Holy Family (Weiherhammer)
The Roman Catholic Parish Church of the Holy Family is the main church of the Upper Palatinate community of Weiherhammer and the "Parish of the Holy Family Weiherhammmer".
history
Due to the Cologne settlement of February 22, 1652 between Duke Christian August von Sulzbach and Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm von Neuburg , the Simultaneum was introduced in Pfalz-Sulzbach , i.e. the equality of the Catholic and Protestant religions and the common use of all churches. When Weiherhammer was founded, the simultaneous church of St. Dionysius in Neunkirchen near Weiden was responsible for both Christian denominations. Because of the shorter way, the residents mostly went to the simultaneous church of St. Peter and Paul in Mantel .
Allegedly the story of its own church in Weiherhammer begins with a bronze bell, which the ironworks of the Weiherhammer ironworks commissioned from a Regensburg bell caster in 1758. This bell was hung in the attic of the iron foundry and served to ring in working hours, but was also used for emergencies (fire, death, danger of war). When the blast furnace building was rebuilt in 1798, a small chapel was also built. This “Barbara Chapel” was owned by the brotherhood and later by the royal steelworks office. In 1809, with the consent of the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph, an altar and an altar stone for the chapel were donated from the former Amberg mint, and prayer chairs were provided in 1817 with funds from the hut people. The bell from 1758 was also hung here. After the chapel was demolished, it was installed in a wooden bell tower in Beckendorf and then found its way onto the tower of the Weiherhammer funeral hall. This to St. The bell consecrated to Florian contains the inscription "Johann Georg Kissner poured me in Statt am Hoff" as well as a picture with the painful Mother of God with seven swords.
After several quarrels (the pastor of Neunkirchen wanted to prevent a new church from being built in Weiherhammer because of the presumed decline in donations from the ironworkers), the chapel was inaugurated in 1814 by the pastor of Kaltenbrunn with the permission of the diocese of Regensburg and from then on the Kaltenbrunn pastor was given a four times a year Mass celebrated. In 1840 the chapel was profaned and used as an iron store, the church props were left to the parish administration of Parkstein in 1852 . The building was not canceled until 1908, but the promised new building was a long time coming.
Only on May 28, 1908 was a “Kath. Church and Crib Construction Association Weiherhammer eV ”was founded and money was collected for it. However, disagreements arose over the place where the church was to be built. It was not until 1932 that a decision was made on a building site in the center of Weiherhammer. On July 3, 1932, the foundation stone for the church was laid as part of a popular mission , on October 30, 1932 the benediction was given by the dean of Weiden and on July 2, 1933 it was inaugurated by Bishop Michael Buchberger . Relics of Saints Aurelius , Justinus , Cölestina from Metz and Maxima were sunk in the high altar . The bishop was not very happy about the church, he complained that the church did not have a central aisle, that the chancel was too small compared to the nave and that instead of a tower there was only a roof turret on the church, and there was no rectory. The emergence of National Socialism and the Second World War prevented further expansion of the church.
It was not until 1955 that a church building association was founded again and negotiations began with the diocese's finance chamber. The Munich architect Karl Dressel was commissioned to plan the church. On April 1, 1957, the parish curate Josef Bauer broke ground to expand the church and handed over the construction work to the company Josef Riepl from Regensburg. Part of the old church (tower, chancel and sacristy) was demolished, but on December 8, 1957, the church was consecrated by the cathedral capitular Kuffner, with the actual blessing by Archbishop Michael Buchberger on September 6, 1958.
Construction
The church is designed in the shape of a cross based on Romanesque models with a nave , transept and apse closed on three sides . The building is a hall church with a flat gable roof . A sacristy is built in between the longitudinal and transverse sections . The church tower is finished with a pointed helmet . Windows and doors have round arches reminiscent of the Romanesque . The church is 48.5 m long and the transept is 10 m wide. The height to the vaulted suspended ceiling is 10 m, the tower is 40 m high.
Interior
The church from 1933 was very sparsely furnished. Two baroque altars were bought from old stocks. The main altar contained a representation of the Holy Family , next to it were figures of St. Barbara and St. Katharina set up. The side altar contained a Madonna and Child. Both altars were removed during the Second World War and can no longer be found, but the two saints have been preserved. In 1943 the sculptor Martini from Regensburg made a new main altar with a crucifixion group and a new side altar with a carved representation of the Holy Family. The painter Platzek from Regensburg has painted the Holy Family with four angels above the altar using a fresco technique . This work was whitewashed in 1963, only the portraits of the four angels remained. In 1963, the sculptor Max Scheler from Altenthann designed a two-meter tall statue of Mary with a baby Jesus for the left side altar and a large Joseph statue for the right side altar in 1965.
Four of the 20 windows have been given an artistic design. The left apse window shows the symbols for faith, hope, love and conjugal fidelity, the right those for wisdom, justice, bravery and temperance. In the left central window of the transept, the virtues of parents (role model, piety, parental care and charity) are shown, in the right those of the children (reverence, love, obedience and gratitude). In a side niche on the right in the nave, a war memorial for the fallen of the First and Second World Wars was built in 1948 with a mosaic plaque of all those who fell from Weiherhammer. In 1933 the teacher Josef Schmidt donated a baroque picture of Our Lady, which is attributed to the Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo . It was given to the Schmidt family as a wedding present from a Freiin von Hirschberg in 1870. It was parked in a storage room in 1963, but was rediscovered, restored and repositioned in the church in 1980.
A first interior renovation took place in 1984/85, a second in 2007.
Bells
There are four bells in the church, cast in 1961 by the Hofweber bell foundry and consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Josef Hiltl in the same year. These are the bells "Holy Trinity" (1500 kg, tone d '), "Holy Family" (900 kg, tone f'), "Annunciation" (600 kg, tone g ') and "Saint Barbara" (350 kg, tone b '). Another bell "Saint Joseph" (100 kg, tone f sharp ') still comes from the old tower and was spared from being melted down during World War II.
literature
- Lothar Kraus: Weiherhammer: History and cultural development of a hut village. Cape. Religion and Church, pp. 153–172. Weiherhammer community, Weiherhammer 2017.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 49 ° 37 '58.7 " N , 12 ° 3' 23.3" E