St. Boniface (Wirges)
The parish church of St. Bonifatius in Wirges is a neo-Gothic Catholic church built between 1885 and 1887. Since 1902 it has been popularly known as the "Westerwald Cathedral".
Building history
Previous buildings
A so-called "wooden church" is mentioned for the first time for Wirges. Century by the monastery St. Florian (near Linz in Upper Austria) was built. Previously, the fiefdom of Wirges, which had already been converted into a donation in 958, was transferred to the monastery by the Duchess Reginlind . Previous feudal lords were Duke Hermann I of Swabia and the Marienstift St. Florin in Koblenz . With the transfer of the fiefdom to the St. Florian Monastery, the obligation for feudal lords to build and maintain churches, which has been common since early Christian times, was transferred to the monastery.
The first stone church
The first documented church in Wirges was built around the year 1200 on the site of today's church. The church tower , built as a defense tower , allows the conclusion that the structure was in Romanesque style . In connection with this church, the first pastor is mentioned in 1326, Pastor Plebanus de Weydergys.
The second stone church
Around 1587 the Romanesque church was initially enlarged due to a lack of space, but already 200 years later it could no longer accommodate the now numerous believers in the large parish. Their structural condition had also become very bad, which is evident from a visit report available to the Main State Archives in Wiesbaden. A draft for the construction of a hall church that was prepared by the court architect from Kurtrier was not implemented. When the feudal lords who were obliged to build it had agreed, the nave was laid down in 1774, but the tower was left standing. A basilica-like nave in the late Baroque style was added to this. The building costs were borne by the gentlemen who were "tenth" in the church district at that time. The St. Florin monastery brought together two thirds, the remaining third the Count von Walderdorff , the Lords von Stein, von Sohlern and the Count von Eltz-Rübenach , as well as the pastors of Wirges and Helferskirchen . The believers had to pay for the interior, especially the altars. The three altars of the church were the main altar with the statue of St. Boniface , the Marien altar from 1520 and a newly donated Sebastian altar . The new church was consecrated by Bishop D'Erban on September 8, 1775, the feast of the birth of Mary. However, the foundation left so much to be desired that cracks soon stretched up to the roof. When the church was torn down 100 years later, its foundation stone, still visible today, was walled in next to the side entrance of the current church facing the rectory.
The third church building
The church, which had become too small, was to be enlarged again less than a century later. In the meantime, the tithe lords, who were responsible for the construction work, changed: the main tithe lord was now the ducal-Nassau domain administration, which, as the legal successor to the Florinsstift in Koblenz, had to bear the largest share of the costs. As successors to the Freiherrn vom Stein , the Count von Walderdorff zu Molsberg , the Freiherr von Heddesdorf zu Winningen and the Countess von Gieck zu Nassau were also obliged to bear part of the construction costs. Only the Countess von Gieck was willing to bear the share of the construction costs incurred, which is why the church council took legal action against the tithe in 1854. On October 25, 1855, the judgment was passed, according to which the tithe lords were obliged to build or enlarge the choir and nave of the parish church. The parish was responsible for building the tower. The parishioners also had to do free manual and tensioning services for church building.
The tithe lords were not satisfied with the verdict and turned to the ducal court and appeal court in Dillenburg. Her appeal was dismissed by the court in 1858. Meanwhile, opinions in the village differed as to whether a new building or an extension should be planned for the church. The cost estimate for a new church, which had been erected by master builder Wolf in Limburg , amounted to 48,380 guilders. Since he estimated the value of the old church at 3,200 guilders, 45,180 guilders remained according to his calculation, which the tithe lords had to raise. In 1861 the ducal Nassau building inspector Mäurer drew up another report, according to which the new church should cost 68,000 guilders. If the church tower and the sacristy were also renewed, a further 20,000 guilders would be added. For three new altars, pulpit , two confessionals and new pews , he had calculated additional costs of 8,300 guilders, so that, according to his calculation, the total cost should be 96,300 guilders. Building inspector Mäurer suggested the churchyard with the old church as the building site in 1862. An alternative construction site on Siershahner Weg is located near the Krugöfen at the far west end of the village and therefore too far away. The church should "stay in the village". A counter-opinion came to the conclusion that the building site on the old church was unsuitable and that the space was also too small.
