Marienfeld (World Youth Day)
The Marie field is a comprehensive 260 ha of arable land in since 2003 backfilled and recultivated former Braunkohletagebau Frechen , in the 1952-1986 brown coal was conveyed from a depth of 250 meters. It is located west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft district in North Rhine-Westphalia . In the north it is bounded by the Fürstenberggraben , a river connection between the Fürstenberg Maar east of the field and the Boisdorf lake to the north-west . The industrial area Kerpen - Türnich forms the southern boundary .
The field is located around 20 kilometers southwest of Cologne Cathedral . During the XX. World Youth Day 2005 signposted pilgrimage routes led to Marienfeld via footpaths and hiking trails , which could be covered in about four hours. The Marienfeld has been used since September 2004 for the Vigil on August 20 and the closing mass of World Youth Day on August 21, 2005, both together with Pope Benedict XVI. were celebrated, prepared for up to a million participants.
history
The name Marienfeld was chosen based on its prehistory as a 500-year-old pilgrimage site on the site of the former open-cast mine . In the pilgrimage church of St. Mariä Himmelfahrt in the neighboring relocated Frechen - Grefrath , a Pietà ( statue of the Virgin Mary) created around 1420 from French limestone can be seen, whose former locations, chapel and monastery church of the Bottenbroich monastery , in the towns of Alt-Grefrath and Bottenbroich were in the opencast mining area . The site was inaugurated on October 10, 2004 as part of a youth fair. The ten-meter-high wooden cross blessed at this fair is intended to remind of the history of the site as a place of pilgrimage to Mary.
Pope Hill
After the groundbreaking on March 31, 2005, the so-called Pope's Hill was built for the services. Joachim Cardinal Meisner baptized this 10-meter-high fill for the altar with the name of the Mountain of 70 Nations because delegates from 70 countries laid earth from their countries there at the beginning of 2005. About 80,000 m³ of earth were poured in 55 days for the Pope's hill. The hill has a floor area of 15,000 m² and an upper area for the altar and seats of 3,500 m² to accommodate around 2,000 people. After the World Youth Day, the installations around the Marienfeld were dismantled by December 2005 , the Pope Hill was preserved and will continue to be used as part of a local recreation area .
Vigil and closing mass
Large screens, lighting and loudspeakers were installed for the Vigil and the closing fair, for which an electrical output of 15,000 kilowatts was provided. A waterworks in the neighboring village of Kerpen-Türnich was able to pump a water volume of 800,000 liters per hour to Marienfeld.
At the vigil on August 20, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the World Youth Day bell, which was cast in memory of his predecessor, John Paul II , who died in April . The peace-determined closing service of World Youth Day 2005 took place on August 21 at Marienfeld. A large number of pilgrims stayed overnight on the Marienfeld without incident. Police and organizers said the number of 1.2 million participants.
The area at the Bonn-Hangelar airfield, originally intended as the location for the final event , was not chosen for reasons of nature conservation .
In use since World Youth Day 2005
The Marienfeld with the Pope's hill is included in the pilgrimage route to Jakobsweg in the route Cologne (St. Jakob, Cologne-Widdersdorf ), Brauweiler Abbey , Frechen, Kolping- City Kerpen, Düren , Aachen . A catering facility is also to be built on the site.
In September 2006, a sundial with the coat of arms of the Morimond monastery was set up in Marienfeld in what is now Frechen's area, on the site of the former Bottenbroich monastery in the presence of monks from the Stiepel monastery in Bochum . Path arrows on the monument are intended to remind pilgrims of their ties with the two monasteries.
On the occasion of the 1st anniversary of World Youth Day, a great hour pilgrimage to Marienfeld took place on August 26, 2006. There about 1500 Christians experienced a vigil on the Pope's hill in the presence of Cardinal Joachim Meisner . Then around 500 young pilgrims followed the call of the diocesan youth pastor Mike Kolb to make a pilgrimage to Cologne Cathedral that night , where a Eucharistic celebration and a final breakfast took place in the early morning hours.
The WYD annual celebrations on the Marienfeld will take place annually.
Further construction work began in autumn 2006: An information board at the entrance as well as twelve cherry trees, an open basalt altar and the WYD cross were built on the Pope's hill. The second annual celebration on Marienfeld took place on August 25, 2007. On this day, Auxiliary Bishop Heiner Koch blessed the so-called Papal Hill on Marienfeld. The embankment was made a little wider at the top, and the altar and the cross are now firmly attached to the ground. Various earths were also used, which delegates from all over the world had brought with them to a meeting in Cologne a year before the World Youth Day. The newly built little Lady Chapel on Pope's Hill was inaugurated on September 5, 2009 by Joachim Cardinal Meisner. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Kerpen borne the costs for the preparation of the Marienfeld and the Papal Hill of at least 600,000 euros, while the World Youth Day gGmbH saved around 800,000 euros that would have cost the initially planned removal of the Papal Hill.
Hiking trails
Quirinus hiking trail
A 1.4 km long circular hiking trail financed by the Regionale 2010 is named after the Mödrath parish priest St. Quirinus , which leads from the main parking lot of Marienfeld near Alt- Mödrath (L 162 / L 163) through Marienfeld and on a new bridge over the Erft Canal and leads on a restored chestnut avenue into the old forest around the former Mödrath mill on the Erft . Old and modern sights are shown on display boards (as is usual in Marienfeld). The newly created circular route complements the previous hiking trails in Marienfeld, which are now to be re-marked.
Other circular routes
The 4.3 km long path around the Boisdorfer See and the 11.1 km long church hiking trail , which connects the locations of the submerged churches of Bottenbroich and Mödrath with the preserved churches, were also created with funds from the Regionale 2010.
Web links
- History of the Marienfeld with further references
- For RWE, World Youth Day is not over yet
- Information about Marienfeld and alternative locations
- Kerpener Plan Marienfeld with circular routes (PDF; 2.5 MB)
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- ↑ Vatican Radio : Pope Hill in Cologne inaugurated ( Memento from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) August 25, 2007
- ↑ Kölner Stadtanzeiger : The design of the Pope Hill is finished ( Memento from August 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) September 6, 2009
- ↑ Sunday Post : [1] View towards Papsthügel - The Marienfeld is to be expanded into a local recreation area
- ^ Kath.net : [2] February 16, 2006
- ↑ Wilfried Meisen: Pfade macht schlau , Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Rhein-Erft from May 27, 2010 and online ( Memento from August 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) from May 26 (accessed June 2010)
Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 6 ″ N , 6 ° 44 ′ 17 ″ E