Johanniskirche (Lahnstein)

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The Johanniskirche in Lahnstein
The Johanniskirche seen from the Rhine
Interior with the two baroque figures and the baptismal font
Interior with a view of the chancel
View into the nave to the west with the new organ

The Johanniskirche is a Catholic church in Lahnstein ( Rhineland-Palatinate ). The late Romanesque basilica , the current building of which was built in the 12th century, is located with the adjoining, former St. John's Monastery of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, not far from the confluence of the Lahn into the Rhine and the private Johannes-Gymnasium Lahnstein in the Niederlahnstein district . The church, which belongs to the diocese of Limburg , bears the patronage of St. John .

history

The Johanniskirche emerged from the remains of a Roman burgus . The Romans built a burgus at the mouth of the Lahn in 369, which served as a border fortification and was a kind of watch post for the Fort Confluentes (today Koblenz ). After the Roman troops withdrew, Franconian nobles converted the complex into a residential castle. In the middle of the 9th century a small church was built, the foundations of which were found in the central nave of today's church. Today's west tower was built before the year 1000, when a larger hall church was added.

The current church building was built between 1130 and 1136 and is the earliest gallery church on the Rhine. A flanking tower was added on the north side around 1180 , which collapsed in 1844. The well-fortified church building offered the population protection in various armed conflicts. The church suffered damage in the Thirty Years War and was then redesigned in the Baroque style. When Kurtrier was conquered by French revolutionary troops in 1794, the church was so badly damaged that the building was neglected for almost 60 years.

After the northern choir tower collapsed in 1844, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV , who was looking at this ruin directly at the mouth of the Lahn from his summer residence at Stolzenfels Castle , urged the church to be restored. This failed because of the costs to the community. In 1855 the Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research in Wiesbaden agreed to finance the reconstruction. This took place from 1856 to 1866 according to the plans of building officer Eduard Zais and senior building officer Richard Götz . A late Gothic apostle shrine, which was made in the Middle Ages for the relics of Bishops Martin and Dionysius, has been in the Dominican Church of St. Andreas in Cologne since the middle of the 19th century. Here it was initially used to store the bones of Albertus Magnus. Today it contains the arm relic of the apostle Andreas and stands on the high altar of the Cologne church.

Renewed alterations took place from 1906 to 1907 (executed by Max Cronenberg ) with the foundation of the monastery by Benedictine nuns from Bonn-Endenich , which was then taken over in 1920 by the Fathers of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary . Since the fathers could no longer use the monastery due to a lack of young people, the building was sold in 2010 and now houses apartments and practice rooms. The monastery adjoins the north side of the church, during its construction the remains of a late Gothic sacristy were removed and a breakthrough was made in the choir of the church, which connected the house chapel of the Benedictine nuns with the church (now walled up again).

A complete restoration of the church took place in 1940–1942, 1960–1962 and 1996–2005. The latter had become necessary because of the Rhine floods in 1993 and 1995. The church was gradually given an external plaster with a white and red color scheme.

Construction and equipment

Inside

The chancel of the four-bay pillar basilica was designed by the sculptor Hubert Elsässer . The old wooden church furnishings were largely burned in the war of 1794. Next to the altar is a Madonna and Child, whose head is adorned with a pearl turban.

Only a late Romanesque baptismal font in the tower hall of the west tower has survived from the time it was built. The furnishings also include a baroque Vespers picture and the mission cross in the side aisle from 1723 as well as the two baroque figures of St. John the Baptist and St. Johannes Nepomuk . In addition to the entrance to the crypt, there is an epitaph from 1408 and other epitaphs in the crypt itself.

organ

The organ was built by the organ builder Claudius Winterhalter Oberharmersbach and inaugurated on October 13, 2013. Before that there was an organ in the Johanniskirche from 1924 by the organ builder Peter Klein ( Obersteinebach ), which had been installed in the church in 1969 and had 20 stops on two manuals and a pedal . The new organ has 21 registers (including a trigger and 4 transmissions in the pedal) on two manual works and pedal. The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.

I main work C – a 3
1. Principal 8th'
2. Transverse flute 8th'
3. Octave 4 ′
4th Reed flute 4 ′
5. Superoctave (first No. 6) 2 ′
6th mixture 2 ′
7th Trumpet 8th'
II subsidiary work C – a 3
8th. Bourdon 8th'
9. Salicional 8th'
10. Fugara 4 ′
11. Wooden flute 4 ′
12. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
13. Flageolet 2 ′
14th third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
15th Dulcian 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
16. Sub bass 16 ′
17th Octavbass (= No. 1) 8th'
18th Flood bass (= No. 2) 8th'
19th Bass octave (= No. 3) 4 ′
20th bassoon 16 ′
21st Trumpet (= No. 7) 8th'
  • Coupling : I / II (also as sub-octave coupling), I / P, II / P

Bells

In the tower is the "Apollonia Bell ", the oldest and only surviving bell in the church building, made around 1320.

Monument protection

The Johanniskirche 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 on Johannesstrasse .

The Johanniskirche has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 . Furthermore, it is a protected cultural asset according to the Hague Convention and marked with the blue and white trademark.

literature

  • Alexander Thon, Udo Liessem: The Johanniskirche in Lahnstein . (Large art guide, vol. 275 = series of publications of the Lahnsteiner Altertumsverein 1880 eV, vol. 1). Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7954-2697-2 .

Web links

Commons : Johanniskirche  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Dehio, Handbook of German Art Monuments, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland
  2. ↑ Dr. Backes, all-day trip, combined with the annual general meeting to Lahnstein on April 25, 1971, Nassauische Annalen, vol. 83, 1972, p. 323.
  3. ↑ Lucie Hagendorf-Nussbaum: Dominican Church of St. Andreas, Cologne . No. 2831 . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7954-6982-5 , pp. 42 .
  4. ^ Heinz Odenthal: For the 125th birthday of the Bonn architect Max Cronenberg . In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter. Yearbook of the Bonn home and history association . tape 35 , 1984, pp. 179-186 (here: pp. 183/184) .
  5. ↑ About the organ. Förderkreis Johanniskirche Lahnstein eV, accessed on June 4, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Information on the organ
  7. ↑ See the information on the organ on the website of the organ building company
  8. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Rhein-Lahn-Kreis. Mainz 2020, p. 51 (PDF; 6.2 MB).

Coordinates: 50 ° 18 ′ 36.4 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 43"  E