Church ruins of St. Laurentius

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Wall remains and excavated foundations

At the church ruins of St. Laurentius in the Altmünden district of Hann. Münden in Lower Saxony is the ruin of a church building. It was the church of Gimundi, a precursor settlement of Münden, of which only a few remains of the wall have survived above ground. The church consisted of two parts of the building that were built one after the other from the Romanesque period around the 11th to 12th centuries and the Gothic period around the 13th century. Because of its mighty walls, the building was initially viewed as a fortified church . The church was demolished in the Thirty Years War because the stone material was needed for other church buildings in Münden.

description

Remnants of the gable of the younger east building
Image from 1791 with the abandoned settlement area of ​​Altmünden as the location of the church, on the opposite side of the river Münden
Outside of the pediment with a Gothic window

The structural remains of the church are today in an allotment garden near the Weser . After the church was demolished in the Thirty Years War, the area was used as a garden from the 17th century. A corner of the wall that remained in the choir was already included in a newly built garden house. The other foundations disappeared under a layer of humus up to 60 cm thick. The last remnant of the church visible above ground was the east gable of the church building with a height of about 6 m in the 20th century. There was a Gothic window in the gable. Because of dilapidation, the top 1.5 meters of the masonry was torn down around 1960. The largest dimensions of the church were in the late Middle Ages with a length of 19 meters and a width of around 8.5 meters with a wall thickness of 1.5 meters. The height of the ridge is assumed to be around 10 meters.

In 2000, a work of art made of two granite stones placed one on top of the other was placed inside the ruin. A baptismal font is sunk into the upper stone , in which rainwater collects.

excavation

When a building project was investigated in 1993, the underground foundations of the church were discovered. They were uncovered during an excavation under the direction of the archaeologist Klaus Grote between 1993 and 1996. The still completely existing church foundations belonged to two connected structures. The west building had dimensions of about 9.5 x 8.5 m. The east building with the church gable still above ground was about 9.5 × 7.5 m in size.

Finds

Findings from the excavation were ceramic shards, animal bones as food waste, coins and iron parts. The finds were not only attributable to the building of the church, but also to the former village of Gimundi. Due to found clay and charcoal, it dates back to the 9th – 11th centuries. Century. A hollow pfennig found was minted in Hanover in the 14th century.

In the middle of the west building, the skeleton of a young person was found in the floor, whose burial could be dated to the 14th to 15th centuries. Eight children's burials were found outside, the skeletons of which have been poorly preserved. The burials were dated to the 12th century.

Find interpretation

The older part was the west building as a Romanesque fortified church , which was probably built between 1000 and 1200 and was used until the 15th century. The considerable wall thicknesses indicate the defensive character and the possible function as a fortified church. The eastern building was added around 1300, which was probably used to enlarge the choir. There were no indications of a church tower.

literature

  • Klaus Grote : The Church of St. Laurentius in Altmünden , undated, Duderstadt
  • Klaus Grote: Settlements and castles, main courtyards and churches. The Mündener area between 800 and 1100 in: Dug - Found - Salvaged. Archaeological search for traces on the Werra, Fulda and Weser. , Ed. On behalf of the city of Hann. Münden by Johann Dietrich von Pezold, Hann. Münden, 1998

Web links

Commons : Church ruins St. Laurentius  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 21.1 ″  N , 9 ° 38 ′ 35.8 ″  E