Catholic Church of St. Goar and St. Elisabeth

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Catholic parish church St. Goar and St. Elisabeth in Sankt Goar

The Catholic Church of St. Goar and St. Elisabeth is a listed building in Sankt Goar in the Rhein-Hunsrück district . The neo-Gothic basilica was built from 1887 to 1891 according to plans by the architects Heinrich Wiethase and Eduard Endler from Cologne .

Patronage

The church is consecrated to Saint Goar , a priest monk from Aquitaine (* around 495; † 575), and Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia (1207–1231).

history

Tumba cover of the tomb of St. Goar

When Landgrave Philip I of Hesse in Hesse, to whose territory Sankt Goar belonged at the time, introduced the Reformation in 1527 , Catholics were forbidden to worship in their collegiate church . The pilgrimage to the grave of St. Goar, which was free-standing in the crypt of the collegiate church, was discontinued. The grave itself was later demolished under Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hessen-Kassel and the ornate tumba cover was attached to the wall of the crypt.

Landgrave Ernst I (Hessen-Rheinfels-Rotenburg) , who converted to Catholicism in 1652, gave the crypt of the now Protestant collegiate church to the Catholics for use. As early as Easter 1652, the first Holy Mass could be celebrated in the crypt ; access to it from inside the church was walled up and only restored in 2000.

Finally, in 1654, the Catholics received permission to build a Catholic church outside the city gates. The foundation stone was laid on November 1st, 1657. The new baroque-style building was consecrated on July 6th, 1660 at Goarstag. The tumba plate from the tomb of St. Goar had already been transferred to the new church in 1658.

In 1878, the dilapidation of the baroque church was determined in an expert report. The old church as well as the rectory and a few other houses were demolished in 1888 to make room for a new building. The foundation stone was laid on July 28, 1889, and the new building was completed in 1891. The consecration of the Church in honor of St. Goar and St. Elisabeth took place on July 11, 1896 by the Trier bishop Michael Felix Korum .

architecture

The vaulted basilica with transept and choir was built from quarry stone and is crowned by a roof turret. The cross-vaulted nave is provided with a star vault over the crossing and choir . The free-standing church tower , a former gate tower of the city wall, which already served as a bell tower in the previous building, was raised by one floor in 1923 and connected to the new building.

Furnishing

Most of the neo-Gothic painting and furnishings have been preserved.

The Tumba cover with the life-size representation of St. Goar was created around 1340 and is considered an important work of Middle Rhine sculpture . Goar is depicted as a saint with a halo and chasuble. As a church donor he holds the model of his first church in his left hand and as a conqueror of death he stands on a writhing devil. The framing of the plate with a rose motif as well as the ogival top are from the time the church was built, and the two canopy-holding angels can also come from this time. The plate now serves as an attachment for the right side altar. Another relief figure of Goar can be found on a corner of the tower next to the portal on a keystone of the Protestant collegiate church, which was walled up here. It dates from the middle of the 15th century.

Winged altar of the caretaker

The church is in possession of a winged altar from 1480 , which is assigned to the circle of the house book master . The originally only three-winged retable shows a crucifixion group in the main picture when open . The left wing shows a key handover to Peter and the right wing the Saints Sebastian and Catherine. When closed, a group of preachers can be seen on the outside. The outer wings were added in a neo-Gothic style in 1892 and depict from left to right the saints Goar, Nikolaus, Clara, Elisabeth, Matthias and Hildegard.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Rhein-Hunsrück district. Mainz 2019, p. 56 (PDF; 1.7 MB).

Web links

Commons : Katholische Kirche Sankt Goar  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 9 ′ 6.9 ″  N , 7 ° 42 ′ 39.7 ″  E