Replacement of the church building load
In the meantime, the Nassau authorities had negotiated with the tithe lords to finally redeem the church building burden incumbent on them with a one-off payment in cash. The church council and the ducal Nassau finance committee agreed in 1862 on a transfer fee of 52,000 guilders, with which the tithe lords' obligation to build a church should be replaced for all time. The episcopal authority in Limburg found the transfer fee too low, however, and new negotiations were started with the tithe lords. The legal successor to Freiherr vom Stein as tithe was the Count of Kielmansegg . Finally, on February 16, 1864, the ducal Higher Appeal Court issued a judgment that set the transfer fee at 69,706 guilders and 40 kreuzers. The ducal domain had to carry 59,089 guilders and 11 cruisers. With the payment of the fixed sum, both the obligation to build a new church and to maintain the church in Wirges should be replaced. As reported in November 1865, the three smaller titans had already paid in their proportional transfer fee of 10,617 guilders and 29 cruisers by then. Negotiations with the domain treasury had to be continued for years because they did not want to recognize the share attributable to them. Finally, the royal Prussian government and the church council of Wirges agreed on July 17, 1869 on a settlement of 57,000 guilders.
New construction or extension
In the meantime, the planning for the new church had continued, but the dispute, whether a new building or a renovation, had still not come to an end. In 1864, 34 parishioners from Wirges submitted a petition to the episcopal ordinariate in Limburg for a sustainable renovation of the church. The Bishop of Limburg Peter Joseph Blum wrote to the royal Prussian government on February 15, 1868 that the number of parishioners had meanwhile grown to 4,765. If two thirds of the seats were to be given, the planned number of 2,664 seats was not enough. The bishop refused that 3/11 of the parishioners should only have standing room.
Pastor Prötz and the church council again pointed out the unusually cramped space and space in a petition to Limburg on September 16, 1869. The crowd in the church led to various misunderstandings. Because of the lack of space, many went outside to church or only pretended to do so in order to actually “stay in the inns”. If these misunderstandings were not soon resolved by a new building, Pastor Prötz wanted to ask for his transfer, as he would not be able to fulfill his duties as a pastor under these circumstances. The episcopal ordinariate then declared that it would first send a commission to Wirges in order to get to know the wishes of the subsidiary congregations. The hearing of the branch congregations resulted in unexpectedly great difficulties for the new church. Several branch communities of the Wirges parish endeavored to separate from the parish and to become independent or to be assigned to other parishes. They took the view that they should participate in the transfer fee, which was paid by those entitled to tithe for the purpose of exemption from the church building burden. Since the new church was to be financed mainly with the transfer fee of the tithe lord, if the branch parishes were to participate in the redemption capital, part of the construction financing would be lost. This would inevitably cause considerable difficulties for the overall financing of the new church building. Individual church board members even went so far as to claim that if several branch communities were to be separated, the old church would be sufficient for the remaining parishioners, so that a new building would no longer be necessary. In contrast, Pastor Prötz took the view that a new church would have to be built even if individual subsidiary communities were separated. For this case, he had already had a construction plan drawn up by building inspector Nebel from Koblenz.
In a special meeting of the parish council and the parish magistrates on January 12, 1870, ten members spoke out in favor of outsourcing branch communities; only six members including the pastor were still in favor of the new church. This made it clear that the subsidiary communities that were anxious to establish their own parish, such as Dernbach and Ötzingen-Leuterod , no longer wanted to contribute to the new or renovation costs. On October 25, 1872, the church council sent an urgent request to the episcopal ordinariate to approve an extension to the Kreuzkirche for 12,000-14,000 thalers as soon as possible. The interior of the church had to be renewed, as the "altars were black and dirty, the statues gnawed and carved up by woodworms". In addition, the church does not have an organ. The branch communities of Dernbach and Ötzingen-Leuterod protested against the application to build a new building.
Two years earlier, on May 9, 1870, Regens Munzenberger had given the Episcopal Ordinariate an opinion on the structural condition after visiting the Wirges church. The church shows a lot of damage, but the masonry is basically healthy. The church tower comes from the 11th, at most from the 12th century. The spire is still good; the tower is stately in all its simplicity and must not be demolished. The church can hold 1,200 people and offers enough space. Repairs are urgently needed and cost 4,000-5,000 thalers. Pastor Prötz applied for another restoration of the church in Limburg on January 22nd, 1874. In his answer of March 23, 1874, the episcopal ordinariate pointed out that the restoration could not possibly be carried out before the decision on the separation of the branch communities was made. In a letter dated January 12, 1876, the episcopal authority then approved the necessary repairs to the church, provided that the church council and the parish council approved them.
