Field Church (Neuwied)
The late Romanesque Protestant field church , which geographically belongs to the Feldkirchen district of the city of Neuwied , stands in a prominent position near the edge of a high plateau about 50 meters above the Rhine plain (104 m above sea level ) . The historically significant and unique facilities on the Middle Rhine include:
- the church,
- the rectory with garden,
- the court with the old linden tree (natural monument),
- the cemetery.
In terms of art history, the church is also significant because of its abstract stained glass windows by Georg Meistermann .
history
Prehistory and early days
Whether a prehistoric place of worship was already located at this exposed site has not been proven, but it is conceivable, as an important Ice Age settlement site was excavated in the Gönnersdorf district (today part of the Feldkirchen district named after the Feldkirche ), 1.25 km away as the crow flies . The Gönnersdorf site dates back to around 14,000 BC. Chr.
Settlement finds in the districts of Irlich and Wollendorf indicate continuous settlement in the area from around 2000 BC. After.
In the 2nd century AD, just a few meters from today's church, an important Roman military road (in parts of today's Kreisstraße 111) passed, from the Niederbieber Roman fort to the driver Lände and on over the Rhine crossing to Andernach (the Roman Antunnacum ). The remains of the Upper German-Raetian Limes can still be seen today on the ridge above the field church. It is therefore not unlikely that there was a small Christian place of worship ( aedicula ) in Feldkirchen as early as the late Roman period . Usually a place was chosen where a pagan sacrificial site already existed.
Already at the time of the Great Migration , a relatively dense settlement in the immediate vicinity ( Irlich , Rodenbach , Gönnersdorf ) was proven by grave finds.
Franc time
The settlement areas Gönnersdorf , Hüllenberg, Wollendorf , Rodenbach , Fahr and Irlich already existed at the time of the Franconian Empire . They have been archaeologically documented by Frankish farm cemeteries since at least the 5th century AD. At that time, field churches were built away from the settlements , which served as parish churches for a wide range of villages.
At the beginning of the history of the field church, which has been proven by excavations, there is a Merovingian or Carolingian church building, which was built on a Franconian grave field. The context of the discovery of a Franconian tuff stone sarcophagus from around 750 AD, which was discovered when the heating was installed in 1931, proves this. The coffin was walled up in the foundation of the Romanesque church. During subsequent explorations, three more early Christian graves from the same period were uncovered in today's choir. In the course of these excavations, remains of a wooden structure were found, the findings of which suggest that they had already fallen into disrepair when the graves were dug. This indicates the existence of a first, simple wooden post church as early as the 7th century AD, the appearance of which can no longer be reconstructed.
middle Ages
The legend reports the following about the foundation of the field church: Originally the construction of a stone church in Irlich was intended. However, the ox of the first wagons loaded with rubble stones would have refused to work on the site of today's field church. This was then seen as a divine sign to start construction at this point.
The earliest stone wall remains that were discovered during restoration work after the Second World War can be dated to the 10th century. At this point in time there was a simple church room measuring about 10 mx 6 m. Around 1100 this building was expanded to include a rectangular choir.
Today's stone church was built between 1150 and 1200 and is a foundation of the Augustinian convent of St. Thomas near Andernach , which owned extensive land on the opposite side of the Rhine in Fahr and Gönnersdorf. It was originally built as a flat-roofed pillar basilica without a transept and was dedicated to St. Martin . At the beginning of the 13th century the choir and central nave were vaulted.
The parish "Veltkirgen" is mentioned in a document for the first time in 1204. An important written testimony is the Rotulus of 1280, the fragment of a court record, which deals with the pastor's right to propose and, connected with it, the benefices of the then apparently quite prosperous parish of Feldkirchen. Claims were made by both the Lahnsteiner , the Wiedische and the lords of Hammerstein .
Reformation to modern times
The history of the Protestant parish begins with the conversion of Count Hermann von Wied , Elector and Archbishop of Cologne , to the Reformation under the influence of the Strasbourg reformer Martin Butzer . He called clergymen from Saxony to preach the Reformed gospel on the Rhine. After his death at Altwied Castle , his nephew John IV succeeded him in the government of the county, who is seen as the real reformer of the county of Wied. After taking office, he publicly confessed to the Confessio Augustana and completed the Reformation in his domain between 1542 and 1546 - not without conflicts with the Archbishoprics of Trier and Cologne. The first Protestant pastor in the field church, of whom we know, was probably a "Ludwig Luitzgin, called von Northofen, Kirchherr zu Veltkirgen" , who is mentioned in a court document from 1552.
