Holy Spirit Chapel (Kempen)
The Heilig-Geist-Kapelle zu Kempen ( Viersen district ) is the former hospital chapel of the medieval city. Until March 2012 it housed the sales room of a Christian bookshop. The old chapel has been empty since then. Your future use is currently open.
history
The Kempen Hospital was founded in 1421 by Hermann and Arnold von Brochhusen. Of the entire hospital complex, only the associated late Gothic Holy Spirit Chapel, a single-nave brick hall building with simple buttresses of two groin-vaulted yokes and a simple star vault in the choir room is preserved. The protruding, simply profiled ribs with round capitals are placed on three-quarter columns.
During the founding phase of the Kempen Franciscan monastery , the observants used the chapel as a house of prayer between 1624 and 1631. After giving up its sacred function, the chapel was used as a tavern with a suspended ceiling in the 19th century. The dining room was on the upper floor.
In the 20th century it was used as a hairdressing salon and city library before the chapel was used again in its original spiritual function in 1990. However, the Roman Catholic community did not have the means to maintain the chapel. So it was finally decided to carefully convert the building into the sales room of a mail order business for Christian books. A gallery with wall shelves was drawn in, which does not interfere with the building fabric and can be removed again at any time. The choir room was deliberately kept free to be used for events. The architect for the conversion planning was Gregor Dewey from Viersen . The renovation was finished in 2005.
See also
literature
- Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the district of Kempen . Schwann Verlag, Düsseldorf 1891.
- Thomas Wieckhorst: Spirit realm. Conversion of the Heilig-Geist-Kapelle in Kempen to a bookshop. In: Bauhandwerk 28 (2006) , pp. 33–37.
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 49.8 " N , 6 ° 25 ′ 6.3" E