St. Egidius (Rothhausen, Catholic)
The Roman Catholic Church of St. Egidius is located in Rothhausen , Bavaria , a district of the Thundorf municipality in Lower Franconia in the Lower Franconian district of Bad Kissingen . It is dedicated to St. Aegidius .
The church is one of the Thundorf architectural monuments and is registered under the number D-6-72-157-29 in the Bavarian monument list .
Another church of the same name is located in Rothhausen, namely the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Giles , built in 1608 .
history
Before the church was built, the local evangelical church was used as a simultaneous church for several centuries , that is, shared by both denominations. The Catholic pastor Heider wanted to change this situation when he took office in 1908 and decided to build a Catholic church in the village. A church building association was established, and the local men who went to the First World War as soldiers promised to build a church when they returned home.
In 1923, construction began on the church. Details of the construction of the church are not known; Nothing about this is recorded in the log book of the Catholic church administration. Natural goods and money were collected in the vicinity of the village, so that the foundation stone could be laid on April 2, 1923. The church was consecrated on October 25, 1924 during the tenure of Pastor Heider's successor, Pastor Heinrich Grimm.
The age and origin of the figure in the right front garden of the church are unknown. It is said to have been on the site of the church, which was previously a garden of the Kehl family, even before the church was built. The sandstone depiction of St. Barbara von Nicomedia , one of the fourteen helpers in need, bears the inscription “Please for us in the hour of death” on the base. The figure was restored in 1950 at the instigation of Pastor Seufert.
The high altar and a wooden figure of St. Aegidius were taken over by the Protestant St. Aegidius Church in the new church. Much of the interior such as the wooden pulpit , the Sacred Heart statue, the statue of St. Josef and the Way of the Cross, painted by a Franconian baroque painter - possibly Johann Peter Herrlein - were donated by the butcher's wife Katharina Keller.
In 1941 an organ was purchased for the church. It was built from 1880–1890 by the royal court organ builder Martin Hechenberger. From 1936 it stood in the house chapel of the St. Josef study seminar in Münnerstadt and in 1940, when the National Socialists converted the seminar into a school camp, it was stored in the St. Michael monastery until it came to Rothhausen in 1941.
In 1972, the planning began for a renovation of the church, which finally took place in 1974 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the church. In this context, the chancel - with painter H. Mönch from Saal / Saale redesigning the altar - and the portal were redesigned, a new gallery moved in and a larger sacristy built; the old sacristy was converted into a storage room. The stairs to the pulpit, which were no longer needed, were removed as space was needed for benches. The total cost of the renovation was 150,000 DM , most of which was covered by donations. The local Protestant parish made its church available to its fellow Catholic Christians during the renovation work.
During an interior renovation in 1984, the sacristy was converted into a chapel. Furthermore, the Way of the Cross, donated by Katharina Keller, which had been stored in the attic of the church for years, was restored by the church painter Mönch from Saal. The cost of the restoration was paid for by 14 local families, each of which financed the restoration of a painting. The figures of St. Joseph, St. Wendelin and the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well as the pulpit have been restored. The total cost of the interior renovation was DM 40,000; about 25,000 DM of this were donations.
literature
- Rainer Schüler: The architectural and field monuments of the Thundorf community in the districts of Thundorf, Theinfeld and Rothhausen , 1981, pp. 96-101
Web links
- The St. Agidius Church on www.pg-thundorf.de
- www.kirchenrenovierung-rothhausen.de
- The organ in organindex.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 11 ′ 1.1 ″ N , 10 ° 19 ′ 52.1 ″ E