St. Vitus Church (Altenoythe)

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Altenoythe, St. Vitus

The St. Vitus Church is a Roman Catholic church in Altenoythe , part of the municipality of Friesoythe in the district of Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony . It is one of the oldest churches in the Oldenburger Münsterland .

History and description

The St. Vitus Church was founded by the Visbek mission cell and is an early church in the northwestern Saxon town of Lerigau . The church was probably under the Benedictine monastery of Corvey on the Weser from 855 . This is also proven by the patron saint of the church, St. Vitus , who was venerated in Corvey. The tower and the originally Romanesque single-nave aisle church date from the 12th century, which can be recognized by the deep-seated arched windows . In the 13th century, the walls were raised in brick masonry so that the church could be vaulted . Around 1270 a yoke was added in the east . In the 15th century, probably in 1479, the church got a high polygonal Gothic choir with buttresses and windows with fish bubble tracery .

Furnishing

altar

Remnants of a late Gothic carved altar from around 1520/30 in a new shrine replace the baroque high altar , which was bought in Münster in 1698 and was in the choir until 1958. In the middle shrine is a multi-figure crucifixion scene, to the right of it the capture of Jesus , the kiss of Judas  and Peter cut off Malchus 'ear, including Jesus' prayer on the Mount of Olives. To the left of the crucifixion scene the Descent from the Cross and the Entombment of Christ , all based on models from Albrecht Dürer's Small Woodcut Passion .

pulpit

The pulpit also comes from Münster . It was acquired there in 1715.

Murals

The vault paintings were described by Pastor Henricus Hausche in 1668, but were later whitewashed. This is interesting because the church was re-Catholicized that year and has been Protestant since 1549. The paintings were only exposed and restored in 1958 and 1987 respectively.

Scenes from the life of Mary can be seen in the vault of the choir, namely the Annunciation , the birth of Jesus , the adoration by the three kings , the Assumption of Mary and the coronation of Mary . You can also see the “three holy girls”: Margaretha , Katharina and Barbara , as well as John the Baptist with a lamb and a book. In the next vault, the Last Judgment is depicted along with the barely recognizable hell and heaven as well as the soul weigher St. Michael . Next to God as judge of the world, Mary and John the Baptist kneel in supplication. There are also Simon of Cyrene displayed in bearing the cross, more people at the crossroads and the Crucifixion with Mary and John the Evangelist below the Cross and the Descent from the Cross and the Pieta. On the vault above the organ, scenes from the life of the church patron St. Vitus are more or less clearly visible. The pair of lovers in the tree of a Minnegarden is probably a reference to the temptation of St. Vitus through merrymaking. In another picture he is flogged and in another one tries to kill him in front of an idol that stands on a pillar. It possibly shows the martyrdom in the oil kettle.

There are also some paintings on the walls, such as the apostle Simon with the saw, the apostle Andrew with the X-shaped cross and the apostle James with the pilgrim's staff and pilgrim hat.

Madonna and Cross

A baroque Madonna with baby Jesus stands on a pillar . Both are crowned. A baroque cross hangs on the south side.

epitaph

The stone epitaph of the Kobrinck-Grothaus couple from 1675 hangs on the north wall with double ancestral specimens consisting of 16 coats of arms each. Above is a relief with the resurrection of Christ, above him the figure of the Savior and next to him the statues of the apostles Peter and Paul. According to Dehio, the epitaph probably comes from B. Meiering from Rheine. The Kobrincks, the ruling aristocratic family in the village, remained Lutheran and Calvinist after the re-Catholicization. In 1651 Bernhard von Kobrinck was therefore reviled by the pastor as a heretic and heretic.

Others

The lower part of a sacrament niche from the 15th century was also preserved.

Crucifixion group

There is a late Gothic crucifixion relief above the south portal. It is similar to the Bentlager crucifixion relief.

Relief of St. Vitus

A contemporary relief of the church patron St. Vitus is placed above the neo-Gothic porch. It shows him during the unsuccessful attempt at killing by Emperor Diocletian. He accused him of the lions because Vitus refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. The lions did nothing to him, however, yes, the male lion even licked his feet.

literature

  • Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments . Bremen Lower Saxony. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-422-03022-0 , page 129.
  • Wilhelm Gilly: Medieval churches and chapels in the Oldenburger Land. Building history and inventory. Isensee Verlag , Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-126-6 , p. 22 ff.
  • Rolf-Jürgen Grote, Kees van der Ploeg: Wall painting in Lower Saxony, Bremen and in Groningerland. Hanover 2001, p. 66.

Web links

Commons : St. Vitus Church (Altenoythe)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dehio, p. 129.

Coordinates: 53 ° 1 ′ 50.4 "  N , 7 ° 52 ′ 31.3"  E