Altenberg Church (Ore Mountains)
The Evangelical Lutheran parish church in Altenberg is a modern rural church built between 1989 and 1991 in the mountain town of Altenberg in the Saxon Eastern Ore Mountains .
First village churches
The city of Altenberg, officially called "Geusing mons, Mons antiquus", the old mountain, developed into an irregularly arranged settlement in the middle of the 15th century. Mine entrepreneurs from the mining regions around Freiberg and Graupen had again found what they were looking for, so that miners and charcoal burners moved in with their families. According to the mountain regulations issued by the Lords of Schönberg from Bärenstein Castle , Heinrich von Bünau from Weesenstein Castle and the electoral chancellor, "the streets to the church, to the markets and bathing rooms should be free and no one should block the light". So there was already a church building that, according to tradition, was made of wood. After Altenberg was granted town charter in 1451, it took a good hundred years before the first small church was no longer sufficient with the steadily increasing population. Between 1522 and 1525 a larger, brick church was built in Altenberg. The church was consecrated to St. Nicholas , the helper in all need. A stone with Duke George's coat of arms , made by the Dresden sculptor Christoph Walther I, was located above the entrance portal . However, this church suffered fire damage shortly after its inauguration, the same thing happened in 1576, 1675 and 1876. The church was repeatedly rebuilt.
New church building
In the period from 1876 to 1878 a new neo-Gothic church building was built. The old, irregular foundation walls of the previous building were carried over up to the height of the main cornice. The gable roof, covered with shingles, rested on a wooden roof truss. A small tower attached to the inside at the north-western corner served as a staircase, while the large bell-bearing tower was arranged in the middle on the south side. There was a corridor on the main cornice of the tower of the single-nave hall church , then the tower tapered and closed over the bell cage with a pentagonal pointed dome and a gilded tower cross. On the east side the choir was arranged as a polygon . There were small extensions to the church, the side entrance was provided with a vestibule. Large, high, arched windows with sparse tracery at the top ensured sufficient brightness. The interior of the church was rather unadorned in the neo-Gothic style. According to tradition, there was an altar painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the Freiberg Castle Church. The church was inaugurated on October 14, 1878. During the last days of the Second World War , the city was bombed several times by the Soviet air force until May 9, 1945, during which the church, the parish hall , the diaconate , the rectory and the city suffered severe damage. On May 10, 1945, a major fire broke out and destroyed 120 buildings. A reconstruction of the destroyed and burned out church buildings and the church did not take place; the remains were removed in 1953. The rectory , which was also destroyed , was not rebuilt after the end of the war. A larger room in another building was used for church services until 1989 .
Peal
The church bell consisted of three bronze bells. The large bronze bell from 1675 had the inscription: "Bryccius Pragensis fecit me auxilio divino" and was richly decorated. It came from an abandoned monastery in Bohemia. A relief of the Virgin Mary adorned the bell, there were also images of a clergyman and an armed man with a flag and various animals on it. A middle bell dates from 1676. It was made by the bell founder Andreas Herold and bore the inscription: “Verbum Domini manet.” A third bell already existed before 1670 and after a crack in the sound cover was cast by the Dresden bell foundry Johann Gottfried Weinhold . In 1942 the two larger bells had to be donated as metal for armaments purposes. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zinnwald-Georgenfeld owns the smaller Altenberg bell that was recovered from the rubble as a permanent loan. The ringing consists of this bronze bell in a bell cage designed for three bells.
Modern church building
Building description
Preparations for a new church began in 1984 after a new safe location had been selected. The parish signed a contract with the VEB Bergbau- und Hüttenkombinat Freiberg , which was founded on January 1, 1961, which guaranteed that the GDR's ministry of mining would take over the entire costs . The Dresden architects Manfred Fehmel and Hermann Krüger were commissioned to design a modern rural church building.
Construction began on May 2, 1989, the foundation stone was laid on May 21, 1989. The main construction work was carried out by the Bauhof company from Hermsdorf / Erzgeb. The topping-out ceremony was held on October 30, 1989. The preassembled pointed tower helmet was completed on April 22, 1991 with a tower ball and weather valve and put on with a crane on April 24, 1991. The tower of the church is 34 m high and a sign that can be seen from afar. Traditionally, the roof, supported by a wooden structure, was covered with slate shingles.
