Church cycle path Jena - Thalbürgel
| Church cycle path Jena - Thalbürgel | |
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| overall length | 13.3 km |
| location | Thuringia |
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| Starting point | City Church St. Michael , Jena |
| Target point | Thalbürgel monastery church |
| Places along the way | Jenaprießnitz |
| Connection to | Thuringian mill cycle path |
The church bike path Jena - Thalbürgel connects two important Thuringian churches, the Jena city church St. Michael and the monastery church Thalbürgel . The “ Schillerkirche ” in Wenigenjena (Jena-Ost) and very beautiful, historic village churches in Jenaprießnitz , Groß- and Kleinlöbichau are on the way .
The church cycle path follows an old long-distance trade route Erfurt - Altenburg , to which federal road 7 was only recently laid along the Gembdenbach - after the lower valley location had been drained . The path begins in the city center of Jena, runs in an easterly direction with a length of 13.3 km and is paved outside of Jena. The opening of the cycle path took place on June 20, 2010.
On the church bike path you can experience 1000 years of church building history, from the Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque to the architecture of the 20th century. The interior, especially the altars and organs, show the impressive diversity of Thuringian art and cultural history. However, the buildings also clearly show the scars of the changeable political framework conditions, e.g. B. the structural conglomerate of the Schillerkirche caused by a construction interruption for financial reasons in the 15th century; extensive demolition of, among other things, the choir of the Thalbürgel monastery church in the wake of the Reformation in the 16th century; simple construction of the Albert Schweitzer community center under the restrictive political and economic conditions of the GDR in the 20th century.
City Church of St. Michael
The town church of St. Michael is the main church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District Jena, which also includes four other of the six churches on the Kirchenradweg. The Jena City Church is a late Gothic hall church with a 40 meter long central nave and high aisles. The vault of the church with its alternation of star and line figures is impressive. Excavations indicate the construction of a Romanesque hall church at this location in the 11th century. Around 1380 a representative church was built on the Cistercian nunnery. In 1422 the high choir was built. It stands above a crypt as well as the open outer passage: "Ara", this altar erected above the old processional cavate is one of the "Seven Wonders" of Jena . It takes time until 1556 to complete the 75 meter high tower. When the Reformation arrived, Martin Luther preached here; the tombstone made for the reformer remains in the church. At the beginning of the 20th century Max Reger was an organist. The church burned down on March 19, 1945 and was re-consecrated in 1955. St. Michael has been extensively restored since 1998.
From the city church of St. Michael you can cross the Camsdorfer bridge , another of the “Seven Wonders” of Jenas, following the Saale cycle path, turning at the Green Fir tree into the “Wenigenjenaer Ufer”, to the “Schillerkirche”.
Schiller Church
The Church of Our Lady, mentioned in a document as early as 1307, is the original parish of Wenigenjena. After Friedrich von Schiller and Charlotte von Lengefeld were married in this church in 1790, the name “Schillerkirche” became common. The current church building was in the 14./15. Erected in the 19th century in place of a smaller previous building. Characteristic is the rising Gothic choir with slender, two-part windows, with delicate tracery in a fish-bubble pattern and clover-leaf arches. After construction work had to be stopped in the first third of the 15th century for reasons of cost, the originally planned building of the nave was never carried out. The church thus became the characterizing conglomerate of different structures, in which the choir towers far above the nave. Architecturally significant are the southern portal of the church, which was built at the end of the 15th century, the “beautiful gate” and a sacrament shrine from the pre-Reformation period inserted in the choir.
The Schillerkirche belongs in the church district of Jena to the pastoral care district of Wenigenjena (East region). The worship and spiritual life is carried out and organized voluntarily by the officially registered prayer brotherhood Jena.
