Church of St. Charles Borromeo (Varnsdorf)

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Church of St. Charles Borromeo

The Church of St. Karl Borromeo , also called Karlskirche or Borromeo Church for short , is a Roman Catholic church in Varnsdorf ( German : Warnsdorf), Okres Děčín , Czech Republic , near the border with Saxony. It is built in the neo-Gothic style and dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo . The unfinished structure is also known as the church without a tower .

history

In 1901, an association was founded in Karlsdorf, a district of Warnsdorf, with the aim of collecting funds for the construction of a church.

The construction was necessary for at least two reasons: the rapidly growing population and the separation of the Old Catholics after the First Vatican Council (1870). Karlsdorf, which was built around 1730 and owed its boom to the weaving industry among other things , has been in rapid development since the beginning of the 19th century. In 1849 it united with other villages (Floriansdorf, Alt- and Neu-Franzenthal) and the more urban Neu- or Alt-Warnsdorf to form a large industrial community. This Austria-Hungary largest village with 15,000 inhabitants was sacked by the Prussian troops in the war of 1866 and was granted town charter in 1868 for the purpose of reconstruction. Warnsdorf was soon referred to as Little Manchester , as the population continued to grow rapidly (around 30,000 people in 1914), and these conditions have often been compared with the growth of the English city of Manchester .

After the First Vatican Council, Warnsdorf became a center of the Old Catholic Church within Austria-Hungary, which rejected the authoritarian innovations decided on at the Council . This split increased the need for a new church.

Inauguration of the Karlskirche on September 3rd, 1911

However, the donations from parishioners and church organizations were insufficient, so that construction, which began in 1903, progressed slowly until 1911. After the First World War, when Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia united to form Czechoslovakia , it was decided to end the church building because of the massive inflation and the general hardship. So who remained steeple with no roof and spire .

The drafts were worked out by the city master builder Anton Möller, the construction itself was entrusted to the master builder Franz Rott from Warnsdorf. On the name day of the future patron of the church, November 4, 1903, a ceremony to mark the beginning of the excavation and the consecration of the foundations took place. After a year - at Pentecost on May 23, 1904 - the foundation stone was laid with the help of the high clergy . According to the chronicler - as usual in Catholicism - a charter was signed and placed in the foundation stone along with current coins from this time, which was then bricked up. The solemn consecration took place on September 3, 1911 by the diocesan bishop from Leitmeritz .

The church has three naves, the interior is structured by eight sandstone columns. The length of the church is 50 meters, the width including the side aisles 24 meters. The church initially received the bells "Karl" weighing 950 kg, "Maria" weighing 450 kg and "Josef" weighing 230 kg. The largest bell was added later and was solemnly consecrated in 1992 . It comes from the Dietrich workshop in the Czech Republic, weighs 2550 kg and bears the name of the Holy Cross, Barnabas and Alexej.

Web links

Commons : Church of St. Charles Borromeo (Varnsdorf)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Varnsdorf a jeho historické pamětihodnosti od roku 1850 do roku 1913. nakladatelství Libuše Horáčková, ISBN 80-238-5679-0 , pages 48 to 51st

Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 3 "  N , 14 ° 37 ′ 34"  E