There were considerable differences of opinion in the church council. During this time of the Kulturkampf, the episcopal ordinariate was dissolved and the Bishop of Limburg was banished. Therefore, in 1878, the church council put the construction work for an extension to the church to tender without authorization from Limburg. In the same year, the extension to enlarge the church began. According to the construction plan submitted, the extension should also represent the preliminary stage for a new building. The old church tower was to be demolished because it was dilapidated and a new tower was to be built. In June 1879, the episcopal authority tried to prevent the planned extension of the annex up to the side doors. It is true that one did not want to deface the church building that had just begun for reasons of economy and z. B. leave the towerless, but the illegally started extension should not be enlarged. The episcopal ordinariate therefore asked for a report on how much the current expansion of the building capital of the church had already devoured and how much will remain after the completion of the whole.
The 1878 cultivation plan
The extension was carried out "to a nuisance for large parts of the diocese". The nave and choir of the old church remained standing. The extension was completed in 1880. Pastor Prötz died on March 10, 1879. 80,000 marks of the building capital had already been built. The old tower was torn down because it was in disrepair and a new tower was built in its place according to the plan and under the direction of the district building inspector Büchling. A son of the roofer Ritz from Ötzingen was killed during the tower tiling work. Multiple protests had risen against the demolition of the tower, because it would remove an "irreplaceable work of art".
In June 1882, cracks suddenly appeared in the vault of the nave, which were seen in part as a result of the extension and the demolition of the front of the old church. The most urgent danger was to be eliminated by knocking out the old ceiling.
As early as 1875, the diocesan master builder Augener had expressed his opinion that every restoration and every expansion of the church while retaining old parts could only be a makeshift solution for a short time. The main damage to the church building lies in the poor foundation on poor subsoil. Numerous vertical cracks would have lifted the wall bond.
The new church
In 1883, builder Büchling had new plans for a completely new building of the church made. After the episcopal administration was able to resume its work, it commissioned the architect Max Meckel from Frankfurt to design a stylish plan for a neo-Gothic church with three aisles and a three-aisled transept instead of the present plan. The church council approved the new design and decided on May 4, 1884 to continue building. The expansion was estimated at 105,000 marks. 90,000 marks were available from the transfer fee for the tithe. 15,000 marks were earmarked for the interior decoration. The authority approved the further construction according to Max Meckel's plan, with a change on the sides. The old church was demolished, leaving the free-standing columns of the central nave. The new church building was attached to the extension and the newly built tower that had already been built under Pastor Prötz.
From October 1, 1884, Bernhard Feldmann worked as an auxiliary pastor in the parish until he was transferred to the Wirges parish on October 1, 1886. During his term of office, the 3rd church was completed, which took over from its two predecessors St. Boniface as patron saint. It is the oldest patronage of this saint in the Limburg diocese.
The foundation stone of the new church was laid on May 5, 1885, i.e. only at the beginning of the second construction period. Bishop Karl Klein inaugurated it on August 20, 1887. The architect Max Meckel was then appointed diocesan master builder.
architecture
The church was built in the neo-Gothic style prevailing in Germany at the time and measures 27.61 meters in width and 53.86 meters in length. The walls of the nave are structured on the outside by stepped buttresses. Three hipped roofs , which cover the short transept, slide into the high roof of the nave . The walls of the choir are drawn higher than the walls of the main nave, corresponding to the height of the central nave. Here, too, buttresses and windows structure the exterior of the choir, which is covered by an unconventional, helmet-like roof. This roof rises above the roof of the nave by a few meters and forms a counterweight to the mass of the tower. The mighty tower, leaning against the west gable, also has two buttresses at each wall corner, which step back up like a staircase. The recesses are connected by horizontal cornices . Above the two buttresses, a pair of supports with a tympanum and a slender, octagonal tower pyramid frame the foot of the very high tower spire, on which an octagonal tower pyramid was also placed.
Until the 1950s, the roof of the nave was decorated with dormer windows that were used to ventilate the roof space. The main roof was also adorned by a very pointed, octagonal tower, which in turn had a counterpart on the spire.
The floor plan of the church shows two fundamentally different construction phases. The first construction phase consists of the entrance system with a tower and two ship yokes. The three-portal entrance system is composed of the heavy walls that form the base of the church tower, two staircases leaning against them to the gallery, the adjoining side entrances with vestibules, a staircase nestled on the north side to the bell chamber and the gable wall at the height and width of the nave. A central nave with two side aisles immediately adjoins the entrance front.
