St. Victor Church (Victorbur)
The St. Victor Church is an Evangelical Lutheran parish church in the west of the village of Victorbur , a district of the municipality of Südbrookmerland in East Frisia . It is named after the martyr Viktor von Xanten .
In place of the church building that still exists today, there were at least two predecessor buildings made of wood. By 1250, today's brick church was built as a choirless apse-hall church (simple church building with a semicircular or semicircular chancel) in the Romanesque style.
Already in the Brookmer Arbitration (around 1280) the place is mentioned Victoris hove . The church district belonged to the four pacified legal areas of the Brokmer and Auricherland, within which each offense was punished with a three-fold fine.
history
At the church throws there were at least two previous wooden buildings, of which at least one fell victim to a fire. These were built one after the other in the 11th to 12th centuries at an ancient traffic junction between Brokmerland , Emsigerland and Östringen . During excavations that were carried out in 1965 as part of a renovation, two screed floors from the previous buildings were discovered in the church, which lay on top of each other. In addition, the headgear and shoes of a man buried there as well as coffin lids were found that date from the Middle Ages. During this time, the parish of St. Victoris-Hofe was, according to the Brokmer letter, one of the four pacified legal areas of Brokmer and Auricherland, within which every wrongdoing was subject to a three-fold fine. Originally the church district was about half a kilometer away from the farmers and was surrounded by walls and ditches.
After the fire of the last wooden church, the residents of Theene, Uthwerdum and Victorbur began to build a permanent church building in east-west direction with burned bricks around 1220, which was consecrated to the patron saint of the place, Victor von Xanten. This first phase of construction was completed around 1250. Originally, it corresponded to the type of a one-room, elongated Romanesque church room with a high window and flat ceiling, as was common in the region at that time. There was also a massive, free-standing church tower about 16 meters west of the western wall, which was comparable to those of the churches in Marienhafe and Osteel. It is unclear whether this was built after the first phase of construction or at the beginning of the 14th century. What is certain, however, is that it was completed by 1400. Shortly afterwards, the nave was extended by a vaulted yoke with a window to the west and thus connected to the tower.
In the 15th century, the semicircular apse was replaced by a late Gothic choir with high windows, a ribbed vault and slender buttresses. An earlier vault on the west side was renewed and the walls were reinforced to a thickness of 1.80 meters.
Shortly before the Reformation, there were five altars in the nave. They were served by two priests and a chaplain around 1500.
In 1530 the Reformation came to Victorbur with the Luther student Johannes Radiker and the church was redesigned over the years to become today's Protestant church.
During the Thirty Years War the church was devastated in 1624 by the troops of the general Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld . The church tower was so badly damaged during the Christmas flood in 1717 that it had to be finally demolished in 1837. Today only the lower part of his east wall remains as the west wall of the church. As a replacement, today's bell tower was built south of the south wall in 1873.
The interior was extensively renovated and redesigned several times in the 18th and 19th centuries.
description
Exterior
Church building
The single-nave building, built in the brick Romanesque style until 1250 , is a choir-less apsidic church. In its architecture there are influences from brick buildings from the region around Verden, from Schleswig-Holstein and areas further east, which in turn were influenced by church buildings from Lombardy. The Romanesque church was changed several times. In Victorbur, for example, the Romanesque arched windows, an arched frieze and remnants of Lombard- influenced shapes, such as crescent-shaped ornamental arches over the lintels, can only be found on the north wall .
The nave with a floor plan of 51.7 × 11.4 meters and a hipped tile roof has a yoke at its western end , which forms a special section in the otherwise flat-roofed space. The middle building forms the oldest construction phase. The undivided side walls and the Gothic long windows indicate a later construction period.
Steeple
To the west of the ship is a free-standing church tower, which is lower than the church building and whose walls are two to four meters thick. It was built in 1873 to replace a tower that was originally closer to the church, which was so badly damaged in the Thirty Years War that it had to be demolished. Today's church tower was built from four parallel walls for three bells and segmental arches under the eaves. The swan on the roof of the tower comes from a Lutheran tradition on the coast. It goes back to the legend of the Czech reformer Johannes Hus ( Hus means goose in Czech ). He was sentenced to death at the Council of Constance in 1415 . Before he was cremated as a heretic, he is said to have said: "Today you will roast a goose, but a swan will emerge from the ashes " . Later this was brought into connection with Luther and therefore made the swan his symbol.
Free-standing church towers are typical of church buildings in East Friesland from this time. Presumably, the bellhouses were placed next to the churches to protect their walls, which were built on the soft ground of the terps, from the vibrations of the heavy bells.
Furnishing
The St. Victor Church today offers around 1000 seats. In the eastern part of the nave one can still see the Romanesque origin of the building. It corresponds to the type of one-room, elongated church room with high windows and flat ceiling, which was common in East Friesland in the first half of the 13th century. The side walls are divided horizontally, which underlines the longitudinal direction of the originally 30 meter long interior. The east end of the interior is emphasized by the wide-spanning round arch ( triumphal arch ) of the earlier apse, which was broken off in the 15th century.
