St. Lubentius (Dietkirchen)
The former collegiate church of St. Lubentius in the Limburg district of Dietkirchen on the west bank of the Lahn was the most important church in the Lahngau and its successor territories until the 13th century . The bones of St. Lubentius are kept as relics in the sacred building . The monastery, which dates back to the 9th century, became extinct in the course of secularization . Today St. Lubentius serves as the Catholic and the Trinity Chapel as the Protestant parish church of Dietkirchen.
The building is a Romanesque basilica with a transept and double tower facade, which was essentially given its current appearance in the 11th and 12th centuries. Its unusually monumental external effect results from the interplay of the exposed location on a jagged limestone cliff , the heaviness of the architecture typical of the period and the (ahistorical) lack of plastering. The furnishings mainly consist of works from the 18th century.
history
prehistory
Excavations in the 1950s and 1960s brought to light finds in the area of the church, the oldest of which can be assigned to the Neolithic Age . According to this, the exposed rock above the Lahn was already occupied by people in 4000 BC. The majority of the finds, however, range from the epochs of the so-called Urnfield Culture to the Latène period , i.e. the time from 1300 BC to shortly after the birth of Christ. The type and accumulation of the finds indicate a place of worship, especially since the available space was too small and the weather was probably too inhospitable for the possibilities of building a house at that time to build a settlement there.
Today's Dietkirchen was also important as the highest judicial meeting place of the Lahngau . The medieval jurisdiction, which was dependent on the count's office, was first mentioned as the Reckenforst court in documents from the Eberbach monastery in 1217. However, it should have already existed in the early Middle Ages . Modern research assumes the location of the site in the parcel west of the current Straße Auf der Heide in the section south of the piercing Senefelderstraße.
After all, the place was also of economic importance because of a ford over the Lahn, which was connected to a trade route in Franconian times at the latest . The disadvantages of a Lahn passage via Furt were replaced by a Lahn ferry that was first documented in writing towards the end of the 11th century. Until the inauguration of the current wooden pedestrian bridge in 1989, this lasted for almost a millennium only with adjustments to reflect technical progress.
St. Lubentius and the foundation of the monastery
The tradition as a place of worship, place of justice and important traffic junction made the place a starting point for the Christianization of the Lahngau , which was operated by the diocese of Trier . Due to the lack of archaeological findings and written sources, the beginning of the mission as well as the time of the implementation of the new faith in research is controversial. A period between the 6th century and the early 8th century at the latest is realistic.
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According to legend, the patron saint of today's church, St. Lubentius , was not only active as a missionary in the Lahn region, but also supposedly built a first church there. After his death, his body could not be moved, whereupon the Bishops of Trier and Cologne who had traveled there decided to put the body in an unmanned boat. This then moved down the Moselle , the Rhine and finally the Lahn up and was stranded at the foot of the rock, where he was buried in the church he founded.
Lubentius' curriculum vitae is made up of three sources. First of all, it should be noted that they all originated centuries after his lifetime. On the one hand, there is the Vita Maximin , which was created between 751 and 768, the Gesta Treverorum , which was written around 1101, and the translation legend from the end of the 12th century, which was probably written in Dietkirchen itself.
The Vita Maximin, which essentially reports on the appointment of the saint as a priest in Kobern on the Moselle and his death there, is considered authentic in the light of modern archaeological research. The high medieval Gesta Treverorum, which claim that the first church was built on the Lahn, without naming Dietkirchen , on the other hand, are viewed as an unreliable source, which should rather serve to assert the rank of the Archbishopric of Trier.
The translational legend is based on text critical view on the Vita Maximin and adorns these only on. Against the background that it was probably written by a canon of the pen of the same name, it can therefore at best be described as subjective. Paradoxically, precisely this tradition, which of the three sources wants to contribute most to the fame of the church patron in Dietkirchen himself, lacks any details about his appearance on the Lahn during his lifetime.
