Martinskirche Christenberg

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View from the south

The Protestant Martinskirche on the Christenberg near Münchhausen in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district ( Central Hesse ) consists of a Romanesque long nave and west tower from the 11th century and a late Gothic choir (around 1520). It is one of the oldest preserved churches in the district and has been the ecclesiastical center of the region since the Middle Ages. Characteristic are the fortified west tower with four wich houses and the high east choir with a pointed roof turret . The late Gothic outer pulpit is a special feature of art history .

history

North side with Romanesque windows and herringbone bond

The oldest settlement on the Christenberg is a fortified Celtic settlement in the early La Tène period (480 to 280 BC). The steep hill was secured to the east by a rampart. From around 700 to 850 AD, there was a new settlement in the form of a Franconian fortress, the ring wall of which enclosed an area of ​​4 hectares. A previous building from the Carolingian or Ottonian times, archaeologically proven in 1953, was somewhat wider and longer than the current hall building (nave: 16.5 × 9.7 meters). The axis was shifted slightly to the north compared to the current building. In addition to the triumphal arch, the remains of a side altar and step were uncovered. A rectangular choir, probably from the 8th or 9th century, formed the east end, which was replaced by a semicircular apse during the construction of the new church in the 11th century . The western end is unclear. The kinking walls could indicate a two-tower west building and remains of the foundations in the south of a three-aisled basilica . The Carolingian building would then be comparable to the Einhard basilica in Steinbach . For the year 1227 there is a pleban , for the year 1231 the patronage of St. Martin is first attested.

Late Gothic choir

In the Middle Ages, the “Kesterburg” Sendkirche was the region's and until 1522 the seat of the deanery of the same name in the Archdiocese of Mainz for the upper Lahn and Edertal valleys. In the 14th century, the right of patronage was held by the von Bicken family , who ceded it to the von Hatzfeld family in 1396 . In 1399 the patronage of the Johanniterkommende in Wiesenfeld was transferred and the church was incorporated into it, which Pope Bonifatius IX. confirmed in 1401. Because of the proximity to his community, the pastor officially moved the parish seat to Münchhausen in 1503. The pastor probably lived in Münchhausen as early as the middle of the 15th century; the Johanniter Gottfried von Neukirchen was named pastor of Münchhausen in 1469. In 1520 the church received its dominant shape today, when the apse had to give way to the late Gothic five-eighth closure and the construction of the west tower was built.

With the introduction of the Reformation in 1527, the church switched to the evangelical creed. The Johanniterkommende was canceled and the patronage was transferred to the Hessian landgrave. In the summer of 1684, a gang of thieves is said to have stolen the valuables remaining after the Reformation, including the altar cloth.

In 1817 the late Gothic vault from the 15th century, which rested on two central columns and a wall column in the western wall and divided the nave into two aisles, was broken out; with these stones the outer walls were raised. Inside, three-sided, two-storey galleries made of wood were built in, and large rectangular windows were broken in instead of the slit-shaped arched windows.

In 1945 masonry and windows were damaged by a fighter-bomber . Archaeological excavations unearthed the ground plan of the previous building in 1953. During a renovation this year, the missing galleries were removed and a flat ceiling was put in, the height of which corresponded to the Romanesque building. The rectangular windows were walled up, the original Romanesque arched windows restored, the northern loopholes exposed and the roof re-covered.

Interior renovation followed in 2006. Underfloor heating was installed and the floor was then covered with red sandstone slabs. The church pews were replaced by single chairs and the ceiling renewed.

Today the parish of Christenberg consists of the parishes Münchhausen and Wollmar . The church serves as a cemetery chapel, for weddings and for special services.

architecture

Outer pulpit on the south side
Tower from the southwest

The east-facing church is built from locally broken rubble masonry made of red sandstone with corner blocks on a 387 meter high plateau with an oval base area of ​​around 200 × 250 meters. The uncut, red sandstones were originally plastered white. The Martinskirche is located in the northwest of the cemetery, which is laid out within the former Carolingian castle complex. The single-nave hall and the squat west tower date from the 11th century.

