Reformed Church Ronsdorf
The Reformed Church Ronsdorf is the church of the Evangelical Reformed community in Wuppertal - Ronsdorf . It is the only church in the Ronsdorf district that was not destroyed in World War II.
location
The church is framed by Elias-Eller-Straße , Kniprodestraße (main entrance) and Kurfürstenstraße . It stands on the property that Elias Eller (1690–1750), founder of the parish (1741) and the town of Ronsdorf (1745), had donated to the parish for a church building more than 100 years earlier. First, however, a church house was built in 1742, which also contained a classroom and sexton's apartment and occupied the land of today's community center (entrance Kurfürstenstrasse) and its forecourt. It was demolished in 1859 after the current church was completed. The first reformed churchyard was above the street level of Elias-Eller-Straße behind the former reformed school. On the wall in front of the community center there is a no longer functional historical handle pump .
history
The church was built from 1855 to 1858 in the style of historicism using Romanesque and Gothic style elements. The plans by the architect Engelbert Matthey were revised by the Cologne cathedral builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner . The masonry consists of greywacke from quarries in the Bergisches Land .
On the night of May 29th to 30th, 1943, the inner city of Ronsdorf was badly hit by an Allied air raid targeting the Wuppertal districts of Barmen and Ronsdorf. The center of Ronsdorf, the townscape of which was characterized by two to three-storey houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, was largely destroyed in the attack. The church and most of the houses immediately surrounding it on the edge of the center on the "Reformed Mountain" have been preserved.
Description and current condition
The striking tower that characterizes the site is 48.7 meters high. It is square in the lower part and has an octagonal shape in the upper part . The rectangular nave is a good 62 meters long, 16 meters wide and 11.6 meters high. There are small accompanying turrets at each of the four corners. The interior with the gallery holds around 630 visitors. According to the Reformed understanding of faith, it is deliberately kept simple, has no pictures, sculptures or crosses and focuses on the pulpit as the place where the biblical message is proclaimed. The church building is in need of renovation. Currently (as of April 2011) the south facade with the tower and the roof have already been completely overhauled or renewed. Further measures are pending.
organ
The church organ was built by the organ builder Wilhelm Sauer , Frankfurt (Oder) in 1908 and restored in 1995 by the company he founded. In addition to church services, it is also used for concerts.
Monument protection
Today the church with the church square and the handle pump are under monument protection . The retaining wall, originally also a listed building, was in danger of collapsing since the beginning of 2011 due to the roots of the linden trees in the churchyard and was in urgent need of renovation. Since the wall posed a traffic hazard and therefore there was immediate need for action, but the parish could not afford the costs of a fundamental renovation or a true-to-original reconstruction, it was removed from the list of monuments and removed in autumn 2011 except for a small section on the handle pump. The flattened slope is now supported by concrete L-stones , which are partially covered with natural stones to loosen up the appearance.
In the immediate vicinity, other historic buildings or buildings that shape the entire ensemble are listed, such as B. the pastorate , built in 1777, with the neighboring former parish hall , the Reformed School , the residential building at Kniprodestrasse 6 and the Waterhüsken of the CVJM Ronsdorf.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- ^ Westdeutsche Zeitung online from February 18, 2011
- ^ Westdeutsche Zeitung online from October 10, 2011
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Homepage of the parish
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 45.7 " N , 7 ° 11 ′ 48" E