St. Anthony of Padua (Meisenheim)
The Church of St. Antonius of Padua is the Catholic church in the city of Meisenheim am Glan in the diocese of Trier .
location
It is a baroque church building in the city center of Meisenheim, with an attached, former Franciscan monastery and a bell tower that was added in 1902. Its long side is built tightly into the front of the street “Klenkertor”.
history
Politically, Meisenheim was part of the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken , where the Reformation was introduced early on. In 1526 the first Protestant service took place in the local castle church , and the Catholic cult was suppressed as a result.
During the Thirty Years' War Meisenheim was occupied by Spanish troops under Ambrosio Spinola in 1620/21 and by imperial troops under Matthias Gallas in 1635 . During this time the Catholic faith revived there on a modest scale. Around 1630, the Franciscans of the Cologne Province began pastoral care. The nearby Franciscan monastery of St. Wolfgang in Kreuznach had existed as their branch since 1623 . During the French Reunion (1680–1697), Catholic parishes were increasingly re-established in the Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken, with the support of the authorities. The priest Carl Desiderius de Royer was the reorganizer of the Catholic cult in the country on royal French mandate.
King Ludwig XIV officially called the Cologne Franciscans to Meisenheim in 1680 and they decided to found a monastery there. In 1685 the foundation stone for the construction of the new church was laid, in 1688 the consecration by the Mainz auxiliary bishop Matthias Starck to the patronage of Saint Anthony of Padua took place . The monastery building, which was attached to the church in 1716, now serves as a parish and community center.
King Stanislaus I. Leszczyński of Poland, who stayed in Meisenheim in 1714, donated the church's valuable altars in 1716. His mother Anna Leszczyńska gave chasuble and two ornate altar panels . The sovereign Duke Gustav Samuel Leopold , who converted to Catholicism in 1696, paid for a chalice and a monstrance . When he died in 1731, his heart was buried in the church. The epitaph of the heart, adorned with coat of arms, is located in the choir behind the left side altar.
The church has belonged to the diocese of Trier since 1802, and a neo-baroque church tower was built in 1902, as previously there was only one roof turret. Master builder Ludwig Becker from Mainz acted as architect .
Building stock
The simple, vaulted plastered building with a three-sided choir closure, roof turret and attached church tower has three matching baroque altars inside; in the center of the choir the larger high altar, left and right, at the transition from the nave to the choir area, the two smaller side altars. The year 1687 is painted on the choir vault above the high altar. This altar bears a statue of the church patron Antonius of Padua in the middle , the left side altar a figure of Mary , the right a figure of St. Andrew , in place of an earlier statue of Francis , which is now placed on the nave wall. A baroque pulpit from 1747 is attached to the right nave wall.
Since 1751 the church has had a vaulted stone gallery at the back, on which the organ from 1730 stands. In the west is the main portal with a richly carved door that bears the year 1687. There are two in the choir, five in the northern nave wall and one arched window in the west facade, with stained glass from the Binsfeld company, Trier, from 1933. One of them commemorates the Extraordinary Holy Year 1933 and the Holy Rock exhibition at that time .
Close up of northeast
West facade and monastery entrance
Main portal west facade
Monastery entrance
Monastery building from the south
Bell tower from the south
Interior shot with gallery arch
High altar
literature
- 300 years of the Catholic parish of St. Antonius von Padua, Meisenheim - A look into the past , Catholic parish of Meisenheim, 1983
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Yearbook for West German State History , Volume 19, p. 320, self-published by the State Archives Administration Rhineland-Palatinate, 1993, (detail scan)
Coordinates: 49 ° 42 ′ 28 " N , 7 ° 40 ′ 16" E