The nave is the oldest part of the assembly. It is supplied with light on each side through two small, narrow, high-seated arched windows (0.75 × 0.14 meters), some of which date from the Romanesque period or were reconstructed in 1953. A sundial is placed under the east south window. In the west there is a loopholes, which suggests the earlier existence of a wooden west gallery. Two console stones from the western gable approach from the Romanesque period, which have strongly stylized lion heads, have been preserved. On both long sides, three buttresses , which are said to date from the 16th and 19th centuries, support the outer walls. For decorative purposes, herringbone is used in the masonry between the two eastern buttresses . The gable roof is equipped with two small dormers on both sides. Probably at the beginning of the 16th century a basement-like , two-story, stone outer pulpit was added, the upper floor of which is accessible via an external staircase on the west side. The outer pulpit covers the southern loopholes, while the northern one is now glazed (about 0.10 meters wide). The ogival openings are simply designed. Only the ground-level south arch has a bevel . Pulpit gallery under a small hipped roof and vestibule are both groin-vaulted . The hall provides access to the Romanesque south portal, which was given a pointed arched gate in the late Gothic period. The outer pulpit made it possible to preach in the open air and was used in the Middle Ages to display relics .

The fortified character of the west tower , which was built in Romanesque times, can be seen from the two-meter-thick walls with two loopholes each in the west and south walls . The fact that the ship and tower are not made of one piece can be seen from the joints. In addition, both structures are not exactly on one axis. The tower hall has a simple domed vault. A large round arch opens the tower hall to the ship via Romanesque warriors (cornice panel over bevel). The tower structure dates from 1520 and houses a bronze bell from 1629. The four sheltered, walk-in guard houses were built for defense purposes. The two southern ones are octagonal, the two northern ones heptagonal. The octagonal pointed helmet is crowned by a tower pommel, a wrought iron cross and a weathercock.

The late Gothic choir with a five-eighth closing is slightly drawn in opposite the nave, but is significantly higher. While the choir bay has no windows, the polygon is illuminated through four windows with two-lane tracery with oculus in a flat pointed arch. The choir windows are probably not so high that they are not cut off by the triumphal arch from the perspective of the nave. Only the north side, in which a sacrament niche is let, has no windows. In the southern wall of the choir there is a niche that was probably used as a hagioscope through which the Eucharist was offered to the sick in the Middle Ages . The ribbed vault rests on simple, continuous services without capitals and ends in two keystones covered with stylized flowers. The keystones are connected with diamond-shaped ribs, creating the impression of a reticulated vault. A large, pointed arched triumphal arch opens the bright choir to the dark nave. Outside, the walls are supported by stepped buttresses that absorb the thrust of the vault. Two small dormers and a pointed, completely slated, octagonal roof turret are attached to the steep roof. Its shaft merges into four little gables on which small tips are attached. A tower pommel with a simple cross crowns the slender pointed helmet, which is inclined slightly to one side.

The Martinskirche and the old sexton's house were models for numerous illustrations by Otto Ubbelohde .

Furnishing

Longhouse to the east
Pulpit and epitaph
View into the vaulted choir

The interior of the nave is again flat-roofed as in the Romanesque period. The interior is simple. The galleries were removed again in 1953. Instead, a wooden staircase with simple, coffered parapets at gallery height has led to the access to the upper floors of the tower. There is no pipe organ . Instead, an electronic organ is set up in the southwest corner in front of the pulpit .

The simple, large, octagonal baptismal font made of red sandstone was created in the 15th century. It is placed in the southeast of the church in front of the triumphal arch. The sacrament niche in the choir has a cross-arch frieze under small battlements . The altar is formed from a cuboid block.

The polygonal Renaissance pulpit from 1618 made of red sandstone is placed on the left arch of the choir and rests on a square foot. The pulpit fields have round arches and are closed at the top and bottom by circumferential, profiled cornices.

Behind the pulpit, on the south wall of the choir, there is a wooden epitaph in memory of the pastor's wife Anna Christina Manger, who died in childbirth on December 24, 1700 . A grave inscription can be read in three columns between the rotated free columns. A coat of arms is painted in a cartouche above it and the pastor's family is depicted in the broken gable , arranged according to their size, the husband with his three sons on the left and the six daughters on the right of the crucified, the deceased with the unborn child in front of the cross.

