Church of the Holy Mother of God (Wuppertal)
The Church of the Holy Mother of God is a Serbian Orthodox , formerly Evangelical Lutheran church on the Mount of Olives in the northern part of Wuppertal .
history
At the end of the 19th century, the Lutheran parish of Elberfeld set up its first own parish for the ever increasing number of Lutherans on the Mount of Olives. The construction of a new parish and parsonage was considered the most urgent project of the community, as the Kreuzkirche, consecrated in 1850, and the Old Lutheran Church on the Kolk were difficult to reach due to the difficult topography of the Mount of Olives. The Elberfeld architecture firm Plange und Hagenberg was commissioned with the construction of the new meeting house, while government architect Heinrich Plange played a key role in the construction . On July 11, 1889, the new Hombüchel meeting house , which could hold 550 people, was ceremoniously inaugurated; the first services were held next to the parish groups in the new parish hall from 1891.
During the air raid on Elberfeld on June 25, 1943, the Hombüchel meeting house burned down completely. The reconstruction of the building began as early as autumn 1946; due to the difficult topography of the Mount of Olives and the destruction in the immediate vicinity, it could not be completed until spring 1949. On April 10, 1949, the Hombüchel meeting house was inaugurated again, and confirmations were also held in the house from 1950 . In December 1955, Emil Hammer installed a new organ with seventeen stops on two manuals, and in 1958 a comprehensive renovation of the building began.
In 1959, a brick bell tower was erected on the south wing of the building in order to finally expand the meeting house into a full-fledged church. In September 1960 the building was officially renamed "Luther Church". In 1964, the Luther Church became a preaching site in the southern district of the evangelical-Lutheran resurrection church congregation Wuppertal-Elberfeld, which was separated out, and after reunification at the beginning of 1981 it became part of the Elberfeld-Nord evangelical congregation again.
On June 22, 1996, the last Protestant service took place in the Luther Church, which was sold to the Serbian Orthodox Congregation of the Holy Mother of God in 1997. After extensive renovations by the community, the Ponificalliturgy followed on September 5, 1998 on the occasion of the receipt of the miraculous icon of the All-Holy Theotokos .
Building description
The church is a two-story brick building in the style of historicism . The building, inserted into the row of houses, presents itself from the north side as a simple building made of red glazed brick with semicircular windows in the basement and tall, narrow windows on the first floor. The facade is structured with stone accents made of sandstone , which imitate individual yokes. The church, which was built on the steep southern slope of the Mount of Olives, has an uncovered foundation several meters high on the south side, over which half the basement is located. The basement was equipped with a gym for the youth club and a boiler room. On the ground floor there were two parish halls and a larger hall for confirmation work, in addition to a parish apartment. The worship hall is on the first floor. Originally the church hall, which once held 550 people, was equipped with a circumferential gallery, but this was not restored after the war damage. After the restoration, the hall only offered 258 people; after the renovation by the Serbian Orthodox community, the number of seats has decreased further.
On the south side, on the side wing of the building, is the 25 meter high bell tower, which was built in 1959 and which is characteristic of the south view of the steep slope of the Mount of Olives. The square tower with the stylistically strange-looking rectangular sound hatches is covered by a blunt tower dome, which is crowned by a two-meter high tower cross on a globe. The bricks of the subsequently added bell tower stand out clearly from the rest of the church with their visibly lighter tint.
Bells
The bronze bells of the church were cast in November 1959 by the Rincker bell and art foundry from Sinn .
| Chime | Weight (kg) | inscription | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| a ' | 379 | Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation | |
| c " | 242 | I have come to call sinners to repentance | |
| d " | 194 | Glory to God on high and peace on earth | |
| f " | 156 | I am the way, the truth and the life | Since March 1st, 1998 in the cemetery church |
Monument protection
On October 2nd, 1992, the church was entered in the list of monuments of the city of Wuppertal under number 2479.
literature
- Klaus Goebel , Andreas Knorr: Churches and places of worship in Elberfeld, Düsseldorf 1999.
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Serbian Orthodox Community of Wuppertal (Serbian)
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 '31 " N , 7 ° 8' 21" E