangelical Upper Austria today . 1st edition. Almesberger, Linz 1994.
  • Peter F. Barton: Evangelical in Austria . 1st edition. Böhlau , Vienna Cologne Graz 1987, ISBN 3-205-05096-7 .
  • Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch Oberösterreich . 3. Edition. Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1958.

Web links

Commons : Christuskirche Wels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Leopold Temmel: Evangelical in Upper Austria. Career and existence of the Evangelical Church . 1st edition. Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Linz 1982, ISBN 3-85214-334-9 , p. 245-251 .
  2. ^ Upper Austria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento from June 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) . Federal Monuments Office , as of June 27, 2014 (PDF).
  3. ↑ Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch Oberösterreich . 3. Edition. Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1958, p. 370 .
  4. ↑ Christ Church Wels. Evangelische Pfarrgemeinde AB Wels, December 31, 2016, accessed on December 31, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b Helmut K.Köhrer: Evangelical Upper Austria today . 1st edition. Almesberger, Linz 1994, p. 253-261 .
  6. ^ Peter F. Barton: Evangelical in Austria . 1st edition. Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Graz 1987, ISBN 3-205-05096-7 , p. 129, 203 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 40.7 ″  N , 14 ° 1 ′ 33.2 ″  E