The claim that Lubentius was the apostle of the Lahn region was not even recorded in writing until 1670. Against this background, modern research considers missionary activity by Lubentius an der Lahn to be ruled out today. In fact, his bones are likely to have been brought there as a relic shortly before Dietkirchen was first mentioned in 841, the period between 836 and 841 is to be assumed. From an archaeological point of view, Dietkirchen itself was probably founded a little earlier, probably between the middle and the end of the 7th century .
The Lubentiusstift is mentioned for the first time in a document dated May 13, 841, but only a copy from the 17th century has survived. However, their truthfulness is generally not doubted. The document also mentions Dietkirchen by name for the first time and, due to the content of a donation to the monastery, allows the statement that it must have existed before 841. This agrees satisfactorily with the presumed period of time during which the relics were transferred.
Pen structure and development until the end of the Middle Ages
The priests at the collegiate monastery were - as opposed to monks who lived together in an order according to a monastery rule - secular priests . In contrast to monks, they were also allowed to have personal possessions and were dedicated to tasks such as pastoral care or the dispensing of sacraments . The basis of their coexistence was the Aachen rule , which was based on typical monastery rules and stipulated, for example, shared bedrooms and meals.
The designation of the clergymen as canons also came from this canon of rules . Their number is unknown for the Lubentiusstift in the early Middle Ages , the first record of 12 people comes from the year 1262. At this point in time, the task of living together in the monastery district also took place, from then on the canons lived separately in collegiate houses, canons' courts or privately acquired buildings . Some of these are still preserved in Dietkirchen today.
The early medieval classification of the monastery in the administrative structures of the Archdiocese of Trier is also unknown. It is possible that the monastery was raised to the Trier archdeaconate as early as 900 , but the latter is only certain for 1031. The archdeaconate administered the areas of the archbishopric on the right bank of the Rhine. The six deaneries Dietkirchen, Engers , Haiger , Kirberg and Marienfels as well as Wetzlar were subordinate to it, the latter unit was called the Archipresbyterate , but had a similar structure to the five deaneries in principle.
Taken together, the deaneries comprised 242 parishes, one of which was the Dietkirchen parish . Originally, the offices of archdeacon, provost , who headed the monastery, and pastor probably combined in one person. In the 12th century, however, the provost broke away from the monastery in terms of assets, the provost became an honorary office, and a dean took over the management of the monastery clergy. This resulted in the Dietkirchen peculiarity that the pastor did not belong to the monastery until the early modern times .
Little is known about the history of the monastery in the early and high Middle Ages, as only one other document has come down to us after the document of May 13, 841 and those of the 13th century. It dates from around 1098 and has as its content that provost Rambert lends the ferry to Dietkirchen with the consent of all canons. It proves the oldest structures, probably going back to the foundation of the monastery: the dual office of archdeacon and provost and his power of disposal over the monastery property.
Written records improve from the 13th century. It makes it possible to understand the provost's solution to the chapter through the division of property and the task of the common life of the canons. After several altars had been donated at the end of the 13th century, the monastery was also reinforced by altarists. Finally, indulgences or the confirmation of already existing ones by various archbishops show an increased effort to activate the pen. In addition, a fair developed on Lubentius Day in the 13th century at the monastery, which lasted for a long time and was still one of the most important markets in Kurtrier in the 18th century.
The importance of the monastery in the Middle Ages is reflected in the diverse interdependence of its members. This is how bishops and archbishops of Trier and Worms came from the college. In addition, the canons belonged to the cathedral chapters of Trier and Mainz , as well as the Limburg monastery .
Period from the Reformation to secularization
During the Reformation, the secular domination of the arrived county Diez and thus Dietkirchen after the extinction of the race of the same name to a ganerbschaft . Through the division of inheritance, the number of the sexes involved in it continued to increase. Since Kurtrier had already secured an eighth of the inheritance in 1453, it was able to assert the rights of the monastery due to its secular power, especially during the Reformation. In spite of this, the cellars of the monastery clergy were plundered during the Peasants' War , but no major damage occurred.
