Marienkapelle (Frauenthal)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marienkapelle Frauenthal

The Marienkapelle Frauenthal in today's Frauenthal district of the city of Erftstadt has its origins as a small church in a monastery that was built on this site in the Middle Ages by a religious community .

history

First mentioned as Marienthal Monastery

Possibly resulting in the 12th century convent was located near the old Roman road Trier-Cologne , today Agrippa Street Cologne-Trier and was under the name "Kloster Marienthal" for the first time in 1220 in a document of Cologne pin St. Apostles mentioned . The entry in the shrine file (7 III 10. 11) registered the handover of a house and land belonging to the monastery (near the St. Reinold chapel on Marsilstein) to the Marienthal monastery, which it was bequeathed to.

Document of St. Apostles, 1234

A document from May 1234 confirms the name "Marienthal" again, it is the name from which the later place name Frauenthal developed. In the sealed document which transmitted Head ( "Praelata") and her convent in Marienthal, "in valle beatae Mariae", the Monastery of St. Apostles a pension.

Monastery seal

The seal of the monastery shows Mary sitting on a stone bench , on the lap of the blessing Child Jesus , who is holding a lily scepter in his right hand . The background is formed by diamonds with small crosses. The inscription of the seal (aged letters were put in brackets by experts) refers to the church of the monastery. The reconstructed text reads: "(SIG) ILLVM ECCL (ESIE) VALLIS (SAN) TE MARIE VIRGIN (IS)"

Change of place name

In 1276 the monastery appeared with the name "vrouwendale" (Frauenthal) when Beatrix von Gymnich , Johann von Kerpen's widow, made agreements with her brother Wenemar von Gymnich (Gimmenich) about their possessions. Beatrix received Buschfeld and other possessions, Wenemar, who took over the debts left by his brother-in-law, Kerpen Castle and an annuity of 30 marks, which under certain conditions (death of the children ) fall as a measurement foundation to the Frauenthal Monastery ("claustro van Unservrouwendale") should.

Designation as a Cistercian convent

In 1282, the abbess and convent of the Cistercian monastery "vrowendale" (Frauenthal) transferred hereditary interest of one mark to the "Heilig Geisthaus", a poor hospital in Cologne , for a fee . This document was stamped with the abbess's seal.

Possessions

Even in the 14th century, the Frauenthal monastery remained occupied by a variety of transactions in the real estate sector, but the purchase and sale of pensioners, pledges or the mention of land ownership were also on record. For example, in 1318 the Bliesheimer Mühle pledged to the Frauenthal Abbey was redeemed by a canon from St. Mariengraden or the lease in Dirmerzheim documented in 1333 and the possession of the lands and Benden am Mühlenbach in Liblar , next to the possessions of Hermann von Goch , which for 1396 were notarized. Also in the 15th century, so in 1422 and 1442, further lands and areas of the monastery were mentioned.

End of the Frauenthal order

Despite the considerable size of the monastery property, the complex was described as abandoned in 1449 (probably after a fire), so that it was dissolved by the general chapter of the order in Cîteaux and the properties were transferred to the Walberberg monastery .

Archbishop Dietrich von Moers refused to approve this procedure and in 1450, as sovereign, transferred the possessions of the monastery in Frauenthal to the Birgittenkloster Marienforst near Godesberg .

After a settlement with the order leadership in Walberberg, the church and lands remained in the possession of the Marienforster order house from 1459, in which they remained until secularization in 1802.

The Marienkapelle under Marienforst Monastery

Maintenance through foundations

Even in modern times , under the administration of the Marienforster Order, there was no revival of the Frauenthal convent. The monastery church, on the other hand, which had become a popular destination for pilgrims due to its special features, was retained. In this church services were now held regularly, with the maintenance of the chapel and priests generally being financed by foundations and small donations. For example, the prior of Kloster Bottenbroich (or his representative), after a mass foundation in 1530, endowed by Margarethe von Buschfeld, the widow of Arnold von Gymnich , had mass celebrations for the deceased every Saturday in Frauenthal for a pension of four Rhenish guilders To keep families. The Kierdorf pastor, a conventual from Bottenbroich, took on the obligation .