Outside, a plague stone is set into the south wall, reminding of Pastor Wigand Mog († 1618): “W. MOG P. XO 1597 PESTE OB.EX. HAC. ECC 560 ". During his tenure, 560 people died of the plague in the parish of Christenberg.

literature

  • Günter E. Th. Bezzenberger: Worth seeing churches in the church areas of Hesse and Nassau and Kurhessen-Waldeck, including the Rhine-Hessian church districts of Wetzlar and Braunfels. Evangelischer Presseverband, Kassel 1987, pp. 98–99.
  • Wilhelm Classen: The church organization of old Hesse in the Middle Ages including an outline of the modern development. Elwert, Marburg 1929, p. 112.
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of German art monuments , Hessen I. Administrative districts of Giessen and Kassel. Edited by Folkhard Cremer, Tobias Michael Wolf and others. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 666.
  • Hans Feldtkeller: S. Martin on the Christenberg north of Marburg. In: (Ed.): Preserving and shaping. Festschrift Günther Grundmann. Christians, Hamburg 1962, pp. 51-58.
  • Rolf Gensen: The Christenberg near Münchhausen. State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse, Wiesbaden 1989.
  • Rolf Gensen: The Christenberg near Münchhausen and its meaning. In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte. Volume 18, 1968, pp. 14-26.
  • Walter Holzapfel: Christenberg in the past and present. 2nd edition Burgwald-Verlag, Cölbe-Schönstadt 2009.
  • Walter Holzapfel: The Gothic outer pulpit of the Martinskirche on the Christenberg (Kesterburg). A specialty in art history. In: Yearbook for the Marburg-Biedenkopf district. 2014, pp. 247-250.
  • Wilhelm Kolbe: The Christian mountain in Burgwalden according to legend and history. NG Elwert, Marburg 1895.
  • Pablo de la Riestra: Martinskirche on the Christenberg. Support group Christenberg eV, Münchhausen 2008.
  • Armin Weber, Walter Holzapfel: Celts and Franks on the Christenberg. Support group Christenberg eV, Münchhausen 2013.

Web links

Commons : Martinskirche Christenberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holzapfel: The Gothic outer pulpit of the Martinskirche. 2014, pp. 247-250.
  2. ^ Weber, Holzapfel: Celts and Franks on the Christenberg. 2013.
  3. ↑ Gensen: The Christian mountain near Münchhausen and its meaning. 1962, p. 19.
  4. ↑ Feldtkeller: S. Martin on the Christenberg. 1962, p. 54.
  5. ↑ Feldtkeller: S. Martin on the Christenberg. 1962, pp. 51, 54.
  6. ^ Weber, Holzapfel: Celts and Franks on the Christenberg. 2013, p. 84.
  7. ↑ For the building description see Gottfried Kiesow : Romanik in Hessen . Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8062-0367-9 , pp. 246-247 .
  8. ^ A b c Classen: The church organization of Old Hesse. 1929, p. 112.
  9. ^ Bezzenberger: churches worth seeing. 1987, p. 98.
  10. ^ Kolbe: The Christian mountain in the Burgwalde. 1895, p. 46.
  11. ↑ a b c d Förderkreis Christenberg: Martinskirche , accessed on May 6, 2016.
  12. ↑ a b Feldtkeller: S. Martin on the Christenberg. 1962, p. 51.
  13. ↑ a b c Feldtkeller: S. Martin on the Christenberg. 1962, p. 53.
  14. ↑ Christenberg. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 6, 2016 .
  15. ↑ a b Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen I. 2008, p. 666.
  16. ^ Riestra: Martinskirche on the Christenberg. 2008, p. 8.
  17. ^ Riestra: Martinskirche on the Christenberg. 2008, p. 10.
  18. ^ Riestra: Martinskirche on the Christenberg. 2008, pp. 17-18.
  19. ^ Riestra: Martinskirche on the Christenberg. 2008, p. 11.
  20. ^ Bezzenberger: churches worth seeing. 1987, p. 99.
  21. ^ Riestra: Martinskirche on the Christenberg. 2008, p. 12.

Coordinates: 50 ° 57 '17.35 "  N , 8 ° 44' 54.01"  E