Liebfrauenkirche (Gernsbach)
The Liebfrauenkirche is the Roman Catholic parish church of Gernsbach in the lower Murgtal in the Baden-Württemberg district of Rastatt .
Development and construction history
The Liebfrauenkirche is the second church building in Gernsbach after the St. Jakobskirche . The earlier assumption that during the Ebersteiner a rule in the place of today's Church of Our Lady castle with a chapel had stood, is unconfirmed and is not maintained. In 1388 Margarethe, the widow of Count Wilhelm II. Von Eberstein, and Margrave Rudolf VII. Von Baden had the Church of Our Lady built. The patroness of the church is Mary of the Seven Sorrows , who is celebrated in the Catholic liturgy on August 15th. A document from 1487 suggests that the church was built as a pilgrimage chapel .
After Gernsbach and the County of Eberstein went over to the Reformation around 1556 , the Church of Our Lady remained as a Catholic church and increasingly became the burial place of the members of the Eberstein family who remained Catholic. The following sectarian conflicts due to the Badisch -eberstein rule over Gernsbach, the Upper Baden occupation and the Thirty Years War mainly had an impact on the St. Jakobskirche. An agreement from 1626 allowed both religions in Gernsbach. The regulation that is still valid today, assigning the Church of St. James to the Protestants and the Church of Our Lady to the Catholics, dates back to 1640.
In 1626 the church tower burned down from a lightning strike, whereupon a dispute arose between Baden and Eberstein over the restoration costs, which lasted until 1657. When the French troops sacked Gernsbach during the Thirty Years War, the church was again affected. After further deterioration in the 18th century, the church was extensively renovated and considerably expanded in 1833 under the architect August Moosbrugger . Here the four-bay church in the east was extended by three more bays. In addition, the Catholic cemetery was built west of the church. Previously, the cemetery at St. Jacob's Church was shared between Catholics and Protestants.
In the years 1971–1972 the church was again extensively renovated. Architect Heinz Gaiser, Rastatt pursued the goal of freeing the church from the neo-Gothic changes and to emphasize the original late-Gothic shape of the church. At the same time, the equipment was supplemented by modern elements. This was also made necessary by the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , which u. a. also resulted in a contemporary folk altar and an ambo . In order to underline the unity of priests and believers, the church choir was lowered four steps. During the renovation from 1971–1972, late Gothic ornament paintings in the vault of the older part of the church were exposed and copied into the neo-Gothic part. In 1972 the renovated church was consecrated. In 1996 the church was renovated outside.
Building description
location
The Liebfrauenkirche was built at the highest point in the old town and shapes the cityscape from all sides. As part of the Gernsbach city wall , its tower, together with the nearby stork tower , secured the western, mountain-side flank of the city fortification, which was not protected by natural obstacles.
Steeple and exterior
The strong bell tower and the simple nave determine the external shape of the Liebfrauenkirche. Only the tracery windows and the buttresses are decorated with carefully hewn stones. The extension of the church to the east fits in well with the appearance of the medieval church.
The entrance portal is located on the north aisle of the church . Above it is a tympanum in which the builders of the church have immortalized themselves: you can see the Eberstein rose with the miter and the Baden coat of arms with the ibex horns.
The steeple is believed to be the oldest part of the church. Its walls measure 2.10 meters in the lower area and 1 meter in the bell chamber. The entrance hall under the tower connects directly to the city wall. The third floor has wide window niches with side stone benches for the guards and, in the west, a bulged window sill for placing weapons.
Peal
Since the historical bells were expanded to include a bell during the Second World War and were used in the armaments industry , the Grüninger bell foundry in Villingen cast four new bells in 1950 . The bells of the Liebfrauenkirche:
| number | Weight | volume | diameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1500 kg | it | 1300 mm |
| 2 | 1100 kg | f | 1160 mm |
| 3 | 640 kg | as | 980 mm |
| 4th | 380 kg | b | 840 mm |
| 5 | 280 kg | c | 750 mm |
Interior and artistic equipment
The Liebfrauenkirche is a three-aisled pillar basilica . Its four western bays date from around 1388, the three eastern bays from 1833. Massive sandstone pillars support the ribbed vault up to a height of 9.75 meters. The choir was redesigned during the renovation in 1970–1971. On this occasion, the patronage of the Church of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows was emphasized by placing the Pietà from the early 16th century in the choir. It was not until the restoration of the Pietà in the 1970s that the original version of the figure came to light and showed the art-historical significance of this Pietà. The altar wall cross , the candlesticks and the tabernacle were created by Herbert Kämper, Elchesheim . They are made of copper , on which silver has been melted, and are adorned with enamel paintings and rock crystals .
