St. Andreas Church (Weddingstedt)
The St. Andreas Church in Weddingstedt is a stone church from the 12th century and thus one of the oldest churches in Dithmarschen . Today it belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany .
history
Weddingstedt belonged together with Meldorf, Tellingstedt and Süderhastedt to the four original church plays of Dithmarschen, which already existed around 1070, when Meldorf was referred to in the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum of Adam of Bremen as "mother church play". According to the Dithmarschen chronicler Neocorus , the Weddingstedt church is said to have been the second church in Dithmarschen even after the Meldorfer Dom . It is mentioned in writing for the first time in a document of the diocese of Bremen from 1140. Its location on the outskirts shows that it is younger than the village of Weddingstedt itself.
In the following centuries the parishes of Wesselburen , Wöhrden , Hemmingstedt and Nordhastedt were separated from the originally very large parish . The first chapel in Heide was also built in 1435 in Weddingstedter parish area. Since 1500, only the Ostrohe, Weddinghusen, Wesseln, Borgholz and Stelle-Wittenwurth farmers have belonged to the Weddingstedt church.
The single-nave, flat-roofed stone church with a retracted box choir made of brick was built in the 12th century. It is dedicated to the Apostle Andrew . The local coat of arms therefore also bears the St. Andrew's cross . Like all of Dithmarschen, the church was subordinate to the Archdiocese of Bremen, which is why the pastoral position was regularly given to a canon from Bremen or Hamburg as a benefice . He usually left the pastoral care on site to a vicar.
To the west of the church was a round tower , also made of field stones , which contains the oldest vaulted room in Dithmarschen and is only accessible through a small door from the nave. The original fortified tower was probably used as a baptistery for a while. Under the reign of the forty-eight , the lower, lower room, which is still preserved today, served as a state prison, in which prisoners had to wait until their family paid a ransom or until they were tried in the court of the Norderdöfft, the northern part of Dithmarschens, which met in Weddingstedt. The archive with the landing history was on the upper floor of the tower.
In 1524 the reformer Heinrich von Zütphen died a martyr on the Galgenberg in the village of Heide, which at that time still belonged to Weddingstedt . In 1533 the Reformation was also introduced in the Weddingstedt church . Since then, the residents have been able to choose their pastor themselves.
During the battles of the Last Feud in 1559, in which Dithmarschen lost his independence, the medieval church burned down. In addition to the medieval church furnishings, the country chronicle was also destroyed. Reconstruction began that same year, including the old masonry. This is proven by dendrochronological investigations in which the roof structure could be dated to 1559. Overall, the reconstruction took several decades. Remains of the Romanesque masonry with round arch frieze can be seen on the south side. The round tower was not rebuilt. The stump is now protected from the elements by a sheet metal roof.
In the following centuries the building was changed several times. The originally narrow windows were enlarged, but also partly walled up like the two windows behind the altar. The southern entrance was given a vestibule, the northern one was walled up. The priest door on the choir was preserved in its original form. In 1735 a wooden ridge turret was installed over the eastern nave gable. From 2008 to 2010 the church was renovated for the last time.
Furnishing
The furnishings come from the time after the church was rebuilt around 1600. The winged altar in Renaissance style shows the crucifixion of Christ in the main image in the form of three carved figures in front of a painted background and the Last Supper in the predella . In 1843, the apostles in the side wings and the risen Christ in the gable were repainted.
The pulpit was made in 1600 and modernized in 1655 in the style of cartilage baroque . The five fields show scenes from salvation history. The communion pews date from 1676, the wooden baptism with a lid is about the same old.
There are stalls on both sides of the choir. The one on the south side, whose painting with biblical scenes was donated by two Weddingstedt families in 1664, dates from 1616, the one painted with allegorical and biblical scenes on the north side from 1635. House brands are painted over individual squares . The cheek parts of the earlier chairs in the nave, which were replaced in the 19th century, are subsequently integrated into the chairs.
The brass chandelier was donated to the church in 1747. The Walcker organ from 1972 was extensively renovated in 2014.
Bells
The church has two old bells: In the stack of bells , which was built in 1619, hangs among other things the "Albertus prayer bell" named after the foundry from the 13th century, the oldest bell in Dithmarschen. The bell of the bell caster Lukas from 1606 was requisitioned in 1942 to be melted down for weapons production. After the end of the war, Pastor Würtz discovered her at the bell cemetery in Hamburg-Altona and arranged for her to be returned to Weddingstedt.
literature
- Art topography Schleswig-Holstein. Neumünster 1969, pp. 479-481.
- Dehio manual . Schleswig-Holstein. Hamburg 2009, pp. 958-959.
Web links
- Homepage of the parish Weddingstedt
- Jochen Bufe: St. Andreas Church Weddingstedt at kirchenschaetze.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Nis R. Nissen: In the beginning there was the village. Spatial planning in the Middle Ages. In: History of Dithmarschen. Heide 2000, pp. 93-120; P. 100.
- ^ Enno Bünz: The medieval parish: Selected studies for the 13th - 16th centuries. Mohr-Siebeck 2018, p. 601, note 46.
- ^ Enno Bünz: The medieval parish: Selected studies for the 13th - 16th centuries. Mohr-Siebeck 2018, p. 608.
- ↑ a b St. Andrew's Church
- ↑ a b c Jochen Bufe: St. Andreas Church Weddingstedt.
- ↑ Church