Although there are no detailed records of the Thirty Years' War , it can be assumed that this period of horror also left its mark on the Feldkirche. Around 1630 the village of Irlich was detached from the parish of Feldkirchen, Catholic again and incorporated into the Archdiocese of Trier. In the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War the church registers were lost, so that in 1655 the ruling Count Friedrich zu Wied ordered the keeping of new registers.
Several invoices from the late 17th century document construction and repair work on the church and the rectory, for example the purchase of pews and a pulpit , the renovation of the fountain in the rectory garden and the repair of damage to the church roof. There are written notes that the tower was covered with a baroque dome instead of the rhombic roof for some time at the end of the 17th century . However, the exact appearance can no longer be traced today.
In 1707 a new church order was introduced in the residential town of Neuwied, which regulated the duties of the pastors, the presbytery and the parishioners in detail.
In the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, pastors who were willing to build carried out several, rather less professional “restorations”, alterations and additions to the church, of which, however, nothing can be seen anymore. The Neuwied newspaper wrote on December 22, 1934:
"When the original space was blurred by later fixtures, wooden cladding, the destruction of the pillar bases, the clogging of the original capitals, the build-up of rubble and the deposits around the church, the medieval state of construction was not so easily recognizable."
The evangelical residents of Leutesdorf also belonged to the evangelical parish of Feldkirchen .
In December 1944, a bomb hit destroyed the choir room and caused damage to the roof and the interior. Building security and extensive exterior restoration began as early as 1948 and was completed in 1952. From 1975 to 1978 the interior was restored and the interior of the church was painted using remains of the original painting from the 13th century, which could still be seen under several layers of paint.
Building description
Outside
As is customary with old churches, the structure is oriented east-west. In the east there is the long choir , closed off with a semicircular apse , in the west the massive 34 meter high tower. Until the middle of the 19th century, the facade of the church and tower was plastered and whitewashed. Today the quarry stone masonry is visible on all the outer walls, emphasized with finely worked corner stones and pilaster strips made of light Mendiger tuff .
The choir and apse - completely reconstructed after the damage of the Second World War - consist of carefully hewn tufa blocks. The masonry is structured with pilaster strips and set off towards the roof with ornate blind arcades .
The main entrance in the north facade - today it is about one meter below ground level - is framed by massive tuff pillars, and a Romanesque cross is carved into the lintel . Opposite, in the south facade, there is another entrance, which is, however, kept simpler.
After the damage of the Second World War , the roof was renovated and the church was completely re-covered with natural slate from Mayen .
Inside
The interior of the church is a total of 31 meters long, 15 meters wide and divided into a central nave with two bays with ribbed vaults and two side aisles that are almost equally high . The long choir is also covered by a ribbed vault. The ribs are designed as round bars and emphasized in color, as are the keystones with tenons. The central nave is supported by six massive, square pillars. Each yoke of the central nave corresponds to two yokes of the side aisles. The yoke limit is indicated by a pilaster in each case. The lower storey of the two side aisles is covered with four groin vaults each . The gallery above was built around 1500 and is closed off by ribbed vaults , the richly decorated keystones of which show the Wiedische coat of arms, an image of the Virgin and (possibly) donor symbols. The aisle galleries are open to the central nave with four smaller, richly decorated and painted round arches . This corresponds to the state of construction since the beginning of the 16th century.
The floor from the post-war years consists of polygonal slate slabs in the choir and square basalt tiles in the main room.
The large, richly decorated, baroque basalt grave slab of the mayor Mathias Kreckel, who died on April 22, 1664, serves as the Lord's Supper table today. The Romanesque baptismal font made of black basalt is located in the apse .
tower
The tower , which measures 7.50 × 6.50 meters in external dimensions, was built onto the west side of the church around 1200 and covered with a rhombus roof made of slate. It has four floors made of quarry stone, which are delimited by cornices and blind arches made of light tuff stone, which become smaller towards the top. Remnants of paint, secured in the 1950s, show that at least the corners and arches were originally colored. There are window openings of different sizes on all floors. The windows on the lower floors are only slotted windows. The windows on the 4th floor and the sound openings in the gables are triforic windows with two central columns made of black basalt. In 1934 the two meter thick east wall of the tower was broken through and the basement was integrated into the church hall. In the belfry hang two bronze bells ; the larger of 1589, dedicated to Saint Martin, a foundation of the Counts of Wied and the smaller of 1717, dedicated to Saint Mary, which was apparently later bought by a Catholic Church.
