Reformed Church (Bunde)

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South side of the Reformed Church
North elevation

The Evangelical Reformed Church is a cruciform church from the 13th century in Bunde in East Frisia . The brick church consists of three structures, a Romanesque nave (around 1200), an elaborately designed eastern section (around 1270) in the Romano-Gothic style and a classicistic west tower from 1840. The architecturally important church has undergone several alterations and changes over the centuries .

history

The church was originally called “St. Martin ”because it was dedicated to St. Martin . There was probably a wooden church in front of the Romanesque building, possibly as early as 1000 AD. In the transept , the remains of a sandstone coffin with Christian symbols and ornaments dating from before the current brick church were found. In church terms, Bunde was assigned to the provost of Hatzum in the diocese of Münster in the Middle Ages .

The present-day, originally flat-roofed nave was built around 1200, making it one of the first brick buildings in East Frisia. As early as 1270/1280, the nave was expanded to include the transept and the choir to form a mighty cruciform church, which reflects the wealth and self-confidence of the place. After the expansion by the eastern part, most of the arched portals in the nave were bricked up and the smaller Romanesque windows were replaced by larger Gothic ones. The original west tower has not been preserved and, according to the chronicle of Eggerik Beninga, fell victim to a hurricane as early as 1246 during or shortly after the erection ("Op ditmael is daer dorch de groote torn tho Bunde nedergevallen"). The substructure remained in place until the 19th century and served as a bell tower. In addition Choir flank towers were probably already in the 13th century built, which were discontinued in 1500 or hostile in 1501 people in Groningen fell victim to the plundering by Beninga the place together with the church and burned ( "and de Kercke with Dorpe upgebrant").

In the course of the Reformation , the parish changed to the evangelical confession around 1528. Folcardus and Johann van Hoorn were the first Reformed pastors in Bunde. The northern gallery was built in 1651. In 1696, after a fire, the choir gable was removed and re-erected, as the year on the top of the gable attests. The roof in the eastern part was flattened in 1705 after the vaults in the transept and choir were removed or collapsed. Instead, all the ceilings were covered with a flat wooden barrel vault . Until then, the longship had a wooden beam ceiling. The inscription on the south gable made of yellow stones gives the year 1705 and the names of the church bailiffs at the time , Jacob Didden and Ocke Eggericks, who were immortalized in this unusual way. Today's west tower was built in 1840 by Marten Bruns Schmidt ( Ditzum ). In 1896, the entrances to the transept received wind portals in neo -Gothic style .

During renovation work in 1958, the lower area of ​​the choir with its niches and arcades were exposed again and the oculi were glazed with lead. After chalking off layers of limestone, the old colors of the crossing piers reappeared and were partially reconstructed. In the years 1980/1981 two sacrament niches and the bundle pillars on the eastern side of the choir were exposed during a further renovation.

Building description

Nave facing east
Eastern choir wall

The east-facing church on a cross-shaped floor plan was built from red brick on the Bunder Geestrücken . Architecturally, she finds parallels in the churches of Engerhafe and Marienhafe . In contrast to the similarly built Stapelmoorer church , which was designed from a single cast and remained essentially unchanged, the Bunder church underwent some structural changes, of which the inconsistent masonry bears witness. The large cemetery, which is enclosed with a wall, is remarkable. Originally the cemetery was bigger than the present one and had seven doors. A small forest is said to have served as a meeting place, refuge and court. The current wall enclosure with four iron gates dates from 1851 and was partially renewed in the 20th century.

The oldest part of today's church is the non-arched, single-nave nave from around 1200, which is covered by a steep gable roof. The hall building initially had a different east end, probably an apse . The walls were raised in the course of the eastward expansion, but later lowered again; a planned vault was not implemented. North and south sides were pilasters on a base that is hidden in the ground today in two fields, each with two windows, each with a portal structured and top with a round arch frieze completed, which is only available at the north side. The nave is illuminated in the south through three large windows and in the east through a small, flat-pointed arched window with deep soffits. Four large arched windows were broken into the north side. Except for the western arched portal in the south wall, all three other portals of the nave are walled up.