The stained glass windows on the north side show a three-part crucifixion group from the 15th century. Another stained glass window shows a half-length figure of a knight who is accepted as the founder of the stained glass. The stained glass windows in the south aisle show St. John the Baptist , St. Nicholas of Myra and Sel. Bernhard von Baden and date from the 19th century, but were created after older models using old fragments. In the side aisles there are tombstones of Count Hans Bernhard von Eberstein (died 1574) and Mrs. Anna Alexandria von Fleckenstein (died 1610). They point out that the Church of Our Lady was the grave church for several Counts of Eberstein. In the north aisle there are picture panels with the motifs of Jesus as a teacher and with the four church fathers ( St. Jerome , St. Ambrose , St. Augustine and Pope Gregory ). This woodwork was part of the pulpit until 1971 . The baptismal font dates from the 15th century and is adorned with twelve coats of arms. The coats of arms of Baden-Sponheim and Eberstein are shown in threefold repetition. In the south aisle there is a neo-Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary. In the central nave there is an epitaph on a column that was created after 1733.
Crucifixion window
Pietà
Joseph's Window
Three late Gothic figures, which were first mentioned in 1488, stand at the inner entrance to the tower hall. They represent St. Christopher , St. Sebastian and St. George . They probably come from a medieval Sebastian altar, which was first mentioned in 1488. In the tower hall there are other stone carvings from the same period: the holy water basin , the shaft of which is formed from a tree trunk and whose branches seem to hold the water bowl, and a fragment from a holy grave .
organ
The current organ of the church dates from 1972 and was built by Wolfgang Scherpf, Speyer . The pedal mechanism is located in the prospectus in three fields in the middle, the main mechanism on the left, the swell mechanism on the right. The positive movement was installed under the pedal movement. The instrument has an electric keyboard action and an electric stop action. The game table is free-standing and can be moved on a platform. 2729 pipes are distributed over 35 registers including pedal .
literature
- Peter Hirschfeld: Rastatt district. (= Die Kunstdenkmäler Baden , Volume 12.) CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1963, pp. 151–167.
- Gernsbach parish (ed.): Art guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach. Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Regensburg, 2001.
- Rainer Hennl: Gernsbach in the Murgtal. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006, p. 236 ff.
- Cornelia Renger-Zorn: 775 years of the Gernsbach parish, article series in the Badischer Tagblatt September to November 2018, https://literaturdesign.de/Pfarrei_Gernsbach/pfarrei_gernsbach.html
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rainer Hennl: in Gernsbach - structures and developments by the end of Baden-ebersteinischen Kondominats in 1660. W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-019480-1 , p 35 ff.
- ↑ a b Website of the pastoral care unit Gernsbach, section Liebfrauenkirche. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ↑ Hennl 2006, p. 237 u. 251
- ↑ Hennl 2006, pp. 247-257
- ↑ Hennl 2006, p. 236
- ↑ a b c website of the pastoral care unit Gernsbach, section Liebfrauenkirche. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ↑ Kirchgemeinde Gernsbach (Ed.): Art Guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach , pp. 4–6.
- ↑ Kirchgemeinde Gernsbach (ed.): Art Guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach , p. 8.
- ^ Peter Hirschfeld: Rastatt district. (= Die Kunstdenkmäler Baden , Volume 12.) CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1963, p. 159.
- ↑ Bells shown on the website of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ↑ Kirchgemeinde Gernsbach (Ed.): Art Guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach , pp. 10-16.
- ↑ Kirchgemeinde Gernsbach (Ed.): Art Guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach , pp. 16-17.
- ↑ Kirchgemeinde Gernsbach (Ed.): Art Guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach , p. 10.
- ↑ Kirchgemeinde Gernsbach (Ed.): Art Guide Liebfrauenkirche Gernsbach , pp. 17-18.
Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 48.9 ″ N , 8 ° 19 ′ 52.5 ″ E