St. Materniani Church (Ochtersum)

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Church and bell tower seen from the south
Bell tower

The Evangelical Lutheran St. Materniani Church in Ochtersum is a late Romanesque hall church that was built in the last third of the 13th century . It is consecrated to St. Maternianus (also called Maternus ), the first bishop of Cologne and is located on a church yard in Westochtersum , East Frisia , a district of the municipality of Ochtersum in the Wittmund district (integrated municipality of Holtriem ).

Building description

Church seen from the north
Church seen from the south

The single-nave St. Materniani Church is a medium-sized hall building that was originally provided with an east apse . The length of the church building is about 37 meters, its width 12.15 meters. Archaeological excavations around the mid-1960s, during which clay screed and stand stones were discovered, suggest a wooden predecessor building. Granite blocks form the base of the church, the walls consist of monastery-sized bricks .

Originally the church had two entrance portals on its south side and one portal in the north wall. The long sides were equipped with four arched windows each, corresponding to the number of former vaults inside the church. In the western part of the church there are further windows, albeit lower ones. Like another south wall window, they were only broken into the masonry later. The bricked- up hagioscope visible on the inside in the south wall is currently hidden outside - like the former priest portal - under a thick layer of ivy . The apse was struck by lightning in 1675 and was never rebuilt. It was not until 1720 that the stones of the apse were used to close the east wall, into which two windows were inserted to the right and left of the altar.

The two-storey bell tower was probably built at the same time as the church, 16 meters southwest of the church building. The floor plan is almost square in shape. The height of the bell tower is around 18 meters. The foundation is made of flint, the masonry is made of brick.

The ground floor, the so-called Läutestube , is accessible from the west and was originally an impressive gateway to the cemetery and church. From 1680 to 1831 the basement served as a village school for East and West echerships as well as for the surrounding villages of Barkholt, Utarp , Narp and Schweindorf . The upper floor where the bell is located has a sound window on each side. The first bell that rang for church services until the beginning of the 19th century bore the inscription IN HONOREM BEATI MATERNIANI ANNO MCCLXXIIII FUSA SACERDOTUM [...] OCCONIS MEMMONIS TEMPORIBUS ULRICI [...] CONIS . In 1815, the East Frisian bell founder Mammeus Fremy III cast the old bell over. The casting contract is dated March 1, 1814.

Furnishing

Baroque altar with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ

Inside there are the remains of a rood screen wall that was added in the 15th century , which separated the choir from the rest of the church and from 1736 carried the organ . Today the rood screen is only about one meter high. The vaults already mentioned were removed in the 15th century for unknown reasons. Your wall templates with recesses, semicircular templates and services in the Ostjoch are still very easy to recognize.

The church has a baptismal font in Bentheim style on four lions from the second half of the 13th century. The three-storey baroque winged altar dates from 1740. During renovations in the 1960s, the pulpit was moved from the central south wall to the opposite north wall and is now closer to the chancel.

organ

Inside the church - view of the gallery

The baroque organ with unusual acanthus ornaments is the only work by the Herford organ builder Christian Klausing in East Friesland. It was built between 1734 and 1737 and originally stood in front of the choir room on a wooden gallery built over the remains of the rood screen, which, however, severely obstructed the view of the altar. After extensive renovation and redesign work in the 1960s, the organ found its place on a specially built gallery in the western part of the church.

First reconstruction of the organ took place already in 1752, when the organ builder Gregorius Struve and Johann Friedrich Constable the base of the organ shortened (good to see today) and, consequently, the tracker action had to rebuild. In addition, the upper layers of the pipes were given a sharper intonation. After minor adjustments in the following 150 years, the organ was given a modern magazine bellows system in 1900 and finally lost its front pipes in 1917. In the years 1972/73 the organ was finally restored and reconstructed by Jürgen Ahrend .

Manual CD – c 3
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
Dumped 8th'
Octave 4 ′
Fifth 3 ′
Octave 2 ′
Sesquialtera II
Mixture VI B / D
Trumpet 8th'
Pedal CD – c 1
attached
Remarks
  1. ↑ a b c Reconstructed by Jürgen Ahrend.

See also

literature

  • Lübbo Daniels: 250 years of the Christian Klausing organ in Ochtersum 1736-1986 . In: Festschrift of the ev.-luth. Parish of Ochtersum , Ochtersum 1986.
  • Heinrich Drees: "Revolution" in the parish of Ochtersum . In: Der Deichwart , 1961, p. 293.
  • Heinrich Drees: From the history of the Ochtersum school . In: Friesische Heimat , 1962, p. 10.
  • 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. 103, 136, 140 ff., 211 .
  • Heinrich Herlyn: School in the dilapidated "Klokkenhus". An episode from the history of the village of Ochtersum . In: Der Deichwart , 1982, p. 8.

Web links

Commons : St. Materniani Church (Westochtersum)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Village and church history Westochtersum ( memento from December 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 1, 2009.
  2. ^ Ingeborg Nöldeke: Hidden treasures in East Frisian village churches - hagioscopes, rood screens and sarcophagus lids - overlooked details from the Middle Ages . Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7308-1048-4 , p. 134 ff.
  3. ↑ The information is taken from the website of the parish Ochtersum ( Memento from December 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ); Retrieved May 1, 2009.
  4. ↑ Lübbo Daniels: The bell tower to Ochtersum served 150 years as a village school , in: Friesian home , 1992, p. 5
  5. ↑ German: Cast in honor of Blessed Maternianus in 1274 [...] at the time of the priests Occo and Memmo as well as the (Bremen archdeacon) Ulrich .
  6. ^ Robert Noah: Ostfriesische Kirchen , Aurich 1980 (2nd edition), p. 42.
  7. ↑ There is a similar baptismal font in the Protestant church in Hage .
  8. ↑ Organ on NOMINE eV , seen April 23, 2011.
  9. ^ Organ of the St. Materniani Church on Organ index , accessed on October 1, 2018.

Coordinates: 53 ° 36 ′ 33 "  N , 7 ° 30 ′ 29.3"  E