The first yoke is spanned by a gallery. The gallery in the second yoke was only added in the 1950s. The original plan provided for cross pillars that still bear the weight of the two rear yokes today. The old gallery is supported by two cross pillars with two narrow columns in front of them and two columns with upstream services to accommodate the belt arches from the gallery yoke.
The floor plan of the second construction phase clearly shows the architect's reference to the high Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages in France. The extension of the gallery limits the view into the nave from the entrance. A side aisle is assigned to the seven-bay central nave, each of which is followed by a three-nave transept. In the gusset between the transept and the aisle, there is a side entrance on the side of the main entrance. In the east, a small chapel is attached to the aisle to the south. A small chapel was attached to the choir, which is the width of the nave, on the south side and a chapel larger in depth and height on the north side. The latter was probably simply deepened by an intermediate yoke because of the access from the sacristy to the choir. Today this short intermediate yoke is the baptistery. A reconstruction of the sacristy resulted in the relocation of the aforementioned entrance.
The main nave of the newer part is formed by five further bays on round pillars. Services arranged in the longitudinal and transverse axis guide the loads from the belts of the vaults from the shield arches of the longitudinal walls of the central nave into these. The accompanying aisles have the same number of yokes as the main nave. They visually run through to the choir, but expand from the second to the decorated yoke to a transept, to which a second aisle is added and the height of which is almost the same as the central nave. These side aisles are vaulted with pointed arch barrels.
The choir is set up against the nave with heavy square pillars, the last column of which is a half-column leaning against this stone mass. An inserted narrow yoke gives the pentagonal apse of the choir greater depth. The side aisles are also closed by pentagonal smaller apses. The northern apse has an intermediate yoke in front. Together, these parts of the floor plan form a cross in which the ship is a collection room, the entrance system is a dedicated serving member and the headpiece in its graduation from the smaller to the larger apse to the high altar, especially due to the elevation of the delimiting windows, crown and climax of the room.
Heavy pillars carry a ribbed vault into the room and take up the gallery. The side aisles are bounded by heavy masonry with two groin vaults each. Two round windows each below the gallery donate light sparingly. Above the gallery, high pointed arched windows displace the masonry, while light ribbed vaults span the room.
Services and sparingly constructed capitals take the weight of the round columns rising up in the main nave, as well as the weight of the cross and transverse ribs of the vaults and the shield arches that limit the central and side aisles.
In the high choir, the walls are broken up into windows, window cladding and strong pillars. The services in front of these are decorated with richly decorated capitals that accommodate the crown of the ribbed vault above the apse. The remnants of the wall under the windows are hardly visible due to the abundance of light and the lightness of the rest of the construction, yet they are horizontally positioned to counterbalance the height of the room. As in the floor plan with different depths, the individual apses form the optical central point of the sequence of rooms due to the staggered height and the increasing decoration.
Furnishing
Interior decoration
After completion of the construction, the nave was initially only simply decorated. It was not until 1905 that the painter August Adam Potthast from Wiesbaden painted the walls and pillars in the lush art nouveau style .
Potthast also made all the pictures painted in the Nazarene style on sheet copper:
- 12 apostles in the upper storey
- Representations from the life of St. Boniface: sending out as a missionary and murder
- the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by Johannes (This picture once filled the entire back wall of the then baptistery on the right side of the ship. Because of its "then inartistic Nazarene style" it was scrapped in 1923. The equally large picture "Christ Triumphator" is also missing, which was high above the right apse.)
The framed oil paintings of the Stations of the Cross were copied by the painter Gessner from Limburg based on originals by Prof. Martin Feuerstein from Munich.
After the First World War , Gessner and the painter Busalt from Limburg filled the spaces left out in 1905 on the wall surfaces in the choir and on the front half-pillars in lime plaster painting in the choir with representations related to the Eucharist:
- the wedding in Canaan
- the sacrifice of Melchizedech on the pillars
- the fourteen emergency helpers on the front half-columns
- the sacrifice of Isaac
- Jesus with the disciples at Emmaus
The pictures were donated by the entrepreneur Adam Marx and were painted over during the last interior renovation.
Behind the high altar is a memorial plaque for all pastors working in the parish.
window
Choir room
In the pointed arch of the central window, the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and, in the form of a dove, ott the Holy Spirit, sits enthroned over a suggested rainbow, the symbol of the covenant between God and man.
