Swan Church (Roes)

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Swan Church
portal
portal
Interior in the light of the windows
Madonna in front of the altar Miraculous image
Madonna in front of the altar
Miraculous image
Weather vane of the Swan Church

The Swan Church is located near Roes in a so-called parish of the six parishes of Binningen , Brohl , Durfus , Forst , Möntenich and Roes in the Vordereifel. The church is a place of pilgrimage and a place of devotion to Mary . It was built between 1950 and 1952 as the successor to the church that was destroyed in World War II. The parish to which the Swan Church belongs is Forst.

history

Origin in the 15th century

Construction of the original Swan Church started in 1460. It was built by the Lords of Pirmont . It can be assumed that the construction progressed only slowly, as can be seen from a collection letter dated February 24, 1474, issued by the brothers Henrich, Johan and Frederich, Lords of Pirmont and Erenberg, Nicolaus von Biedburg, Pastor of Forst, and the church masters of the "Swanenkirchen", Johan Hoilen and Clais Thielen v. Pirmont. In this letter you write that this “miraculous and now completed church” has been built for 14 years. “Completed” probably just meant that it was under cover. It was not vaulted until 1492, as evidenced by the keystone in the first yoke of the nave with the marriage coat of arms of Baron Heinrich von Pirmont and Ehrenberg and his wife Catharina, Countess von der Mark-Arenberg. Construction work in the period between 1540 and 1800 is not known. It is said that the church was in danger of gradually falling apart at the beginning of the 19th century, until it caught the interest of the Koblenz master builder Johann Claudius von Lassaulx and was renovated between 1836 and 1845. Probably in the course of this measure, the organ gallery was removed and not rebuilt.

The small church building was a three-aisled late Gothic hall church with round columns and net vaults . The choir , including the front yoke, was 8.10 meters deep and 5.90 meters wide, the nave 18.90 meters long and 10.28 meters at the east end and 10.52 meters wide at the west end. Originally the church had three portals. The walls were divided on the outside by buttresses that reached up to the roof.

Destruction in World War II

On September 25, 1944, the Swan Church, which stood in the open, away from the rest of the buildings, was completely destroyed by an air raid. All other buildings in the community were spared. The miraculous image , a Pietà , and a Madonna and Child (now in the front of the chancel) have been preserved from the church. The Pietà from the 15th century was fragmented, but could be restored by the Trier sculptor Bettendorf. It is attached to the front right of the nave. In addition to the two statues, the old little bell was recovered. It was taken over to the new church along with a ship's bell, although it had a crack that could not be repaired. Two bells, cast by the Carl Metz bell and art foundry in Karlsruhe, have been hanging in the roof turret, weighing 54 kg with a b '' note and 32 kg with a d '' sound. The bell from the old church is in a showcase in the parish hall in Roes, the ship's bell on the altar as a "gong".

New building

The new building was erected on the foundations of the old church between 1950 and 1952 according to plans by the architect Karl Peter Böhr from Polch (including master builder of the High Cathedral in Trier ). The masonry consists largely of concrete and only a small part of light pumice stone. The modern architecture of the interior is characterized by large pointed arches that refer back to the Gothic . The nave has five narrow, high, pointed arch windows on the left and right. The dimensions of the new building differ slightly from those of the old church. The choir with three-eighth end and three windows on the right side is 8.99 meters deep and 6.90 meters wide, the nave is 19.05 meters long, 11 meters wide and 13 meters high. The sacristy is attached to the left of the choir. The outside of the building is 30.15 meters long and 16.70 meters high up to the ridge. The three-part portal on the west wall and the large pointed arch window above are framed with basalt. The two pillar figures created in 1996 depict St. Castor von Karden on the right and his companion, St. Potentinus , on the left, in order to illustrate the connection to the former Karden monastery and the Christianization that started there. They are works by the Mayen sculptor Franz Moog (1926–2012) and his workshop.

