Castle Church (Braunfels)
The Braunfels Castle Church is located in the town of Braunfels in the Lahn-Dill district in Hesse .
The construction of a new community center with its own church and thus the de facto withdrawal from the previously exclusive use of the castle church as the only Protestant community church in the village opened the way for a now expanded use together with the Catholic Christians, who otherwise also have their own community church .
Building history
In 1501, Count Otto von Solms had a new Gothic-style church built in place of the previous castle chapel in Braunfels Castle . For this purpose, the oldest Zwinger was vaulted below the "Supreme Gate" and the church was placed on this vault . This type of sacred building above a kennel, recognizable from the outside , was also used in the Middle Ages as a psychological deterrent against enemy attacks. The central nave of the three-aisled, late Gothic hall church has a star vault , the side aisles have ribbed vaults that rest on 4 round columns with grimacing consoles and the surrounding walls. A reticulated vault is located above the single-nave choir with the 3/8 floor plan of an octagon; on the south wall the three earlier loopholes can still be seen.
Originally the church was equipped with five altars : St. Anna, St. Maria, St. Georg, St. Sebastian and St. Christophorus, all of which are no longer there today. The interior furnishings have been redesigned several times over the years. Despite the castle fire of 1679, the structure of the castle church has been completely preserved to this day. After 1679 the walls in the choir were paneled and given cornices. The terracotta - tiles of the choir soil probably date from the 16th century.
In 1868 the interior of the castle church was thoroughly repaired, in which the current church and choir stalls were also installed. The floor of the nave received a paving made of lung stones . After an interior renovation of the choir in 2016, the central and side aisles were renovated in 2018.
Furnishing
Frescoes, painting
Originally, the church was decorated with rich paintings on the walls and vaults. Traces of Gothic tendrils were found during the renovation in 1902. Due to their poor state of preservation and missing documents, they could not be reconstructed and were painted over.
However, a relatively well-preserved votive painting in the church choir above the door to the sacristy was uncovered , which was probably made around 1515 and fills an entire vaulted yoke. It represents Count Bernhard III. to Solms-Braunfels with wife and children, kneeling under a Madonna (Mother of God, Mary with child). In the lower part of the fresco the Apostles Jacobus the Younger, Thomas, Johannes and Jacobus the Elder are depicted with their attributes under banners on which the beliefs attached to the individual apostles are written.
Church window
The original tracery of the windows is only preserved in the sacristy. The castle church received the lead glass windows still in existence in 1902/04. The left window of the choir shows the Evangelists Luke and Mark, the right one John and Matthew. The large double window in the center of the choir depicts the crucifixion group .
The window behind the parish seat shows ornaments and in the middle the cross with the crown of thorns and the Holy Scriptures with the letters A and O ("Alpha" and "Omega", Rev 21,6 LUT ).
altar
The altar is made of black Nassau marble and has the shape of a sarcophagus . It was donated in 1785 by Prince Wilhelm Christian zu Solms Braunfels and his two sisters Auguste and Luise for their parents Ferdinand and Sophie, who were buried in the family crypt below the choir room in 1783 and 1772. On this occasion, the two coffins were moved from the crypt under 2 stone slabs made of blue marble in front of the sarcophagus altar in the choir room.
organ
In 1688 the organ builder Grieb from Griedel built a new organ with ten registers . They were maintained by the Dreuth family of organ builders in the 18th century and sold to Kraftsolms in 1804 . Today's organ goes back to a small choir organ that Johann Friedrich Syer originally created for Arnsburg Monastery between 1766 and 1768 . In the course of secularization , the work was transferred to Braunfels in 1804 and initially set up in the choir room. In 1900 Gustav Raßmann gave it its current location on the gallery, built the neo-Gothic prospect with tracery and added a second manual. Sound changes and extensions were made in 1950 and 1965 by Raßmann's successor Günter Hardt . The registers of Syer's main work have been preserved. The organ has a total of 21 stops on two manuals and pedal:
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
Double tomb
On the east wall of the right aisle, right below the pulpit, is the life-size, magnificently designed, colored grave slab of Count Conrad zu Solms-Braunfels (1540–1592) with his wife Elisabeth, née. Countess of Nassau-Dillenburg (1542–1603). In the flat niches of the grave slab he stands dressed as a German knight and according to the custom of the time with a sword on the left and a dagger on the right, at his feet the helmet with an open visor, symbolizing the high nobility. Elisabeth stands on his left side and wears a modest monastery dress , the folds of which can be seen as a particularly successful work by the unknown artist.
