St. Bartholomew Church (Themar)
The listed St. Bartholomew Church is the town church of the Thuringian city of Themar .
The city church of Themar is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew . It is one of the richest churches in the upper Werra valley. It is one of the few buildings in the small town on the Werra, which has historically been documented since 796 and which has survived all the storms of time. The upper church at the upper gate and the lower church at the Werra were the first places of worship in the village. Remains of the Romanesque lower church are still preserved in the sacristy and the two lower floors of the church tower above.
history
After the mediation of Countess Margaretha von Henneberg, Pope Sixtus IV granted permission for the new church to be built on May 14, 1484. On May 3, 1488, the canon of the Premonstratensian monastery Veßra and pastor of Themar Antonius König laid the foundation stone for the construction of today's church. In 1502 the late Gothic hall church was completed with its choir .
The Reformation was introduced in Themar on October 5, 1544 by Count Ernst von Henneberg . After that, the church received several smaller carved altars from other churches. In the following decades it was rebuilt again and again. Since 1541 the barrel vault and the double were galleries built, the supporting beams with unique Bartmann heads were provided. Similar heads can also be found in the churches in Rohr and Herpf near Meiningen . In addition, the galleries on the pillars were decorated with relief depictions of saints and apostles , some of which came from older Gothic altarpieces. Biblical sayings are also attached to the galleries , e.g. B. opposite the pulpit of saying: Romans 10,16.17 LUT : "Isaiah says, Lord, who hath believed our '? So faith comes from preaching, but preaching through the word of Christ ”.
Furnishing
Mary Altar
In the choir is the Marien Altar, which was created by the Bamberg master Hans Nussbaum around 1510. The middle field of the altar shows Mary with the Christ child , standing on her sides the Archangel Michael , who kills the dragon with his lance, St. Bartholomew, the patron saint of the church and the old drapery , tanner and rafting town of Themar. On the side wings of the altar there are stations from the life of Mary: announcement of the birth of Jesus, birth of the Lord, adoration of the three wise men, lamentation of Mary by the apostles. The back of the side wings show female saints on panel paintings: Barbara, Dorothea, Margaretha, Katharina. The holy clan can be seen on the predella. In addition to its artistic value, the Marien Altar is also of great importance for local history: it saved the town church from cremation during the Thirty Years' War . After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634, the "Commander of all Croats", the equestrian general Johann Ludwig Hektor von Isolani , plundered the land of the Thuringian princes. On Gallustag 1634 (October 16) Themar (on the same day also Suhl ) went up in flames after being sacked by the Croats on Isolani's orders. The fire torch was also carried into the town church, but a pious Italian officer gave the order to put out the fire in the church when he saw the Marian altar.
Other carvings and art treasures are: The Apostle Shrine , popularly known as the "nose altar" because of the expressive nose-mouth parts of the figures, from the period from 1500 (backs of the side wings: panel painting Apostle's Farewell), the pilgrimage altar on the north wall (Back of the side wing " Chicken legend " from Santo Domingo de la Calzada ) and the Pietà altar on the south wall of the nave, as well as a high Gothic crescent moon Madonna (according to Revelation 12.1 LUT ), an epitaph in the Renaissance style in the choir .
Also worth mentioning are a fresco painting , which was only uncovered in 1935, depicting Saint Catherine , the pulpit from 1644 with richly decorated sound cover and pulpit cage, the epistle chair from the middle of the 17th century and some paintings.
The stained glass windows in the choir room were donated around 1900, they show biblical scenes: the prodigal son, the blessing of children, the good Samaritan. In 1972 the interior of the St. Bartholomew's Church was renovated.
organ
According to recent findings, the organ of the town church from 1851/52 was not built by the organ builder Johann Michael Holland , but by the organ builder Michael Schmidt, who is also based in Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig . Three pedal stops were adopted from the Weise organ built in 1629 . In 1866 the instrument was moved to the second extended west gallery by Friedrich Wilhelm Holland. In the years 1999/2000 it was completely renewed and renovated by the company Rösel & Hercher Orgelbau .
From 1668 to 1684 Georg Christoph Bach , Johann Sebastian Bach's eldest uncle , worked as a cantor at the town church and as a teacher at the Themaraner Latin School. He was appointed to Schweinfurt in 1684 and became the progenitor of the “Schweinfurt Bache ”.
tower
A triple bell rings from the renaissance style church tower. The oldest bell was cast in 1488 and another in 1507. The Bartholomew Bell, cast in 1520, had to be delivered in 1942. A steel bell was installed for this in 1955 . The Rust family of towers lived on the church tower until the mid-1950s . There you can still see the three rooms and the cable winch that was used to pull food, water and coal into the tower house outside the church tower.
Web links
- Churches on the Themar City website, accessed October 10, 2015
- Information about the church on the website of the church district
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cultural development concept for the model region of the Hildburghausen and Sonneberg districts . October 2014, p. 31 ( pdf ).
- ↑ So still Uwe Pape (Hrsg.): Lexikon Norddeutscher Orgelbauer, Volume 1: Thuringia and bypass. Pape Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-921140-86-4 , p. 131 f.
- ↑ The organ in the town church of St. Bartholomäus on the website of the church district.
- ↑ Contemporary witnesses on the city of Themar's website, accessed on October 10, 2015.
Coordinates: 50 ° 30 ′ 8 ″ N , 10 ° 36 ′ 52 ″ E