Roskapellchen
The Roskapellchen is a listed chapel building in Aachen not far from the parish of St. Jakob and is used to worship Mary, the Mother of God . It was built in the Baroque style in 1758/1759 as a replacement for a previously free-standing wayside shrine , into which a statue of Mary from the early 16th century had been integrated . Many sources attribute the construction of the chapel to the Aachen builder Laurenz Mefferdatis , but the cathedral builder Joseph Buchkremer lists it as the work of Johann Joseph Couven . The "Roskapellchen" owes its name to the surrounding residential area, is however not clear whether the name 'Ros / Rues "the way called" via rotta "from the Roman period or a reference to a nearby Flachsröste is .
history
At the end of the 15th century, this area was still characterized by fields that the farmers tilled with horse plows. To supply them there was a running fountain with a horse trough and a wayside shrine with a miraculous image , which was set up there around 1500. In this place the farmers could spend their break with their horses and hold a short prayer. After the great fire of Aachen in 1656, which broke out in the nearby Jakobsviertel and in which the entire wayside shrine remained intact despite the local proximity, the population believed in a miraculous coincidence, which subsequently enhanced the place of pilgrimage.
In addition, it was thanks to the proximity to the old St. James 'Church and the St. James' Way that passed there that the pilgrimage site developed into an increasingly popular attraction. This prompted the pastor of St. Jakob, Johann Jakob Kloubert, to commission the construction of a stone chapel in the middle of the 18th century, in which the image of Mary was to be integrated into an altar. The designs for this building are attributed in several sources to Mefferdatis, who, however, died in 1748. It cannot be proven whether he had made the plans for the building before his death and whether it was not implemented until 1758/1759 or whether, according to Buchkremer, Johann Joseph Couven was actually the architect responsible.
After the chapel was built, the place of pilgrimage continued to enjoy great popularity, especially in times of great need such as war, earthquakes or epidemics. For example, when more than 400 residents of the Rosviertel fell ill during a major cholera epidemic in 1832, the almost 200 survivors then initiated a procession in memory of this, which has traditionally been going to the chapel every year since then. This had already been set up as a station for another procession that took place on the Remembrance Days of Our Lady and in Lent and from there moved on to Aachen Cathedral . In addition, until the First World War it was common for children in the neighborhood of a sick child from the Rosviertel to offer candles to the picture of Mary. If these burned calmly, the children believed in a cure, but should the candles flicker restlessly, a negative outcome of the disease.
During the Battle of Aachen in World War II , the walls of the Roskapellchen were badly damaged, but the statue of Mary remained miraculously unscathed. Nevertheless, it took until 1958 for the restoration work to be finally completed. In 1960 a memorial plaque was unveiled for this purpose, which is no longer there today and on which was engraved: “ Et Rueskapellche. Marien- und Gnadenkapelle, built 1758–1759 under Pastor Johann Jakob Kloubert, St. Jakob, partially destroyed by the effects of war 1940/1945, restored in 1958 by Pastor Kaspar Sinzig, St.Jakob ”. In 2007/2008 the roof and lantern of the Roskapellchen were finally completely renovated and in 2013 the complex also received a new, contemporary illumination , which was sponsored by Stawag and the Friends of the Light Project Aachen.
Building description
The Roskapellchen is a hexagonal whitewashed brick building whose corners Lisenenartig with blue stone blocks are reinforced. The entrance side is equipped with a wooden and double-winged arched door, which is decorated with wrought-iron ornaments in front of the door windows equipped with transparent tinted lead glazing. On the neighboring surfaces there are large arched windows which, like the entrance door, are equipped with bluestone frames with a keystone set in the lintel . This typical construction rather points to Couven, as Mefferdatis mostly preferred rectangular windows with several keystones. In addition, all four free sides - two rear sides are leaning against an old residential building and therefore cannot be seen - are equipped with small oval ox-eye windows with bluestone frames in the upper area .
A bluestone cornice that runs all around above the ox eyes connects to the tent roof , which ends in a small six-sided closed roof turret, which is equipped with clear lattice windows on all sides and through which a small bell is visible. The rider is also covered by a tapering roof with a small golden cross.
Interior
Behind a thick pane of glass and a wrought-iron candlestick, on the back wall, there is the richly decorated wooden altar from the 19th century, set in neo-Gothic style. It consists of a narrow cafeteria , on which a 10 cm thick wooden plate is initially placed, on the front of which the Magnificat lettering in gold letters on a blue background : " Magnificat anima mea dominum: et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo " ( " My soul praises the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my Savior. ") Is engraved. Above it rises the three-part altar structure from the 19th century, which is decorated with delicate pinnacles at its upper corners . Over a small gilded tabernacle in the center, before a small gold cross stands on a hexagonal wooden base, the central figure niche follows, in dressed in white and crowned, the old miraculous image of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, both under one with tracery provided Canopy has found its location. On both sides of it there are further, smaller figure niches of the same design, set deeper, in which the figure of Joseph of Nazareth is set up on the left and another representation of the Mother of God with the baby Jesus in the style and style of the Joseph figure is set up on the right.
Scatter gel van de Rues
According to legend, there was a farmhand named Johann in the 16th century who had his farmer's horses shod in a neighboring forge. On the way back to the fields he prayed at the miraculous image and distributed sweets to the children playing at the drinking trough. Since there were no heirs, he bequeathed a small sum of money to the parish of St. Jakob, with which it was to give sweets to the children of the neighborhood once a year after his death. The citizens of the district later took up this idea and founded the association "Streuengelche van de Rues", which still exists today. From this, the three-day Roskirmes, which has been held annually since then, developed, in the run-up to which a girl between the ages of four and six is chosen as the so-called "Streuengelchen". This is supposed to distribute sweets to other children in the district during the festive season, but also to visit kindergartens and old people's homes. At the same time, during the fair, it serves the neatly dressed "Streuengelche doll", which can be pulled back and forth across Rosstrasse on ropes stretched across the Rosstrasse from opposite apartments on the second floor, and a tilting device lets candy fall into the crowd .
A bronze figure of the Streuengelchen, donated in 1988 by the last owner of a former neighboring needle factory and made by the sculptor Gerhard Hensen, was placed on a bluestone plinth to the side of the Roskapelle.
In addition, the association also cultivates the legend of the Roskapellchen with dialect song lyrics that come from the pen of well-known Aachen dialect poets such as Will Hermanns .
Web links
- Portrait on the pages of the Catholic Parish of St. Jacob
- Hannelore Follmer: Das Roskapellchen , on Unser-aachen.eu from October 16, 2016
Individual evidence
- Jump up ↑ Joseph Buchkremer: The architects Johann Joseph Couven and Jakob Couven. in: Zeitschrift Aachener Geschichtsverein (ZAGV) 17/1895, p. 194. as download from the Aachener Geschichtsverein or from archive.org
- ↑ Martina Stöhr: Roskapellchen in new splendor. In: Aachener Nachrichten . December 27, 2013 ( aachener-nachrichten.de ).
- ↑ Homepage of the association "Streuengelche van de Rues"
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 15.4 " N , 6 ° 4 ′ 40.2" E