Fortified church Neukirchen near the Holy Blood

Nursing castle of Neukirchen near the Holy Blood, today a pilgrimage museum

Memorial plaque on the former nursing home

The fortified church of Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut is located in the Oberpfälzer Markt Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut in the Cham district in Bavaria (Marktplatz 10). The former fortified church is located on the east side of the central market square in the place.

history

The place name Neukirchen originated in the 13th century when the villages of Walching and Brünst were merged into one place through a settlement established between them with a new church. Neukirchen belonged to the Eschlkam court and is mentioned for the first time in 1301 in the land register of the Wittelsbach Viztumamtes Straubing .

According to architectural studies, the first tower (a so-called watch tower ) here dates from the 12th century. Presumably this was not part of the later church building, although its foundations are located in the area of ​​the choir of the church. In a subsequent construction phase, the tower was abandoned and included in the choir of the church. A narrow nave was added to the west in the first half of the 13th century. The church tower, separated by a joint , was part of this church building , but it was also used profanely. Presumably this served together with a lower extension ( wydem ... hind of the churches ) as a residential tower for the carer . This building was part of an extensive cemetery created around 1500.

The next construction phase consisted of the erection of a surrounding wall with a gate tower, which are still largely preserved today. The gate tower is reinforced by a buttress. The foundation of the two-shell quarry stone masonry shows Opus spicatum and was 1 - 1.8 m thick and 3 m high. This fortification was built around 1300 at the latest. Due to the wall, the cemetery could no longer be expanded and this led to the construction of a two-storey charnel house , the chapel of St. John the Baptist.

Next, a battlement was built, which necessitated an increase in the surrounding wall. Its level was 4.5 m above the courtyard and the wall reached a total height of 7 m. During this time the gate tower was also raised. The defense system in the third third of the 14th century was strengthened by the construction of the 9.4 m high gunsmith tower on the northwest corner. According to a picture from 1514, it had a crenellated wreath , two passages to the battlement and an entrance at ground level on the south side. During this time (1351) the pledge of the court Eschlkam and thus also of Neukirchen to the Palatinate Wittelsbachers and in 1361 through the partial redemption to Albrecht I of Lower Bavaria-Straubing-Holland and 1429 to Upper Bavaria . In 1377, Duke Albrecht I gave Neukirchen market rights and from 1397 a carer was explicitly mentioned here.

Between the gate tower and the gunsmith tower, the care lock was built around 1379 behind the western curtain wall. This two-storey building was divided into three roughly equal-sized and z. T. vaulted rooms divided. It had a steep gable roof and a curb on the north side . The upper floor could only be reached via an external staircase. A stairwell was not built inside until 1690.

In the course of the Hussite Wars , Neukirchen was destroyed in 1422 and the fortified castle in 1433/34. Reconstruction was delayed for a long time, but then a gate house (around 1480) and two towers were built on the eastern curtain wall, the moat was deepened and a palisade was drawn around it. The armor, powder or weapon tower was built on the northeast corner . Overall, this reached a height of around 12 m (there were two more floors above the vaulted ground floor and a widened wooden structure above). A 24 m deep well from this time is also mentioned.

After the Hussite Wars, Neukirchen came to the Bohemian nobleman Přibik von Klenau in 1451 . After his death († 1465), Duke Sigmund von Bayern-Munich sold the rule to his hereditary steward Hans von Degenberg . Since the latter played a leading role in the Böckler War , his goods were confiscated in 1468/69 and a nursing office was set up again in Neukirchen. The first caretaker was Erasmus Winkler von Liebenstein in 1472 .

From 1534, the complex was further expanded, which led to a heavily rebuilt fortified church in the 16th century. In 1614, however, the church tower collapsed and the St. Nicholas Church had to be demolished. The fortified church had now become the electoral maintenance lock and toll office . This was burned down by the Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War in 1634. As a late consequence of the fire, the gate tower collapsed in 1644.

Neukirchen market by the Holy Blood after an engraving by Michael Wening from 1721

In the second half of the 17th century, partial repairs and some alterations were made. Between 1695 and 1720, a two-storey extension was built to the west of the palace, which also resulted in the trench being backfilled. This marked the end of the earlier fortifications. After the Neukirchen maintenance department was abolished in 1774, the complex began to decline. From 1803 the building served the community as a school. In the second third of the 19th century, the fortifications were largely demolished, followed by the nursing home in 1864 and the so-called journeyman's room in 1884. In contrast, the palace was extended in 1856.

Between 1906 and 1984 the nurses' home (St. Nikolausheim) of the charitable St. Nikolausverein was housed here; Since 1992, the Neukirchen pilgrimage museum has been located in the rooms of the former nursing home. The entire courtyard and former cemetery area is used for museum and community events.

Market tower Neukirchen near the Holy Blood

Fortified church Neukirchen near the Holy Blood today

The former nursing home is a three-storey, eaves gable roof building with a basket arched passage that was renovated between 1989 and 1993. Remains of the gatehouse from 1480 (renewed in 1695/96) can still be seen in the southern part. After 1803 the building was used as a school, due to the increased space requirements, the building was increased in 1856. Remains of the foundations of the former parish church of St. Nikolaus and parts of the ring walls made of quarry stone from the 12th to 14th centuries are still preserved. In the area of ​​the care lock, the former ramparts can still be seen in the east and south. In the gatehouse, the corner ashlar is made of coarse stones, a sinkhole notch and a (walled up) secondary gate can be seen. The slit openings of the tower are not loopholes , but slits of light.

The market tower (formerly Büchsenmeisterturm ) with its onion dome, which was put on in the 18th century , was built around 1370. In the 17th century it received a dome structure and the bells of the church tower, which collapsed in 1614, were housed there.

literature

• Bernhard Ernst: Castle building in the southeastern Upper Palatinate from the early Middle Ages to the early modern period, Part II catalog (=  work on the archeology of southern Germany . Volume 16 ). Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 2001, ISBN 3-933474-20-5 .
• Bernhard Ernst: Investigations into the development of the fortified church Neukirchen near Hl. Blut, Lkr. Cham. Neukirchen near Holy Blood. Archeology and history of a fortified church in the eastern Bavarian border region. Series of publications Pilgrimage Museum Neukirchen bei Hl. Blut 3, 1993.

Web links

Commons : Kirchenburg Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Homepage of the Neukirchen pilgrimage museum

Coordinates: 49 ° 15 ′ 29.5 "  N , 12 ° 58 ′ 13.8"  E