Melsbach Cross Church

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Ruin Kreuzkirche, western main entrance
South wall with side entrance
Inside of the ruin, photographed from the northeast

The Kreuzkirche Melsbach is a church ruin near the village of Melsbach in the Neuwied district . Both the actual year of construction and the client and builder of the former pilgrimage site are unknown. It is said that the famous Lutheran and reformer Philipp Melanchthon preached here. The white woman is also said to have appeared here .

location

The ruins of the Kreuzkirche are located at the southern entrance to Melsbach, on the right side of the main road (coming from Neuwied) and to the east opposite today's sports field. It stands on a flat hill and hugs a small wood in a northerly direction. It can be seen from a distance from the south.

description

The Kreuzkirche was a small, single-nave building in the late Gothic style. The walls are made of quarry stone. There was a large front entrance to the west and a side entrance to the south. Whether there was a bell tower ( roof turret) is unknown and is considered unlikely, since such a tower was not yet common in single-nave chapels at that time. Today the main portal, the south wall and side portal as well as sparse remains of the north wall are preserved. The south wall also has the lower part of a window opening. The east wall is completely missing. In front of the main entrance three steps can be seen, it could originally have been more.

history

The Kreuzkirche was first mentioned in documents in 1399. But it may be significantly older. It may even date from the 6th or 7th century. The name of the actual client and builder is unknown. At the time it was first mentioned, the Kreuzkirche was part of the St. Thomas Abbey in Andernach .

Historical documents from the years 1542 and 1544 prove that Johann IV. Von Wied-Runkel , Count zu Wied , had made generous donations and with part of the proceeds that went to the parishes of Altwied , Feldkirchen, Oberbieber and Heddesdorf , among other things the pastors of the Kreuzkirche are paid. At that time the Kreuzkirche was still a much visited place of pilgrimage for the Augustinian nuns of Andernach. He was under the curatorial and ecclesiastical supervision of Cologne Archbishop Hermann V. von Wied , an uncle of Johann IV. It was also Hermann V who regularly arranged foundations and donations to the Wieder parishes.

In 1542, another uncle of the count, Friedrich IV. Von Wied , although he was the owner of the benefices of the early church as cathedral sexton in Cologne and provost in Bonn, founded an evangelical foundation in the Kreuzkirche Melsbach . Up until 1558, the pastors of the Kreuzkirche were obliged to “give a Christian-Evangelical sermon to the people every early morning around eight o'clock” and to hold a quarterly pilgrimage service, the collection of which was to go to the poor. The Catholic parish of Rengsdorf , to whose parish Melsbach belonged at the time, resisted this foundation . It is said that the famous reformer Melanchthon preached here in 1542/43. However, this is rather unlikely, as there is no evidence that Melanchthon ever stayed with Melsbach. There is only evidence that Melanchthon was friends with Hermann V. zu Wied, whose attempt at a reformation promoted the archbishopric and dedicated important Reformation writings to him. The pilgrimage to the Kreuzkirche soon subsided as a result of the Reformation . As early as 1544, the chapel was considered "neglected", despite the foundations. Johann IV. Conversion to the Reformed Church and the official introduction of the Reformation in his county in 1558/59 brought the pilgrimages to a complete standstill.

As a result, the small church fell apart over the centuries and was apparently looted. Documents from 1625 already refer to them as “ruins” and “former” pilgrimage sites. The ruins were added to a small homestead in 1789, which until 1880 contained the entrances to the alum works . Both during the Wars of Liberation in 1813 and during the First and Second World Wars , the ruins of the Kreuzkirche and Melsbach were badly damaged. Today the Kreuzkirche is a listed building .

Legend

The origin of the chapel is linked to a local legend. After that, a wealthy knight of the noble family of Wied got lost during a hunt in the surrounding woods and, at nightfall, felt compelled to make a bed for the night under a particularly magnificent oak. A shimmering, white woman is said to have shown herself with a shining cross in her hand. She encouraged the knight to follow her so that he could find a safe way back home. The knight is said to have erected a large and beautiful cross to thank her, exactly where he had met the White Woman near the oak. Later, when the knight got rich, he commissioned the building of a memorial chapel.

literature

  • Albert Hardt: Melsbach and its history . In: In the Wiedisches Land: History of the places in the Verbandsgemeinde Rengsdorf . Verbandsgemeinde Rengsdorf, 1989, OCLC 180399097 .
  • Wilhelm Fabricius: Explanations of the historical atlas of the Rhine province: Fifth volume: The two maps of the church organization, 1450 and 1610; second half: the Trier and Mainz church provinces; the development of church associations since the Reformation . Bendt, Bonn / Trier 2015 (reprint from 1913).
  • Friedrich von Alberti: Memorable and useful Rhenish antiquarian: who represents the most important and pleasant geographical, historical and political peculiarities of the whole Rhine river, from its outflow into the sea to its origin, volume 3 . Hergt Publishing House, Koblenz 1856.
  • Otto Runkel: From the legends of the homeland: Westerwald legends, collected and told, 1st volume . Sendet, Wiesbaden 1972 (reprint from 1929). ISBN 9783253024917 .

Web links

Commons : Kreuzkirche Melsbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kreuzkirche
  2. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Fabricius: Explanations of the historical atlas of the Rhine province , p. 231 and 566.
  3. ^ A b Friedrich von Alberti: Memorable and useful Rhenish antiquarian , p. 655.
  4. ^ Heinrich Friedrich Jacobson: History of the sources of the Protestant church law of the provinces of Rhineland and Westphalia: with documents and registers , 3rd volume. Verlag Born, Wuppertal 1844, pp. 594-596.
  5. ↑ Martin H. Jung: Philipp Melanchthon and his time . Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-55006-9 , p. 78.
  6. ↑ Otto Runkel: From the legends of the homeland. P. 96.

Coordinates: 50 ° 28 ′ 49.3 "  N , 7 ° 28 ′ 57.9"  E