Jesuit Church (Koblenz)

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The west portal of the Jesuit Church
Interior of the Jesuit Church
Jesuit college and monastery in Koblenz, plan by Nikolaus Lauxen 1769

The Jesuit Church of St. John the Baptist , now also known as the City Church, is a branch church of the Catholic parish of St. Kastor in Koblenz . It stands on the site of the 17th century church on Jesuitenplatz, which was destroyed in 1944, next to the former Jesuit college , which today houses the Koblenz town hall. The patron saint of the Church is John the Baptist .

history

The Jesuit Church is part of the adjoining building complex of the former Jesuit college and monastery to the south . In the 13th century, the Cistercian convent of St. Maria in der Lehr was founded in this area of ​​the city and built a Gothic building on the site of today's church. In 1580, the Archbishop of Trier, Jakob von Eltz, forcibly moved the nuns to the island of Niederwerth , as he handed the monastery buildings over to the Jesuits in order to force the counter-reformation and the reforms of the Council of Trento in his archbishopric with the settlement of this clerical community . The Jesuits initially took over the Cistercian buildings. At the beginning of the 17th century they demolished the Gothic church except for the choir and built a new church. The existing new buildings for the college and monastery were built between 1588 and 1701. The town hall of the city of Koblenz has been housed in these buildings since 1895 . After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the church became a branch of St. Kastor , but the services were still mostly held by former Jesuits who worked as teachers at the Görres-Gymnasium (Koblenz) . In 1852 the Jesuits returned to Koblenz and took over the church and part of the former monastery again, but had to leave them again in 1872 as a result of the culture war . They could not settle again until 1918.

The Jesuit Church was built from 1613 to 1617 based on the model of the Petrikirche in Münster . It was a three-nave, six-bay columned basilica with galleries above the side aisles, a west gallery and magnificent star vaults . The Gothic and polygonal closed long choir of the previous church completed the construction to the east. The older choir was vaulted in the 1720s. The architectural forms were borrowed from the Gothic, which was long out of date, modern Renaissance forms were mainly found in the exterior. In 1850, the previously turretless church was given a roof turret behind the west gable, which was destroyed by fire in 1883, but then rebuilt. A splendid baroque interior, which was mostly made by members of the order, gave the interior a special charm until 1944.

The Jesuit Church was largely destroyed in the air raids on Koblenz in 1944. The rebuildable ruin was demolished in 1956 after a long discussion in the former building association and replaced by a new building from 1958–1959 according to plans by Gottfried Böhm . The baroque sacristy with its original furnishings and the west facade were preserved. Even if the destruction and the subsequent demolition of the baroque building is often regretted today, the new church is an important monument of post-war architecture. The last Jesuits left Koblenz in 2003 and the Arnstein Fathers took over the church in June 2004 .

Construction and equipment

Today's church building is a three-aisled longitudinal building with a polygonal choir and its architecture takes over the basic structures of the destroyed pre-war church. The building was built from 1958 to 1959 according to plans by the important church architect Gottfried Böhm (Cologne). From the previous building he took over the preserved west gable facade from 1617 with the large wheeled window and the main portal designed in renaissance forms, which, together with the neighboring Jesuit college, has a decisive influence on Jesuitenplatz. This richly decorated, round-arched west portal has pairs of Corinthian columns with now empty figural niches in between. Above the entablature with a chronogram from 1617 is a two-storey curved top with the title saint John the Baptist. To the side of it stand the Jesuit saints Ignatius von Loyola and Franz Xaver , in the top of the gable Saint Michael . The tracery rose above the portal was renewed in 1959, to the left of which there is a stone crucifix from the 16th century. The interior is determined by concrete and cast stone with a simple cubic structure. The central nave and the choir are framed by smooth walls, above which a steep wooden gable roof.

The furnishings saved during World War II include numerous keystones from the 17th century, a Pietà from the 15th century and two holy water stoups . The magnificent sacristy door as well as the furnishings and the ceiling stucco of the sacristy from the time of construction have survived the war damage and, as well as the sandstone pillars and keystones integrated into the new building, still bear witness to the former wealth of the lost monastery church. The modern furnishings include the works of art of the Trinity group above the former high altar and the Stations of the Cross from 1959 by Edith Peres-Lethmate (Koblenz) , as well as the glass windows by Jakob Schwarzkopf from 1962 and the rose arbor by Evert Hofacker for the Pietà. To the left of the church there is a carillon that was donated by a Catholic reading club on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of Koblenz .

Monument protection

The Jesuit Church is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz's old town at Jesuitenplatz 2 .

The Jesuit 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
  • Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and the suburbs , Munich Berlin 1954, (Die Kunstdenkmäler von Rheinland-Pfalz, first volume).
  • Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate Volume 3.2. City of Koblenz. City center , edited by Herbert Dellwing and Reinhard Kallenbach , Speyer 2004, p. 72ff. ISBN 3-88462-198-X
  • Articles in: City of Koblenz (Hrsg.): Historical town hall of the city of Koblenz. Documentation for the general renovation of the town hall - Building II - 1985
    • Kurt Eitelbach: From the Renaissance to the 20th Century. Small art history of the Jesuit college .
    • Udo Liessem: Comments on the position of the Jesuit church in the history of building in the Rhineland .

Web links

Commons : Jesuit Church  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. 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 ′ 37 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 56"  E