St. Alban (Liblar)

Parish Church of St. Alban

St. Alban is a Roman Catholic parish church in Liblar , a district of Erftstadt in the Rhein-Erft district .

origin

The parish Liblar was first mentioned around 1155 as "parochia Lubdelare" in a parchment of the "Codex Thioderici", a register of the Benedictine monastery , the Abbey of Deutz . In this manuscript, Liblar appeared among the parishes listed that brought donations or alms to Deutz every year . In a register of church income, the Liber valoris , the parish church in Liblar was also listed around 1308. The early use of the term parish allows the conclusion that there was a small church in the village much earlier.

Further development

Former Fronhof of Dietkirchen Abbey, Bonn

Gravestone of the old churchyard

Later, the Dietkirchen monastery and later women's monastery , located in what is now the northern part of Bonn , which had a Fronhof and other goods and rights in Liblar , influenced the further development of the parish church. It is not known since when the Abbess of Dietkirchen had the right of patronage . What is certain is that on the occasion of a church visitation in 1569, the abbess had the right to propose, and was probably also certified. Since the year 1628 St. Alban was called the parish patron, and in 1662 the abbess of the monastery was called "Kollatrix" (person entitled to propose).

Dilapidation and responsibilities

Since ancient times, the responsibilities for a new building or the further substantial maintenance of a church building were divided. In the middle of the 17th century, the church tower, which the community had to maintain, threatened to collapse. The dilapidated roof of the nave also had to be urgently replaced. The abbess showed no interest in participating in the necessary reconstruction of the church. Negotiations that the Knight of Malta Hieronymus Wolff Metternich conducted with the monastery management from 1668 onwards about a joint new building remained unsuccessful. The abbess took the position that, as the owner of the big tithe, she could only be asked to repair the nave and not to build a new one. In 1669 the Vogt and Schöffen decided to tear down the church because it was in disrepair and to build a new church.

New building

Wolff-Metternich coat of arms

House Gracht finally took over the construction costs for a larger new building. The construction required a number of around 500,000 field fire bricks which were burned on site in two brick kilns. The coal required for the burning process was brought from the pits in Eschweiler Kohlberg , and the wood for the carpentry work was felled in the Black Forest . It was then rafted from Strasbourg down the Rhine to Wesseling and transported from there to Liblar.

After the completion of the church in 1672, the country dean gave the consecration . The Wolff Metternich family had an oratory built for their relatives in the newly built church , the right of use and exclusive property of which was confirmed by the Cologne Archbishop von Geissel in 1847 for the family and their descendants .

Endowment foundations

As with the construction costs, the local Metternich family also contributed to furnishing the church. In 1672 she donated seven church windows bearing the family's name and coat of arms. The two side altars, a Marian altar and a Holy Cross altar with altar paintings by the artist Rudolphi , were donations from the Metternichs. The picture on the main altar depicts the beheading of St. Alban , who is carrying his head in his hands. Above it was the family coat of arms of the Wolff Metternich / Asseburg line, which was probably not created until after 1769.

Bells

The new bells from 1687 were also mainly financed by the Metternichs. In 1745 the middle bell (no longer available today) was cast by the well-known bell caster Martin Legros , who came from Malmedy in Belgium . The bells of the Jakobskirche, which were transferred to the Liblarer Kirche after the abolition of the St. Jakob Church in Cologne in 1803 and 1816, are no longer verifiable there today. It is not known whether the bell, consecrated to St. Alban and St. Leonard from 1816, was related to the chimes in Cologne. It was requisitioned in 1942, but returned unharmed in 1947. Two bells, probably the Marienglocke from 1403 and the Donatusglocke from 1862, were melted down during the First World War and replaced by two cast in 1924.

Modifications and extensions

After St. Alban had been restored in the 1860s, new work was carried out in the church after the turn of the century.

Around 1900 the question arose whether, due to the growing number of inhabitants, which had been triggered by the influx of miners, an enlargement of the church would be useful or a new church in "Donatusdorf" (today's Oberliblar) should be sought. For reasons of cost, however, both variants were omitted for the time being. As an innovation, however, the church council approved the conversion of the interior furnishings, carried out by Pastor Lennarz in 1901 and 1903. He had the baroque side altars, the Marien Altar and the Holy Cross Altar removed and replaced with neo-Gothic altars. The paintings by the artist Rudolphi have been preserved. The pulpit was also replaced by a neo-Gothic style in the following period. This exchange was followed by the confessionals , and finally the communion bench . Finally the church was painted in the Nazarene style. The costs of the acquisitions and work were mainly covered by donations, a large part of which was contributed by the pastor himself.

Under Pastor Linden, the baptistery, confessional chapel and sacristy were added in 1928 according to plans by Professor Dominikus Böhm . He advised against a planned side nave because of the fragility of the church vault. Instead, he suggested an extension on the west side of the parish church, which was to be realized at a later date.

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  Ship, buttress and roof

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  Courtyard with grave crosses, entrance to the baptistery

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  Sacristy extension

End of war and post-war period

In the turmoil when the Allied forces marched into the church in March 1945, a small SS unit managed to throw mines into the church. The choir , sacristy and part of the confessional chapel were destroyed. A fire that broke out destroyed the inventory of the sacristy. The falling vault of the nave damaged the high altar and destroyed the altarpiece, which had been restored in 1935 with considerable effort.