In 1535 the short phase of the condominium began after Kurtrier had secured another 3/8 of the rule of the county within two years and now only had to share it indirectly with Nassau-Dillenburg . It ended in 1564 when Dietkirchen was detached from the Dehrner Zent , which came to Nassau, and added to the Trier Archbishopric as the Electorate of Limburg , where it was to remain until the end of the Holy Roman Empire .
Nevertheless, a number of complaints about the order in the monastery are known from this period, which seem to confirm Martin Luther's criticism of the Catholic Church of that time. Around 1535, for example, a pleban was accused of leaving the Eternal Lamp on for barely a week a year, of failing to meet payment obligations and of neglecting the building of the rectory. In 1555, members of the parish complained that the pleban at that time served more the high altar than the parish church, and in 1571 the pastor even had to defend himself in Limburg an der Lahn from the archbishop's visitors suspected of keeping a servant as a concubine.
In the course of the Council of Trento , bishops were made an annual personal visitation of their diocese, which took place in the Archdiocese of Trier and thus also at the Lubentiusstift from 1569. In light of the above-mentioned circumstances, there were radical changes in the structure of the monastery in 1573, 1588 and again in 1607 by order of the archbishop.
In 1549, St. Juliana of Nicomedia was first mentioned as the patroness next to St. Lubentius . However, she presumably held this position well before that. At the end of the 16th century, some of the ten medieval altars were dismantled; During the Thirty Years' War the secular buildings of the monastery and a large part of the written records were destroyed. In the centuries that followed, the pen never regained its previous importance.
The wooden ceiling of the central nave with baroque painting comes in its current form from the time of reconstruction. In 1692 the rood screen was removed and the windows in the aisle were converted into round windows. In the following years the remaining medieval altars also disappeared. The current altars in the transept were made in the middle of the 18th century, today's high altar in 1791. When the old main altar was torn down in 1790, the Lubentius bones were split up. The larger bones were placed in showcases on the new high altar, the smaller ones were inserted into the new high altar with the old stone sarcophagus.
Baron Christian Franz von Hacke (1731–1807), the Trier cathedral capitular , was the last provost before the monastery was dissolved . The office was connected with the archdeaconate in Dietkirchen and the honorary title of senior choir bishop in the Archdiocese of Trier .
Recent history to the present
In 1802 the monastery fell to the Principality of Orange-Nassau , which the community, like numerous other monasteries, abolished. The occupation and repeal took place in anticipation of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , which assigned the monasteries to the House of Nassau as a replacement for the loss of the possessions on the left bank of the Rhine. In the course of the secularization , numerous objects were lost, including more than 30 altar objects and more than 40 vestments. Since then, the collegiate church has been used as the parish church of the Catholic community in Dietkirchen.
In 1856 a comprehensive renovation of the church was completed. The floor in the eastern part of the church was lowered, the openings to the galleries enlarged and the arcades broken out of them. The Munich painter Johann Georg Baudrexel created new wall and ceiling paintings. In addition, the few remains of the saint apart from the skull were reunited in 1857 in the stone sarcophagus in the high altar. The present organ was installed in 1893.
A new main altar was installed for this. Between 1955 and 1957 a heater was installed. In the course of the work, archaeological investigations were carried out, during which most of the findings that are known today about the prehistory and early history of church construction came to light. Most of the changes made in 1856 were reversed in the early 1960s, and painting also disappeared.
In the 1970s, modifications followed that had become necessary as a result of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council . The most important changes were the redesign of the ambo and the main altar.
On November 30, 1980, the church received a bell that was consecrated by Pope John Paul II during a trip to Germany. The so-called papal bell is one of the largest in the Limburg diocese and is located in the higher of the two towers.
Since 1998, wine has been grown on the southern slope of the Lahnfelsen between the foundations of the former monastery building. The harvest is between 300 and 400 kilograms per year. It is mainly processed into mass wine and served on special occasions under the name "Dietkirchener Lubentius-Ley".
