Birth of Mary (Witzighausen)

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Church of the Birth of Mary from the East

Nativity of Mary is a Catholic parish and pilgrimage church in Senden district Witzighausen in Neu-Ulm . The construction of the church, which began in 1733, was not completed until the steeple was raised in 1860.

location

The church is centrally located in the village of Witzighausen and borders directly on Marienstraße to the south and directly to Weißenhorner Straße to the east. The northern area is bordered by a parking lot, and the rectory is to the west . It stands on the ridge that separates the Lower Illertal from the Rothtal .

history

Today's tower largely comes from the late Gothic church built around 1480. It was consecrated to the three patrons Mary , St. Vitus and St. Euphemia . It must have had a beautiful interior and in 1679 it was considered the most beautiful church in the Weissenhorn chapter.

Interior of the church

The heavily indebted Count Wilhelm von Kirchberg donated a perpetual mass to this old chapel in 1481 . His motivation for this is unknown, but the following year he had to sell his possessions to Duke Georg von Bayern-Landshut because of the high level of debt . Who founded the church in the 16th century, which included a farm in Illerberg and a hundred Jauchert forests, cannot be clarified to this day. The Fuggers , who had been wealthy in neighboring Weißenhorn since 1507, could have appeared here as donors, since Witzighausen also belonged to their county of Kirchberg-Weißenhorn. During the plague period from 1550 to 1600, a pilgrimage to the chapel developed. However, nothing has been handed down from a legend or the like. The first report on the pilgrimages from 1611 already speaks of many pilgrimages that were carried out to Witzighausen.

In the baroque era, the foundation was already so rich that it financed new church buildings in the neighboring towns of Illerzell and Wullenstetten . In 1710 the consideration was raised to build a fourth altar at the ancient miraculous image of Mary. However, these considerations seem to have been rejected in favor of a radical renewal of the Church. A newly built choir is mentioned in the files in 1735, while at the same time there is talk of a renovation of the remaining part. It was not until May 8, 1738, that a cost estimate for a completely new church was submitted by Christian Wiedemann from Elchingen . In this cost estimate, however, the newly built choir was included. The foundation stone for this new church was laid on May 23 of the same year in the presence of Dean Augustin Günzer von Wullenstetten and Count Adam Franz Joseph Fugger. This in turn must allow the conclusion that the nave had already been demolished at the time of the cost estimate and the excavation for the foundations had been exposed.

The construction cannot have been carried out by Wiedemann after the crack . Although this has not been preserved, the cost estimate reports on Facciata gables on all four pages. However, these have not been carried out. The church was probably completed in 1740, as the fresco painter Christoph Thomas Scheffler from Augsburg signed his frescoes with this date. He and a journeyman painted the church in 15 weeks. The plasterer Gottlieb Finsterwalder was employed in the church for 13.5 weeks . However, it seems unlikely that he alone stuccoed the church in that short time. It is believed that either his son or brother Ignaz helped him. The entries made by the host and sacristan Bremauer support this thesis.

The Augsburg Auxiliary Bishop Johann Jakob von Mayr consecrated the church on September 12, 1748. However, the altars were still missing at that time. In the end, the new church building overwhelmed the church foundation, so beneficiary Ott lent 4,000 guilders from his assets to the foundation. Leonhard Müller, sculptor from Weißenhorn, delivered a cost estimate for the pulpit , the confessionals and the sacristy doors on January 18, 1741 . However, it is unknown who built the pulpit. It seems certain, however, that Leonhard Müller provided the artistic work. Franz Josef Bergmüller built the three altars of the church and placed them in the church in 1757/1758. However, the altar delivered first was transferred to the Wallenhauser church, as it did not fit into the Witzighauser church . However , the altars did not yet have altar leaves due to the extremely tight financial situation of the foundation. These were only ordered from Konrad Huber in 1781 for 140 guilders. The setting of the altars and the pulpit around 1100 guilders was not carried out until 1781 by Joseph Hartmann from Illereichen .

The current church building was completed with the covering of the old saddle tower in 1859. It was increased until the following year. The new tower tower, however, is referred to in the literature as no ornament for church and landscape . In 1938 the church was renovated by the workshops Pfohmann from Munich and Heinle from Weißenhorn. In 2012 the church was renovated again.

organ

The Zeilhuber organ (1952) with the neo-baroque prospect of the previous organ by Koulen (1913)

From the first organ in the Church of the Birth of Mary, which was built in 1913 by the Koulen organ building workshop , only the neo-baroque prospectus and a few registers remained when the Zeilhuber company built a new organ in 1952 . The Zeilhuber organ has 31 registers, which are divided into three manuals and pedal . It was overhauled in 1983 by the builder company and in 2000 by Link . The two new registers trumpet 8 'and oboe 8' were built in, and a new intonation was carried out by Jehmlich . The disposition of the Zeilhuber organ is as follows:

I Rückpositiv C – a 3
Dolce 8th'
Covered 8th'
viola 4 ′
Prefix 4 ′
Night horn 2 ′
Zimbel IV 2 ⁄ 3 ′
Vox humana 8th'
Tremulant
II main work C – a 3
Gemshorn 8th'
Lovely covered 8th'
Principal 8th'
Octav 4 ′
flute 4 ′
Octav 2 ′
Mixture V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
III Swell C – a 3
Violin principal 8th'
Beat 8th'
Salicional 8th'
flute 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Cane-covered 4 ′
Quint 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Piccolo 2 ′
Scharff IV 1'
Trumpet 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Contrabass 16 ′
Subtle bass 16 ′
Octavbass 8th'
Covered bass 8th'
Choral bass 8th'
Principal 2 ′

literature

  • Martin Kluger : The Fuggers around Augsburg, Munich and Ulm. Nobility, castles and churches . 1st edition. Context Verlag Augsburg, Augsburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-939645-43-6 .
  • Anton H. Konrad : Witzighausen. Parish church and pilgrimage church of the "Birth of Mary" . Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn 1993.

Web links

Commons : Nativity of Mary  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Diocese of Augsburg
  2. ↑ Konrad, page 6
  3. ↑ Konrad, page 6
  4. ^ Georg Brenninger : Organs in Swabia. GeraNova Bruckmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7654-2001-8 , p. 109.
  5. ↑ KOULEN / ZEILHUBER organ, Witzighausen. In: ulmer-orgeln.de. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  6. ^ Georg Brenninger: Organs in Swabia. GeraNova Bruckmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7654-2001-8 , p. 154.

Coordinates: 48 ° 18 ′ 54.3 "  N , 10 ° 6 ′ 10.3"  E