St. Johannes Evangelist Church (Eversberg)
The St. Johannes Evangelist Church in Eversberg in the Hochsauerland district is a Catholic parish church whose origins go back at least to the 13th century. Despite various fires, lightning strikes and damage from the effects of war, the church essentially continues in its original form.
History and Development
The parish church of Eversberg was built in the years when the Counts of Arnsberg were raised to town in 1240. In 1247, Count Gottfried III. the Archbishop of Cologne granted the right to baptize and burial for the church he built. In 1263 he transferred the right to fill the pastor's office to his daughter Agnes , who was the abbess of the Meschede monastery . With the conversion of the women's monastery into a male monastery in 1319, this right of proposal was also transferred. Later it must have been with the Counts of Arnsberg again, because with the purchase of the County of Arnsberg in 1368 the new sovereigns acquired it. This remained until the end of the Duchy of Westphalia . The subsequent rulers ( Hesse-Darmstadt in 1802 and Prussia in 1816 ) unsuccessfully claimed the right of patronage for themselves. With the assignment of spiritual care for this area to the Archdiocese of Paderborn in 1821, it also received the right of patronage.
Church building
The church is a hall church as it occurs several times in South Westphalia. It consists of three bays , a central nave and two side aisles. To the east is the choir in the shape of a half octagon. While the choir is in the Gothic style, the naves date from the late Romanesque period. Therefore, it cannot be precisely determined whether the church was built in the late 12th or early 13th century.
The church was looted and damaged three times (1632, 1635 and 1636) during the Thirty Years' War . In 1631, 1856 and 1873 lightning struck the tower and caused further damage. In 1873 a fire that had started there could only be extinguished with great difficulty.
In 1712 the square tower in the west of the church was given a triple-tiered, eight-sided baroque dome. This is a work by the Hallenberg master Konrad Hesse, who also carried out work in Hallenberg , Wormbach and Hesborn . Before that, the tower had a square, lead-covered pyramid roof.
On the north side of the church there is a sacristy, which was completely renovated in 1874 and 1988. The churchyard is surrounded by a wall that was renewed in 1994. The outside of the church is plastered in white.
Church interior
Room layout and wall painting
The Romanesque church vault is supported by four mighty, octagonal pillars. In 1934, during a church renovation, old wall paintings from the 13th / 14th centuries were removed. Discovered in the 19th century. Since then, a representation of Jesus Christ as judge of the world from the Cologne painting school can be seen again above the high altar. He is surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists. On its sides Mary and John the Baptist as well as the four apostles Peter, Paul, John the Evangelist and Philip are shown. In the western part of the building there are paintings of dragons, birds of prey and mythical animals on the ceiling. They are supposed to symbolize the evil spirits who have to flee from Christ, the light, into the darkness. The floor is made of slate .
Altars
Church saint is Saint John (Evangelist) . In the choir is the high altar with a painting depicting the Last Supper . It is a donation from the abbot of Wedinghausen from Eversberg, Ludowikus Hengesbach, whose coat of arms is in the lower left corner of the picture. On the altar there are figures of Saints Rochus , Sebastian, Luzia and Agatha. The pastor's patron , who was previously on top of this altar, was repositioned on a console on the left choir wall in 1934 so that the wall paintings were more visible.
The two side altars and the confessionals are works by the sculptor Leonard Falter from 1775. The left side altar is dedicated to Saint Mary. It had a previous altar, which was mentioned as early as 1451. The saints Apollonia and Barbara stand on the side consoles to the left and right. The right side altar is dedicated to St. Nicholas. He also had a previous altar, which can be traced back to 1627. On its left and right side there are figures of Saints Laurentius and Vincent. Another altar, erected in honor of the latter saint, is mentioned around 1730, but no longer exists today. In 1775 the three damaged altars of Mary, Nicholas and Vincent were renewed and then consecrated again.
Bells
In 1776 the large Agathen bell was cast in Grevenstein. The small Johannes bell was made in 1766 by the Mesched bell caster Rotger Greve from a cracked previous bell. In 1777 these two bells were rededicated. In 1917 they had to be given for war purposes. In 1919 three new bells were manufactured by the Junker company in Brilon. They had to be handed in again in 1942. The steel bells brought from Bochum after 1945 were replaced by bells from Brilon in 1949. The big bell weighed about 1250 kilograms and is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. The middle bell weighs 900 kilograms and is dedicated to Saint Agatha. The little bell weighing 550 kilograms was patronized by Saint Sebastian. In 2000, three new bells were installed in place of the broken big bell and the broken small one, only the middle one could be preserved. The current bell has the tone sequence e'-fis'-g'-a ', whereby the big bell is only rung on high feasts. The small bell in the roof turret sounds in a "and is rung by hand.
organ
The existence of an organ is first recorded for the year 1648. The one that is still preserved today was probably built in 1765 by the Soest organ builder Johann Georg Fromme, while the scaffolding was made by Heinrich Martini from Meschede. A new mechanical organ was installed in the historic case in 1989. The organ consists of 25 registers and contains 1,600 pipes.
Others
In the front nave hangs a Madonna in a halo from 1730. On the pillars there are figures of Saints Anna, Joseph, Antonius of Padua and Norbert von Xanten from the 18th century. Another figure of Saint Barbara is attached to the organ parapet. At the back of the tower is a Pietà made around 1500 . A figure of Saint Paul is on the wall of the stairs leading to the organ stage. A neo-Gothic pulpit from 1903 was removed again in 1934. The font dates from the 18th century.
Closer environment
From 1247 to 1881 the churchyard was used as a cemetery. After that, only the Eversberg pastors were buried on the southern churchyard wall. Until the end of the 18th century they received their graves in the parish church in the choir area.
photos
Sundial with drawing of the church
Ceiling painting
Organ stage
Altar with painting
Pieta
Baptismal font
South side of the church
Literature and Sources
- Jakob Torsy: The ordinations of the Cologne Auxiliary Bishops 1661-1840 according to the Auxiliary Bishops' protocols , Düsseldorf 1969, p. 195.
- Josef Haarhoff: St. Johannes Evangelist Eversberg . A companion when walking through our church and community, Olsberg 1997.
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '47.1 " N , 8 ° 20' 3.6" E