Diakonie senior center "Gertrud Schäfer Haus"
After crossing the Gembdenbach, the church cycle path branches off from the Saaleradwanderweg and continues along the Gembdenbach. The B7 is crossed with the Gembdenbach. After about 100 meters on the B7, leave it again and turn into the street Vor der Gembdenmühle , which leads to Löbichauer Straße , past the Diakonie senior center “Gertrud Schäfer Haus”, and thus onto a relatively quiet paved road parallel to the B7 leads.
The senior citizen center was built in 2000/2001 and named after Gertrud Schäfer , one of the first pastors in Thuringia with strong socio-political commitment.
The senior citizen center is part of the Gembdental district as well as the Albert Schweitzer community center and the churches in Jenaprießnitz, Groß- and Kleinlöbichau on the Kirchenradweg.
Community Center Albert Schweitzer
The Albert Schweitzer Community Center (Jena-Ost, Am Steinborn 136) is located about 200 meters from the senior citizens' center - away from the church cycle path. It emerged from the "Schillersprengel II" and was built between 1955 and 1960. The naming is connected with the construction difficulties that the “state organs” of the GDR opposed to the new building at the end of the 1950s . A church elder from Jena wrote to Albert Schweitzer whether he would give his name to the new community center to be built. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and professor Albert Schweitzer was highly respected in the GDR and very closely associated with Jena University. Albert Schweitzer agreed. The "state organs" could no longer avoid approving the further construction progress for the community center. It was inaugurated in 1960.
The Albert Schweitzer community center is part of the Gembdental district, the initiator of the Jena - Thalbürgel church bike path, which was opened on June 20, 2010 as part of a family bike ride.
Church in Jenaprießnitz
The parish of Jenaprießnitz was considered a fiefdom of the burgraves of Kirchberg and was transferred by them to the Bosau monastery in 1293 . After the Reformation, it became part of the Duchy of Jena and Saxony-Weimar . The church already existed at the time of the first documentary mention of the place in 1252. The late Gothic choir with its groin vault and the high, narrow lancet window on the east side of the choir still come from this time. During the Thirty Years War , the church burned down to the stump of the tower in 1637. Nothing is known about the appearance of the emergency church that was built as a result. In the years 1855/56 the church was completely rebuilt and has kept its structural shape essentially unchanged until today. Inside, the simple nave ends with a slender, Gothic triumphal arch that opens to the choir with the Gothic groin vault. This rests on four differently worked console stones and ends in a round keystone, which probably represents a Christ head. The well-preserved, valuable Gothic altar crucifix should be emphasized.
Church in Großlöbichau
The village of Großlöbichau is first mentioned as Liubicha in a certificate from Emperor Otto III. from the year 1001. The church consecrated to St. Bartholomäus is mentioned for the first time in a document dated July 19, 1252, in which Hermann von Lobdeburg assigns his right of patronage over the church to the Bosau monastery. The main nave with the surrounding eaves, the triumphal arch inside, which leads into the Gothic choir, and above all the Romanesque entrance portal with an inscription from 1347, the plebanus, the people priest , Heinrich von Lucka, bear witness to the Romanesque origins of the church building . and probably indicates the completion of the Gothic renovation work. The grave slabs from the 16th and 17th centuries found during the renovation of the sanctuary are remarkable. The showpiece of the church, however, is the late Gothic winged altar of Mary, which was carved around 1500 in a hitherto unknown workshop.
Church in Kleinlöbichau
The church was built in 1675 on the site of a chapel mentioned in 1353, which had fallen into disrepair after the Reformation , by Bernhard II (1638–1678) of Saxony-Jena , to which Kleinlöbichau belonged at the time, from stones from the dilapidated Thalbürgel Abbey. The simple farmer's church has a small baroque tower to the west. The polygonal chancel with a stone altar in the center of the choir and the pulpit with remarkable grisaille painting of the four evangelists and the baptismal font date from the Rococo period. The small organ, which was built in 1755 by Justinus Ehrenfried Gerhard , a student of Gottfried Silbermann , and renovated in 2010-2015, is valuable . The bell tower contains suspensions for two bells. The bells were made in the Apolda bell foundry in 1778. The larger of them was in the First , her replacement in the Second World War melted down.
