Parish church Roppen

Parish church of St. Leonhard with north tower

The Roman Catholic parish church in Roppen , consecrated to Saint Leonhard , is located in the center ( Mairhof ) of Roppen at 724 meters above sea level. It is a classicist building with neo-Romanesque elements. She belongs to the dean's office in Imst in the diocese of Innsbruck . The building is a listed building .

Location description

The church building is on the outskirts of the village of Mairhof on the right side of the Inn, a little higher on the slope. The building is surrounded by a cemetery, directly adjacent to the community event hall and the elementary school.

history

Mosaic with the three saints Isidore, Leonhard and Notburga

In 1337 a "Lienhardskirche" was first mentioned in a document, which was looked after from Imst. From 1534 the chaplain in Karres was responsible for pastoral care in Roppen, in 1745 Roppen received its own curate . In 1775 the church was enlarged. The present church was rebuilt in 1853 according to plans by Josef Rokita in a classicist style with neo-Romanesque elements and completed in 1862. In 1891 the church was elevated to a parish church. Directly opposite the church, a Lourdes chapel was built in the old cemetery in 1899, where the Gothic Leonhard Church stood before the new parish church was built.

Between 1909 and 1910 the church was significantly redesigned, the Imst artist Emanuel Raffeiner was responsible for the painting of the ceiling and walls with figural and decorative frescoes. The church bells were melted down during the First and Second World Wars , and in 1949 the church was rung again. The big bell was not replaced until 1973 and was consecrated on Palm Sunday of the same year. In 1985 the new cemetery to the east of the church was consecrated. Previously, as part of an interior restoration from 1962 to 1964, both the altar fittings and the stained glass windows were removed. The entire wall painting was whitewashed.

From 1987 to 1994 the church was renovated, the ceiling paintings were also restored and Raffeiner's wall paintings were recreated based on his designs. In the course of the same renovation, neo-Gothic altars, the choir stalls and the frames of the stations of the cross were also acquired from the parish church of Bach in the Lech Valley . The renovation and redesign was from Brunico performed Pescoller company.

A memorial plaque made of white marble next to the entrance portal reminds of the last Prince-Bishop of the Tyrol, Johannes Raffl , who was born in Roppen and who headed the diocese of Bressanone as head shepherd from 1921 to 1927 . In 1923 the parish in Roppen was particularly pleased that the prince-bishop consecrated the bells that were then cast in Vienna.

architecture

Exterior description

inner space

The church was built in the neo-Romanesque-classical style. The choir is divided on the outside by pilaster strips and the nave by pilasters with blind arcade fields. The north tower has corner pilasters and arched sound windows . At the top of the roof there is a polygonal lantern with a pointed roof. A coffin cornice and profiled beams run around the nave below the roof . On the west facade is a central projection with a triangular gable. Below is a mosaic field in a high blind arch, which shows the Madonna and the saints Isidore , Leonhard and Notburga . It was executed by Josef Pfefferle based on a design by Emanuel Raffeiner . Round arch portals framed by pilaster strips were installed on the north, west and south sides. On the west side, the year of the laying of the foundation stone, 1854, is engraved in a portal stone .

In the northeast part of the church is the approximately 50 m high tower with a pointed roof with a polygamous lantern . It contains a six-part chime, which was purchased in 1949 by the Grassmayr bell foundry . When a crack on the large bell was discovered in 1978, it had to be cast over. In 2014 the system was comprehensively renovated by the Absamer bell systems. The old HEW motors were overhauled and new ones wound. The smallest bell used to serve as a death bell and was rung by hand. During the renovation, these were connected to the power grid and integrated into the previous full bells. The bells sound in the tones of the ¹ - es ¹ - gb ¹ - a flat ¹ - b ¹ - the ² . The weights of the bells are 1871 kg - 1521 kg - 770 kg - 530 kg - 290 kg - 220 kg.

Inside description

Inside the church is a large barrel-vaulted hall. The painted belt arches over strong pilasters make the church interior appear to be four-bay. The one-bay choir is also barrel vaulted and drawn in opposite the nave. The apse is rounded. The west gallery rests on tall, slender pillars. The vaults contain paintings by Emanuel Raffeiner from 1909 and 1910: the vault of the choir contains a ceiling painting with Christ as the priest of the New Testament, flanked by two angels with tablets. The painting of the apse vault shows the “ Lamb of God ”, the four streams of paradise and six angels carrying candlesticks and vessels. The coronation of Mary is depicted in the center of the nave , as well as the twelve apostles and figures from the Old Testament. In the four lateral fields, in the back right, King David , Jacob, Moses , John the Baptist , Abraham and Melchizedech are shown. Back left Agnes, Cäcilia, Margarethe, Barbara, Laurentius, Stephanus and two children, front right Johannes, Andreas, Jakobus, Petrus, Paulus and an unfinished portrait, presumably showing Bartholomäus. In the front left are St. Joseph , Pope Pius X , Augustine, Ambrose, Aquinas Thomas and artist Dante and Raphael to see.

Above the gallery, angels were painted with a banner in the vault - Raffeiner mixed different styles in his work, ranging from the Baroque and Beuron art school to Pre-Raphaelism and historicism to realism . The Art Nouveau is also noticeable in some figural and decorative paintings.

The station pictures are from Sabine Mühlberger (1846–1918). A Madonna figure in a devotional niche dates from the second third of the 17th century and a crucifix from the 19th century.

organ

The pneumatic organ was made by Franz (II.) Reinisch in 1899. It was completely renovated in 1994, but the neo-Romanesque organ case was preserved.

literature

Ropes. Parish church hl. Leonhard. In: Dehio manual . The art monuments of Austria: Tyrol. Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.), Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-7031-0488-0 , p. 658.
150 years of consecration of the parish church of St. Leonhard zu Roppen . In: Hou! Local newspaper Roppen . 41st Edition Special Edition, 2012 ( Online [accessed May 23, 2015]).