Above this, the four evangelists can be recognized in symbolic representations:
- Mark as a lion
- Johannes as an eagle
- Matthew as a person
- Luke as a bull
Stand under this arch
- St. Boniface, the patron of the church
- St. George, the patron of the Limburg diocese
In the two side windows, scenes from the Old Testament (left) and the New Testament (right) are shown. Left:
- the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
- the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham
- Abraham and Melchizedech in the form of bread and wine
right:
- the birth of Christ (acceptance of human nature)
- the sacrificial death of Christ (the death of Jesus on the cross)
- Jesus after the resurrection at the meal with the Emmaus disciples
In the three-pass forms of these two pointed arched windows you can see on the left: a pelican sacrificing itself for its young, on the right: the Lamb of God.
Apses
Today's baptistery in the left apse was originally the Lady Chapel. The Marien Altar, now in the left aisle, stood in it until 1962. Your two windows show scenes from the life of Mary and Joseph:
- the marriage of Joseph to Mary
- Mary's death
- Joseph's death
- the flight to Egypt
- the holy family at Nazareth
- the twelve year old Jesus in the temple
The saints in the windows of the right apse above the Sebastian altar show Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
- as a Cistercian abbot with the cross, the tools of suffering and the crown of thorns in hand
- as a preacher for the Crusades.
Nave
The clear glass windows of the window system, originally from 1887, were replaced in 1962 by ornamental windows by the artist Josef Jost from Hattenheim / M. replaced. The small division of the mosaic that was chosen made it possible to place strong colors close together, creating an association with the windows of large Gothic churches.
You can see in the large picture window to the rectory to the north
- John the Baptist in penitential robe with cross staff
- Saint Agnes pierced with a sword
- Saint Catherine with wheel and sword
- Saint Peter with a book and a key
and on the opposite central window
- Saint James the Elder with the pilgrim's shell on his cap and the pilgrim's staff
- Saint Elizabeth with a vessel
- the mother Anna, Maria and the baby Jesus
- John the Evangelist with a chalice from which a snake escapes.
The pictures inserted in the masonry of the three and four passports belonging to these two central windows testify to the great veneration of the Blessed Mother by the Wirgeser believers around 1900 through their repetition in the church. These pictures lead through the life of Mary: left:
- Mary Annunciation
- Visitation of the Virgin Mary
- Birth of christ
right:
- Mary, queen of heaven and earth, mistress of the cosmos, surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists (see center window in the choir). Below the stars according to the Secret Revelation: a woman clad in the sun, the moon at her feet.
Above the door to the sacristy in a small compartment in the window
- Charles Borromeo in a penitent garb, a rope around his neck, wrapped in a cardinal red cloak, as bishop and cardinal of Milan.
On the opposite window in a corresponding window cutout
- Saint Sebastian hit by arrows.
All of these windows are donations from families in what was then the parish of Wirges. In the case of individual windows, the names of the donors are attached to the lower edge. Left:
- P. Neeb family, Siershahn
- Family Chr. Gramig, Wirges (with the inscription: Sit laus Deo honor et gloria. / God be praise, honor and glory.)
right:
- Family J. Diefenbach, Wirges (with the inscription: Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro. / Let us thank the Lord our God.).
The window above the Sebastian altar was donated by the Weyand family, Wirges.
The clear round windows under the gallery were also replaced by colored windows in 1962. They tell of events in the Old Testament that point to the sacrifice of the new covenant: front left:
- the sacrifice of Noah; in the background Noah's ark, above the dove with the olive branch. Noe kneels before a fire rising to the sky. A rainbow spans the picture as a sign of the covenant between God and man.
left back:
- the sacrifice of Abraham; one hand holds the hand of Abraham ready to sacrifice his son, the other points to a ram.
right front:
- the sacrifice of Moses; After the proclamation of the ten commandments, Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of the Lamb as a covenant sign.
right behind:
- the sacrifice of Melchizedech; Melchizedech offers bread and wine in the presence of Abraham. This sacrifice is considered an Old Testament sign that finds its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Jesus (Eucharist).
