House church Kirchherten
The house church Kirchherten from 1684 is the oldest Protestant church in the Rhein-Erft district . It is located in the Kirchherten district of the city of Bedburg . The Protestant parish of Kirchherten belonged to the Cologne parish until 1946 and then moved to the Gladbach-Neuss parish .
Church history
Kirchherten belonged ecclesiastically to the Archdiocese of Cologne and politically to the Duchy of Jülich-Berg . After the Reformation , the dukes tended to adopt the new doctrine, probably influenced by the nearby Augustinian monastery in Bedburg. With the changing events of the following centuries, the Protestants were sometimes promoted, sometimes suppressed, initially the Lutheran expression dominated , at the latest since the Dutch War of Liberation , under the influence of Dutch refugees, the community was and remained reformed . In 1616, a Reformed preaching house is reported in the presbytery record book of May 21st. The services held there mean that after the Peace of Westphalia, due to the religious comparison of Cölln from 1672 between Brandenburg and Pfalz-Neuburg, the services permitted in the normal year 1624 should also be permitted in the future, even if the duchy was Catholic . In 1684 an inconspicuous church building was built on the farmhouse property acquired after a fire in 1670 on the outskirts, which should not cause offense in the diaspora . The building concept “ house church ” for a reformed preaching house is typical of the region in the diaspora area of the Jülich region. (A church building set even further in the background is a court church ). The fact that there was no hostility at the time of construction is shown by the contribution made by the Catholic community to compensate for the earlier confiscation of the preaching house, which contributed 20 Reichstaler to the construction costs. It is the oldest house church in the Rhineland that is still in use.
Building description
The church building and rectory are united under one roof at the gable facing the street, and possibly originally also economic parts that were later used to expand the rectory. The small roof turret as a bell chamber was only added when the church was renovated and the parish apartment was expanded in 1827, which was co-financed with a royal gift of grace . In the same year the congregation had joined the Church of the Old Prussian Union , which was propagated by the king . A Geusendaniel , which is also typical of the region, was placed as a weather vane at the top of the ridge .
The right residential part has two floors with a round arched door set in sandstone and a window at the bottom and two at the top with a slightly lower height, each of which is supplemented by a window. The part of the church on the left is characterized by the central “Romanesque” door and the two lead-glass windows with a suggested pointed arch that start above the round door arch and reach below the eaves . The interior of the church and the parsonage are connected by a door through which the pastor could step from the original kitchen, now the sacristy and pastor's office, into the nine by nine meter church. The hipped roof has two small dormers on each side in the "old building" and a larger one in the extension. The gable side of the rectory has three windows on each floor. The property is separated from the street to the left by a wall and a wooden gate.
Furnishing
From the original furnishings, parts of the four coat of arms windows donated by the Great Elector - the window of his wife Sophia Dorothea has been preserved - and members of the regional nobility, for example the Bylandt zu Rheydt, and which were restored in 1875/76 and transferred to the both windows on the pulpit side (the right side from the altar). The church has had an organ since the renovation in 1827, which was taken over from a secularized Cologne monastery. In the case the organ company built steel Huth , Aachen, in the 1970s a new drive.
Bells
There are two bells in the bell chamber. In order to absorb their weight, the roof structure had to be reinforced with oak beams. They rest on the brick gable wall of the church. The half-timbered wall separating the church from the parish apartment was too weak, however, which is why the two beams are connected to two vertical, six-meter-high wooden pillars with forged iron bands. In 1987 the roof structure including the supporting structure of the bell tower was extensively renovated and reinforced. To this day, the bells are rung by hand. To do this, you have to go through the parish apartment to the attic. The two bell ropes hang down to the attic from two openings in the bell floor. The bells have the following disposition: 1st bell: strike tone f ”; 2nd bell: strike tone d ”. The first bell was cast in 1828, so it is still original. It bears no inscription. The second bell is from 1959. It replaces an older bell that was melted down in the Second World War , which in turn replaced the original bell that was melted down in the First World War in 1934 . The second bell bears a circumferential inscription on the lower edge: 1684 - 1959 + 275 years Evangelical Church in Kirchherten + CHRIST ALONE!
Others
It goes without saying that the building is a listed building. The service is on the first three Sundays of the month at 10 a.m., on the 4th Saturday of the month at 7 p.m. and on the 5th Sunday at 10 a.m.
literature
- Wolfgang Hering: Evangelical Church Kirchherten (1684 - 1984), commemorative publication for the 300th anniversary , publisher: Evangelical Church Community Kirchherten, Bedburg (own print) 1984.
Individual evidence
- ↑ from the community letter ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (October)
- ↑ Bells on evangelisch-kirchherten.de
Web links / sources
- History of the community
- The good Lord lives in the manor house, Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Rhein-Erft, from October 17, 2002
Coordinates: 51 ° 0 ′ 20.93 " N , 6 ° 28 ′ 59.42" E