Kreuzkirche (Frankfurt-Preungesheim)
The Protestant Cross Church is a medieval , baroque rebuilt church in Preungesheim , a district of Frankfurt . Parts of the building come from previous buildings that go back to the 9th century. Due to early Gothic wall paintings from the 13th century, the church is particularly significant in terms of art history.
history
middle Ages
The first written mention of Preungesheim in the Lorsch Codex dates from the year 772. Here the donation to the monastery by a Huswert in "bruningesheim" is recorded.
A church is mentioned for the first time in 1275 when the Teutonic Order took over church patronage.
In the Middle Ages the community belonged to the Bornheimerberg district . This was pledged to the Hanau rulership in 1320 . In this respect, Preungesheim now shared the fate of the rulership and later County of Hanau in terms of church history , from 1458: County of Hanau-Münzenberg .
patron
The original patron of the church is unknown. In the 1920s, the Preungesheim pastor Schäfer introduced St. Gallus as patron. However, this dedication did not prevail and was replaced in 1951 in favor of the name Kreuzkirche
Modern times
In the middle of the 16th century, the Reformation took hold in the county of Hanau-Münzenberg, initially in its Lutheran form. In 1548 a Protestant pastor was named in Preungesheim for the first time. In a "second Reformation", the denomination of the County of Hanau-Munzenberg was changed again: From 1597 Count Philipp Ludwig II pursued a decidedly reformed church policy. He made use of his Jus reformandi , his right as sovereign to determine the denomination of his subjects, and made this largely binding for the county.
Building history
middle Ages
The architectural history of the Kreuzkirche goes back to the 8th century, archaeologically proven. The first stone building followed in the 9th / 10th century. An apse was added in the 11th century, and the tower some time later. The construction phases of the east end of the main nave are known in detail. Other medieval building finds, some of which have been left visible, show that the west wall of the church also dates from the Middle Ages. There is a small Gothic gate and two Einstein windows. In the late Middle Ages, a small Romanesque aisle, which was connected to the chapel in the church tower by a round arch (visible in the tower and on the outside of the church tower), was replaced by a stone nave that overlooks the main nave with two large arcades that still exist today was connected to a round pillar. The chapel (side choir) in the church tower was given a rib vault, the remains of which can still be seen today. In the second half of the 13th century, Gothic lancet windows were added to the choir and tower.
Modern times
From 1716 the building was fundamentally converted into a baroque hall church. The church was expanded to the north by demolishing the north wall and widening the nave by a third to the north, using the stones from the demolition, which is particularly noticeable in the corner cuboid with its medieval surface treatment. The chapel or a short aisle on the south side, separated from the nave by two arcades, was demolished and the arcades walled up.
During renovation work in 1908/09, a Gothic round pillar with two arches came to light on the south wall. It was decided to expose the supports and arches and to close the now open wall with a side aisle-like extension. The two large round-arched windows were also created in the south wall. Even with this measure, remains of wall painting were found. In 1935, during renovation work, two early Gothic wall paintings were discovered on the east wall of the nave. Some of them were exposed by a church painter, but due to lack of interest from the responsible monument preservationists, they were delivered again with the organ. At the same time, attention was drawn to the Gothic paintings in the basement of the church tower, they were supposed to be protected from further destruction in the future, but this did not happen.
The rectory buildings
From 1741 to 1742 a new two-story rectory was built to the west of the church. The coat of arms of the Teutonic Order was inserted above the western portal on the garden side . To the south of it extended the farm buildings with stables and a double barn, which was used by both the parish and the Teutonic Order. The farm buildings were demolished in the 1970s.
Archaeological studies, building research and restoration
The Preungesheim church was archaeologically examined from 1998 to 2002 (archaeological preservation of monuments in the monument office of the city of Frankfurt am Main).
Today's baroque church has at least five previous buildings from the Middle Ages. The later medieval wall remains are partly contained in the masonry that is still rising today, the earlier construction phases of the building could be proven by the archaeological excavations. The first construction phase goes back to the 8th century, it was still a wooden structure. The second building was then already made of stone and is dated to the 9th - 10th centuries. This was followed by three further medieval construction phases, the last probably already under the patronage of the Teutonic Order.
In 1999 the Gothic windows on the east and south walls were uncovered and reconstructed based on the original findings. In order to be able to see the medieval paintings better, the organ was relocated in 2001 and the east gallery in the area of the medieval paintings and building findings was removed. Furthermore, the Gothic arch between the church and the tower was opened so that the Romanesque tower can be seen and entered from the baroque church hall. A section of the medieval foundations in the eastern interior of the church can now be viewed through a glass floor. An excavation also took place outside the building on the south side, exposing the foundation walls of the Gothic church.
Furnishing
Medieval furnishings
The oldest piece of equipment in the Kreuzkirche is said to be a Romanesque baptismal font . The simple stone bowl without ornaments or symbols was found in the parsonage in the 1920s and interpreted as a former baptismal font, provided with a base and placed in the church.
The medieval room setting has been preserved very well over a large area (only partially exposed). The oldest version shows, in addition to a white wall color, red cuboids as a window surround and fragments of a painted red carpet on the east wall. Another version shows ocher-colored cuboids painted on the walls, which are formed by red grouting.