At the end of August 2012, the renovation of the heavily damaged church began after the necessary financial resources were available. The dry rot , in particular, has to be fought with considerable effort. On October 31, 2015, the rededication of the Kleinlöbichau Church and its organ was celebrated in a service. The church is open on Saturday and Sunday during the summer months. The village church of Kleinlöbichau was added to the directory of cycle path churches in 2013 in connection with the Jena - Thalbürgel church cycle path. After Kleinlöbichau, the church cycle path leaves the church district of Jena. Politically, Klein- and Großlöbichau as well as the city of Bürgel with the Thalbürgel district belong to the Saale-Holzland district .
Thalbürgel monastery church
The monastery church of St. Maria and St. Georg in Thalbürgel is one of the most important Romanesque sacred buildings in Thuringia. She is a witness of a former Benedictine monastery . On February 13, 1133, Margraf Heinrich von Groitzsch and his wife Bertha donated it in the presence of Bishop Udo I in Naumburg Cathedral . Following the example of Paulinzella and Hirsau , the Benedictines built their monk church, the enclosure and their farmyard. The relay choir is unique.
As a result of the Reformation, the monastery was closed in 1526. Philipp Melanchthon arranged for a Protestant village church to be set up. In 1817 it was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who drew the attention of the Princely House of Saxony-Weimar to this monastery complex. Parts of the monastery church and its facilities were restored in the 19th century. In 1972 the interior was rebuilt. Today the monastery church is used as a place of worship. The music in this room has a very special effect.
The Zinsspeicher Museum is located in the immediate vicinity of the monastery church and has a historical connection with it.
Organs
The churches on the Kirchenradweg show a rich variety of organ building art. While the organs in the town church of St. Michael and in the Albert Schweitzer community center were created by the Potsdam company Schuke , all the organs in the other churches on the church cycle path were created by Thuringian master organ builders: Schillerkirche - Fa.Bohm ( Gotha ), Jenaprießnitz - Poppe (Roda, today Stadtroda ), Großlöbichau - Förtzsch ( Blankenhain ), Kleinlöbichau - Gerhardt ( Lindig ). It is noteworthy that in Großlöbichau, located on the church cycle path, the first verifiable organ was created in 1727 by the local "organ maker" Heinemann.
Thuringian mill cycle path and other offers
The church cycle path can be combined with another 19 km on the Thuringian mill cycle path from Bürgel via Löberschütz , Beutnitz , Golmsdorf , Porstendorf , Kunitz back to Jena to a round tour or continued with other offers.
literature
- Thomas Beier: And the soul rides a bike. Thüringer Landeszeitung, Ostthüringer Zeitung, Jena, June 8, 2010.
- Traugott Keßler: Church cycle path. Offer for the whole family. Faith and Home. Mitteldeutsche Kirchenzeitung, Thuringia edition, June 20, 2010, p. 7.
- Information boards at the town church St. Michael Jena, the Schillerkirche, the churches of Jenaprießnitz, Groß- and Kleinlöbichau as well as at the monastery church Thalbürgel.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map of the church cycle path, © OpenStreetMap and contributors, CC-BY-SA
- ↑ Ev.-Luth. Church district Jena
- ↑ Schiller Church Jena
- ↑ Gembdental municipality
- ↑ Ostthüringer Zeitung, Jena, v. August 30, 2012, accessed September 9, 2012
- ↑ Cycle Path Churches
- ↑ Museum Interest storage Thalbürgel
- ^ Matthias Schubert, Bernd Hofmann: Around the Gleisberg. Places, village churches, organs. Church Art Association Stadtroda eV, 2008
- ^ Thuringian Tourism Association Jena-Saale-Holzland eV