Church building
The current church is the result of a complex building history mainly from the 8th to 13th centuries. The still authoritative monograph by Wilhelm Schäfer from 1966 , which is based on the archaeological and architectural history investigations of the 1950s and 1960s, distinguishes three independent church buildings, whereby it differentiates the latter, which led to the current construction, again into four expansion phases.
The aforementioned chronology has not received any significant criticism to this day. However, in various, more recent publications, especially from Church II onwards, there are different views on how much substance has been carried over from one construction phase to the next, and how these construction phases are to be dated. This is the result of the limited written tradition, which is why considerations directed to the aforementioned aspects must be based primarily on the style criticism.
Church I.
Excavated remains of a first stone church date from the first half of the 8th century and thus the early Carolingian period. Ceramic finds made in the process can be dated to 730 precisely. The church was built around a century before the foundation of the monastery, near the founding of the actual place and in a high phase of Christianization , considering the felling of the Danube oak near Fritzlar around 723 .
According to the findings, a small hall church with a narrower, transversely rectangular choir that was about 15.50 meters long and 8.40 meters wide was created in this first construction phase . Construction seams show that the sacred building was later expanded, which is seen in connection with the transfer of the Lubentius relic. A small rectangular chapel was added to each side , of which the northern one is regarded as the first location of the bones of the saint. The foundations of this church are partially preserved and accessible under the current building.
Church II
The second construction phase, in which the church was rebuilt as a basilica , fell in the time of the Ottonian rulers, around the year 1000 . At 16.60 meters it was as wide as the current church, but at 19.78 meters in length it was much shorter. The eastern end of time typically formed a slightly stilted semicircular central apse with pre- chorus yoke . In front of the high altar located there, the Lubentius grave was located in a brick tomb.
The straight ends of the side aisles in the east formed small rooms with excavated altar stumps with the north and south walls connecting at right angles. Together with the Vorchorjoch, a transept-like space arose between the choir and nave . On the outside, however, this stood apart from the rest of the building by at most the width of the wall; internally, as today, steps separated it from the nave and apse.
In the west, the church was slightly shorter than it is today, the side aisles ended roughly at the level of the front edge of the current west gallery. An adjoining, partially excavated western tower on a square floor plan probably served not only as a bell tower , but perhaps also for defense purposes. There is also speculation about a function as a false gate hall with a tower chapel above. On its lowest floor it was opened in two arcades to the central nave.
In this construction phase, the Michael Chapel and the secular buildings of the monastery that no longer exist today were built. The foundations under the current church as well as rising remains in the front walls of the transept have been preserved from this time.
Church IIIa
The third building phase of the church falls in the Salier period in the second half of the 11th century. In the course of a renovation, the church body reached its current dimensions with an extension of the nave to the west and an extension of the transept, with which the available space on the rock plateau was almost completely exhausted.
Since the rock plateau falls very steeply beyond the extent of Church II in the east, in a first step very high substructures had to be created there. Around the outer flight of the Ottonian apse, which had been demolished in the superstructure, a corridor was bricked through the substructures, which gave access to the monastery buildings on the south side of the site. The routing of its northern exit consciously takes the Michaelskapelle into consideration and thus proves that it must have existed back then.
On the substructure plateau, the transept was then enlarged by about two thirds of its previous width, significantly to the east. The choir, consisting of a very short antechamber and a vaulted semicircular apse, was added to the center. Small side apses are to be assumed in this construction phase, but have not been excavated.
In the west, using the masonry of the Ottonian west tower, the construction of the narrowly placed two-tower system with no entrance and an intermediate building began. A gallery chapel was set up on the first floor, which was opened in two arcades towards the nave. Construction studies have shown that the towers were not built in parallel and in one go: First, the south tower up to the fourth floor, the lowest part of the north tower and probably the intermediate structure were built.
Since the new towers were built on the western edge of their monolithic predecessor, but were only half of its width, the nave had to be extended towards them. This was probably also done using a large part of the masonry of Church II.