Altars and statues of saints
High altar
The high altar flanked by two double doors was made by Caspar Weis from Frankfurt in 1887 . It is crowned by a high-rising, delicate burst. A selection of saints from the All Saints litany are grouped around the throne of the exposed Blessed Sacrament, which originally served as a rotating tabernacle . The ranking of these saints, called from the center outwards, corresponds exactly to their classification within the litany.
| left side | above | right side | above | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| the apostles | Maria | the Mother of God | the apostles | Joseph | the foster father of Jesus |
| Peter | with the key | Paul | with the sword | ||
| John | with the chalice | Matthew | with beard (sword is missing as a symbol) | ||
| Bartholomew | with the knife | Simon | with saw | ||
| a monk | Francis of Assisi | in a habit with wounds | the penitential preacher | John the Baptist | in a fur dress with a cross stick |
| a martyr | George | with dragon and sword | a preacher | Anthony of Padua | with rosary, carrying a child |
| an empress | Hildegard | with crown, handing the bishop's staff | a religious | Aloysius | with lily |
| an empress | Helena | showing the cross | |||
| below | below | ||||
| the apostles | Philip | with cross stick | the apostles | Squidward | with lance and halberd |
| James the Younger | with club | Andreas | with St. Andrew's cross | ||
| Thomas | with an angle | James the Elder | in a black coat with a pilgrim's shell | ||
| a pope | NN | with tiara and triple cross staff | a monk | Dominic | in white habit and black coat |
| an abbess | Hildegard von Bingen | with book and staff | a Doctor of the Church | Jerome | with book |
| a nun | Mechthild from Helfta | with aristocratic crown and book | a virgin | Catherine | with wheel and sword |
| A mother | Mother Anna | teaching the child | |||
| a nun | Clara | in Clarissian costume with monstrance | |||
| in the predella
(Substructure) |
Left | right | Back of the
Double doors |
Left | right |
| Maria with Elisabeth
and the birth of Jesus |
the wise men from the Orient,
paying homage to the child |
the proclamation of the
Savior |
the coronation of Mary |
Mary Altar
The Marian altar in the left aisle, also created by Caspar Weis, dates from 1891. The predella bears the artist's name and the inscription: "Master of this work, pray God for him! 1891". The original blast corresponded to that of the high altar, but had to give way in 1962 due to severe worm damage.
| center | Predella | left wing (open) | right wing (open) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria | the Theotokos (Dei Genitrix),
that the child carries with a dove on the diadem |
Bernhard
or |
as the minstrel of our lady | Presentation of Mary in the temple | Handover to the temple school |
| Francis of Assisi | with the cross | Bernhard von Morkus
or |
to which the song "Sing and say every day"
is attributed |
left wing (closed) | right wing (closed) |
| Antony | preaching to the fish | Casimir of Poland | to which the text (not the hymn) of the same song is assigned | Nicholas as bishop with staff and book,
on which three balls can be seen |
Helena with the imperial crown and the
found cross |
| Maria Margaretha from Alacoque | who spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
with a heart raised by a cross and flames is inflated |
||||
| Dominic | who is considered to be the author of the rosary |
Joseph Altar
The Joseph altar in the right aisle was also made by Caspar Weis. It is the simplest of the three altars.
| In the middle | Joseph |
|---|---|
| flanked on both sides | the escape from Egypt |
| in the high reliefs | the holy family in Nazareth |
Sebastian Altar
During the time of the great plague epidemics around 1300 and 1720, the population sought help from Saint Sebastian, who has been a saint since 345 and the plague patron since the 7th century. Its distinguishing mark is the arrow.
In Wirges, too, a prayer community came together, supported by a letter of grace from Pope Pius VI. full indulgences from March 10, 1777. Even after the dissolution of the brotherhood, a Sebastian service was held long in January. The procession on Ascension Day leads every year to the Steimel Chapel in conjunction with the "plague procession".
The Sebastian Brotherhood donated a Sebastian altar to furnish the church, which was built in 1775. This is said to have been decorated with additional depictions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saint Mary. The shrine of the altar dates from 1775, the two double doors from 1520 originally belonged to the Marian altar of the first Romanesque church. If you close the double doors, you can see the preaching of the Lord, composed of two halves.
The original crescent moon Madonna and the figures of Saint Lawrence, James the Elder, Agnes and Agatha have been lost. The preserved double doors show:
| Inside | |
|---|---|
| Blasius | with crosier and candle |
| Catherine | with toothed wheel and sword |
| Christophorus | leaning on a pole,
carrying the child across the river |
| Margarethe | with white coat and cross staff |
| Outside | |
| the preaching of Mary |
Baptistery
The former baptistery at the end of the left aisle houses, among other things, a Mater dolorosa , which was donated by Jakob Marx and made by Pius Vierheiligen to commemorate the fallen of the First World War. This figure originally stood next to the sacristy door in front of a large penitential cross, flanked by two wooden plaques with the names of the dead.