War damage and renovations

The courtyard and church of Frauenthal were set on fire by Dutch mercenaries during the Truchsessian War in 1586 and suffered severe damage that was not repaired for years. In 1603, the Speyer cathedral dean Adolph Wolff von Metternich zur Gracht (1553–1619) and his brother Hermann Wolff Metternich, bailiff at Lechenich , tried to rebuild it with the consent of the owner in Marienforst. It was urgent to replace the burned roof structure and to prepare the chapel so that services and prayer could be held in it again.

Coadjutor Ferdinand , the later elector and archbishop of Cologne, allowed the brothers (Metternich) to hold a collection that was to be used to further finance the renovation of the chapel, for which he personally provided financial means. The chapel received a new, vaulted wooden ceiling and a slate roof, but the church itself was reduced in size by a third for reasons of cost.

After the restoration, the stone miraculous statue of “Our Lady” in the chapel once again attracted many pilgrims who went to Frauenthal to worship.

To furnish the church, Adolf Wolff Metternich donated a golden chalice, which was then consecrated to the Virgin Mary in Frauenthal. The chalice received the following engravings in capital letters: "Adolff Wolff called Metternich Domdechant zu Speir dedicabat beatissimae Virgini Mariae in Frawendal 1609" and the Wolff and Buschfeld coats of arms as additional decoration .

Dilapidation and renewed renovation

In the following decades, little seems to have been done for the maintenance of the band. In 1764 the chapel, which was still very popular with believers because of the “miraculous statue”, was described as so ruinous that it could no longer be operated safely. Count Hugo von der Leyen, the heir of the Buschfeld family, allowed the Marienforst Monastery to use demolition bricks from the old Buschfeld house to repair the building.

In the brick masonry chapel, which was built after the restoration, services were also recorded on Sundays and public holidays, for which the Auxiliary Bishop Franz Kaspar von Franken-Siersdorf gave the Marienforster Prior permission to hold.

During the secularization of 1802, the cloister courtyard was expropriated as spiritual property and awarded to his foundation of the Legion of Honor by the consul Napoléon Bonaparte . In 1809 the entire monastery complex, including the chapel, was sold for 14,360 francs . The statue of the Virgin Mary has since been lost.

Münch Foundations

Arched windows of the baroque period
Chapel as private property

Adolf Münch, a native of Lechenich, had become prosperous as a Cologne wine merchant. Münch and his wife Helene, née Offermann, acquired the former cloister courtyard with the chapel in 1851 and initially had the dilapidated residential and farm buildings renovated. In 1860, with the approval of the church, he had the chapel immediately attached to the courtyard buildings renovated. At the time of his purchase of the property, only the massive outer walls that supported a damaged roof remained. First the walls and roof of the chapel were restored, and new windows and doors were installed. Then new church stalls and an altar were put up. The Münch couple undertake to fully decorate the chapel and to furnish the utensils necessary for the church services in a dignified manner and to replace them when worn. So were vestments and liturgical vessels concerned and completed the equipment of the chapel. Frauenthal owes the preservation of the historic building to the Münch couple, who initially invested 1,500 thalers in the construction of the chapel.

After the bells had been consecrated the day before, the church interior was consecrated again on July 2, 1861. At the request of the donors, it was placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary. With reference to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, it was given the name "Immaculata Conceptio BMV". The consecration was celebrated by the Lechenich pastor Cremer with the assistance of numerous clergymen. A large number of residents from the surrounding towns went to Frauenthal in processions to take part in the inauguration.

Development into a hospital chapel

The Münch couple, who in 1867 founded a poor hospital for the elderly and the sick of the mayor's offices in Lechenich and Liblar on the same site, remained in possession of the chapel. They had given the entire complex with lands, business, care and residential tracts the legal form of a foundation , into which they brought in a further 5000 thalers of capital. A clerical rector was appointed who, from the end of 1869, celebrated mass there on Sundays and public holidays for the nurses and the staff of the “Marienspital” and for the neighboring residents. He was committed to the pastoral care for those working in the Hospital Sisters of the Daughters of Charity (from Nippes to take), the sick Marienhospital pastorally to serve, as well as religious instruction be given at school Blessem.