Church IIIb
At the beginning of the 12th century the nave was rebuilt as a five-bay pillar basilica . The central nave was given a flat ceiling, the side aisles with groin vaults . Previously, the transept of Church IIIa on the west side was narrowed by wall thickness and at the same time raised to the current level. During this process, visible construction seams in the masonry on the outer south side were made , which give an idea of the original width of the transept.
In addition, the towers were completed up to the current main cornice , possibly they received temporary tent roofs . The fact that the new and present central nave no longer has any reference to the arcade openings on its ground floor that can be found to have existed, shows that the unity of these components was deliberately abandoned at that time.
Inside, the central apse was raised and the side apses were added to the transept. The erection of a stone rood screen system is to be assumed. The Lubentius grave was relocated again with this reconstruction at the latest.
Church IIIc
In the second half of the 12th century, following the example of the Johanniskirche in Lahnstein, it was expanded into a gallery basilica. The walls of the nave were raised and galleries were built over the aisles, with the gallery openings in the old upper aisles being broken. The gallery took into account the width, but not the rhythm of the arcades below. The previously existing windows of the upper aisle of church IIIb were walled up, and wooden anchors that are still present today for longitudinal stiffening were built into the core masonry.
With the elevation of the walls, the roof of the central nave was raised and the tower roofs were completed in the form of diamond- shaped helmets . The former could be recognized during the last restoration on the plaster of the west wall within the roof truss, on which the old, lower gable shape of Church IIIb was still visible. After partial demolition of the walls, a staircase to the newly created galleries was created on the north outer side of the central nave. As an important detail, a flat gable lintel, which probably comes from the south door of church IIIb, which was walled up at this time, was installed in a second use above the outside entrance of the stairs.
The open, western stone gallery and the addition of the sacristy in the south also come from this construction phase , for which the only a few decades old southern side apse was demolished . The reason for the unusual kinking shape is seen in the difficult subsoil conditions in connection with the exit of the passage to the southern monastery grounds below.
Church IIId
In the second quarter of the 13th century, under the influence of the Gothic style, which was now also received in Germany and the Limburg collegiate church, which was under construction, the last stage of expansion was reached. The transept and crossing received a two- bay cross vault with bulging ribs instead of the previous flat ceiling. For its realization two pillars - visibly slender compared to the other pillars of the church - were installed between the crossing and the transept, on whose console stones the vault is developed.
The roof of the crossing was raised almost to the level of the nave. Since the necessary building up of the outer walls was done exclusively in green scarf stone , this construction project is clearly visible on the outside of the church like no other. Other construction measures attributable to this construction phase were the enlargement of the windows of the transept gable and the central apse downwards as well as the vaulting of the sacristy. This change can again be seen particularly well on the south transept from the outside, where an older keyhole window that was walled up at the time can still be seen.
Later construction work
In the first testament of the then custodian Johannes von Attendorn from 1378 the first mention of the Trinity Chapel on the south-eastern edge of the complex can be found. Nine years later, in his second testament, he also describes himself as the builder of the chapel. Attendorn can be documented for the first time in 1364, at that time already as custodian, and for the last time in 1390, when he is described as deceased in Seelbuch II of the church. The chapel is likely to have been built in the third quarter of the 14th century.
The only legacy of the renovation and Baroque transformation of the church after the Thirty Years' War that is visible from the outside is the wooden porch above the northern main portal, which is still preserved today. Inside, as was not uncommon at that time, the medieval rood screen was torn down in 1692 and replaced by an iron door to the choir in 1699. In the same year, the medieval altars were demolished and replaced by those in the style of the time. In addition to the actual parish altar in the choir and two side altars, the side altars in the apses, which are still preserved today, were added in 1759 and 1760.
Building description
Exterior
General and location
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Externally, the church appears as a basilica traditionally built in an east-west direction with an extended, short transept and a central and north apse in the east and a two-tower facade with a narrow intermediate building in the west. The latter are closed by rhombuses , the other components by flat gable roofs . The total length of the church is 39.30 meters with a maximum width of 16.60 meters.
