St. Antonius (Bergrath)

St. Antonius is a Roman Catholic branch church in the Eschweiler district of Bergrath in the city ​​region of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The building is entered under No. 54 in the list of architectural monuments in Eschweiler and is dedicated to St. Consecrated to Anthony of Padua . The church building belongs to the parish Heilig Geist Eschweiler.

St. Antonius in Bergrath

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location

The church building is located in the middle of Bergrath at the end of Pfarrer-Kleinermanns-Straße. To the east of the church is the St. Antonius Catholic Kindergarten.

history

Originally there was no church in Bergrath. From the 16th century there was only a small chapel. The place has always belonged to the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Eschweiler and the believers from Bergrath had to attend church services as far as Eschweiler for centuries. This situation only changed at the end of the 19th century when a church building association was founded in Bergrath.

In 1892, the then pastor of St. Peter and Paul, Reiner Kratz, asked the Archbishop General Vicariate in Cologne for approval of an emergency church for Bergarth on behalf of the church building association . Until 1930, Bergrath belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne . At the same time, the married couple Wilhelm Heinrich Schmitz and Petronella, geb. Rüland, a piece of land and money to build the emergency church. The Vicariate General approved the project and construction was completed by December 1893. The plans for this were drawn by the Aachen master builder Peter Friedrich Peters .

In the same year Bergrath received his first clergyman, Peter Lambert Kleinermanns. Bergrath was also raised to the position of rectorate within the parish of St. Peter and Paul, which resulted in a certain degree of independence. The complete separation of St. Peter and Paul and elevation to an independent parish took place on December 27, 1900.

On January 1, 2010, the Bergrath parish was dissolved after almost 110 years of existence and merged with the also dissolved parishes of St. Barbara Pump-Stich , St. Cäcilia Nothberg , St. Marien Röthgen and St. Wendelinus Hastenrath to form the new large parish Heilig Geist Eschweiler . Since then, St. Antonius is no longer a parish church , but a subsidiary church of this parish.

Building history

Since the construction of the emergency church was only intended as a temporary measure from the beginning, efforts were made to build a real church. In 1905 the construction of today's church could begin. The new church was already completed in 1907. The Cologne architect Theodor Roß drew up the plans , he also took over the construction management. Roß had previously designed several churches in the region. The solemn church consecration and consecration could not take place immediately after the construction work was completed. The church was consecrated on October 1, 1911, four years after it was completed.

In 1944, the church building was partially damaged in World War II . This damage could be repaired by 1951.

Between 1987 and 1990 the church was completely restored. The Aachen architect Walter Horn was in charge of the entire project. The interior was restored to its original condition and the paintings from 1925 and 1928 were exposed again.

Building description

St. Antonius is a three-aisled basilica with a transept and a single-bay choir with a semicircular apse in neo-Romanesque brick style. In the west is the four-story bell tower . It is built in front of the nave and there is a semicircular stair tower on the north side. The three-aisled and three-bay nave adjoins the tower . The transept is the same width as the central nave. In the east the church closes with a choir and a semicircular apse.

Furnishing

Of the furnishings, the painting of the choir from 1925/28 is particularly worth mentioning. Here, among other things, Jesus is depicted as Lord of the World. The wooden pews from the 1900s, the Stations of the Cross in the side aisles and various figures of saints have been preserved from the historical furnishings.

Newer pieces of equipment are the Schaen marble celebration altar from 1970 and the tabernacle on a marble base.

The stained glass windows are works by the glass painter Wilhelm Rupprecht from 1953 to 1958. The windows in the choir depict the Assumption of Mary , the Resurrection of Jesus Christ , the church patron Antonius of Padua and St. John the Baptist . In the transept, St. Franz Xavier , St. Boniface as well as the expulsion from Paradise , the Adoration of the Shepherds , the Nativity , the Adoration of the Magi and the Annunciation to Mary . In the side aisles are representations of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia , Theresia of Lisieux , mother Anna with Maria, Paula of Rome , Maria Goretti , Hermann Joseph , Don Bosco , Hubertus von Lüttich , Pius X. and Heinrich the Great can be seen.

Also worth mentioning are the mosaics from the time of construction in the tympana of the three entrance portals. Jesus Christ can be seen above the main portal, Our Lady is depicted above the left side entrance and St. Anthony of Padua.

organ

The organ from the Bonn company Johannes Klais Orgelbau from 1914 (Opus 541) has also been preserved. It has 23 registers on a pneumatic action and was changed slightly after the war by the Karl Bach organ building firm and restored to its original state in 2016 by the builder company.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3 1. Drone 16 ' 2. Principal 08th' 3. Viola di gamba 08th' 4th Harmony flute 08th' 5. Dulciana 08th' 6th Octave 04 ' 7th Super octave 02 ' 8th. Mixture-Cornett III-IV 0 9. Trumpet 08th'

II Swell C – g 3 10. Violin principal0 08th' 11. Bordunal flute 08th' 12. Quintatön 08th' 13. Aeoline 08th' 14th Vox coelestis 08th' 15th Flauto traverso 04 ' 16. Flautino 02 ' 17th Sesquialter II 02 2 ⁄ 3  ' 18th horn 08th'

Pedals C – f 1 19th Principal0 16 ' 20th Sub bass 16 ' 21st Subtle bass 16 ' 22nd Violon 08th' 23. trombone 16 '

• Coupling : II / I (also as sub- and super-octave coupling), I / P, II / P.

Bells

The Otto bell foundry from Hemelingen / Bremen cast three bronze bells each for St. Antonius in Bergrath, in 1907 and in 1928. Some bells were melted down in the two world wars of the past century, others survived the wars. So today a Otto bell sounds from the tower with a bell from 1907 (!) (Bell no. 1) and two from 1928 (no. 2 + 3). The ringing has the following sequence of striking notes: es' - ges' - as'. The bells have the following diameters: 1260 mm, 1089 mm, 970 mm. They weigh: 1385 kg, 775 kg, 540 kg.

Pastor

The following pastors worked as pastors until the parish was dissolved at St. Antonius:

from ... to	Surname
1894-1928	Peter Lambert Kleinermanns (pastor since 1900)
1928-1950	Gerhard Radeke
1950-1980	Hans Rindermann
1980-1982	Josef Boeven
1982-1984	Siegfried Pletz
1984-2006	Josef Boeven
2006-2010	Dieter Genten

Web links

Commons : St. Antonius (Bergrath)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 192.
2. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 192.
3. ↑ Eschweiler-Bergrath, Catholic Church of St. Antonius. In: Internet site Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhundert eV Retrieved on January 12, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Information about the organ on the website of the builder company
5. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular pp. 60, 345, 461, 516 .
6. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular pp. 79, 310, 449, 480, 492 .
7. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 192.

Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 16.2 ″  N , 6 ° 16 ′ 37 ″  E