  • Interior from the gallery

  • Longhouse to the east

  • Longhouse to the west

  • Barrel vault made of wood

In 1879, according to a plan by Cologne architect August Carl Lange, the chapel was enlarged by two axes to the west to its present length, so that the front of the church building formed a line of alignment with the adjoining main buildings. In the course of this redesign, the organ gallery, which is still preserved today, was probably added . This was connected to the upper floor of the building wing to the north of the chapel and enabled the sisters to attend the service separately.

Rectorate Parish Church

The Marienkapelle was until 1961 in Frauenthal Rectorate Parish Church for the places Frauenthal and Blessem. As the rectorate parish, it received greater pastoral rights over the years. So in 1908 the right to baptize , in 1910 the right to burial , in 1912 the right to give first communion and to celebrate Easter communion , and finally in 1923 the right to organize one's own Corpus Christi procession . Until 1935, two bells hung in the openings in the roof ridge, and in 1936 a third bell was added.

The Marienkapelle was apparently spared from the Second World War, which began a few years later, and its destruction. For the post-war period it was reported that the ceiling was painted over in 1955 using stencil technology ; no further substantial changes are known until the beginning of the 1990s.

Hospital chapel

After the necessary restorations of the interior, including the wooden ceiling, the altar and the other neo-Gothic furnishings, which were carried out between 1992 and 1994, the chapel has been used almost exclusively as a place of worship since October 1994 . It is open all day and anyone can go to prayer. Services are only held for special matters.

Today's chapel

Lady Chapel, southwest side
description

The chapel is a simple, one slated pitched roof -supporting hall building . Its original symmetry with five window axes was lost when the hospital building was added. The outside of the nave is only visible to the visitor from the south side, which is still equipped with five high arched windows, and is concealed by an annex to the east with a 3/8 choir . In the narrow west gable front of the chapel is the centrally arranged high portal . This is framed by a risalit , which tapers above a round window placed above the portal, framed by a tracery wreath, then flanked by a round arched window to form a towering roof turret. Until 1935, two bells hung in the bell levels of the roof ridge, which are now open to the east-west, and were supplemented by another in 1936. The entire structure was painted white, which, however, only dyes its brickwork but does not hide it. Only the edging of the portal and that of the windows in the gable front are made of sandstone and may come from an earlier time.

Interior

Neo-Gothic pulpit
Furniture

Today's neo-Gothic furnishings in the church come from the second half of the 19th century and consist of the high altar, the seating, the confessional, the pulpit and other objects. The baptismal font was given to the parish church of St. Michael, built in 1961 in the neighboring village of Blessem.

Design of the church interior

Behind the portal you find yourself under the gallery that was later moved in and is equipped with a Kalscheuer organ . It is made of wood and its individual elements in pastel tones (green, beige and ocher) match the rest of the color scheme of the furnishings. The weight of the gallery rests on narrow pillars ending in consoles and two supporting pillars flanking the central aisle.

With the exception of the central aisle leading to the altar, which is tiled in black and white, the floor is covered with dark tiles, on which the rows of light oak pews stand to the right and left of the aisle. The arched windows are provided with ornamental glazing and show scenes from the history of saints in medallions, but despite the colored light insulation they illuminate the room sufficiently. The walls of the nave are whitewashed and are interrupted by five windows on the south side and three windows on the north side because of the adjoining building there. The open space created in this way fills the sculpture of a Madonna and Child on the north side and a confessional with neo-Gothic carving that matches the rest of the furnishings (stalls, pulpit and communion bench) . The south wall of the church begins under the gallery with its staircase and ends in front of the choir area with the high pulpit erected there. Both sides of the ship are divided by narrow pillars ending in rounded consoles on which the wooden barrel vault rests.

Wooden vault

In the case of the barrel ceiling, which is now also known as the coffered ceiling, when renovating the ceiling, the client Münch ensured that the arching was restored according to the old template. The current state of the vault is the result of a restoration carried out in 1994, which uncovered the stenciled painting of the ceiling, which was painted over in 1955. The almost symmetrically arranged paintings on the back wall above the altar from around 1910, which had also been whitewashed in 1955, were also exposed.

