Castle Church (Varel)
The castle church is a listed church building in Varel .
history
The church made of granite boulders , bricks and granite ashlars was built in the Middle Ages at the highest point in Varel instead of a small wooden structure. After 1650 it became part of a palace complex built by the Counts of Varel. The count's family used their own chapel in the castle building, but also had stalls and a burial tomb in the church. The castle buildings were demolished around 1870 after an extensive fire.
The church was always available to the residents of the village as a parish church. It was probably originally dedicated to the Apostle Peter .
From 1992 the structure and interior were gradually restored. Many valuable insights were gained for the preservation of monuments. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg , the state of Lower Saxony , the citizens of Varels and many regional institutions made a significant contribution through funding to ensure that the castle church in Varel can be used and experienced again as one of the most important architectural and cultural monuments in the region.
architecture
The oldest part of the castle church is composed of irregularly hewn in the 12th century boulders erected nave , its western gable has been preserved despite the subsequent superior tower, the original Ostabschluss probably time requires an apse , no longer recognizable, especially since the bottom in 1957 was excavated without investigation. The ship initially had a flat ceiling. The pointed arched domical vaults were subsequently placed on strong wall templates . In connection with the vaulting, the windows had to be relocated, the new, today's ones were given round arches again. In the same renovation, the longitudinal walls were raised by 1.26 m, with brick inside.
The broad, squat-looking tower was added to the nave in the first half of the 13th century as a Romanesque westwork with a double tower, the first floor of which was intended as a mansion box; however, the old west gable of the nave was not opened to the west. Around 1600 the wooden spiers were lost, possibly due to a storm. The remaining hulls were only brought together under one roof to their present form in the 18th century. From 1775 to 1986 the brick was plastered and the plaster was scored with a square. Inside and from the east you can still see the two tower stumps in which the five church bells are ringing. The substructure of the tower system consists of the entrance hall (with the only two colored, modern glass windows) and the tower box above.
The castle church received its characteristic cross shape by adding a transept and a choir in the east. The nave was increased again, this time by 1.10 m. the brick used for this is slightly larger than that of the first vault and wall elevation.
The dating of the transept and choir by Wilhelm Janßen to the middle of the 15th century is surprisingly late, compared to the three-window group of the choir gable, which, apart from the Romanesque round arches, is more typical of the early Gothic and - according to his own statements - the granite facing . Its greening is not compulsory, as the brick format of the inner wall layer has been used since the 13th century and late Gothic lime paintings can also be found elsewhere on early Gothic vaults. Janßen saw the expansion of the church to include a crossing and today's choir in connection with the takeover of Varels, initiated in 1465 and completed in 1481, by the Counts of Oldenburg . The 1992 Dehio handbook dates the crossing and choir to the end of the 13th century. The dendrodating of the roof truss hoped for by Janßen has not yet taken place.
Furnishing
Works by Ludwig Münstermann
The Earl's House, ruling over Varel at the beginning of the 17th century, committed to Protestant teaching early on. In their spirit, Count Anton II. Von Delmenhorst, brother of the ruling Count of Oldenburg, Johann VII. , Had the sculptor Ludwig Münstermann from Hamburg create a new set of furnishings in the style of North German Mannerism in the years 1613 to 1618 : the famous altarpiece carved from oak , the pulpit and the baptismal font with lid, which are almost completely preserved to this day.
In the large vertical vertical of the altar, the reliefs show the story of Jesus Christ. The predella shows the birth of Jesus and the upper panel shows the exaltation or ascension of Christ. At the top of the altar is the salvator mundi, barely visible to the naked eye : Christ, the Savior, holds the globe in his hand.
organ
The organ was built in 1978 by the organ builder Karl Schuke (Berlin). The case was taken from the previous instrument, a two-manual organ that was built in 1861 by the organ builder Philipp Furtwängler . On the case there are remains of an organ case from 1615: to the left and right of the middle pedal tower are two coat-of-arms-bearing lions. An Apollo figure from the former case from 1615 is now in the sculpture department of the State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin-Dahlem. The organ from 1978 has 46 stops on three manuals and pedal . The key actions are electric (slider drawers), the stop actions and couplings are electric.
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- Coupling : I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
See also
literature
- Wilhelm Janßen : The Varel Castle Church and its building history. Heinz Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg 1986, ISBN 3873582732 .
- Dehio Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Volume Bremen / Lower Saxony , 1992, ISBN 3-422-03022-0 , p. 1289
- Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Waldemar Reinhardt: Frisian Churches - Rüstringen, Friesische Wehde, Butjadingen, Stedingen and City of Wilhelmshaven , Volume 4. Verlag CL Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1982, p. 45 ff.
- Hans-Reinhard Aukschun: The castle church in Varel and its Münstermann works. Evangelical Lutheran Church Congregation , Varel 1983, ISBN 9783924113001 .
- Robert Noah, Martin Stromann: God's houses in Friesland and Wilhelmshaven. Verlag Soltau-Kurier-Norden, Norden 1991, ISBN 978-3-922365-95-2 , p. 96 ff.
- Wilhelm Gilly: Medieval churches and chapels in the Oldenburger Land. Building history and inventory. Isensee Verlag , Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-126-6 , p. 152 ff.
- Dagmar de Levie-Hippen: A new gallery in the west. In: Nordwest-Zeitung (NWZ) from November 25, 1994.
- Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . 2nd Edition. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebs-GmbH, Aurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-940601-05-6 , p. 24, 34, 43, 48, 53 ff., 97, 149, 152, 219, 221 ff .
- Wolfgang Müller: Lions watch over the church. In: Wilhelmshavener Zeitung (WZ) of September 13, 2014.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Bells for the castle church in Varel, accessed on September 7, 2018.
- ↑ Information about the organ and the disposition
Coordinates: 53 ° 23 '50.5 " N , 8 ° 8' 12.9" E