Wood epitaph
To the right of the parents' grave slab, amidships on the southern outer wall of the church, is a wooden epitaph carved with rich fittings for a son and four daughters of Count Conrad with Elisabeth, who died of the leaves in childhood .
Stone tomb
Between the grave slab of the Count couple Conrad / Elisabeth and the wooden epitaph of the children stands the life-size stone grave slab of Count Wilhelm zu Solms-Braunfels (1501–1542), son of Count Bernhard III., Who lived in Eferding , Austria in 1542 , on an im The wounded fighting the Turks died, also a late Gothic sculptural work.
Stone grave slab
The origin and connection to Haus Solms of a stone slab on the left in front of the altar rise are unclear. It commemorates two children of Wolfgang Ehrenreich von Borschittaw and his wife Magdalena Catharina, nee. from Angern .
Reformation, use of the church
Count Philipp von Solms-Braunfels (1494–1581) introduced the teachings of Martin Luther to the Braunfelser Lands . Until 1582 the community of Braunfels belonged to the Lutheran parish Altenkirchen in the county of Nassau-Dillenburg. With the introduction of the stricter, Reformed doctrine, Count Conrad released Braunfels from Lutheran Altenkirchen in 1582 , founded his own parish here, built a parsonage, furnished the parish with goods and slopes and opened the castle church to the now Reformed community in 1583, which until then had been the Had visited St. Georgen Church .
The Synodal Order , which was introduced in 1582 when Count Conrad converted to the Reformed Confession, existed in principle until 1739. During the Thirty Years' War, however, the castle changed hands four times in the years 1621–1635, and religious oppression of the population went hand in hand with a corresponding change in use the castle church. Only with the arrival of the Swedes in March 1632 did the unrest come to an end, and since then the castle church has been the official church of the Braunfels Evangelical Reformed parish again. The princes and counts of Braunfels continued to exercise their rights as patrons towards the Protestant community in a Christian community after the house had become Catholic again in 1950.
In 1980 the Protestant parish of Braunfels built a new, own church building further down in the village, not far from the Catholic St. Anna Church, which has existed since the middle of the 19th century. With the presbytery resolution of 1985 and subsequent contractual arrangements with the castle owner, the continued possibility of using the castle church by the evangelical community was determined.
In the years that followed, the church interior was increasingly used for exhibitions and concerts , as well as for wedding ceremonies ordered by local and non-local guests. In 2005, the Catholic Church and the responsible diocese of Limburg, in consultation with the Protestant Church and the landlord and owner, gave their approval for celebrations of Holy Mass and weddings according to the Catholic rite. With this release of the castle church for Catholic use in addition to the continued Protestant use on certain occasions, there is also a Simultaneum in Braunfels. Since then, both denominations have been using the opportunity to celebrate their own church services in a common church building.
Web links
- Homepage Braunfels Castle
- Church district on Lahn and Dill
- State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Hrsg.): Castle Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lothar Rühl: The church is back in operation , accessed on April 19, 2020.
- ↑ Krystian Skoczowski : The organ builder family Zinck. A contribution to the research of organ building in the Wetterau and the Kinzig valley in the 18th century . Haag + Herchen, Hanau 2018, ISBN 978-3-89846-824-4 , pp. 30 .
- ^ Franz Bösken: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (= contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 7.1 ). tape 2 : The area of the former administrative district of Wiesbaden. Part 1: A-K . Schott, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7957-1307-2 , p. 95 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 30 ′ 50.8 " N , 8 ° 23 ′ 14.6" E