The eastern part shows characteristics of the transitional style of Romano-Gothic and is more elaborately designed. Originally it was completely vaulted and built significantly higher than the main nave . A brick with wall painting from the vault, which was discovered in the rubble under the choir during a renovation, shows the fragment of an angel in the Romanesque style. During excavations in 1986, the foundations of the presumed choir flank towers were discovered at a depth of 0.50 meters. The beginnings of the unadorned masonry between the choir and aisles can still be seen, so that the width of these towers can be determined. Side altars were set up on the ground floor. With the gable roof of the eastern part, which was flattened at the beginning of the 18th century, the roof ridges were aligned .

The outer walls of the square choir are divided into a lower and an upper zone: In the lower area it is continuously decorated with arched arcades that connect to the portals of the nave. They are designed as stepped blind arches with capitals on round bars, which are provided with oculi in the middle (four in the east wall, two on each side). Above this, in the east wall, there is a triple pointed arch window, which is flanked by two blind windows with cloverleaf arches and a checkerboard and herringbone pattern . Window windows with round arches are attached to the north and south choir walls. A small window was later broken into the western window on the south side. Remains of the original round arch frieze are still preserved on the south wall of the choir.

The south and north gables of the transept each have two Gothic windows, which are framed on the north side by two herringbone windows. In the lower area there are pointed arches. The architecturally inappropriate neo-Gothic, five-sided porches on both sides serve as a vestibule for the entrances. Only the northern gable still has the original diamond pattern made of brick bars, which presumably also decorated the other gables. The diamonds stand out clearly through the white background, comparable to the Pilsum Kreuzkirche . The originally steeper gables have been flattened during the renovation work, which is indicated by the cut pattern. A round arch in the middle of the east wall of the south wing points to a side apse on the upper floor of the former choir tower. Large round arches with protruding transepts open the crossing to the choir and the nave. The large arches to the transept, on the other hand, are flat-pointed arches and have stepped pillars with semicircular templates that are angular above the chalice block capitals.

The west tower on a square floor plan in the style of classicism may not fit in architecturally with the rest of the complex. Profiled cornices divide the tower into storeys of different heights. The tower hall is accessed through a rectangular west portal, which has a stepped wooden frame with a narrow canopy, above which a building inscription is embedded. Beyond that there are lunette windows on the three free sides , and arched openings in the middle and upper storey. The gilded dials of the tower clock are mounted in the openings on the upper floor. The octagonal pointed helmet, which is occupied by four dormers with gables, is crowned by a gilded tower knob, a simple cross and a weathercock. The bell chamber houses a triple bell. The oldest of the three bells dates back to 1753, the large bell was cast in clusters in 1814 by Andries van Bergen from Midwolda and Laurens Fremy from Burhave. A bell that was delivered during the First World War escaped being melted down and was picked up again from Leer after the war. The two big bells were confiscated for the armaments industry in 1942. One bell was preserved and came back to Bunde from a Hamburg bell cemetery. There it was remelted because it had cracked in the meantime. The other was lost and was replaced in 1951 by a steel bell from the Bockenem bell foundry.

Interior

Baroque pulpit
Oak stalls with inlays

The interior is spanned by a wooden barrel vault that rests on consoles with gilded decorations. The curved west gallery is decorated on the underside with openwork, gilded tendrils and supported by two octagonal round columns at the front and two bulbous round columns at the back. In the north wing, the gallery with its coffered parapet rests on two wooden posts with high square bases . It has tendril-shaped carvings at the bottom.

During renovation work in the 19th century, a walkway in the double wall was exposed in the window height of the eastern part, which leads through the entire choir and is partially preserved. The function is still unclear; possibly it served as an escape route. The original choir flank towers, which were connected by the wall passage, enabled the stairways. The walkway architecture originated in Normandy in the 11th century and reached East Frisia (Engerhafe, Marienhafe) via the Rhineland and Westphalia. Two simple sacrament niches and several consecration crosses have been preserved in the choir . The wall painting is only partially visible due to the later plastering. The sacred utensils include a mug from 1686 and various bread plates from the first half of the 19th century.

