Helmbundkirche

The ruins of the Helmbund Church are reminiscent of the former Helmbund settlement to this day

Epitaph and console stone inside

The ruins of the Helmbund Church are the last remnants of the defunct Helmbund settlement near Neuenstadt am Kocher in the Heilbronn district in northern Baden-Württemberg .

history

Helmbund was first mentioned in a document in 797 in the Lorsch Codex on the occasion of a donation from the Franconian Count Milo to the Lorsch Monastery as Helmanabiunde and was given up in the late Middle Ages in favor of the new town of Neuenstadt am Kocher , first mentioned in 1325 .

The patronage right and the tithe of the church consecrated to St. Kilian in the old settlement Helmbund had been with the Schöntal Monastery since 1289 , to which the church was incorporated in 1301. The church remained the parish church of the new town and the nearby Cleversulzbach branch until 1481 and was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War . The surrounding churchyard was the burial place for Neuenstadt and Cleversulzbach until 1636. Various regional nobles were buried in the church's crypt until the 18th century. Memorial services continued until 1790.

After the ruin was in danger of collapsing in the middle of the 19th century, the community of Neuenstadt considered demolishing the ruin in 1870. Their stones could have been used to build a bridge over the Brettach. After a friend from antiquity called for donations, however, enough funds were found to renovate and preserve the ruins.

The base of the tower has essentially been preserved from the church, which, in addition to various late Romanesque style features, also has the pointed triumphal arch, which once formed the opening between the tower choir and the nave.

literature

• Description of the Oberamt Neckarsulm Stuttgart 1881, p. 555 ff. ( Wikisource )
• Helmut Schmolz : Thoughts on the early history of the village of Helmbund and the new town called Helmbund . In: Yearbook for Swabian-Franconian History . Volume 34. Heilbronn Historical Society, Heilbronn 2001. pp. 137–146

Web links

Commons : Helmbundkirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Minst, Karl Josef [transl.]: Lorscher Codex (Volume 5), Certificate 3537, May 17, 797 - Reg. 2581. In: Heidelberger historical stocks - digital. Heidelberg University Library, p. 210 , accessed on April 22, 2016 . 

Coordinates: 49 ° 13 ′ 51.6 ″  N , 9 ° 20 ′ 33.9 ″  E