St. Andreas (Ummerstadt)

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St. Andreas in Ummerstadt
inner space
Defense tower

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Andreas in Ummerstadt , a parish in the Hildburghausen district ( Thuringia ), is essentially dated to the 6th to 8th centuries. The listed building is the oldest fortified church in the Free State of Thuringia .

history

The mountain or upper church of St. Andreas is located on a slope above the Rodach . Scottish monks are said to have originally settled here. The church is of Romanesque origin. The church tower is said to have stood as early as 1222. A clergyman of the first parish church in Ummerstadt was first mentioned in 1290. In the Middle Ages, a Heldburg daughter church, St. Andreas became an independent parish church again in 1448 and finally a subsidiary church of the new city church of St. Bartholomew in 1528 . In the 16th century the cemetery was laid out in the churchyard and the St. Andrew's Church a cemetery church. Remodeling took place in 1586 and 1620. In 1835 the church tower was rebuilt and in 1850 the nave. In 1861, a lightning strike severely damaged the church. At the beginning of April 1945, the American artillery set fire to the then 46-meter-high church tower and part of the nave. After the church had been rebuilt with today's significantly lower tower, it was re-consecrated on May 26, 1960.

layout

The tower of St. Andrew's Church was the center of a fortified church . The walls around the cemetery date from the 16th century and were twice as high as they are today. There were also two moats outside the walls. A remnant of the fortification is also the stump of the fortified tower at the entrance to the cemetery.

A choir room, spanned by a Romanesque barrel vault, 4.5 meters long and 3.5 meters wide, supports the church tower. Before its destruction, the tower, with a height of 46 meters, was characteristic of the town. He had a supplied, octagonal helmet, which was surrounded by four small corner turrets. During the reconstruction, the tower height was reduced and a low tent roof with red tiles was put on. The 14.5 meter long and eight meter wide nave is separated from the chancel by a two meter wide triumphal arch . A wooden beam ceiling, lying on solid sandstone walls with arched window and door openings, spans the interior of the church.

The stained glass window in the choir shows the risen Lord Christ. The organ was built in 1965 by the Gotha organ builder Rudolf Böhm . The three chilled cast iron bells in the church tower were cast in 1962.

literature

  • Joachim Neubert, Günter Stammberger, Bernhard Grossmann, Martin Hoffmann: The churches in the district Hildburghausen ... none other than the house of God - the gate of heaven ... . Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 2006, ISBN 3-86180-174-4 , p. 295.

Web links

Commons : St. Andreas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cultural development concept for the model region of the Hildburghausen and Sonneberg districts . October 2014, p. 32 ( pdf ).
  2. ↑ Sign at the entrance
  3. ^ The organ in St. Andreas on the website of the church district.

Coordinates: 50 ° 15 ′ 37.8 "  N , 10 ° 48 ′ 43.6"  E