Mary Altar
Paintings

The painting of the choir vault shows four rows reaching up to the ceiling, in which 10 invocations of Mary from the Lauretanian litany are depicted.

  • In the lower row: on each side an angel , in between the ark , monstrance , eternal light , chalice (vessels).
  • In the second row: on the sides again an angel, in between Tower of David , (golden) house, gate (of heaven), ( ivory tower ).
  • In the third row: two angels on each side, in between (mystical) rose, (morning) star. In the fourth row: a crown on each side, between the letters S (Sancta) and M (Maria).
Mary Altar

In addition to the ceiling and wall paintings, the altar by the Münch founders is the dominant piece of equipment in the Marienkapelle. It is set up on the east wall of the apse , in the choir area separated by the communion bench. From this a door leads to the south side, which will probably be the entrance to the sacristy .

On the altar of the chapel, which ends in pointed, carved pinnacles , the Virgin Mary is depicted above the tabernacle , flanked by angels. On the sides of the altarpiece are St. Adolf and St. Helena, the patrons of the donors' names , on small plinths . The base of the cafeteria shows the same decorative monogram (AM = Ave Maria ) in the middle as it was attached in the semicircle above the entrance portal.

literature

Web links

Commons : Marienkapelle Frauenthal  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume I., Page 421, Col. a 2. 3.
  2. ↑ HAStK inventory of the Aposteln document No. 1/20; published in Stommel, Quellen Volume I No. 64
  3. ^ Description and translation by Manfred Huiskes
  4. ↑ KF Staellart, Geschiednis van hertog Jan en the Eersten van Braband sijn tijd. Brussels 1815. Pages 315-318, published in: Stommel, Sources Volume I No. 137
  5. ↑ HASTK inventory management arms certificate No. 1/320, published in Stommel, sources I no. 147
  6. ↑ HAStK inventory Mariengraden certificate no. 2/53 and inventory clerical department 168d, published in Stommel, sources volume I no. 233
  7. ↑ HSTAD inventory Marienforst certificate no.30
  8. ↑ Albert Esser, Frauenthal, a Cistercian monastery in the Middle Ages in: Erftstadt Yearbook 2002, page 141
  9. ↑ HSTAD inventory Marienforst documents nos. 36 and 47, published in Stommel, sources volume II nos. 1069 and 1134
  10. ↑ HSTAD inventory Bottenbroich document no.41 , published in Stommel Quellen Volume III no.1627
  11. ↑ Archive Schloss Gracht File 18 (Frauenthal)
  12. ↑ Parish church of St. Alban in Liblar, oldest gold chalice from Erftstadt's churches
  13. ↑ Ch. Von Stramberg, Memorable and Useful Rheinischer Antiquarius III Volume 13. Koblenz 1867. Pages 188-189, published in Stommel Quellen Volume V No. 2940
  14. ^ Elke Strang, The Marienforst Monastery from its foundation in the 13th century to its dissolution in 1802. Bonn 1995. Page 218
  15. ^ Karl Stommel: Frauenthal, Vom Cisterzienserinnenkloster zum Marienhospital in: Churches, monasteries and chapels in Erftkreis, page 182 according to HSTAD inventory Roer-Département Kanton Lechenich No. 3782
  16. ^ Parish archives St. Kilian Lechenich Part I. Section 1 Bd. 4 Frauenthal
  17. ^ Parish archives St. Kilian Lechenich Part I. Section 1 Bd. 4 Frauenthal
  18. ^ Erftstadt city archives, record book of the administrative board of the Frauenthal Foundation 1860–1910
  19. ^ Albert Esser, 40 years parish St. Michael Blessem-Frauenthal. Blessem 2001. Pages 3-6
  20. ↑ Hanna Stommel, Place of worship for almost 800 years in: Erftstadt Yearbook 1995, page 133
  21. ^ Albert Esser, 40 years parish St. Michael Blessem-Frauenthal. Blessem 2001. Pages 3-6

Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 29.4 "  N , 6 ° 48 ′ 32.8"  E