It is said of the stained glass windows with their triangular ornamentation that they were initially intended as emergency glazing by the architect. But the light in red, blue and golden yellow was generally fascinating, so this design was retained during the restoration in 1996. The architect got the inspiration for the design from the Cologne factory schools and from work in the St. Apollinaris Church in Frielingsdorf . The walls, which appear colored when the sun is shining, are painted pure white without any originally planned ornamentation. Altar and tabernacle were set up separately as early as 1950, in anticipation of the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council . The front side of the tabernacle with a bronze relief of the pelican as a symbol for Jesus from the 1980s was designed by Hans-Karl Schmitt (Trier) and, like the lecture cross designed by Böhr, was made by Hans Alof, Trier.

The Madonna from 1851, which was recovered from the rubble together with the miraculous image, hung at the transition from the nave to the chancel, is surrounded by a wreath with plaques depicting the mysteries of the rosary , created by Will Hahn. The miraculous image on the right was framed from red sandstone, which forms a shrine.

Origin of the name Schwanenkirche

The name of the church, attested in 1544, is explained by the legend as follows: The builder of the church fell into the captivity of the pagans, turned to Our Lady and dreamed that he would be carried home by a swan. When he woke up he found himself in the place of a small chapel, where he had the Swan Church built in honor of Our Lady.

There are other interpretations of the origin of the name Schwanenkirche and the swan in one of the keystones in the vault of the earlier church and instead of a rooster as a weather vane on the cross of the roof ridge. Among other things, it is said that "Swan" means fork in the road and the church is at a crossroads. The connection with the Counts of Bassenheim, on whose property the church stands, also appears possible; they have the swan in their coat of arms.

miscellaneous

Memorial plaque

The writing above the door reads: "HIC DOMUS DEI EST ET PORTA CAELI" translated, "Here is the house of God, the gate of heaven." The sentence is the first book of Moses removed Gen 28:17  EU .

Outside, the church seven are shrines of basalt carved with biblical quotations. They were created by the master stonemason Christoph Kronewirth (Trier) according to the design by Karl Peter Böhr in the style of the typical "ladle" . The reliefs made of fired clay in the niches of the wayside shrines were created in 1999 by the Senheim sculptor Christoph Anders (* 1938 in Järischau).

A bronze plaque is attached to a memorial column on the street in front of the church, made from fragments of the old church. The initiators of the reconstruction, dean Georg Schreiner and chaplain Ernst Weber, as well as the architect Karl Peter Böhr, are named under the biblical phrase related to the Schwanenkirche, “I set up its rubble and restore everything” ( Amos 9.11  EU ). In addition, a thank you to the population is formulated, through whose "active assistance" the new Swan Church was built between 1950 and 1952 on the ruins of the Swan Church, which was destroyed in 1944.

literature

  • August Reichensperger: The Swan Church near Forst on the Maifelde. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 19, 1853 (not viewed).
  • Josef Ruland: The legend of the return from the Holy Land as a gender legend in the Eifel. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 155/56 (1955/56), pp. 215–227.
  • Reinhold Schommers: The swan church near Roes / Eifel. Edited by the Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection. Neusser Druckerei und Verlag, Neuss 1999, ISBN 3-88094-852-6 .

Web links

Commons : Swan Church (Roes)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ It is inexplicable that the Schwanenkirche was bombed, although it could hardly be assumed to be a military facility. It is presumed that the command aircraft of a squadron dropped its bomb load when approaching Koblenz due to a technical error and the crew of the following aircraft assumed that the target for the drops had been reached.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ernst Wackenroder: The art monuments of the district of Cochem . Reprint of the 1959 edition of Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-422-00561-7 , pp. 705–714.
  2. ↑ a b Information sheet from the Forest Parish Office.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Reinhold Schommers: The Swan Church near Roes / Eifel . Edited by the Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection. Neusser Druckerei und Verlag, Neuss 1999, ISBN 3-88094-852-6 .
  4. ↑ Swan Church. In: Eifel.info. June 8, 2021, accessed June 13, 2021 .
  5. ↑ Nikolaus stool: Freia and the swan. In: Nikolaus Hocker: The legends of the Hohenzollern and Welfs: A contribution to German mythology and heroic legend. Wilhelm Kaulen, Düsseldorf, 1857, pp. 141-144.

Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 10.3 ″  N , 7 ° 15 ′ 9.8 ″  E