Saint Gregorius Church (Alkersleben)

St. Gregorius Church

The passage between the ship and the choir is clearly visible

The village church of St. Gregorius is the Protestant church in the village of Alkersleben in the Thuringian Ilm district on a hill in the southeast of the village, the former Kirchberg . It belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church Community Association Elxleben-Witzleben in the parish of Arnstadt-Ilmenau of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany .

history

pulpit

Choir window

altar

The church, which dates back to a small chapel from the 12th century, was expanded and changed in several construction phases to become today's Romanesque hall church. In the baroque era it was given a wooden barrel ceiling with colorful paintings from around 1701 showing Christ's ordeal. The paintings and masonry have been restored since 2010.

The organ builder family Holland from Schmiedefeld delivered the organ with 17 registers in 1824 , divided into 2 manuals and pedal .

Roof truss

Organ with ceiling painting (wooden barrel vault)

On the outside of the ledge between the choir and nave, on the masonry and the different window shapes, you can see that the two parts of the building date from different times:

In the winter of 1340/41 the wood for the ship's 14 rafters was felled. The type of mortise and tenon joints and other signs indicate, however, that the roof of the ship was not re-covered until after 1550 using the old rafters. It is therefore not possible to give a clear date for the construction of the nave.
In the 16th century the church was expanded to include a choir closed on three sides. A small niche relief (only about 20 cm high) on its outer wall shows the crucifixion of Christ. According to dendrochronological investigations of the six pairs of rafters (" rafters ") above the choir, its construction is dated to 1520. The division of the construction phases is also demonstrated by the different dimensions of the rafters and the differing leaf and tenon connections .

Choir

In terms of architectural history, the polygonal choir is seen as a unit with the tower. The interior of the choir houses the chancel, which receives its light from five different stone windows. These are tracery windows with different patterns: The only round of the five windows in the choir apse is in the easternmost part of the wall and contains a four-bolt , the right window shown in the photo a double- bolt . These decorations can be assigned to the late Gothic period . Due to the shape of the windows, the eastern part of the church was built in the 14th century.

tower

Bell house

tower

The tower next to the choir contains almost no components from the time it was built. Only four posts in the corners of the 4.5 × 2.8 m tower room date from 1582; this is shown on the one hand by a corresponding inscription on one of the stands, but also by the dendrological examination. The rest of the tower, including the spire, was later completely rebuilt. Because of the oversupply of spruce and fir wood at the time, the tower is built entirely from these woods, while the belfry in the bell house next door is made of oak.

Bell house

The bell house, which is separate from the church building, was restored in 2003 and contains an oak bell cage that can accommodate three bells. The bell house contains the smallest of the original three bells, the other two fell victim to the First World War . Dendrological examinations dated the year of origin to 1747 ± 5 years. The inaccuracy of ten years can be explained by the fact that no bark, the last wood to grow, was found in the wood examined.

Others

The parish of Alkersleben belongs to the parish of Elxleben , which also includes the parishes of Gügleben , Ettischleben , Riechheim and Elleben .

The old part of the cemetery is a listed building . Many individual tombs also bear the monument protection symbol.

On the south side of the cemetery a huge giant arborvitae ( Thuja plicata ) grows .

On the north side of the church there is a large technical water tank with an old sheet metal bathtub in front of it for drawing water, fed with rainwater from the roof of the nave . The image of the church is impaired as a result, and this sight is not compatible with the monumental character of the cemetery.

A lively support association takes care of the maintenance and renewal of the church.