Holy Cross Church (Koblenz)
The Holy Cross Church is a Catholic church in Koblenz . The former parish church in the Ehrenbreitstein district was built in 1962–1964 in place of a previous building from the 18th century. The neighboring Heribert Tower has served the church as a bell tower since 1848 . The church is consecrated to the Holy Cross on which Jesus died.
On November 26, 2017, the church was profaned by the auxiliary bishop Jörg Michael Peters after there had been no regular services there for about seven years. The municipality wants the building to be used for cultural purposes in the future; But there are also talks with an Orthodox community looking for a new place of worship.
history
Old Holy Cross Church
The first Holy Cross Church (also known as the Holy Cross Church) was built between 1702 and 1707 in Ehrenbreitstein, the former residence of the Trier electors . The builder was Philipp Honorius von Ravensteyn . Originally a cruciform chapel, the so-called Heribert chapel, and a monastery of the Augustinian hermits , in which Martin Luther stayed in 1510 , stood here . Both were destroyed in 1636 during the siege of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in the Thirty Years' War . The initiator of the new church building was the Archbishop of Trier, Johann Hugo von Orsbeck , to whom an epitaph in the church crypt is dedicated. The baroque church, mainly made of quarry stone , was built with the help of kurtier soldiers. The auxiliary bishop of Trier, Johannes Petrus Verhorst, consecrated the Kreuzkirche on October 25, 1707. Since 1711, after the separation from the parish of St. Pankratius in Niederberg , Ehrenbreitstein has been an independent parish , the first pastor of which was Kaspar Adam Betz.
The church did not survive the air raids on Koblenz during World War II . On December 31, 1944, an air mine destroyed the entire building, and most of the equipment was lost. Only the crypt remained.
New building 1962–1964
After 1945, the parish of Ehrenbreitstein used the church of the Capuchin monastery for their services. According to plans by the Koblenz architect Martin Ufer , a modern concrete church was built in place of the destroyed previous building in 1962–1964 . A memorial stone with the inscription AD 9.6.1963 is embedded in the outer wall to commemorate the building . The inauguration took place on May 1st 1964. The crypt of the original church could be preserved, it was subsequently restored. Instead of the collapsed original vault, a flat ceiling was added.
Since May 2009 the Capuchin Church of the parish Heilig Kreuz has been serving as a parish church again. The Holy Cross Church has only been used for cultural purposes since 2010.
Construction and equipment
The floor plan of the baroque Holy Cross Church from the 18th century formed a cross with a total length of 24.5 m and a width of the transept of 18 m. The church was mainly made of rubble and plastered. Above the transept a rose dome and about one crowned with a cross crossing tower. The interior of the church was reached via three portals .
In the apse there was originally a high altar by Dietrich Molitor, which was replaced in the 19th century. The two side altars were made in 1748/49 according to plans by Johannes Seiz , they were consecrated to the Virgin Mary and St. Augustine. The hearts and entrails of Elector Johann IX rested in the church's crypt, which is still preserved today . Philipp von Walderdorff and Franz Georg von Schönborn as well as the bowels, tongue, eyes and the brain of Johann Hugo von Orsbeck, which were no longer present in the 20th century. Even before the cruciform church was profaned in 2017, the elector's hearts were brought to the Capuchin Church.
The new building of the Holy Cross Church from the 1960s was built on an octagonal ground plan made of reinforced concrete . It has a folding roof made of slate , which is connected to the earth in four places. The gables point in the four cardinal directions . The light interior is equipped with windows by Johannes Schreiter (around 1980) and a wood-paneled ceiling. The organ was built in 1965 by the Johannes Klais Orgelbau company from Bonn .
Due to the destruction of the war, only a few old pieces of equipment from the baroque church have been preserved, such as a wrought iron grille from the time it was built in the crypt and some tombs.
Parish community
The parish Heilig Kreuz is part of the " Pfarreigemeinschaft Koblenz right side of the Rhine" founded in October 2005, which also includes the Assumption of Mary on the Asterstein , St. Nicholas in Arenberg , St. Aldegundis in Arzheim , the St. Maximin in Horchheim , St. Peter and Paul in Pfaffendorf , St. Pankratius in Niederberg and St. Martin on Pfaffendorfer Höhe .
Monument protection
The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche has been a protected cultural monument under the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) since 2013 and is entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein in the monument zone Tal Ehrenbreitstein .
The Holy Cross Church has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 .
See also
literature
- Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH (ed.): History of the city of Koblenz . Overall editing: Ingrid Bátori in conjunction with Dieter Kerber and Hans Josef Schmidt
- Vol. 1: From the beginning to the end of the electoral era . Theiss, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8062-0876-X .
- Vol. 2: From the French city to the present . Theiss, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1036-5 .
- The Church of St. Cross in Ehrenbreitstein. Festschrift in memory of the 200th anniversary of its inauguration on October 25, 1907 , ed. by Christian Dommershausen, Koblenz 1907.
- Fritz Michel: The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and the suburbs , Munich Berlin 1954, pp. 423-435 (The art monuments of Rhineland-Palatinate first volume).
- Jens Friedhoff : Baroque building activity in the Archbishopric of Trier at the turn of the 17th to the 18th century with special consideration of the Church of the Holy Cross in Ehrenbreitstein (1704-1708) . In: Elsbeth Andre, Jost Hausmann, Ludwig Linsmayer (ed.): Yearbook for West German regional history. Koblenz 2011, pp. 189-222.
- Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People from the city's history - namesake for streets and squares. Verlag für Werbung Blätter GmbH, ed .: Bernd Weber, Mülheim-Kärlich 2005 (2nd revised and expanded edition), p. 433f.
- Marianne Schwickerath: Where was the Philippsburg actually located? The former electoral residence in Ehrenbreitstein , Koblenz 1991, pp. 197–208.
- Ulrike Weber (edit.): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.3: City of Koblenz. Districts. Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .
Web links
- Pictures of the Kreuzkirche and the crypt in: ehrenbreitstein.de
- Holy Cross Church in: regionalgeschichte.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.bistum-trier.de/news-details/pressedienst/detail/News/lösungen-und-neubeginn-1/
- ↑ Capuchins leave Ehrenbreitstein in: Rhein-Zeitung , September 5, 2008
- ^ Organs in Koblenz
- ^ Parish community Koblenz right side of the Rhine in: Diocese of Trier
- ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 '35 " N , 7 ° 36' 48.4" E