St. Servatius Chapel (Lechenich)

Saint Servatius

The St. Servatius Chapel in the northwestern suburb of Lechenich dates back to the 12th century and was formerly the parish church of Konradsheim and Blessem . Today it serves as a cemetery chapel in the Lechenich district.

development

Bricked matron stone

The St. Servatius Chapel in Lechenich-Heddinghoven is one of the oldest churches in Erftstadt. For the masonry of the building, which dates back to the 12th century, material from local quarry stone , pebble, tuff and sandstone was used . The substructure evidently originates from very different periods of time, as old Roman material can also be found in addition to younger building materials . Parts of matron stones were also visible in the masonry after the plaster was removed.

Patronage

Although the chapel “St. Servatius and St. Georg ", the congregation stopped at" St. Servatius ”. The Servatius patronage is probably the oldest. This assumption is supported by a mass foundation of the knight Arnold (von Buschfeld), Vogt of Bornheim and court master of the archbishop, for the Servatius Chapel in Heddinghoven in 1343 and, on the other hand, the existence of the small Servatius bell from 1457, which according to the inscription "Syfart Duysterwalt" poured .

Temporary name change

The foundation probably concerned the Servatius altar , because according to the information from the church visit in 1698, the maintenance of the Servatius altar was the responsibility of the lords of the Buschfeld family. The main altar at that time was the St. George's Altar. In the visitation protocols of 1662 the chapel was named “St. Georgs Kapelle ”. A renaming could be related to the restoration , which became necessary after the severe damage to the chapel during the siege of Lechenich in 1642.

Limited parish rights

Heddinghoven, land map around 1752

For centuries the chapel was the parish church for Blessem and Konradsheim. It was looked after from Lechenich by a priest who was called an officer or vice curate. However, the chapel only had limited parish rights, so the sacrament of baptism was donated in Lechenich. On certain public holidays the parishioners had to attend the service in the parish church of St. Kilian in Lechenich.

The chapel was a branch church of the Lechenich parish church from the beginning and with it was incorporated into the St. Aposteln Abbey in Cologne until the secularization in 1802 .

19th and 20th centuries

In the 19th century, the Heddinghoven chapel was the rectorate church of St. Kilian Lechenich for Konradsheim and Blessem. A vicar or rector looked after the parish. The feast day of St. Servatius (May 13th) was celebrated as a patronage with a solemn high mass and a subsequent sacramental procession. The residents of Konradsheim tried to set up their own rectorate and also made a parsonage available, which the last rector of Heddinghovener “Joerissen” replaced by buying his own house.

Since 1869, the parishioners from Blessem attended the service in the chapel in Frauenthal, which was closer to them and which received more and more parish rights over the next few decades. The archbishop's authority therefore no longer considered a rectorate for Konradsheim to be necessary.

After the death of the rector of Heddinghovener in 1887, the position was not filled again. The vacant rectory fell in 1929 through the gift of a Konradsheim citizen, who had purchased the house in 1898, to the Lechenich parish, which sold it in 1942.

A planned demolition of the chapel in 1893 in favor of a larger brick building was prevented by the non-consent of the Vicariate General . However , a major repairs took place after an expert report prepared by the architects Carl Rüdell and Richard Odenthal.

After a tour of the chapel, the expertise of the architect duo created in 1886 revealed considerable shortcomings. She found that the long choir wall on the right-hand side, made of collected stones , bricks and field stones, some of Roman origin, was completely dilapidated and threatened to collapse. The choir wall , which is still partly built in clay framework , must be renewed.

In 1892 the church council decided to extend the chapel in brick. The old ramshackle walls should be put down.

After Konradsheim belonged to the Lechenich parish, the old ties to the chapel in Heddinghoven remained, as numerous measurement foundations from Konradsheim citizens attest until the end of the Second World War . Up until the Second World War, the Konradsheimers' exequies and other services for the Konradsheimers took place in the chapel in Heddinghoven.

Renewed extensive restoration work was carried out in the 1960s. Another urgently needed renovation of the building was delayed because the city of Erftstadt had established its ownership rights to the chapel and the responsibilities had to be checked. The restoration took place between 2001 and 2004, made possible by the support of the Friends of the Heddinghoven Chapel and donations.

