St. Anna Chapel (Rheinberg)

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Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 43.6 "  N , 6 ° 34 ′ 51.4"  E

St. Anna Chapel in the historic Annaberg cemetery.

The St. Anna Chapel in Rheinberg is a small cemetery church on the historic part of the Annaberg cemetery. It stands on a Roman hill on Römerstrasse and belonged to the Catholic collegiate church of St. Peter . The building was rebuilt in 1773 after the previous building was destroyed during the Spanish-Dutch War .

The chapel is used for services, concerts and the candlelight procession on July 26th.

The St. Anna Chapel has been registered as an architectural monument since March 15, 1983 . Monument number: 19

history

The small church on the chapel hill was first mentioned in 1555. The hill was previously a Roman lookout point. During the Spanish-Dutch War in 1633 it was burned to the ground by the Dutch and demolished 10 years later. The Annaberg was still used as a pilgrimage site.

In 1773 it was decided to rebuild the chapel. It was financed by an heir to the Dutch leader. A year later, in 1774, it was consecrated again to St. Anna by the abbot Dionysius Genger of the Kamp monastery . The figure of Anna Selbdritt stood on her altar for over 200 years . This is now in the St. Anna Church. Simultaneously with the consecration of the church, a prayer path was built with seven stations of the cross carved in stone on both sides . The school's teacher was obliged by a foundation to make a pilgrimage there with his students once a year.

In 1833 the cemetery of the Catholic parish church of St. Peter was moved to the St. Anna Chapel. On the one hand for reasons of space, on the other hand, with the spirit of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, demands were made to implement the newly gained knowledge in aesthetics and hygiene also in burials. During this time, cemeteries were influenced by the ideas of style in horticulture. The cemetery gate and the avenue leading to the church hill were mentioned around 1853. The Rheinberger Heiligengrotte and the old cemetery cross are further elements of the design. However, the principle of equality of the Enlightenment could not prevail. Graves in the immediate vicinity of the chapel were reserved for clergymen and the particularly wealthy.

With the territorial reform in 1969, the city of Rheinberg took over the St. Anna chapel and the cemetery. The Rheinberg-Land office ( Moers district ) was previously responsible for this.

In 2008 committed citizens founded an association to preserve the St. Anna Chapel. Many restoration measures that had been neglected for decades began. In addition, there was mining damage to the building due to the coal mining .

In 2011 the chapel received a new bell. This is dedicated to St. Vitus . On the wreath of the bronze bell it reads "Saint Vitus protect us". It was cast by a monk from the Benedictine Abbey of Maria Laach and blessed by the pastor Hubert Peters. In the same year the chapel received LED exterior lighting so that it can be seen from afar during the dark season.

The legend of the St. Anne's Chapel

On the hill west of Rheinberg called Anna-Berg, where Prince Heinrich of Orange had set up his headquarters during the siege of Rheinberg, there was a small chapel. After the conquest of the city by the Dutch in 1633, the wives and children of the Spanish and Brabant prisoners expelled by the governor often sought solace in prayer. They had their apartments in the little houses and huts near the chapel, so as to be close to their own, whose threatening fate filled them with fear.

Also on August 31, 1633, they had come to pray in the chapel. The sun had long since set, and there was deep silence all around, which was only broken by the wailing of the unfortunate. Then a dark heap moved through the field to the chapel and rushed up the hill with wild cries. Only now did the unfortunate people realize the danger and tried to escape; but they were seized at the door and knocked down. Others, who closed the door and wanted to resist, were easily overwhelmed by the assassins who stormed in.

Captain Zamora's wife and their two children kneeled in front of the chapel's altar. The monsters rushed on these, dragged them away by their hair, threw the corpses down the hill, destroyed the altar and set the chapel on fire. Then the wild bunch moved away. Only an unnoticed cross was left to mark the spot where the murder had raged.

But Providence rules! Retribution finally overtook the person who had ordered and directed the murder. When he was lying on the bed of death, the image of that night of horror may have come vividly to his soul, then he was gripped by repentance and in his will he told his heir to atone for his evil deed a new chapel on that hill near Rheinberg build. But the heirs ignored the will of the dying man. It was only after many years that one of his descendants, who came across the will by chance, decided to fulfill the duty that an unscrupulous inheritance had failed to fulfill, and commissioned the then mayor Johann Gatzweiler to carry out the construction by sending him the money he needed. The mayor undertook this assignment willingly and with joy.

And so the little church rose again on the green hill, as it still looks peaceably through the dark fir trees and seems to invite prayer and devotion. And at different times of the year, but especially on All Souls Day, devout prayers wander there to attend Holy Mass, to hear the priest's words of consolation, or to commemorate loved ones in the surrounding graves.

regional customs

Traditionally, every year on St. Anne, on July 26th, a solemn service in honor of St. Anne takes place in the chapel. The rifle club makes a pilgrimage with flags and the royal couple from St. Anne's Church via the cemetery to the chapel. Several designed prayer times follow to commemorate the patron saint and grandma. In the evening, the community moves back to the new church in a light procession across the cemetery. The celebrations close with a festive service and an “evening of encounters” with food and drink.

Another Lower Rhine tradition at burials is ringing the death knell for the last escort. For decades, however, the Rheinbergers had to forego this tradition because the bell rope was missing and the old St. Vitus bell in the St. Anna chapel had a crack. The chapel has had a new bell since 2011. This is now radio-controlled and can be activated from St. Anne's Church or the morgue.

Others

The listed historical cemetery and the St. Anna chapel together with the old cemetery cross and the Rheinberg grotto with the burial figure form a culturally and religiously significant ensemble. The shape of the cemetery is based on Christian principles and is intended to represent the “gate of life”.

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stadtarchiv Rheinberg, Mittheilungen des Verein von Geschichtsfreunde zu Rheinberg, 2nd issue, 1883 (page 114); The legend of the St. Anna chapel in the cemetery near Rheinberg. Retrieved April 29, 2018 .