The rock plateau on which the sacred building is located rises from east to west, towards the Lahn it opens in a deep crevice. The two-tower system stands at the highest point of the rock, the east of the church rests on strong substructure foundations that make maximum use of the available space and contain an arched corridor that opens up the southern church area.
Instead of a sweeping transept, a large number of extensions flanking the east of the church characterize the east side, which can be seen from afar, and gives it an unusually heterogeneous appearance. The southern apse of the transept has been replaced by the sacristy built there, positioned diagonally to the nave , underneath is the Trinity Chapel, built parallel to the main building . In the north-east is the free-standing Michael's chapel, which runs perpendicular to the choir .
To the west of the church is an old cemetery, which is no longer used today and extends to both the plateau and the area at the foot of the rock. On the south-western slope of the rock you can still see the foundation walls of the former and presumably fortified secular buildings of the monastery, between which wine has recently been grown.
Building material
The previous plastering was completely removed in the 19th century, analogous to the Limburg Cathedral , so that the limestone and greenish scarf stone can clearly be seen. When viewed from the outside, this allows a precise observation of the various construction phases, materials and masonry techniques.
The oldest parts of the building, i.e. the towers, the transept end walls and the walls of the east section, especially the apses and the crossing, as well as the lower parts of the nave walls, which were built only a little later, are technically made of broken stone with hammered, larger stones as compensation layers . At the corners of the towers, selected larger stones were used, which, however, appear too sporadically to be rated as intended corner blocks.
Only in the upper zones of the aisle and nave walls does a change in the masonry structure become apparent. There flat scarf stones are partly packed together in layers, partly with smaller formats in roller layers. The crossing was finally built entirely in green scarf stone, which means that the old gable level is still clearly visible in the east elevation.
When the Holy Trinity Chapel broke into the substructure of the sacristy above, at around the same time, mixed masonry made of flat limestone and scarf stone was used. This continues into the superstructure, as it probably also had to be rebuilt for structural reasons. The only other material on the exterior, besides narrow copper sheets, is dark slate on the east side , which covers all the roofs.
West towers
The two square towers with their rhombic roofs , the different heights and the presumably modern covered wooden bridge between the gables are characteristic of the exterior , they determine the appearance of the church. They stand on rock pedestals with significantly different heights. Both have five storeys, the top two and the gable with narrow sound openings. The higher south tower has a weather vane over a cross, the north tower a weather vane . In contrast to most two-tower basilicas, there is no entrance portal in the intermediate tower structure.
Interior
The two-winged main portal on the north side of the north aisle is provided with ironwork, some of which date back to the 13th century. The wooden protective roof over the entrance was built at the end of the 17th century.
The nave has three aisles with five bays . The side aisles each have five arched windows, the main nave six arched windows. A stairwell is built in front of the north aisle, which leads to the gallery above the aisles.
The main apse facing east is broken up by three staggered round arched windows and covered by a bisected conical roof. The first floor of the north tower houses the Lubentius chapel with the bones of the saint, that of the south tower houses the staircase to the towers and the organ gallery.
View through the nave to the chancel
View from the chancel through the nave
Michael's Chapel
The chapel, probably built shortly before the year 1000, adjoins the church in the northeast. Your cellar houses an ossuary . On the ground floor there is a neo-Gothic altar that shows the Archangel Michael as the victor over the devil. The ground floor also has a small apse to the east, which was walled up until 1958. During the uncovering, remains of a medieval wall painting came to light, which probably once depicted Christ enthroned and surrounded by the evangelists. Also of the crucifixion scene on the west wall, probably from the early 20th century, only a few remains are left.
The Michaelskapelle is currently being renovated and is therefore not open to the public.
Trinity Chapel
The Trinity Chapel is located on the southeast edge of the plateau. It was first mentioned in 1378 and could not have been built long before. Shortly before 1700 it was redesigned in the Baroque style and given today's altar, which comes from the school of the "Hadamar Baroque". A representation of Maria Immaculata forms its center . Behind the altar is a splendid mural depicting the intercession of Jesus for the people.
