Mathenakirche

Historical photo of the Wesel city center with the Mathenakirche

Churches in Wesel 1588; above the Mathena suburb with the parish church of St. Nikolaus and Antonius

Mathenakirche is the common name for the parish church in the Mathena suburb of Wesel . It was completely destroyed in World War II and not rebuilt afterwards. Their patronage was St. Nikolaus and Antonius .

history

The suburb that arose on the damp meadow area ( Matena ) east of the old town was walled in 1434 . In 1440 the construction of the late Gothic parish church began, which was completed around 1500. It was parceled off from St. Willibrord and was also given responsibility for some surrounding villages.

Derik Baegert created a multi-part high altar retable for the furnishings , but only fragments of which survived the iconoclasm of the 16th century (today in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid).

After decades of disputes in the Reformation era between the city council, Duke Wilhelm , Emperor Karl V , Wesel citizens and Dutch immigrants, the Mathenakirche was reformed, as was the old town parish church of St. Willibrord . After a period of structural decline, it was restored in a Baroque style between 1703 and 1712 .

During the air raids on Wesel in February and March 1945, the Mathenakirche was destroyed to the ground. In the early 1950s, the city's first post-war town hall was built in its place; A Kaufhof department store has been located here since 1971 .

The bell from 1703 in St. Willibrord

Bells

Two bells have been preserved from the former bell of the Mathenakirche :

• A baroque bell was cast by Johann Swys in Wesel in 1703. It bears a double coat of arms , the Prussian state coat of arms and the Wesel city coat of arms , and on the upper edge a putti frieze with garlands . This bell was badly damaged in 1945 when the church was destroyed. It weighs approx. 1800 kg and has the tone "C" and it is today in the south aisle of the Willibrordi church .

• A second bell survived the destruction of Wesel because it had to be given for war purposes. Intended to be melted down, it was stored in the bell cemetery in Ilsenburg (Harz) . It weighs approx. 1100 kg and was cast by Tillman van Venlo in Wesel in 1606. Their inscription reads: Mortuos plango - vivos convoco - Tillman van Venlo me fecit ad 1606 - “I lament the dead, I call the living together. Tillman van Venlo made me in the year of the Lord 1606 ”. It now hangs in the tower of the Gnadenkirche, which was built as an emergency church in 1949 .

Web links

Commons : Mathenakirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• www.wesel.de Search results for Mathenakirche accessed October 17, 2014

• evangelischer-kirchenbauverein.de MONUMENTS, 23rd vol. No. 1 / February 2013, p. 19f. Text.pdf

• Focus exhibition in Apolda: How bells became cannons on September 18, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ wesel.de
2. ↑ kirchensite.de
3. ↑ rp-online.de
4. ↑ kirche-wesel.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ uni-due.de
6. ↑ kdg-wesel.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 355 kB) 
7. ↑ youtube.com, Lost Places - Mathenakirche Wesel

Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 24.8 ″  N , 6 ° 37 ′ 7 ″  E