Reconstruction in the post-war years proved difficult. Several discussions with the then state curator Wolff Metternich and the diocesan master builder Willy Weyres were necessary before the state government in Düsseldorf issued the building permit in November 1947. It was linked to the condition that no claims would be made for the allocation of building materials. The administration of the Concordia mine (the Concordia briquette factory, which was closed in 1958) was very helpful in the procurement of building materials. The construction work was delayed due to the lack of building permits and building materials. During a hurricane in April 1947, the church roof, the roof structure of which was not yet covered, collapsed. In the same year, the Cologne architect Paul Noven took over the construction management for the reconstruction of the previously single-nave hall structure. He had the existing building structure included, the church tower and the bells remained intact, and St. Alban was rebuilt as a two-aisled hall church, giving it roughly the traditional appearance of the church. In 1949 the roof and the 45 meter high tower, with its facade structured by blind arches , could be covered with slate . In 1950 the new church windows were installed, the designs of which were created by the glass painter Theo M. Landmann from Osnabrück . They represent the three divine virtues of faith, hope and love as well as the four cardinal virtues . A mesh vault was drawn in in the choir.

The church received a new organ with 17 registers, which was inaugurated in early October. Since mid-October 1950 the church has been used for worship again. In the same year an electric bell was installed and in 1977 two more bells were purchased.

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  Portal and apex "Anno 1669"

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  Chronogram

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  Main nave with a view of the choir altar

Todays situation

Even today, the slightly elevated parish church behind the old Fronhof is the landmark of Liblar, with its slender spire towering over the town. On the lower facade of the tower, above the west portal dated 1669, there is a coat of arms of the Wolff Metternich family flanked by lions. Just like the apex of the portal arch of the church, a chronogram above the entrance to the oratory on the east side indicates the date of its creation. The inscription has two meanings. The text itself praises Christ, and the Roman numerical symbols created in various places by capital letters show the desired date in their summation. The structure, made of red-brown brickwork , is surrounded by regular tuff ribbons , the facades are structured by high, pointed, late Gothic windows. The contrast between old and modern architecture is particularly evident in the light-reflecting reticulated ridge vault above the baroque main altar, which had suffered severe war damage. It was and was again the heart of the interior of the church, which was changed in a modern form according to the taste of post-war design. The previous predominantly neo-Gothic furnishings received their baroque style from the early days of the church. The main altar could be restored and its destroyed altarpiece was replaced by a Madonna. This painting, bought by the restorer “Minn” in 1962 from an art dealer in Liège , is believed to have come from experts from the Rubens School .

In 1978 a new organ from the workshop of the company Seifert , Kevelaer with 18 stops and electric action was installed. Today it needs a thorough overhaul.

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Oediger: The Liber Valoris . Publications of the Society for Rhenish History XII, Bonn 1967
• A. Franzen: The visitation protocols of the first post-Tridentine visitation in the archbishopric of Cologne under Salentin von Isenburg in 1569 . Munster 1960
• F. Kretzschmar: Churches, monasteries and chapels in the Erftkreis . Erftkreis publication No. 94, Rheinland-Verlag 1983, pp. 66-67, ISBN 3-7927-0821-3
• W. Kessler: The daughter has overtaken the mother. Catholic life in two parishes . In: Interest group 850 years Liblar eV (ed.): Liblar 1150-2000. The book on history . Erftstadt 1999, pp. 43–48
• K. and H. Stommel: Sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt . Volume IV, Erftstadt 1996
• H. Stommel: Liblar Parish Church of St. Alban . In: Frank Bartsch, Dieter Hoffsümmer, Hanna Stommel: Monuments in Erftstadt . Erftstadt 1998
• Ludwig Arentz, H. Neu and Hans Vogts : Paul Clemen (Hrsg.): Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln . Volume II, expansion volume on the former churches, monasteries, hospitals and school buildings of the city of Cologne, L. Schwann publishing house, Düsseldorf 1937, reprint 1980, ISBN 3-590-32107-5

Web links

Commons : St. Alban (Liblar)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HAStK Abtei Deutz RH2 Copy of the lost codex
2. ↑ Excerpt from the manuscript in H. Stommel: Liblar Parish Church of St. Alban
3. ^ FW Oediger: the Liber Valoris.
4. ^ A. Franzen: The visitation protocol of the first post-Tridentine visitation in the archbishopric of Cologne under Archbishop Salentin von Isenburg in 1569.
5. ↑ HAEK Deanery Ahrgau Gen. number 1
6. ^ HAEK Deanery Bergheim Visit protocols 1662
7. ↑ Rößner Richarz / Hans Werner Langbrandner, Order of Knights in: Gudrun Gersmann and Hans Werner Langbrandner (eds.), Noble living worlds in the Rhineland. Cologne 2009. Pages 234–237
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Karl u. Hanna Stommel: Sources Erftstadt No. 2636 (Archive Schloss Gracht Act 87, Church Liblar).
9. ↑ Ludwig Arentz, H. Neu and Hans Vogts: Paul Clemen (ed.): Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln , Volume II p. 47
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e} parish chronicle in the parish archive of St. Alban Liblar, evaluation by Karl Stommel.
11. ↑ F. Kretzschmar, pp. 66-67
12. ↑ KiEK 2/2004, (Zeitschrift der Kirchenmusik im EB Köln), on the occasion of a job advertisement

Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 46.9 "  N , 6 ° 48 ′ 45.2"  E