Evangelical town church (Unna)

Tower of the city church

The Evangelical City Church in Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia is a Gothic hall church from the 14th century.

history

View from the south

Storm damage from falling debris (January 2018)

Floor plan 1881

The church, which was consecrated to Saints Clemens, Dionysius and Nicomedes until the Reformation was introduced , is considered to be unusual in terms of its spatial disposition for Westphalia, as the aisles are led around the choir as a walkway.

The three-bay nave was probably built after 1322, the choir started in 1389 and completed in 1396 according to dedicatory inscription. The mighty west tower, which is integrated into the central nave and protruding from the west front in thickness, was built between 1407 and 1467. The spire was destroyed several times; It was given its present form with a tracery gallery in 1863 based on designs by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner . This gives the tower a total height of 84 m. In 1918 the tower received a massive cast steel bell with the tone sequence a ° -c′-es ′, which has been preserved to this day.

From 1596 to 1601 Philipp Nicolai was pastor at the city church. It was here in 1599 that he wrote the book Mirrors of Eternal Life , in which he published his two famous hymns for the first time, How beautifully does the morning star and Wachet light up, the voice calls us .

Gravestone of Caspar Schmitz

The tombstones that are set up on the side walls and in the area around the choir used to lie on the floor as the cover plates of the graves. They testify to personalities who were buried in the church from 1619 to 1794, e. B. the tombstone of Caspar Schmitz, who died on October 9, 1619. He worked as a sovereign judge from 1593 to 1619 and belonged to the Reformed denomination. His tombstone is under the organ gallery directly on the north side. The gravestones are mainly reminiscent of the mayor of Unna, pastors and judges, as well as some wives and children.

On January 18, 2018, the church was damaged by storm Friederike . A pinnacle from the tower broke off, fell on the roof of the nave and damaged the vault below; thereby the statics of the church was endangered. The damage was the worst since World War II. In the course of the renovation, damage to the facade was discovered, which will now be renovated over the next few years. During this time the facade is scaffolded.

organ

The organ from 1973 comes from Richard Rensch ( Lauffen am Neckar ). The instrument has 49 registers (slider drawers) on three manuals and a pedal ; the action actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electro-pneumatic.

I main work C– 1. Bourdon 16 ′ 2. Principal 8th' 3. Reed flute 8th' 4th Octave 4 ′ 5. Pointed flute 4 ′ 6th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 7th Octave 2 ′ 8th. Cornet v 8th' 9. Mixture V 2 ′ 10. Zimbel III  1 ⁄ 2 ′ 11. bassoon 16 ′ 12. Trumpet 8th' 13. Horizontal trumpet 8th'

II Rückpositiv C– 14th Wood-covered 8th' 15th Quintad 8th' 16. recorder 4 ′ 17th Principal 4 ′ 18th Flat flute 2 ′ 19th Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ 20th third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ 21st Seventh 1 1 ⁄ 7  ′ 22nd Sharp Cymbal IV 1' 23. Rankett 16 ′ 24. Krummhorn 8th' Tremulant

III Swell C– 25th Hollow flute 8th' 26th Metal covered 8th' 27. Black viola 8th' 28. Viol celeste 8th' 29 Ital. Principal 4 ′ 30th Coupling flute 4 ′ 31. Octave 2 ′ 32. Night horn 2 ′ 33. Sif flute 1' 34. Sesquialter I-II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 35. Spicy Mix IV-V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ 36. Dulcian 16 ′ 37. oboe 8th' 38. Brass schalmey 4 ′ Tremulant

Pedal C– 39. Principal 16 ′ 40. Sub-bass 16 ′ 41. Octave 8th' 42. Lovely covered 8th' 43. Chorale bass 4 ′ 44. Peasant pipe 2 ′ 45. Rauschpfeife III 5 1 ⁄ 3  ′ 46. Mixture V 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ 47. trombone 16 ′ 48. Trumpet 8th' 49. Clarine 4 ′

• Coupling: II / I, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P
• Playing aids : 8-fold set system , register crescendo as swell step

literature

• Wilfried Hansmann , Dorothea Kluge (edit.): Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, North Rhine-Westphalia, Volume 2: Westphalia. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich / Berlin 1969.
• Willy Timm : The town church of Unna (=  Westphalian art sites , issue 37). 1st edition. Münster 1985.

Web links

Commons : Stadtkirche Unna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Protestant parish Unna
• Silke Dehnert: On the trail of secrets . In: UK Our Church, No. 12, March 15, 2020, p. 20
• Silke Dehnert: Large grave slab behind the information stand. Düsberg and Hegeler reveal the secrets of the grave slabs in the Ev. City Church. In: UK Our Church, No. 13. 2020
• Silke Dehnert: Family crests adorn gravestones. Secrets of the tombstones . In: UK, No. 14. 2020
• Jürgen Düsberg: Gravestones tell history and stories

Individual evidence

1. ^ The art and historical monuments of the district of Hamm , edit. by Josef Bernhard Nordhoff, Münster 1880, p. 109
2. ↑ Anna Gemünd: Gravestones tell history. Hartmut Hegeler and Jürgen Düsberg are researching the city church . ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Hellweger Anzeiger , March 6, 2018. Photo by Hubert Brand, Unna. 
3. ↑ Evangelical City Church: The greatest damage since the Second World War . In: Unna24 . January 19, 2018 ( unna24.de [accessed March 23, 2018]).
4. ↑ To the disposition

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 5.7 ″  N , 7 ° 41 ′ 30 ″  E