A tower clock was installed in 1894 and replaced by an electric clock in 1959 .
hermitage
An early Gothic hermitage from the 13th century was originally built on the south side of the choir , the remains of which were exposed in 1941. The supporting stones for the beams on the choir show that the hermitage was once two stories high. The further appearance is not known. Since hermits usually let themselves be walled in, there was an opening next to the choir window (no longer available today), which was used to allow the hermit to attend the service.
The Meistermann window
The damage in World War II also meant that the church's glass windows - which were not particularly valuable in terms of art history - were destroyed. As part of the restoration, the question was how the glazing of the 32 window openings, which differ in their dimensions, should look like. After lengthy and controversial discussions, a decision was made in favor of abstract, non-representational or hardly representational window surfaces. The designs come from Professor Georg Meistermann from the Düsseldorf Art Academy; the execution took over the glass painting workshop Hans Bernhard Gossel in Schalkenmehren . The result is a unique cycle of leaded glass windows , designed according to verses from the Bible , which give light and color to the interior. The interaction of the modern, abstract window surfaces with the ancient, Romanesque building is unusual, courageous, but extremely successful. Since the windows were manufactured between 1952 and 1979, they give a comprehensive overview of Georg Meistermann's artistic development.
Rectory
How long the rectory has existed cannot be traced. In a report on the Truchsessian War it is said that the rectory burned down "in the ground" in 1583 and that the pastor's property was "completely burned". The building must have been standing by the middle of the 16th century.
The year 1605 is carved over the entrance to the vaulted cellar of today's rectory, which proves that there was a successor building, which was built from rubble stones connected with clay. The stately complex included a large garden delimited by quarry stone walls and blackthorn hedges, a brick well, a wine press house , a bakery with an oven , a woodshed, stable and barn .
In 1853 the rectory was completely destroyed in a fire and then demolished, only the cellar was preserved. The new building, which largely corresponds to the current structure, was built between 1854 and 1856.
Today the complex consists of the two-storey rectory and the flat-angled community hall, which are connected by a single-storey intermediate building. The buildings are made of natural stone masonry, fitted with red folding shutters and covered with slate.
Since 2007 the parish has expanded the rectory and built a modern parish hall on the site of the current parish garden. The opening was in summer 2010.
Court
The old court in front of today's entrance to the church is delimited by a quarry stone wall laid out in a three-quarter circle, which also encompasses the stately court linden tree. At the entrance there are two 1.5 m high steles made of black basalt; the right bears the coat of arms of the Counts of Wied, the peacock . In the enclosure there is an octagonal basalt table with three stone benches anchored in the ground, also made of black basalt. The age of the structure is not known; it should date from at least the 16th century. It is shaded by a linden tree that is more than 400 years old and is now a natural monument .
However, the court as an institution is much older. It is mentioned for the first time in 1316. Written documents of the neck or high court at the field church have been preserved several times from the 14th and 15th centuries. The court lords were the Counts of Wied.
The Wiedische execution site was only a few hundred meters away from the judicial linden tree, in the parcel “Auf dem Ebenfeld” in Irlich . The way from the Roman road to the place of execution from Feldkirchen is still marked as a “gallows path” in old land maps. The boom has passed by old documents at least until the 1789th
Since 1840, the Märkergericht, the general assembly of the Märkerschaft Feldkirchen , has met every year on the first Saturday in September at the judicial linden tree . The Märkerschaft is a civil community that practices silviculture, which is documented for the first time in 1494 in Märkerweise , a kind of statute. However, according to the text of the charter, the community is much older. There is much to suggest that it was already in the 13./14. Century existed, it may even go back to the time of the Frankish conquest in the early Middle Ages.
graveyard
The cemetery goes back to a burial place of the 7th century, as finds from Franconian row graves show. A sarcophagus from this site is exhibited in the garden of the Neuwied District Museum. A fragment of a grave slab made of red sandstone, decorated with ribbon ornaments and dated to the 10th century AD, has survived from the following time. Gravestones made of basalt and Lahn marble from the 16th century are now attached to the outer walls of the field church. In 1898, a brick vault was uncovered under the church floor, the exact age of which is not known; it probably dates from the 17th century. It can therefore be assumed that the churchyard has been used continuously since the early Middle Ages.
