Assumption of Mary (Fuchsstadt)
The Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption is located in the Lower Franconian community of Fuchsstadt in the Bavarian district of Bad Kissingen .
The church is one of the architectural monuments of Fuchsstadt and is registered under the number D-6-72-124-1 in the Bavarian list of monuments .
history
Previous buildings
A first tower substructure is documented as early as the 13th century. The first known news about the church itself comes from the year 1404, when the Würzburg canon Diether von Bickenbach founded an early mass, which was mentioned again later in 1690.
Towards the end of the 16th century there were several reports about the damaged condition of the church, so that Prince-Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn ordered a practically complete new building in 1600/01. An altarpiece of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus is documented for the year 1608. The high altar of this previous church could have been in the cross-vaulted side chapel in the choir.
In 1661 the parish church received a silver monstrance as a gift from the Augustinian Father Johannes Hubmann, who had been killed by the Swedes in 1631 at the Würzburg residence . A plate at the foot of the monstrance is engraved with the name of the Augustinian Father.
The first construction defects occurred as early as 1627; in addition, the church burned down in 1633 during the Thirty Years' War .
Little is known about the bells of the previous church of today 's Assumption Church. The existence of the "twelve bell" (also called "large one"), which is still in existence today and was cast in Fuchsstadt, is documented for the year 1729.
Today's Church of the Assumption of Mary (construction)
From 1751 to 1766, almost the entire former church building - except for the church tower - was demolished and today's Church of the Assumption was built in its current form despite the adverse circumstances of the Seven Years' War . The blueprint came from Johann Michael Fischer (1727–1788) from Würzburg , a student of Balthasar Neumann. Bricklayer Johannes Behmann from Schrautenbach, stone mason Conrad Katzenberger from Egenhausen, Hans Jörg Spätz from Machtilshausen (church door pillar) and carpenter Johann Georg Löffler from Arnstein were involved in the construction work.
The church tower on the northwest side of the nave consists of a pure Romanesque substructure from the 13th century and an attached Julius-Echter tower from 1588.
On the outside facade of the church (in the middle niche of the upper floor) there is a sandstone figure of the Assumption of the Virgin and in the side panels the sandstone figures of Simon Peter (left) and St. Paul of Tarsus (right).
The coat of arms of the then Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim is located above the arched portal of the church built from local greenish sandstone . The keystone above the portal shows as a chronogram in a distich written by Pastor Johann Valentin Ament, the builder of the church, “1766” as the year of the laying of the foundation stone (April 30, 1766).
The former gaden framing the church may have stood on the remains of a former fortification, which would have made the predecessor of today's Church of the Assumption of Mary a fortified church. On the east side of the Gaden is the epitaph of Pastor Johann Valentin Ament (1751–1778) in the immediate vicinity .
As part of a repair of the church tower on November 18, 1765, a document was inserted as a time capsule , which described the time from 1751 to 1765.
Figure of St. Simon Petrus , exterior facade (left).
Assumption figure, outer facade (center).
Figure of St. Paul of Tarsus , outer facade (right).
Today's Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (interior)
During the construction phase, there was a dispute over the interior of the church. When pastor Johann Valentin Ament realized that the portraits made by Materno Bossi were too small for the altar, he feared that Fuchsstadt could become a mockery in the vicinity. But Bossi's plans remained and Pastor Ament assigned the foundation stone of the church on April 30, 1766.
Materno Bossi designed the high altar together with the side altars as a coherent group. On the pillars are the side figures of St. Johannes Nepomuk and St. Aquilin as well as the side figures of St. John the Baptist and St. Jude Squidward . Johann Baptist Talhofer painted the original high altar picture, which later "became completely unrecognizable". In 1825 the painter Karl Eberlin created a new high altar painting “Assumption of Mary” for 70 guilders . Today's high altar sheet was created by the painter and Königl. Professor Georg Josef Bernhard Schäfer in 1896 under Pastor Otto Büttner. The tabernacle of the high altar dates from 1950.
The two side altars erected in 1770 are dedicated to St. Anna (the mother of Mary) and St. Consecrated to Joseph of Nazareth . The St. Anna altar has as side figures St. Boniface (left) and St. Burkard , the first bishop of Würzburg (right). The side figures of the St. Joseph Altar are St. Sebastian (left) and St. Wendelin (right).
The decorations on the walls of the hall-like interior also come from Materno Bossi. The execution of the decorations was not limited by Bossi's abilities, but rather by the financial possibilities of the community of Fuchsstadt. Only the large windows have a simple profile and winged angel heads. Johann Baptist Talhofer, the painter of the original high altar picture , painted some picture cartouches such as the Nativity (above the left entrance) and the Flight to Egypt (above the right entrance). In the middle of the ceiling is the eye of God in the radiance with putti heads.
The baroque processional or carrying Madonna on the east side of the nave may also come from Materno Bossi . The wooden figure of Pope Urban I standing on a console was made by Josef Ruppert from Hammelburg ; it is intended to remind of Fuchsstadt's former status as a wine village.
When it was built in 1766, the church got a new organ, as evidenced by the invoice issued by the congregation to Daniel Suckfull from Euerdorf for 35 guilders for a new organ prospectus. In 1966, today's organ work was used by the Gustav Weiß workshop in Zellingen .