The small baptismal font made of light sandstone, which is placed in the crossing, was created in 1651. An octagonal goblet rests on a square foot and carries a brass bowl with a lid. In the east wall of the south wing, a ciboria-shaped superstructure of the stone side altar is irregularly carved. The round-arched ceiling with bevel and cove is painted with late-Gothic, floral tendrils, which were created around 1500. The wooden rood screen with a clock in the choir dates from 1751 and separates the communion room.

The baroque pulpit on the southwestern crossing pillar was possibly made by master Albert Frerichs around 1720. It consists of a six-sided pulpit, a hexagonal oversized sound cover and a pulpit staircase. The pulpit fields have profiled fillings with flower tendrils. The similarly decorated frieze on the underside shows consoles on which there are rotated free columns with Ionic capitals . The oak chairs also date from this period. It rises slowly at the west and east ends and can be climbed there through small stairs. The doors with traljean lattice have elaborately designed inlays made of sixteen-pointed stars, which are framed by flat-carved tendrils. Large turned wooden knobs are attached to the partition walls. The two chandeliers in the nave come from the workshop of the organ builder Hinrich Just Müller.

organ

Historical organ prospectus

The west gallery was already the installation site of an organ in the 16th century . Repairs are documented for the years 1581, 1589, 1590 and 1601. The instrument was damaged by Mansfeld troops in the Thirty Years' War in 1623 . In 1625 the municipality commissioned Edo Evers to carry out repairs for 115 guilders, which was removed in 1626. Valentin Ulrich Grotian built a new organ in 1691/1692, the 17 registers of which were divided between a main and a breastwork. Johann Friedrich Constabel carried out a repair in 1745. Of the historical organ, for which Hinrich Just Müller was commissioned in 1790 and which he completed in 1793 for 1700 Reichstaler, only the two-storey, nine-axis prospectus has survived. The Müller organ had 22 stops on two manuals. The pedal was attached. The old organ was given to Müller for 100 Reichstaler, who sold it to the St. Petri Church in Aurich-Oldendorf and installed it there. The prospectus is still there. Gerd Sieben Janssen repaired the Bunder organ in 1872. Johann Diepenbrock expanded the instrument with an independent pedal with three stops on a cone chest . In 1926, Friedrich Klassmeier built a new organ with 27 registers behind the old prospectus. The entire interior of the organ was renewed in 1965 by Karl Schuke (Berlin) and has the following disposition with 23 registers:

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Praestant 8th'
Coupling flute 8th'
octave 4 ′
Pommer 4 ′
octave 2 ′
Mixture V-VI
Dulcian 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'
II upper structure C – g 3
Praestant 4 ′
Dumped 8th'
Reed flute 4 ′
Night horn 2 ′
Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Sesquialtera II
Scharff IV
Krummhorn 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
Sub-bass 16 ′
octave 8th'
octave 4 ′
Mixture V
trombone 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'
Trumpet 4 ′

Trivia

  • The filmmaker Hans-Erich Viet shot the choir scenes in the Bunder Kirche in Frankie, Johnny and the others - shadow fighters .
  • Legend has it that an underground corridor connected the Bunderhee stone house to the Reformed Church. Excavations have not confirmed this. The oldest grave slab of the burial place of the stone house in the Bunder church is dated to the year 1411.