In the Trinity Chapel, a Protestant service is held once a month by the Limburg Evangelical Church.
Furnishing
Longhouse
A wooden cross from the end of the 19th century hangs on the wall of the central nave facing the crossing.
The southern side aisle bears the black marble epitaph of the monastery dean Johann Leonidas Schlüpgen from 1702 on the eastern outer wall. To the right is the epitaph for Emmerich Friedrich de Fabre from 1719, which is made of black and white marble. De Fabre was a Napoleonic officer and the son of the Dietkirchen postman. In the next side aisle yoke to the west hang eight stations of the cross from 1974, next to it a niche with a Pietà depiction in the outer wall.
The north aisle is defined in the east by a colored epitaph for the knight Philipp Frei von Dehrn , who died in 1550 . The collegiate church was the burial place of the Frei von Dehrn family. Next to it hang three iron shackles. According to the legend, they come from a knight Dietrich von Dehrn, who is said to have donated them in gratitude for his rescue from Turkish captivity. In the next yoke to the west is a crucifixion group , which was designed in 1699 by the Hadamar sculptor Johann Valentin Neudecker. Finally, a wooden statuette of James the Elder hangs next to the entrance portal . On the other side of the door is a basalt font from the 13th century. The wooden lid was made around 1600.
organ
One organ is attested for 1294. In the 15th century there were two organs, a new one in 1600 and the current organ in 1712. Its basis goes back to Johann Jakob Dahm , who created a single-manual work with 13 registers , which is located on the gallery at the western end of the nave. The prospectus shows angels with fanfare trumpets on two side towers and a triumphant Christ on the central tower.
A major extension was made in 1893 by Michael Keller from Limburg. Another renovation in the neo- baroque style was completed in the course of the church renovation in 1959 by Eduard Wagenbach behind the historic prospectus of Dahm. After that the organ had 29 registers on two manuals and a pedal . In 2002 the organ was completely rebuilt by the Marburg company Gerald Woehl and expanded to 38 registers.
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- annotation
- H = register from the organ by Jakob Dahm (1712)
Bells
By 1917 there were four bells from the years 1753, 1850 and 1904. The Trinity Bell from 1753 (100 cm, approx. 600 kg) was the only one to survive both world wars. To replace the bells given in the First World War, the Schilling bell foundry from Apolda cast three bells in 1926, which, however, had to be delivered in 1942. In 1955, the foundry Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock produced three bells with the same patronage of their predecessors - Lubentius (150 cm, 2,142 kg), Maria (124 cm, 1,160 kg) and Michael (114 cm, 960 kg) - so that the bells ring again four voices could sound from the north tower.
On the occasion of his trip to Germany, Pope John Paul II consecrated a large bell (195 cm, approx. 5,000 kg), also consecrated to St. Lubentius, in 1980, which is also known as the papal bell . It was hung in a new belfry in the south tower. Since then, the five-part bell has been heard in the striking notes a- flat 0 , c 1 , eb 1 , f 1 and g 1 .
The tower clock strikes the quarter of an hour on bell 4, the hours on bell 2. When the angelus is rung every day , bell 3 sounds three times, after which bell 4 is rung for a short time.
Crossing and apse
The most recent major equipment article is seen by the community range from left- tabernacle of sandstone , built in 1981. Main altar and ambo were in 1978 also made of sandstone. The windows of the apse with blue glass were installed in the 1950s.
In the apse of the north transept there is a Marian altar from 1758. The Petrus altar on the east wall of the south wing of the transept also dates from around 1760. On the north front wall of the transept there is a wooden statue of Joseph with the baby Jesus and on the opposite one of St. Lubentius.
