Katharinenkirche (Gerstungen)
The Katharinenkirche is the church of the Protestant parish in Gerstungen in the Wartburg district in Thuringia . It stands on the high bank of the Werra right next to the former moated castle, today's Gerstunger Schloss . The architectural ensemble forms a landmark of the western Thuringian community.
history
Castle Church
The stately tower-reinforced moated castle in Gerstungen served the administrators in Gerstungen as a residence, on the edge of this spacious complex was the castle chapel , an originally Romanesque building whose size and appearance, however, no traditions have been preserved. The local noble families found their burial place in it, which is still evidenced by a number of representative gravestones.
New building from 1588
The first verifiable repair work took place in 1588; it was caused by a major fire and made it necessary to completely rebuild the nave. The money required for this was also raised through donations from the neighboring communities. The new nave was built as a hall church, the proportions of the structure were chosen in a ratio of 5: 4. The walls received only small side windows, as the interior impression of the room should be determined by the tracery windows of the choir.
Corresponding to its social status, the Gerstung congregation found space in galleries - today there are three - and in the nave; the nobility was given two representative side staircases outside the nave to climb into their galleries. In the choir, next to the baptismal font, there is the stone sermon pulpit and a magnificently decorated baroque reading pulpit built in 1708.
The already mentioned gravestones were placed along the walls of the church, the majority of them representing the von Boyneburg and von Witzleben families . A relative of Magdeburg councilor Otto von Guericke , Catarina Guericke, died here in 1607. The stone of the magistrate Emilia Leonhardt, who died in 1588, is praised as the most beautiful work of art .
The remodeling of 1753
The Eisenach Duke Ernst August II had commissioned the court architect Gottfried Heinrich Krohne with the planning of a castle in Gerstungen and determined the location of the now dilapidated moated castle. In this context, necessary repair work on the Katharinenkirche was used to upgrade the church as a court church. Here, the half-timbered tower and the third row of galleries were installed, the renewed roof structure was designed as a mansard roof .
In connection with the redesign of the interior, a gallery was built for the adjuvant .
The last major construction project was the uncovering of the framework on the church tower in 1994.
Equipment and accessories
In addition to the pulpits and baptismal font already mentioned, the Gerstung Church has a crucifix acquired around 1930. The current organ dates from 1860 and was built by the Peternell brothers from Floh-Seligenthal . The bells had to be delivered during the First World War ; The congregation received three replacement bells for this in 1922, these are labeled “Faith”, “Love” and “Hope” ( 1 Cor 13:13 LUT ). The weather vane was renewed by master locksmith Fritz Ahnemüller in 1966; it towers over the tower button made by master plumber Ziehn in 1937, which was provided with historical documents in 1966 and 1994.
literature
- Manfred Schramm: The Protestant Church in Gerstungen . Ed .: Local history museum Gerstungen. Self-published, Gerstungen, p. 16 (no year).
- Karl Heinz Schmedding: The tombstones of the Gerstung church . In: Eisenacher Presse (Hrsg.): Heimatblätter about history, culture and art . JAKoch printing and publishing house, Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-924269-61-0 , p. 67 .
Web links
- Pages about the Katharinenkirche in the Untersuhler iZeitung (UiZ)
- The church on the side of the EKMD
Individual evidence
- ^ Helmut Scherf: Architectural and art monuments in the city and district of Eisenach . In: Eisenacher Schriften zur Heimatkunde , Heft 12, Eisenach 1980, p. 30.
- ↑ Katharinenkirche. In: Gerstungen.de : Gerstungen unitary community - churches. Retrieved May 24, 2009 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 3.8 ″ N , 10 ° 4 ′ 38.5 ″ E