St. Marcus Church (Marx)

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St. Marcus Church in Marx

The St. Marcus Church is a Protestant church that was built in the East Frisian town of Marx at the end of the 12th century . Along with the churches in Asel , Buttforde and Middels-Osterloog, it is one of only four preserved granite square churches in East Frisia. The church is designated as a monument .

history

The St. Marcus Church is the oldest stone church in the Friedeburg community. The place name Marx is probably derived from St. Marcus. The church was built at the end of the 12th century. The villagers used the granite boulders deposited on the Geest in the form of large, rounded blocks from the ice ages as building material . As these are scarce in the region, the building material was used extremely sparingly. Stones from megalithic graves were also used for a new purpose . In Etzel these are in the north face.

The monumentality of the buildings is only feigned. The granite stones were split for the construction of the church. The resulting straight surface served as a viewing side and faces outwards. While the edge has been straightened all around, the insides are completely unprocessed. The stones rest on the relatively narrow edges. In addition, an inner wall made of bricks was built up in the nave. Between the two walls there is a mortar made of stone waste and shell limestone. The resulting structure was extremely unstable. It had to be secured several times with wall anchors. After the Reformation , the portals in the north and south walls were bricked up, the floor was raised and the south windows were enlarged to let more light into the building. Today the building is entered through a portal in the west wall, which was mostly built with bricks in 1841. In 1957/1958 the floor was raised by another 40 centimeters.

Building description

St. Marcus Church, entrance

The St. Marcus Church is a rectangular one-room church with a semicircular apse , which was built in the Romanesque style. The main building materials used were more than six types of granite blocks , the origins of which can be attributed to the Ice Age . The interior design is typical of the medieval churches in East Frisia. The interior is provided with a flat beamed ceiling. The walls are whitewashed. In the wall of the north wall of the apse and the choir there are sacrament niches. They are framed with wide ribbon-like stripes of red color and crowned with a cross. Twelve consecration crosses that have been preserved on the walls also testify to the original painting of the church. They should point to the disciples of Jesus . The Romanesque windows are still in the north wall, while the windows in the south side have been enlarged later. Above the new portal on the west side are the letters SDG for Soli Deo Gloria , Latin for “God alone deserves the honor”.

The bell tower is much younger than the church. It was built in 1660 and rests on a foundation of boulders. The rising masonry is made of bricks. Because of the unstable subsoil, the tower has tilted sharply over the centuries. It was renovated in 1990, but has retained its lopsided position.

Furnishing

Rohlfs organ from 1823

The oldest piece of equipment is the Romanesque holy water kettle carved from granite. It is dated to the first half of the 13th century. The gallery was installed Pastor Martin Eschershausen 1711th In 1797 its parapet was painted with portraits of the twelve apostles by the Friedeburg painter P. L. Bergner .

Members of the von Capelle family are buried in the grave cellar under the front room of the choir. Originally the entrance was covered with a large heavy stone. This was set up in 1957/1958 on the south side of the church. In addition, the coat of arms, spear, sword and stirrups, which are attached to the north side opposite the tombstone, remind of Drosten zu Capelle.

The altar and the pulpit were donated by Johann Renken Schmidt. The baptismal font made of wood in the shape of a cup is a work of the year 1695. It is colored and provided with a golden inscription. The parish received it as a bequest from the "church administrator and Fendrich of the city of Aurich". There are three paintings on the walls depicting Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon and a communion scene from the Gospel of John .

The chandelier above the baptism dates from 1654 and was made by Ortgiese Ziersen Klenke. The other candlesticks were made in 1883.

The organ was originally created between 1820 and 1823 by Johann Gottfried Rohlfs from Esens above the altar in the apse . A gallery was built especially for this and the existing windows were bricked up. During the church renovation in 1957/1958 it was placed on the west gallery. In the course of this work, the organ was rebuilt and the originally lateral system was replaced by a front console including register system and bellows system. In 2002 the organ was restored to its original condition.

In the church, a wooden plaque commemorates 37 fallen and missing persons in the First World War . A framed sheet commemorates the 218 fallen and missing persons of the Second World War with names and photographs .

The church registers that still exist were started in 1722. The older ones were destroyed in a fire in 1716.

The churchyard is still used as a burial place. About 1100 souls belong to the parish of Marx.

See also

literature

  • Hermann Haiduck: The granite square church of Marx. In: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, Volume 35: Ostfriesland . Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-8062-1415-4 , pp. 181-183.
  • Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . 2nd Edition. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebs-GmbH, Aurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-940601-05-6 , p. 25th f., 29, 31, 33, 36 .

Web links

Commons : St. Marcus (Marx)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i kirche-marx-etzel.de: The St. Marcus parish in Marx , viewed on June 22, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Monika van Lengen: St. Marcus Church , viewed on June 22, 2011.
  3. ^ Arnold Meyer: Granite square church St. Marcus in Marx , viewed on June 22, 2011.
  4. ↑ Reinhard Ruge (NOMINE eV): Marx, Lutheran. Marcus Church - organ by Johann Gottfried Rohlfs (1823) , as seen April 23, 2011.

Coordinates: 53 ° 26 ′ 9.1 ″  N , 7 ° 51 ′ 19.3 ″  E