Furnishing
The interior of the church is functional. A larger, central main room and several side rooms form the center of the community work. The plan of the building is in the shape of a Greek cross . In the middle of the interior, the bell tower rises and carries the bells and the tower hood. With its concrete frame, it is reminiscent of the headframe of a mine .
The Dresden graphic artist Kerstin Franke-Gneuss designed the altar window Security on the way . Despite careful maintenance in 2011, the outer altar window with a wooden frame was in urgent need of repair due to the constant weather conditions. We were looking for donations and sponsors for the restoration.
The church was consecrated on December 15, 1991. A functional parish center was created in "harmonious mountain-typical" architecture.
Side view
Main entrance
Duke Georg's coat of arms, 1525 by the Dresden sculptor Christoph Walther I
Altar window
Central bell tower, reminiscent of a winding tower
organ
On June 19, 1994 the church received an organ from Georg Wünning from Großolbersdorf near Zschopau. The instrument has 17 registers , which are divided into two manuals and pedal .
The disposition is:
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Remarks
- ↑ advance copy from 6.
Peal
The ringing consists of two bronze bells, made by A. Bachert in Heilbronn . The bells were cast in October and November 1991 and transported to Altenberg for the 1st Advent . On December 8, 1991, the Bachert company installed the bells. The consecration of bells took place on December 15, 1991, together with the dedication ceremony of the church.
The following is a data overview:
| No. | Casting date | Caster | diameter | Dimensions | Chime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 31, 1991 | Bachert bell foundry, Heilbronn | 676 mm | 212 kg | it |
| 2 | November 15, 1991 | Bachert bell foundry, Heilbronn | 785 mm | 299 kg | c |
Cantor council
The Kantorat , a two-and-a-half-story building with a loft is located at Dippoldiswalder Strasse 6 in Altenberg . The building, built in the form of a rural mountain, consists of brickwork with a plastered facade on the ground floor and a wood-clad upper floor with a slate-covered roof and two shingled chimneys. On the ground floor, the entrance is off-center to the right, the window axis consists of seven windows with sandstone walls, the upper window axis has eight windows. The expanded attic has dormers with five windows in the middle on both sides . The cantor's office houses an apartment, a home for a set-up time, various shops and the church office. In 1996 it was extensively renovated.
literature
- Uwe Petzold, Christoph Schröder: 555 years of city rights to Altenberg. Altenberg 2006, OCLC 316306427 , pp. 4ff, 14ff.
- Otto Voigt: Newspaper Bote vom Geising. 1878, No. 122 and 123.
- Otto Voigt: Newspaper Bote vom Geising. 1882, No. 95 and 97.
- Walter Hentschel : Dresden sculptor of the 16th and 17th centuries. Hermann Böhlaus successor publisher, Weimar 1966.
- Hermann Schmidt: Inspection Pirna , Altenberg and Dippoldiswalde . (Saxony's church gallery. Fourth volume, fifth section). Hermann Schmidt, Dresden 1837ff., P. 30.
- Richard Steche : Altenberg. In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 2. Issue: Amtshauptmannschaft Dippoldiswalde. CC Meinhold, Dresden 1883, p. 1.
- Wolfgang Fleischer : The end of the war in Saxony 1945. Podzun Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 2004, p. 146ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ digital histor. Place directory
- ↑ a b c Richard Steche : Altenberg. In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 2. Issue: Amtshauptmannschaft Dippoldiswalde. CC Meinhold, Dresden 1883, p. 1 u. ff.
- ^ Walter Hentschel : Dresden sculptors of the 16th and 17th centuries.
- ↑ a b c d e Archive of the Altenberg Church
- ↑ a b Wolfgang Fleischer: The end of the war in Saxony 1945. [s. Literature]
- ↑ a b Source: Information board “Yesterday” in the church, seen and photographed in November 2011.
- ↑ Protected from the weather , In: Kirchgemeindebote der ev.-luth. Church communities Altenberg, Zinnwald and Schellerhau, October / November 2011, p. 4.
- ↑ Altenberg. Orgelbau Wünning, accessed on November 28, 2014 .
- ^ Altenberg Church on altenberg.de
- ↑ bachert-glocken.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 45 ′ 58.9 " N , 13 ° 45 ′ 23.6" E