In memory of Maria Katharina Kaspar , a memorial plaque donated by the city of Wirges and a photo of the beatified were attached. In the same place in the Baroque church, consecrated in 1775, stood the St. Mary's altar, made in 1520, whose double doors now adorn the Sebastian altar. The first Dernbach sisters took their vows on August 15, 1851 in front of this altar .
Baptismal font
The baptismal font was already in the baroque church, consecrated in 1775. Its shape corresponds to the classicism of the 17th century. It originally stood in the niche on the right of the nave, the old baptistery. After 1918 it was in the rear of the church, so that it could be moved into the left apse, the new baptistery, during the last renovation. He also received a bronze lid with a rock crystal.
organ
Predecessor instruments
Until a harmonium was purchased in 1868, the songs in the church, which was built in 1775, were sung by a cantor, in whose singing the cantor and the congregation joined in. The male choirboys took their places in two choir stalls on the Gospel side, the around a dozen female singers in two stalls at the Marien Altar. The church choir “St. Gregorius ”. The harmonium turned out to be inadequate after a short time and was increasingly in need of repair, which is why the pastor's successor Peter Prötz asked the competent episcopal authority for approval to purchase an organ in 1874. The following year he submitted a cost estimate to the Limburg organ building workshop Gebr. Keller for an instrument with 23 registers at a price of 2,602 thalers (around 4,000 euros), whereupon the company set up an emergency instrument for the price of 52 thalers. The episcopal authorities approved the construction of the organ in 1876 on the condition that both the church council and the parish council approve the construction project. The new organ was completed in 1877, but could not be installed in the church due to lack of space. This changed with the completion of the two front bays of today's church and the erection of the gallery. The organ's wind was generated for several years by kicking the bellows; it was not until 1904 that an electric fan took over this task . The organ's tin pipes were confiscated and melted down during the First World War. The equivalent was reimbursed by the state in 1926 and the organ was restored for 2,000 DM. For this period the organ is described as a wooden dummy prospectus painted with silver bronze, behind which there are 25 stops on two manuals and a pedal. The action was pneumatic, the sound was post-romantic. The Church Music Department of the Diocese of Limburg urgently recommended that the organ be rebuilt in a report in 1978. The reasons for this were the severely impaired functionality and woodworm infestation of the existing instrument. In addition, the sound quality was described as insufficient and the playing possibilities as undifferentiated.
Göckel organ
The current instrument was built in 2001 by the organ building company Göckel from Epfenbach near Heidelberg using the pipe work of the previous instrument in part, and a pedal register was added in 2018. The 46 registers , distributed over three manuals and pedal , stand on grinding and cone chests. The action is mechanical, the links and register controls are electrical.
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- Couple
- Normal coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: III / I, III / III
- Chamaden coupling: at I, II, III
- Playing aids : 1024-fold typesetting system , sequencer
Bells
The oldest, in the 12./13. The church, built in the 18th century, initially only had a single bell called "Sankt Lambertus". It was made of bell bronze, weighed approx. 600 kg, had a diameter of 945 mm and had a “g sharp” strike. Under her hood she showed a flower frieze, 5 cm high, on the flank the image of the saint "Maria Selbdritt" and the inscription in minuscules :
lambertus I call *
tzu the service gotz louden i *
I lose the doner *
jan van trier gos me *
anno dni m vc xxi (1521)
It was not until 1569 that a second bell was placed in the old fortified tower. It bore the name of the church patron "Sankt Bonifatius". It was also made of bell bronze with a weight of 1100 kg and a diameter of 1160 mm, the sleeping gon was "fis". Under the same flowers Fries as the other bell its inscription was in capital letters :
BONIFATIUS I ASK
INTO THE ER GODDES I LOUDEN
HEINRICH VAN TRIER GOUS ME
ANNO DMI MDLXVIII (1568)
The letters "G" were used mirror-inverted.
After the construction of the second stone church in 1775, a third bell was placed in the defensive tower that had been preserved; it was named "Sankt Susanna". This bell broke when the death toll for Empress Augusta Viktoria in 1890.
The replacement bell made afterwards, also dedicated to Saint Susanna, was melted down during the First World War. The Lambertus bell remained in the tower, the Bonifatius bell was taken away in 1918, but could be brought back from Montabaur after the November Revolution .