Epitaph by Emmerich Friedrich de Fabre
Mary's altar in the north side apse
Petrus altar in the south aisle
James statue next to the entrance door (around 1500, perhaps from Lindenholzhausen)
Joseph statue
Lubentius statue
Pietà in the south transept
Epitaph of Philipp Frei von Dehrn
Lubentius Chapel
The entrance to the Lubentius Chapel is located in the west wall of the north aisle. It is dominated by an altar from the 1970s, under which the sandstone sarcophagus is located, in which the bones of St. Lubentius were probably brought to Dietkirchen in the 9th century and in which they are still located today. Behind the grille of the altarpiece there is a reliquary in the form of a bust.
The head of the bust, in which part of the skull of the saint is enclosed, was possibly made in Mainz shortly before 1300, the breast part of the bust in 1477. The head of the reliquary may not have been specially made for the Lubentius relic, as the cavity is clear is too small for the existing bone fragments. The jaw does not fit into the container at all and is in the high altar with the remaining pieces of bone. Even the pieces of skull in the reliquary have suffered significant damage at pressure points over the centuries. The head of the bust originally consisted of one piece, later the top of the skull of the container was cut through and hinged so that it could be opened. This skullcap was stolen in 1846 and replaced in 1955.
War memorial next to Michael’s Chapel
Graves next to the church portal
Others
- During her trip to Europe in 1985, Mother Teresa paid a visit to the collegiate church of St. Lubentius to pray at the grave of St. Lubentius .
- As part of a vote by Hessischer Rundfunk in 2011, the Lubentius Basilica was voted 10th among the most beautiful churches in Hesse
literature
- Folkhard Cremer (edit.): Handbook of German Art Monuments. Hessen I. Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , pp. 165–170.
- Marie-Luise Crone: Dietkirchen. History of a village in the shadow of St. Lubentiusstift. Magistrate of the district town of Limburg an der Lahn, Limburg an der Lahn 1991, ISBN 3-9802789-0-5 .
- Verena Fuchß, State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse (ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. City of Limburg. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2096-4 , pp. 455-459.
- Gabriel Hefele: Dietkirchen a. d. Lahn. Catholic parish church of St. Lubentius. 3. Edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-7954-5802-7 .
- Wilhelm Schäfer: The building history of the collegiate church St. Lubentius in Dietkirchen in the Lahn valley. Publishing house of the Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1966 ( publications of the Historical Commission for Nassau XIX).
- Wolf-Heino Struck: The Archdiocese of Trier 4. The St. Lubentius Abbey in Dietkirchen. In: Max Planck Institute for History (ed.), Irene Crusius (editor): Germania Sacra. Historical-statistical description of the Church of the Old Kingdom. New episode 22. The dioceses of the church province of Trier. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, ISBN 978-3-11-010829-3 ( online ).
Web links
- Archives about the Lubentiusstift in the Hessian Main State Archive, Wiesbaden
- Parish St. Lubentius Limburg-Dietkirchen ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Catholic parish church St. Lubentius and Juliana, former collegiate church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
- Virtual 360 ° tour through St. Lubentius in Dietkirchen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Johann Samuelersch u. Johann Gottfried Gruber : General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 1st section, 25th part; P. 93, Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig, 1834; (Digital scan)
- ^ Franz Bösken : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (= contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 7.1 ). tape 2 : The area of the former administrative district of Wiesbaden. Part 1: A-K . Schott, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7957-1307-2 , p. 123 f .
- ↑ To the disposition
- ↑ Hubert Foersch: Limburger bells book. Bells and chimes in the Diocese of Limburg . Verlag des Bischöflichen Ordinariates, Limburg 1997, p. 579-581 .
- ^ Limburg-Dietkirchen: St. Lubentius. Hessischer Rundfunk (HR 4), accessed on June 20, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Ronshäuser fortified church proposes Stiftsruine! , April 22, 2011 on Kreisanzeiger-online.de ( Memento from April 29, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Competition - the most beautiful church in Hesse , on ev-kirche-hatzfeld.de, accessed on March 3, 2013.
Coordinates: 50 ° 24 ′ 10.7 ″ N , 8 ° 5 ′ 47 ″ E