Initially, the immediate vicinity of the church, which is enclosed with a quarry stone wall, was used as a burial place, but over time it was no longer sufficient. This area is now covered with a lawn. In 1815 there was a significant expansion to the south, to a church property in Renzental. Even that was soon no longer enough, so that multiple extensions were necessary in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today the cemetery is owned by the city of Neuwied.
The complex is worth seeing because of its protected, old lime tree avenues.
In the younger part of the cemetery are the graves of
- August Bungert (born March 14, 1845 in Mülheim an der Ruhr, † October 26, 1915 in Leutesdorf), composer
- Hugo Weischet (born September 24, 1897 - † April 24, 1976), painter
- Otto Buhr (* 1928; † 2003), painter and architect
- Martha von Laffert (born July 4, 1883 in Lennep; † June 11, 1966 in Leutesdorf), painter
- Karl Theodor Reck (born March 19, 1815 in Neuwied; † July 31, 1873 in Feldkirchen), pastor in Feldkirchen and poet of the " Moselle song " set to music by Georg Schmitt
Others
- Today's Neuwied district of Feldkirchen is named after the field church, which was an independent political community until the community reform in 1970. Feldkirchen was created on August 1, 1966 from the voluntary amalgamation of the communities of Fahr , Hüllenberg, Gönnersdorf, Rockenfeld and Wollendorf .
- In the 1980s it was intended to expand the Lohmann company located below the church and to erect factory buildings on the agricultural area immediately next to the church. After numerous protests, however, these plans were not pursued and the company settled in Andernach.
- Esotericists believe that the church lies on a so-called ley line and attribute exceptional properties to the place.
- Field church
Spring impression
Choir and apse (interior view)
Marienbell
Romanesque font
Tower, northwest view
Choir and apse
Main entrance in the north facade
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literature
- Friedrich Adolf Beck: The parish Feldkirchen am Rhein. Neuwied 1846. (Reprint: Görres-Verlag Koblenz 1998, ISBN 3-920388-80-1 )
- Rudolf Löhr, Friedrich Strunck: History of the Protestant parish Feldkirchen. Staats, Wuppertal 1959.
- Werner Richter, Wilhelm Storek: Meistermann - The windows of the field church. Published by the Feldkirchen parish. Galerie Hennemann, Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-88482-003-6 .
- Bruno Zeitz: The building history of the field church. Published by the Feldkirchen parish , 1987, OCLC 310956324 .
- Bruno Zeitz: Märkerschaft Feldkirchen. Published by the Märkerschaft Feldkirchen, 1994, ISBN 3-920388-36-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Bosinski: Gönnersdorf - Eiszeitjäger on the Middle Rhine (= series of publications of the district government of Koblenz . Volume 2). Rhenania Verlag, Koblenz 1981, ISBN 3-922755-01-1 .
- ^ Olaf Jöris, Martin Street, Elaine Turner: Spatial analysis at the Magdalenian site of Gönnersdorf (Central Rhineland, Germany) - an Introduction . In: Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser , Olaf Jöris, Martina Sensburg, Martin Street, Elaine Turner (Eds.): Site-internal spatial organization of hunter-gatherer societies: Case studies from the European Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. Papers submitted at the session (C58) "Come in ... and find out: Opening a new door into the analysis of hunter-gatherer social organization and behavior", held at the 15th UISPP conference in Lisbon, September 2006 (= Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum . Sub-series: Roman-Germanic Central Museum - Conferences . Volume 12). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2587-6 , Schnell & Steiner, June 18, 2012, ISBN 978-3-88467-190-0 , ISSN 1862-4812 (English; Offprint online in Academia.edu , accessed and received on March 6, 2017)
- ↑ vestibules Chapel in Ulmet
- ↑ a b Bruno Zeitz: The building history of the field church. Ed .: Kirchgemeinde Feldkirchen, Neuwied 1997.
- ^ B. and M. Zeitz: The Feldkircher witness interrogation. A parchment from the 13th century. Self-published, Neuwied 1991.
- ^ A b Friedrich Adolf Beck: The parish Feldkirchen am Rhein. Neuwied 1846. (Reprint: Görres-Verlag, Koblenz 1998, ISBN 3-920388-80-1 )
- ↑ Werner Richter, Wilhelm Storek: Georg Meistermann - The windows of the field church. Ed .: Galerie Hennemann, Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-88482-003-6 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 27 ′ 7 ″ N , 7 ° 25 ′ 56 ″ E