The paintings exposed on the east wall presumably date from the time after 1275, when the Teutonic Order took over the patronage of the church. The pictures depict the Virgin Mary and a knight saint , probably Saint George , the two most important patrons of the Teutonic Order. The small window on the south wall of the old choir also has remains of saints in the reveals.
Further medieval painting remains have been preserved on the ground floor of the church tower; in addition to small fragments of depictions of saints in the window reveals, a fragmentary (not yet restored) depiction on the east wall of the chapel is remarkable. It is probably a seated figure framed by an architectural painting. It is probably another representation of the Madonna. A kneeling figure appears to be arranged to the left of this representation. Maybe it's a donor figure.
Epitaphs
The cruciform church has an epitaph from the 16th century on the south wall of the nave below the west gallery, which is assigned to the Kühhorn family on the basis of the coat of arms shown. The family owned a farm in the parish.
Baroque furnishings
In the course of the baroque renovation in 1716, the pulpit that still exists today was installed (version from 1939). A communion jug dates from 1744.
19th century
A new altar was consecrated in 1818 (removed in the 1970s). The galleries on three sides of the nave were built in in the last third of the 19th century (but there was probably an organ gallery on the east side before that). The galleries rested on cast-iron supports. The benches were also made during the same renovation. The entire woodwork, including the baroque pulpit, was given a dark brown frame.
Redesign of the church interior and furnishings in the 1930s and 1940s
With the relocation of the altar from the east to the south in front of the exposed medieval round support in 1939, the stalls were arranged in a semicircle around the altar. The cast-iron gallery supports were clad with wood and capitals were indicated. The entire woodwork (gallery parapets, benches, altar and pulpit) received a brown-green-marbled frame, which is still visible today. The walls were also marbled, which was lost in the course of a post-war renovation. In the same year Lina von Schauroth created two stained glass windows for the south wall of the aisle and four oval windows below the galleries of the main nave. One window showed a dove as a symbol for the Holy Spirit, one the coat of arms of the Munzenberger and the inscription: “PREUNGESHEIM. AUS DER GRAFSCHAFT HANAU-MÜNZENBERG. ”, Another window bore the cross of the Teutonic Order in the middle and the inscription:“ GERMAN ORDEN 1275–1809. PROTECTOR OF THIS CHURCH. ", Finally another window showed a swastika in the middle and the inscription:" IN 1939. THIS CHURCH WAS RENOVATED ": The two glass paintings on the south wall each have three depictions one above the other. The left window below shows a farmer sowing, above the harvest and a chalice surrounded by ears of wheat forms the upper end of the picture. In the right window the birth of Christ is shown below, above the crucifixion and as a shot above the resurrection. All windows were badly damaged in the course of the Second World War , the two windows on the south side were restored in the Linnemann workshop, the oval windows below the galleries were not. The Luther window on the west wall of the nave was designed and manufactured by Otto Linnemann in the 1930s, but because of the Second World War, the window was only used after the war. In 1946/47 Otto Linnemann designed and painted the monumental mural on the south wall above the altar.
Organs
The organ builder Wilhelm Ratzmann from Gelnhausen delivered a new organ in 1903 , which was played until the 1950s.
Today's organ with 14 registers was manufactured by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker in 1960 .
Bells
With a bell from 1586, the Kreuzkirche has the second oldest bell in a Protestant church in Frankfurt. This bell has been exhibited since 2015 in the Preungesheim district museum, the " Museum an der Kreuzkirche ". Two more historical bells were drawn in and destroyed during World War II. In 1949 three chilled cast iron bells were purchased, which form the current chime.
| No. | Nominal | year | Weight | designation |
| 1 | f 1 | 1949 | 1300 kg | Faith |
| 2 | as 1 | 1949 | 700 kg | love |
| 3 | c 1 | 1949 | 350 kg | hope |
| 1586 | 501 kg |
literature
- Archeology in Frankfurt am Main, 1997–2001.
- Archeology in Frankfurt am Main, 2002–2006.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments, Hessen II, Darmstadt District , Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2008.
- Helga Bill: Sacred monumental painting of the late Romanesque in transition to Gothic. Art and cultural history in the mirror of a wall painting in Frankfurt am Main . Frankfurt 2014.
- Helga Bill: Sacred monumental painting of the late Romanesque in transition to Gothic. An important find in the Kreuzkirche in Frankfurt am Main . In: Monument Preservation and Cultural History 4/2014, pp. 17–21.
- Anneliese Gad: The Kreuzkirche in Frankfurt am Main-Preungesheim - A guide, Evangelical Kreuzgemeinde 2014.
- Joachim Proescholdt, Jürgen Telschow: Frankfurt's Protestant Churches through the ages, Frankfurter Societätsverlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-942921-11-4 .
- Wolfgang Pülm: Preungesheim. Altes Dorf - young part of town , Frankfurt am Main 1990.
- Stephan Döring: Building history and restoration of the Evangelical Kreuzkirche Preungesheim - Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 2012.
Web links
- Website of the Protestant parish Preungesheim - there online: Parish chronicle of Preungesheim, 19. – 20. century
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Ev. Kreuzkirche (formerly St. Gallus) In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
Individual evidence
- ^ Bill in Monument Preservation and Cultural History, p. 17.
Coordinates: 50 ° 9 ′ 21.3 ″ N , 8 ° 41 ′ 18 ″ E