Marienkapelle (Roetgen)
The Marienkapelle in Roetgen in the Aachen city region is a Catholic church building that is attached to the new St. Hubertus parish church in the Kornelimünster / Roetgen parish of the Aachen diocese . It was created by dismantling the former first parish church, built in 1660, which was under the patronage of St. Hubertus as namesake, the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist was asked. The church building, which was dismantled into a chapel, was consecrated to the Virgin Mary in 1860 and has been a listed building since 1986 . The Marienkapelle has been looked after by the newly founded "Förderverein Marienkapelle Roetgen" since 2014 after the diocese canceled the subsidies for the maintenance of the church building.
history
Parish church
Immediately after the end of the Thirty Years' War , Stephan Horrichem , prior of the former Premonstratensian monastery Reichenstein near Monschau , intensified his work on building war-damaged churches and building new places of worship. He also campaigned for Roetgen to be allowed to build its own church building for the first time as a branch church of the parish of St. Peter in Konzen , but on the condition that the population should pay for the maintenance of the future local pastor. The new building was financed with the participation of the Reichensteiner Klosterkasse and through the personal contribution of around 200 Roetgen residents. In 1657 construction began in the old village center, which was completed on Whit Monday 1660 with the inauguration. At the same time, the church grounds were largely surrounded by a quarry stone wall, within which the tombs of the Catholic residents were set up until 1858.
Just a few decades later, the church proved to be too small for the growing population, and in 1723 there was a significant expansion by extending the nave to the east and adding a new sacristy. Finally, the previous branch church was raised to an independent parish in 1754. In 1829 the church received a small extension on its eastern front in the area of the apse , which was used as a sacristy .
After the Aachen government master builder for the Aachen district government , Johann Peter Cremer , had prepared an expert opinion on the church in the mid-1850s , in which he described the drastic confinement inside as no longer up-to-date and the awkward building conditions as unlawful and pointed out that this would prevent a further expansion of the building, the community decided to build a new church, today's main parish St. Hubertus.
In their time as a branch or parish church, the following pastors performed their service in Roetgen:
- 1660–1664: alternately and as required a pastor from Konzen or a monk from Reichenstein
- 1664–1671: Brother Peter Reuter, O.Praem., Reichenstein Priory, Roetgens first permanent clergyman
- 1671–1695: Brother Conrad Frohnen, O.Praem., Reichenstein Priory
- 1695–1700: Pastor Franz Kle (e) fisch, secular priest, rector in Roetgen
- 1700–1724: Brother Wilhelm Pütz, O.Praem., Reichenstein Priory
- 1724–1733: Brother Lambert Kohnen, O.Praem., Reichenstein Priory
- 1733–1748: Marianus Lambertz, monk-priest of the Premonstratensian of Steinfeld Abbey
- 1748–1749: Father Winandus Stoltzen, Franciscan (OFM) , Aukloster Monschau
- 1749–1751: Pater Hyacintus Neuers, O.Praem., Steinfeld Abbey
- 1751–1754: Pater Benedictus Ohrem, O.Praem., Steinfeld Abbey
- 1754–1755: Father Franz Neuser and Brother Carolus Dohmen, OFM, Aukloster Monschau, (provisional)
- 1755–1768: Pastor Ferdinand Stephani, secular clergyman, first pastor at the parish church
- 1768–1770: Pastor Johannes Thomas Scholl, secular priest
- 1770–1782: Pastor Johann-Peter Blankenheim, secular priest
- 1783–1792: Pastor Hermann-Josef Schlemmer, secular priest
- 1792–1794: Pastor Philippus Strauch, Augustiner Emerit (OESA), Aachen
- 1794–1795: Pastor Heinrich Hamecher, secular clergyman
- 1795–1802: Pastor Mathias Jansen, secular clergyman
- 1802–1805: Pastor Johann-Wilhelm Uebach, OFM, Aukloster Monschau
- 1805–1810: Pastor Johannes Graff, secular priest
- 1810–1845: Pastor Johann Peter Thelen, secular priest
- 1846–1851: Pastor Franz Wilhelm Savelsberg, secular priest
- 1851–1859: Pastor Adam Hubert Lambertz, secular clergyman, last pastor of the old church
chapel
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After the Holy of Holies had been transferred to the new church on the occasion of the inauguration celebrations there in 1857, the old church was to be torn down and a memorial was to be erected in its place. The population and the incumbent pastor Friedrich Stephan Fischer of St. Hubertus protested against this, also because they saw the peace of the dead in the surrounding burial ground disturbed by these planned activities. An agreement was therefore reached with the church leadership and the civil authorities to dismantle the old church building again with their own contribution and additionally from the sale of the old quarry stones as a chapel. The part that was extended to the east in 1723 was retained, and only the old stock from 1660 and the sacristy from 1829 were demolished. The resulting open west side of the nave was then reconstructed as a mirror image of the three-sided apse on the east side, so that an elongated octagon was created. Finally, the converted building could be inaugurated again in 1860 and also on Whit Monday in honor of the Virgin Mary.