See also

literature

  • Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1986, ISBN 3-925365-07-9 .
  • Hermann Haiduck: New investigations at the church of Bunde . In: Yearbook of the Society for Fine Arts and Patriotic Antiquities in Emden . tape 59 . Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, 1979, ISSN  0341-969X , p. 78-86 .
  • Peter Karstkarel: All middeleeuwse kerken. Van Harlingen dead Wilhelmshaven . 2nd Edition. Uitgeverij Noordboek, Groningen 2008, ISBN 978-90-330-0558-9 , p. 700-701 .
  • Gottfried Kiesow : Architecture Guide East Friesland . Verlag Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz , Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-86795-021-3 , p. 157-161 .
  • Justin Kroesen, Regnerus Steensma: Churches in East Friesland and their medieval furnishings . Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-159-1 .
  • Monika van Lengen: Islands of calm: Churches in East Friesland . Schuster, Leer 1996, ISBN 3-7963-0335-8 , p. 10-11 .
  • Robert Noah: God's houses in East Frisia . Soltau-Kurier, Norden 1989, ISBN 3-922365-80-9 , p. 52, 55 .
  • Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Menno Smid : Frisian churches in Emden, Leer, Borkum, Mormerland, Uplengen, Overledingen and Reiderland , volume 3. Verlag CL Mettcker & Sons, Jever 1980, p. 90 f.
  • Insa Segebade: Reformed churches on the Ems . Evangelical Reformed Church, Leer 1999, ISBN 3-00-004645-3 , p. 26-28 .
  • Menno Smid: East Frisian Church History (=  East Frisia in the protection of the dike; 6 ). Self-published, Pewsum 1974.
  • Harm Wiemann: From days gone by. Chronicle of the combined community of Bunde . Ed .: Samtgemeinde Bunde. Self-published, Bunde 1983, p. 28-33, 64-85 .

Web links

Commons : Martinskirche (Bunde)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wiemann: From Past Days , pp. 28, 32.
  2. ↑ a b See in detail Paul Weßels (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape ): Bunde (PDF file; 61 kB), accessed on March 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ Kiesow: Architecture Guide Ostfriesland. 2010, p. 157.
  4. ↑ Smid: East Frisian Church History. 1974, p. 55.
  5. ^ Segebade: Reformed Churches on the Ems. 1999, p. 26.
  6. ^ Eggerik Beninga, Antonius Matthaeus: Chronyck often Historie van Oost-Frieslant. Schouten, Leiden 1706, p. 69, limited preview in Google book search, accessed on November 4, 2018.
  7. ↑ a b Kiesow: Architectural Guide Ostfriesland. 2010, p. 159.
  8. ^ Eggerik Beninga, Antonius Matthaeus: Chronyck often Historie van Oost-Frieslant. Schouten, Leiden 1706, p. 470, limited preview in Google Book Search, accessed on November 4, 2018.
  9. ↑ Wiemann: From days gone by . 1983, p. 85.
  10. ↑ Read others 1626, e.g. B. on the drawing in Wiemann: From bygone days. 1983, p. 30.
  11. ↑ Karstkarel: Alle middeleeuwse kerken. 2008, p. 701.
  12. ↑ a b c d Homepage of the church with building history , accessed on March 7, 2015.
  13. ↑ Wiemann: From Past Days , p. 64 f.
  14. ↑ Kroesen, Steensma: Churches in East Friesland and their medieval furnishings. 2011, p. 19.
  15. ↑ a b c d Kiesow: Architectural Guide Ostfriesland. 2010, p. 160.
  16. ^ Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches. 1986, p. 36.
  17. ↑ a b Monika van Lengen (ostfriesland.de): Evangelical Reformed Church Bunde (PDF file; 13.5 kB), accessed on March 7, 2015.
  18. ^ Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches. 1986, p. 97.
  19. ↑ Kroesen, Steensma: Churches in East Friesland and their medieval furnishings. 2011, p. 56.
  20. ↑ Kiesow: Architecture Guide Ostfriesland. 2010, p. 158.
  21. ^ Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches. 1986, p. 96 f.
  22. ↑ Wiemann: From Past Days , p. 70 f.
  23. ^ Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches. 1986, p. 89 f.
  24. ^ Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches. 1986, p. 171.
  25. ↑ Kroesen, Steensma: Churches in East Friesland and their medieval furnishings. 2011, p. 263.
  26. ^ Walter Kaufmann : The organs of East Frisia . East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 1968, p. 67, 82 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 11 ′ 5.6 "  N , 7 ° 16 ′ 9.2"  E