A sacrament shrine has been preserved from the pre-Reformation period. It is located on the north side of the triumphal arch.
The elaborately designed wooden ceiling of the church was pulled in by the village joiner Dannholz in 1867/68. The interior was extensively renovated and redesigned several times in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The two brass chandeliers date from 1744 and from the end of the 19th century. They are still equipped with candles in their original form. In addition, several tombstones decorated with coats of arms remind of earlier graves in the choir.
Altar and pulpit
At the eastern end is the central altar designed by Master Marten in 1657 . Scenes from the Passion of Christ are shown here on seven paintings . Marten reused parts of the late Gothic main altar when redesigning the altar.
The baroque pulpit from 1697 was made in the workshop of the master of woodcutting Hinrich Cröpelin in Esens . The pulpit shows apostle figures with their attributes.
Baptismal font
The baptismal font comes from pre-Reformation times. Like so many baptismal fonts in East Friesland, it was made from Bentheim sandstone in the 13th century . Originally four stone animal figures carried the font. Over the centuries the font has been reworked several times and changed significantly, the last time in 1868. An oak frieze was attached to the upper edge in the workshop of the stonemason Niehaus in Emden and the animal figures on the shaft were straightened. Since then, the baptismal font has appeared in its current cup-like shape.
organ
For the first time an organ can be traced back to the 16th century. It was built by an unknown master and destroyed by the troops of General Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld during the Thirty Years' War . It was restored from 1660 to 1665. Between 1817 and 1818 a new instrument was made by the organ builder Johann Gottfried Rohlfs from Esens. This was replaced from 1909 to 1910 by a new building for the organ building company P. Furtwängler & Hammer (Hanover), whereby the organ prospectus from 1818 was retained. From 1966 to 1969 the two-manual organ with 15 stops by Hermann Hillebrand was installed behind the old prospectus from 1818.
Bells
Since the bell house was erected in 1873, the church has rung three bells . During the Second World War had Norder- and the Southshore bell will issue for the production of war material and were melted down. They were replaced by the Heidelberg bell foundry in 1973.
The 1,750 kg St. Victor bell , which was hung in the middle yoke and was cast around 1425, was preserved. In 2005 it was extensively repaired.
|
No. |
Surname |
Casting year |
Caster |
Diameter (mm) |
Mass (kg, approx.) |
Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
| 1 | Victory Bell | around 1425 | Master Gerhardus | 1,475 | 1,700 | c 1 +7 |
| 2 | South bell | 1973 | Heidelberg bell foundry | 1,200 | 1,100 | e 1 |
| 3 | Norderglocke | 1973 | Heidelberg bell foundry | 1,052 | 800 | f sharp 1 |
The parish of Victorbur
The Evangelical Lutheran parish Victorbur part of the church district Aurich in Sprengel Ostfriesland-Ems of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover . With around 6,200 community members who live in eight districts, it is one of the largest rural communities in East Frisia.
See also
literature
- Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Heinz Ramm: Frisian churches in Auricherland, Norderland, Brokmerland and in Krummhörn , Volume 2. Verlag CL Mettcker & Söhne, Jever (2nd edition) 1983, p. 50.
- Robert Noah: The St. Victor Church in Victorbur ( Ostfriesische Kunstführer , 7) , Aurich 1983.
- 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. 28, 48, 53, 55, 58 ff., 62 ff., 67, 95, 97, 105, 139, 195 f., 220 f .
Web links
- Victorbur parish
- Jürgen Hoogstraat (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape ): Victorbur (PDF file; 114 kB)
- Genealogy forum: Victorbur
- Full bell of St. Victor in Victorbur on youtube.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b parish Südbrookmerland: Church Victorbur
- ^ Karl-Ernst Behre / Hajo van Lengen - East Frisia. History and shape of a cultural landscape , Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 99
- ↑ a b c d Jürgen Hoogstraat (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape ): Victorbur (PDF file; 114 kB), viewed May 19, 2011.
- ↑ a b Victorbur parish: The building history
- ^ A b Karl-Ernst Behre / Hajo van Lengen - East Friesland. History and shape of a cultural landscape , Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 261
- ↑ The swan, a Lutheran tradition on the coast ( Memento from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hajo van Lengen (Ed.): The Frisian Freedom of the Middle Ages - Life and Legend , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 , p. 250
- ^ Karl-Ernst Behre / Hajo van Lengen - East Frisia. History and shape of a cultural landscape , Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 , p. 293
- ↑ Victorbur parish: The baptismal font
- ↑ Parish Victorbur: The organ
- ^ Parish of Victorbur: The bell tower
Coordinates: 53 ° 29 ′ 9.1 ″ N , 7 ° 20 ′ 28.8 ″ E