In the following period, the chapel was used as a place of worship from 1865 to 1881 and again between the two world wars as an additional classroom for the neighboring primary school in Roetgen, and in 1944/1945 as a hospital room for American troops and occasionally also for German soldiers.
The intensive use since its construction and the natural deterioration of the building structure meant that the chapel and its old property wall, but also the surrounding remaining graves with their historically significant grave crosses had to be renovated, restored and modernized several times, most recently in 1957/1958 and 1985/1986.
Building description
Today's Roetgen Marienkapelle is an elongated octagonal building made of quarry stone, the outer walls of which are whitewashed. Bricks were only used in the window arches and in the walled up earlier door to the sacristy . The chapel is covered with a hipped roof , on which a small, open, square roof turret for the bell suspension with a pointed roof and a cross is attached. The former side entrance on the south side of the chapel was walled up in 1860 and the new main entrance portal was let in on the west side. It consists of a red-brown double-leaf wooden door and is framed by heavy bluestone blocks . The keystone, which bears the year 1723 and dates from the time of the “church lengthening” , was built in the middle of the powerful door transom . Above that, above a narrow, elongated bluestone, there is a figure niche adorned with a "Rhenish Madonna". It is a copy from 1985 of a Madonna from the 17th century, the original of which is above the main portal of the St. Michael-Gymnasium in Bad Münstereifel . The small arched windows on the side wall surfaces with their window sills made of bluestone were also re-incorporated in 1860 and equipped with lead glass .
The interior of the chapel was kept simple and is flooded with light thanks to its light paintwork and arched windows. The floor, which was only renewed in 1986, was laid out with bluestone tiles that come from the new parish of St. Hubertus and were no longer required there because of their unsuitability for underfloor heating.
The inventory in the church is a compilation from different eras. The floor covering in the chancel and the massive altar table as well as the statues of St. Hubertus and Johann Baptista date from older times. The statue of Hubertus was a gift from the mother church at that time in Konzen on the occasion of the parish elevation from the Roetgener Church in 1754. In the floor in front of the altar there is an old grave slab from the time when priests were buried in the crypt there under the chancel . Those who rest there are Marianus Lambertz, Ferdinand Stephani and Johann-Thomas Scholl. In contrast, the seating, the antique chandelier and the modern Pietà are more recent. The latter is a private foundation and was made by the Eifel sculptor Hermann Pier (1925–1984).
Churchyard
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The chapel area with its lawn floor is fenced in with a massive chest-high quarry stone wall, which has also been changed or renovated several times. During the last renovation of the surrounding wall in 1985, a letter dated August 16, 1936 was found in the foundation stone of the first planned prayer station, from which it emerges that along the new wall to be built, which had to be built in place of the previous picket fence , 14 stations of the cross at theirs Should be attached on the inside, but apart from the foundation stone for the first station, they were never built.
A few old tombstones and crosses from the time when the "churchyard" was also the place's burial site have been preserved on the site. Among these the three free-standing crosses for:
- Dean Johann Peter Thelen, pastor at the old church from 1810 to 1845
- Thilman Klobert and Agnes Klobert, related Cremer, b. To sneeze
- Klaas Wolter and Maria, geb. Reinartz
Another 13 or so grave crosses, some of which are rudimentary, are embedded in the surrounding wall, the names and dates of which are partly illegible.
In addition, display boards on the history of the chapel were set up in the churchyard and a small playground for children was set up.
literature
- Guido Minninger: The church in the village. Data, facts and background information about the history of the Marienkapelle in Roetgen . Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Roetgen e. V. (Ed.), Roetgen 2012 ( pdf )
Web links
- Helga Giesen: "The Church in the Village": History of the Marienkapelle for reading , in: Aachener Zeitung from May 31, 2013
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 39 ′ 2.4 ″ N , 6 ° 12 ′ 0.8 ″ E