Protestant town church Homburg
The Protestant City Church is a Protestant church in Homburg , the district town of the Saarpfalz district . The church is the parish church of the Protestant parish Homburg in the church district ( Dean's Office ) Homburg / Saar of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate . The church is listed as an individual monument in the Saarland's list of monuments .
history
In the years 1697 to 1699 the crumbling Gothic chapel of the Homburg cemetery was converted into a Protestant hall church facing north to south , at the north end of which there was a wooden tower . This tower was replaced by a baroque tower from 1779 to 1785, according to plans by the ducal palatinate-two-bridge geometer Franz Georg Schaefer ( Schwarzenacker ) . After the union of the Lutheran and Reformed communities in the Bavarian Rhine District ( Palatinate ), to which Homburg had belonged since 1816, the hall church, which had become too small, was demolished in 1870, whereby the tower remained standing. From 1871 to 1874 the nave was rebuilt , which now extended in an east-west direction, and the baroque portal was rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style . The plans for this came from the architect and royal Bavarian district master builder Rau. In 1935 the church was expanded by adding a sacristy . On March 14, 1945, an air raid destroyed the choir and severely damaged the nave. As a result, the church underwent restoration for a few years under the direction of the architect Ludwig Wolfart (Homburg) and was consecrated again in 1949. Wolfart also led another restoration project in 1969-70, during which a floor made of limestone slabs was laid, the pews were replaced with chairs, and a new altar and an ambo were purchased to replace the pulpit. In 2003 there was another restoration.
Architecture and equipment
The church building was built in the neo-Gothic style and has five window axes . The nave is divided into a central nave and two slightly lower aisles with five bays each . A choir adjoins the nave . The ceilings of the naves are formed by ribbed vaults. The tower and the sacristy are attached to the side of the church building.
The stained glass windows of the church, which show scenes from the Old and New Testament , are worth seeing .
The windows in the choir are by the sculptor and painter Max Mertz ( Saarbrücken ), whereby the two windows for the front sides of the two aisles to the left and right of the choir were created in 1952, the 3 choir windows in 1955. The windows created in 1952 show the blessing Christ on the left surrounded by desperate and fleeing people in the fire and misery of the city and on the right Christ comforts: the handicapped, the prostitute, the stingy, the innocent child. The windows in the choir from 1955 show Mary with the child on the left, Christ's Resurrection and Ascension on the right and the dove of the Holy Spirit in the middle .
The graphic artist and painter Hermann Theophil Juncker (Homburg) created 12 windows for the side walls and on the gable facing Kirchenstrasse, which were carried out in two stages in 1990 and 1995. The five windows on the south side were made in 1990 and show the story of creation according to Genesis . The four windows on the north side, which were made up to 1995, illustrate the “I am” words according to the Gospel of John . Finally, the windows of the gallery , which were also made in 1995, represent the last book of the Old and New Testaments: Prophet Malachi and the Revelation of John .
The slender pillars of the interior are made of cast iron and create a spacious impression.
The bells of the church were repeatedly confiscated during the two world wars and melted down for war purposes. Today's chime consists of five bells and was given as a gift to the city of Homburg in 1953 by the Paccard ( Annecy ) bell foundry . The tone sequence reads '- ges' - as'- b '- des' and harmonizes with the Catholic Church of St. Michael .
organ
The hall church, which was demolished in the early 1870s, had an organ before 1719 , which was renewed in 1720 and renovated in 1750. A new instrument was inaugurated in 1768. It had almost the same disposition as the current organ and was played until 1871.
The new church building received its first organ, the sound of which could be assigned to the late Romantic period , in 1874 from the company EF Walcker ( Ludwigsburg ). This two-manual instrument with 17 registers was in service until 1917, when the tin pipes had to be removed from the organ prospect for use in the armaments industry during the First World War .
In 1922 the principal in the prospectus was supplemented with zinc pipes . The stop action also became pneumatic. But in the following time it was found that the organ was not able to fill the church space satisfactorily.
In 1932 there was an expansion through the installation of a third manual ( swell mechanism ). In addition, the pedal and the second manual have been expanded, and the stop action has been electrified . The renovation was carried out by the builder company EF Walcker as Opus 2345. The extended instrument was built by the organ builder Wengel ( Kaiserslautern ). With the expanded range of registers (34 instead of 17 registers), the instrument now offered an enormous richness of sound and was technically up to date. However, due to a shortage of materials and for reasons of cost, the new pipes were not made from tin, but from zinc sheet. During the Second World War there was severe damage to the church building, with the result that moisture and the heat of the sun penetrated and severely damaged the organ. In 1951, the work was restored and the swellwork was rebuilt in line with the organ movement .
Since the repair measures did not bring the desired success in the following period, the instrument was torn down in 1962. Ten years passed before the church received an organ again. Organ positives set up provisionally served as an interim solution until a new organ was built, which took place in two construction phases in 1972 and 1978.
The new organ was built by GF Steinmeyer ( Oettingen ). In the first construction phase a single manual instrument with 9 registers was created, which was expanded to 3 manuals and 33 registers in the second construction phase. The wind chests are slide chests with mechanical play and electrical stop action. Like the previous instruments, the organ is set up on the gallery. The gaming table is built in.
Between 2000 and 2008 the Steinmeyer organ was renovated by the organ building workshop Hugo Mayer Orgelbau ( Heusweiler ) . The instrument was cleaned and some materials ( plastic and foam rubber ) from the time it was built were replaced. In addition, the 4 'trumpet in the pedal was replaced by an 8' trumpet and some registers were carefully retuned. Furthermore, the gaming table was modernized and an electronic setting system was retrofitted.
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Playing aids : 2048 typesetting combinations
literature
- Bernhard H. Bonkhoff: The churches in the Saar-Palatinate district . Saarbrücken 1987.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Church district: Prot. Dean's office Homburg / Saar On: www.evkirchepfalz.de, accessed on July 27, 2012
- ↑ List of monuments of the Saarland, sub-monuments list Saarpfalz-Kreis (PDF; 1.2 MB), accessed on July 27, 2012
- ↑ a b c d e f The Protestant City Church of Homburg (PDF; 2.8 MB) on: www.evpfalz.de, accessed on December 6, 2012
- ↑ a b c Information on the Prot. Stadtkirche at: www.kunstlexikonsaar.de, accessed on July 27, 2012
- ↑ The stained glass windows of the city church on: www.prot-kirchengemeinde-homburg.de, accessed on July 27, 2012
- ↑ a b c d e History of the organ ( 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. From: kih.deevine.de ( Church in Homburg ), accessed on July 27, 2012
- ^ Organ of the Protestant City Church Homburg ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Info page of the Orgeln im Saarland website , accessed on July 27, 2012
Coordinates: 49 ° 19 ′ 12.6 ″ N , 7 ° 20 ′ 24.6 ″ E