Gutskirche Welle

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Gutskirche Welle

The Gutskirche Welle is a Romanesque stone church in Welle , a district of Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt .

The church in need of renovation is privately owned and is currently not used as a church (as of 2007).

History and architecture

The second half of the 12th century is assumed to be the time the church was built. At least it is mentioned in a document as early as this century. First, with neatly crafted masonry, the nave with a retracted rectangular choir was created. There was a portal on the west side. A little later on this side, the square tower with a gable roof was built, which was connected to the nave by the former west portal. An arched window above the west portal was walled up. There is a boulder barrel above the first floor of the tower. In the north wall of the tower, at a height of 6 meters, there is a brick- built tower entrance that could be closed with a locking beam. The upper floor of the tower could only be reached from the outside via a wooden staircase. Similar entrances are also in the village church Schernikau and the village church Staffelde .

In the north wall of the ship there is a somewhat pointed arched door. Two small arched windows with a width of only 20 cm are above this door.

While the windows on the side walls of the choir and the parish door on the north side are still in their original condition, the other windows were expanded in the Baroque era . The interior of the church is flat.

The church originally served as the Gutskirche of Gut Welle . From 1780 the von Bismarck family , who also owned the estate, held the patronage of the church. In the 18th century the pulpit altar and mansion stalls were changed in baroque style. The church was restored in the 19th century. In 1945 the family had to leave the estate. However, even in the time of the GDR, family members campaigned for the preservation of the church through church connections. As early as the mid-1960s, the church is said to have ceased to be used and given up. The equipment has been missing since 1965 . In 1977 the roofs were repaired, the gable was reinforced, the west wall was grouted and the windows were bricked up.

In the 1980s, the church, which was used by the Protestant church at that time , was given up. According to rumors, a silver treasure belonging to the von Bismarck family should be hidden in this church. Legends told of an underground passage to Tangermünde . In the early 1980s, illegal searches for treasures resulted in heavy vandalism in the church, which destroyed the entire interior and parts of the floor. In particular, the colored wooden pulpit altar was smashed apart from small remains. The masonry Altarmensa was destroyed, the Baroque grave monument of Herr von Düsedau was broken from the wall, the historic brick floor was broken open and uprooted.

The “silver treasure” - a milk jug full of cutlery, jugs and bowls was found during construction work in the estate park in 2000 and was returned to the family by the current owners.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the new owners of Gut Welle acquired the Gutskirche from the Protestant regional church. A sponsoring association, Kirche Welle eV , founded in September 2003 by 14 members of the Bismarck family, took over the original duties of patronage . The association now has 30 members (as of 2007).

After the initial clean-up work, the restoration of the building began in spring 2007 with the support of the Friends' Association, the German Foundation for Monument Protection and Village Renewal.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gutskirche Welle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Landkreis Stendal, Office for Economic Development (ed.): Churches of the Altmark I. Region Stendal . Excursions to stone witnesses to history. dbw-Verlags-GmbH, Stendal 1996, p. 39 .
  2. ↑ The von Bismarck family's silver treasure discovered at www.welt.de. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Bismarkscher Gutshof Welle at www.gutshof-welle.de. Förderverein Kirche Welle eV Accessed on March 16, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 11 "  N , 11 ° 50 ′ 58.5"  E