Today's chapel

The building, which was restored in the early years of the 3rd millennium, is located within the cemetery grounds of the Lechenich district. It is located on the eastern edge of the wall in a neat, park-like area of ​​the older part of the cemetery with old trees. In a south-westerly direction, the much larger part of the new burial areas of the community joins. Once a year there is an ecumenical service for the citizens of Konradsheim in the chapel.

Building

The chapel, covered with slate and plastered with lime mortar, has been given a stepped outer shape due to the structural changes that have taken place several times in its history. The short nave is followed by a stepped choir annex , to which the later added Gerkammer , a little deeper, is added to the north. The respective ridges of the gable roofs have a cross attached at their ends. The small church building belongs to the type of Romanesque hall churches . Its floor plan corresponds to a longitudinal rectangle with an area of ​​about 6 × 10 meters for the nave and 4.5 m for the choir extension.

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  West side

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  South view

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  Southeast side

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  North side, sacristy

A former gate on the south side of the chapel still shows the one with gable lintel and post, above which there is a Romanesque window. More of this kind on the north side were walled up. A memorial plaque for the chaplain Leonard Berg, who worked in Lechenich from 1922 to 1936, was built into the former south entrance. A sacristy was added to the north side of the chapel in 1699 , and a sandstone lintel on its window was dated. The choir windows are designed in Gothic tracery and come from the 14th / 15th centuries. Century. All other windows are from more recent times and are framed with baroque arches. The square stump of the roof turret , with paired sound openings on all sides, tapers into a pointed tower crowned by a cross. In the bell chamber hangs the bell dedicated to St. Servatius , which was cast according to its inscription in 1457.

Furnishing

The interior of the chapel is entered via the small west portal , which is placed in the middle and is also covered with slate . This begins under a gallery resting on two columns, the floor of which forms an entrance area. The central aisle of the floor, which was laid out with black and white tiles in 2002 , leads through the nave to the choir arch. This square room houses the main altar and, like the nave, is barrel vaulted . An entrance in the north choir wall, opened around 1725, connected the church and the sacristy. The lintel of the sacristy door carries the year of the renovation as a reminder. Daylight is provided by a number of simply glazed windows. There are partially left Romanesque arched windows (some have been walled up, but are visible as panels on the outer walls) and narrow and wider rectangular windows that have been provided with Gothic tracery.

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  West portal

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  Photo of the interior through a door window

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  Remains of the old south entrance

The baroque altars come from the parish church in Lechenich. In the structure of the main altar are the figures of St. Servatius and St. George , above these are two angels. St. Catherine and the figure of a holy bishop, regarded as an image of St. Servatius and dated to the 16th century, complete the overall picture of the altar. The partially restored paintings on the side altars depict the mystical engagement of Saint Catherine and the burial of Christ.

The old pews have been removed from the chapel, which has been fitted with modern heating since the last restoration . Paired with the new floor, solid, fashionable new seating now offers a contrast to the rest of the baroque furnishings of the medieval building. The atmosphere created in this way is now also used for cultural events.

literature

• Frank Kretzschmar: Churches, monasteries and chapels in the Erftkreis . Erftkreis publication No. 94, Rheinland-Verlag, 1983. ISBN 3-7927-0821-3
• Frank Bartsch, Hanna Stommel: Lechenich from Roman times to today . Erftstadt 2004, ISBN 3-924576-07-6
• Karl and Hanna Stommel: Sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt . Volume I – V, Erftstadt 1990–1998.

Web links

Commons : St. Servatius (Heddinghoven)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Frank Kretzschmar, p. 16
2. ^ Bernhard Schreiber: Archaeological finds and monuments of the Erftstadt area . Erftstadt 1999, p. 79 and p. 113
3. ↑ HAStK St. Aposteln U No. 3/176
4. ↑ ^{a b} Jakob Schaeben: Bells, bells and towers in the former district of Euskirchen . Cologne 1977, pp. 102-103
5. ^ HAEK dean's office Bergheim visitation protocols 1698
6. ^ HAEK Deanery Bergheim Visit protocols 1662
7. ^ HAEK dean's office Bergheim visitation protocols 1698
8. ↑ HAEK Deanery Bergheim Lechenich 3
9. ↑ HAStK St. Aposteln U No. 2/47
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Parish archives St. Kilian I. part, section 1 vol. 5 Heddinghoven
11. ↑ Frank Kretzschmar, p. 16

Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 24.6 "  N , 6 ° 45 ′ 47.5"  E