St. Petrus Church (Wolfsburg-Vorsfelde)

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St. Peter Church

The St. Petrus Church in the Vorsfelde district of Wolfsburg is the main church of the Vorsfelde Provost in the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church in Braunschweig , which is centrally located in the old town center of Vorsfelde. It is the largest of the Wolfsburg churches with a medieval structure. Their time of origin is suspected in the 14th to 15th centuries, where they already central church of Vorsfelder Werder was and later Patronatskirche of the noble family of those of Bartensleben .

Provost church

Today the St. Petrus Church is the provost church of the Provosty Vorsfelde , to which 29 parishes belong. The provost district includes parts of the city of Wolfsburg, the districts of Gifhorn and Helmstedt . In addition, the places Calvörde and Uthmöden in the district of Börde are included, which only came back to the provost office in 1992 after German reunification .

The Provost's Vorsfelde goes back to the establishment of a church superintendent in 1746 by Duke Charles I of Brunswick . Before that, the von Bartensleben family held church patronage . After its extinction due to the death of the last representative in 1742, the Vorsfelde fief and with it the patronage fell back to the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel .

Building history

The church at Christmas time
Drawing of the church after the expansion in 1749
Tower with weather vane from 1835. The lighter stones in the masonry indicate that the tower was closed earlier with a gable roof

The St. Petrus Church was built in several phases. It is the oldest building in Vorsfelde. The medieval building is a single-nave hall church with a rectangular (7.5 m × 10.5 m base) church tower in the west and a transept in the east. The massive tower has two meter thick walls with small window openings. Originally it was lower than it is today and about twelve meters high. As the oldest component, it could initially have served as a fortified church or protective tower. As can be seen from the masonry of the tower, a gable roof was added to the tower later. The gable can still be seen in the masonry today. The church tower is believed to have been built towards the end of the Middle Ages in the 14th to 15th centuries. This is also indicated by the Gothic windows. A large part of the existing church building made of broken sandstone dates from the late medieval period.

The nave is in front of the church tower to the east . Up until the renovation in 1586, both components were 36 m long and 11 m wide. In 1586 a side extension was added to expand the crypt of those of Bartensleben.

Until the 18th century there was a porch, probably built in 1597, on the south side, which was the mortuary and main entrance. A conflagration in Vorsfelde on New Year's Eve 1604/05 also damaged the church considerably. The Thirty Years' War, which began a little later, prevented repairs, and the church was not restored until 1699. This also includes the new construction of the eastern choir area in 1669. In 1686 the sacristy , the later crypt, was added to the nave.

Today's green area above the former churchyard , which surrounded the church as a burial place

In 1746, Duke Karl I ordered the church to be expanded, as the 500 seats were no longer sufficient and 800 were sought. In addition, the illumination was insufficient. During the redesign, the tower was increased to 25 m and received a different roof shape. The nave was raised and a transept was added so that the church had the typical cross shape. The tomb was also deepened. In 1751 the work was completed. In 1800 there was an extension behind the choir room. During an extensive renovation between 1985 and 1987, a museum room on the history of the church was created above the crypt.

The church is surrounded by a churchyard where burials were carried out until the mid-18th century. Today, like the church, it is a listed building . In the past, burials were repeatedly uncovered during road construction work in the vicinity of the church. In 2020, excavation work on an adjacent plot of land around 15 meters north of the church building revealed bones, ceramic shards and remains of walls, which were archaeologically examined by an excavation company .

history

Crypt for the von Bartensleben with burials between 1658 and 1695
Günther von Bartensleben (1558–1597) as a stone relief in the church

As early as 1475, St. Petrus became the patronage church of the aristocratic family von Bartensleben , who resided in nearby Wolfsburg , and were closely connected with the town and the church. They held Vorsfelde and Vorsfeld Werder since 1389. In the Middle Ages, all the round villages of the Vorsfeld Werder belonged to the district of the Vorsfeld Church .

In the 16th century, eight members of the von Bartensleben family, including Hans the Rich, were buried under the floor of the church of St. Peter . 13 of her family members have rested in magnificent wooden coffins in the crypt since the 17th century . When the family died out with the death of Treasurer Gebhard Werner von Bartensleben on January 6, 1742, not only Vorsfelde and Werder fell back to the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , but also the church patronage .

Furnishing

The goblet-shaped baptismal font from around 1600 is particularly noteworthy in the interior . In the choir room as elaborate stone carvings life-size are Günther of Bartensleben (1558-1597) and his wife Sophie nee by Veltheim (1574–1613). Next to the crypt there is a memorial plaque for the Swedish captain ( captain ) Peter de Paulsen (1602–1640), who came to the area during the Thirty Years' War and died here.

There is a sundial with the year 1725 above the church entrance in the church tower .

organ

The organ was built in 1932 by the organ builder Lothar Wetzel. The late-romantic pocket- store instrument has 29 registers (four of which are transmissions) on two manuals and pedal . The playing and stop actions are pneumatic.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Quintad 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Reed flute 8th'
4th Viol 8th'
5. Night horn 4 ′
6th octave 4 ′
7th Intoxicating fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
8th. Mixture V
9. Trumpet 8th'
II Swell C – g 3
10. Delicately covered 16 ′
11. Violin principal 8th'
12. Swiss pipe 8th'
13. Salizional 8th'
14th Beat 8th'
15th Dumped 8th'
16. Principal 4 ′
17th recorder 4 ′
18th Gemshorn 2 ′
19th Sesquialtera II
20th Cymbel III
21st Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
22nd Principal bass 16 ′
23. Sub-bass 16 ′
24. Soft bass (= No. 10) 16 ′
25th Violonbass 8th'
26th Gedacktbass (= No. 15) 8th'
27. Principal (= No. 16) 4 ′
28. Gemshorn (= No. 18) 2 ′
29 trombone 16 ′

Peal

In the bell chamber of the church tower there are three bells from the bell foundry JF Weule from Bockenem from 1924. The bells are one of the oldest steel bells in the Brunswick regional church. They are called faith , love and hope and are 1.4 to 1.96 m high. In addition to the bell name, the bells are inscribed with biblical quotations and historical notes.

See also

literature

  • Peter Steckhan: Ev.-luth. Provost church of St. Peter. Peda-Kunstführer, No. 177/2002, Passau 2002, ISBN 3-89643-183-8 .
  • History of the apron. Volume 1. Wolfsburg City Archives, Wolfsburg 1995, ISBN 3-929464-01-2 .
  • Old churches and chapels in the Gifhorn-Wolfsburg area. Gifhorn 1987.
  • Axel Hindemith: Was Vorfeldes St. Petrus Church a fortified tower of the Middle Ages ?. in: Wolfsburger Nachrichten of March 5, 1987.

Web links

Commons : St. Petrus Church (Wolfsburg-Vorsfelde)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the Provosty Vorsfelde , accessed on August 29, 2012
  2. ^ Cemetery in the Lower Saxony Monument Atlas
  3. ^ Vorsfelde: Construction workers expose parts of the former cemetery in Wolfsburger Allgemeine on February 7, 2020
  4. ↑ More information about the organ

Coordinates: 52 ° 26 ′ 21.3 "  N , 10 ° 50 ′ 17.1"  E