Reichenbach monastery church

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The Reichenbach monastery church in the Reichenbach district of Hessisch Lichtenau was the first settlement of the Teutonic Order in Germany (cf. Deutschordensballei Hessen ).

Reichenbach monastery church

Today's three-aisled basilica ends in the east in an unusual shape for such a church interior. There are no components that would actually be expected in this type of architecture, namely the choir or transept . Excavations in the 1970s confirmed the assumption that the building was originally much larger than the church that exists today.

history

The oldest known predecessor church, a solid building, a hall church , is dated to the 9th to 10th centuries. It was in the north of today's basilica. Reichenbach's church history is likely to be even older, as grave finds were excavated under the masonry. A wooden church is assumed to be the previous building.

The foundations of the hall church (called C-Church) are overlaid by a much larger three-aisled church (B-Church). This was followed by three semicircular apses of different sizes without any transverse space . This church was built in the 10th century or around 1000. This church, which was probably part of a monastery that was abandoned in the late 11th or early 12th century due to armed conflict, lasted until a new building was built in the 12th century. Only then was it torn down.

A new nave was built on the retained foundations, probably around 1140 or soon afterwards, and a transept and a rectangular box choir were added to the east beyond the old choir. Quarry stones were no longer used, as was the case with the B church, but rather carefully worked cuboids , the visible sides of which were smoothed with the "surface", an ax-like stonemason's tool guided with both hands . The construction of this basilica (called A-Church) is much more solid than that of the two previous buildings.

This basilica was part of a nunnery that the Counts von Reichenbach founded on their own at that time, but which was abandoned before 1207. In 1207, the basilica with all the outbuildings, accessories and rights of use was opened by representatives of all branches of the Reichenbach-Ziegenhain family of counts in Germany at a princely convention in Nordhausen and a court convention soon afterwards in Würzburg, in the presence of King Philip of Swabia largely unknown and almost insignificant German medals. With this donation, 27 years before the establishment of the Marburger Kommende , the order acquired its first significant settlement in the German Empire. Four years later, on February 25, 1211, Archbishop Siegfried von Mainz confirmed the donation at the request of the Teutonic Order. On the following day, however, he revoked this confirmation, referring to the fact that the count's family had previously donated the same church to the nunnery, which had since closed, and that he himself and not the count's family had the right of disposal; in the same document, however, he himself made the same donation to the Teutonic Order.

Since at least the year 1219, friars have been recorded in Reichenbach, and as a commander the place was initially the center of the rapidly expanding monastic property in East Hesse, before Reichenbach was incorporated into the Landkommende Marburg and thus into the Ballei Hessen in 1310 . (See also: Coming of the Teutonic Order .)

The eastern parts of the monastery church existed until the second half of the 18th century when they were abandoned because of dilapidation. They were leveled in the 19th century and rededicated as a cemetery. Of the monastery buildings that are certainly there, only small remains of the wall have been found to this day, because the excavations were not extensive enough.

Today the church of the Ev. Reichenbach parish in the Witzenhausen parish of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck .

Web links and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website of the parish on the website of the Witzenhausen church district.

Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 42.2 ″  N , 9 ° 46 ′ 41 ″  E