In the years 1764 to 1766 Johann Peter Herrlein painted the Way of the Cross of the church, which the Rhön local history researcher Pastor Johann Pfeufer described in 1970 as unmatched in its inner expressiveness. The Stations of the Cross were consecrated in 1884 by P. Liborius Leuninger from Hammelburg's Old Town Monastery .
The pulpit was built in 1770 and bears the figures of the evangelists Mark with his symbol, the lion, John with his symbol, the eagle, and Matthew with his symbol, the angel's head , on the curved basket . The angel's head was stolen in 1972. On the stairs of the pulpit is the figure of the Evangelist Luke with his symbol, the bull.
19th century
In 1804/05 a silver and gold-plated monstrance for 261 guilders was purchased, but the parish's plan to make a down payment in the form of the silver monstrance, which dates from 1661, failed.
In 1830, the bell called "Big" or "Twelve Bell" was supplemented by three more bronze bells. Of these three additional bells, only the "Kleng" is known, where it was cast ( Karlstadt ). The other two bells, the "men's bell" and the "Elfer bell", were replaced by two new bells by the municipality in 1890.
The first major restoration took place in 1878 under the Kitzingen painter and gilder Arnold Deichmann. Another restoration was undertaken in 1903 by the Fulda church painter Carl Schmaus, who in this context also mounted Johann Peter Herrlein's Stations of the Cross paintings on fresh canvas and professionally restored them, added the missing carvings and renewed the color of the frames. In 1924 the sacristy was added.
20th century
During the First World War , three of the four bells (except the "Kleng") of the Fuchsstadt church were to be delivered to be melted down. Parish administrator Stößel, however, saved the two largest bells, the “Zwölferglocke” and the “Muttergottesglocke”, with an opinion from the Royal Conservator General, before they were melted down. Instead, the “Elferglocke” and “Kleng” had to be delivered. In 1917, a cast steel bell was purchased from JF Weule in Bockenem, which was the third bell to replace the two bells that had been delivered. This bell only bears the year "1917" as an inscription.
On September 6, 1925, the local council decided to buy two more bells to replace the two bells that had been delivered. On February 14, 1926, the "Peace Bell" and the "Baptism Bell" were delivered by the Klaus foundry from Heidingsfeld at a price of 3,047 Reichsmarks and received by Pastor Josef Wiesen on the church square with great sympathy from the local population. The peace bell had the inscription "ET IN TERRA PAX HOMINIBUS" (German: And peace to people on earth) and was with the image of St. Joseph decorated. The cast steel bell from the Weule company, which was purchased during the war, was removed from the tower in this context and taken there in 1935 during the construction of the Fuchsstadt Kohlenberg chapel, where it has since been known as the "Kobarchsglöckle".
Pastor Josef Wiesen commissioned the Würzburg sculptor Heinz Schiestl to create a second way of the cross in wood. Heinz Schiestl was only able to complete the first five stations, which are located on the gallery (the 1st and 4th stations) and in the side chapel in the western part of the choir (the 2nd, 3rd and 5th stations). Also in the side chapel, in which the high altar of the church from 1588 stood, is the image of a dying warrior looking towards his home church. The picture was made by Munich professor Peter Hirsch, a friend of Pastor Josef Wiesen, for the war memorial site of the First World War and is supplemented by a Pietà created by Josef Spiegel .
Even during the Second World War , bells had to be delivered to be melted down; only the smallest bell from 1926 was spared. While the “Mother of God Bell” from 1890 and the “Peace Bell” from 1926 were melted down, the “Zwölferglocke” (Great Bell) returned to the Assumption Church in 1948 . In 1949 two new bells were purchased as replacements and delivered on November 11th of the same year by the foundry Lorenz Klaus, successor Karl Czudnochowsky.
In 1956 an electric bell ringer was installed.
Peal
The four bells make up the "Salve Regina" motif.
| No. | Surname | Chime | inscription | Casting year | Bell caster | Weight | diameter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Big bell | it | De profundis clamavi ad te dominum exaudi vocem meam ps. xxix v. I (with the pastor's name, etc.) | 1729 | Johann Adam Roth | 1100 kg | 125 cm |
| 2 | Men's bell | G | I call the men | 1949 | Lorenz Klaus s. above | 682 kg | no information |
| 3 | Marienbell | b´ | Ave Maria | 1949 | Lorenz Klaus s. above | 347 kg | no information |
| 4th | Baptismal bell | c´´ | Gloria in excelsis deo | 1926 | Brothers Klaus | 303 kg | 77 cm |
literature
- Catholic parish office Fuchsstadt / Dek. Hammelburg (ed.): "250 Years Pfarrei Fuchsstadt 1744 - 1994", Festschrift 250 Years Pfarrei Fuchsstadt, 1994
- Georg Dehio : Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bavaria I: Franconia: The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia: BD I , Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, 2nd, reviewed and supplemented edition, 1999, p. 363
- Robert Kümmert : Bells of the Hammelburg district , Würzburg 1955
Web links
- The Assumption Church in Fuchsstadt at www.fuchsstadt.saalekreuz.de
- [Information homepage on behalf of the municipality of Fuchsstadt (archive.org) ( Memento from August 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )]
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 28.7 ″ N , 9 ° 56 ′ 18.1 ″ E