Two years later, Adam Marx agreed to donate the missing third bell. The consecration took place on January 18, 1921, the inscription read:
Sankta Susanna
I burst MDCCCXC (1890)
When Augusta's song of the dead I sang
Many a heart MCMXIV / VIII (1914/18)
Broke through my ore in World War II
New MCMXXI (1921)
Resurrected me thanks and faithfulness
Adam Marx me donavit
Otto von Hemmelingen me formavit
Decantus Dr. Luschberger me consecravit
* AD MCMXXI (1921)
During the Second World War , the Reich government ordered the confiscation of all bronze bells, whereupon all three bells were fetched from the tower in 1942 and shipped to Hamburg. According to the instructions, a bell could be held back per location, whereupon the municipal administration decided to keep the Steimelsbellchen; the valuable Lambertus bell was abandoned.
Based on the consideration of preventing church bells from Wirges from being melted down again for ammunition production and taking into account the fact that no bronze bells could be delivered in the foreseeable future, Wirges decided to purchase four cast steel bells. The new bells were consecrated on November 3, 1946.
| Surname | diameter | Weight | volume | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Boniface | 1782 mm | 3011 kg | cis | "St. Boniface, clientum fedum serve! "
Saint Boniface, keep us from all evil! |
| Saint Mary | 1414 mm | 1425 kg | e | "Sta. Maria, gratiam nobis emplora! "
Holy Mary, ask God's grace for us! |
| Saint Gregorius | 1189 mm | 807 kg | g sharp | "St. Gregorius, tremende nos defende! "
St. Gregory, defend us in the struggle of daily life! |
| Saint Conradus | 1058 mm | 780 kg | ais | "St. Conradus, campas agricoloque tuere! "
St. Konrad, protect our hallways! |
Only two years later it turned out that the first two bells from the 16th century were still in Hamburg. They were bought back and installed in the steeple of the Bannberscheider church.
The new bells turned out to be unsatisfactory in terms of sound, as can also be seen from a report by the bell expert H. Foersch in the “Frankfurter Glockenbuch”: “These four bells from 1946 all have intrusive, penetrating secondary strikes. The already unusual note line (c sharp - e - g sharp - a sharp) is confused and created beyond recognition. "
On October 4th, 2009 the then Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst consecrated five new bronze bells, which rang for the first time on November 7th, 2009 from the tower of the Westerwald Cathedral. The bells were cast in the Eifeler bell foundry Mark in Brockscheid.
| Surname | diameter | Weight | volume | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boniface | 1480 mm | 1650 kg | cis' | My name is BONIFATIUS
IN THE GLORY OF GOD I RING THE BELL |
| Mother of God Mary | 1300 mm | 1250 kg | dis' | I AM THE MOTHER OF GOD MARY
I PROCESS THE GRACE OF GOD |
| Sebastian | 1100 mm | 1130 kg | fis' | My name is SEBASTIAN
I INVITE TO THE WORSHIP I CHANGE THE THUNDER |
| Katharina Kasper | 980 mm | 750 kg | g sharp ' | My name is KATHARINA KASPER
I CALL INTO THE FOLLOWING JESUS |
| Birgitta | 820 mm | 500 kg | ais' | My name is BIRGITTA
FOR THE UNITY OF EUROPE I RAISE THE VOICE |
graveyard
Until the Romanesque church was built in the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 19th century, the deceased from all over the area around Montabaur were buried at the church there. The dead from Wirges were carried there via Staudt and Allmannshausen. After the separation from the original parish of Montabaur, the newly formed parish of Wirges buried it around the old parish church. While the construction of the baroque church had already narrowed the available space, the construction of the Westerwald cathedral and the construction of the "Obergass", which took place at the same time, left hardly any room for further deceased. At first they wanted to set up a cemetery in the Gewann Hopfengarten. For practical reasons, however, the north cemetery, which is closer to the church, was laid out in 1819 for the entire parish, which then comprised 30,000 souls. All of the branches had to pay maintenance costs to maintain the two cemeteries.
The name "Leichenrast" on the road to Montabaur still reminds of the original times. That is where the Dernbach corpse-bearers rested for the last time before laying their deceased in front of the main portal of the church during the funeral mass.
At first there was only a large wooden cross in the north cemetery. In 1910 the clerical councilor J. Diefenbach had the restored chapel built over two grave beds for himself and his deceased relatives, as well as for all pastors who died in Wirges in the future.
His friend Caspar Weis, the designer of the three altars of St. Boniface, gave him the very carefully, unfortunately only in plaster, draft of one of his planned works with the title "Lamentation of Christ". Originally this was intended as the sixth station of a "Mary's Path of Seven Pains". The parish of Lahnstein planned such a pilgrimage route up to Allerheiligenberg in 1898. But only the last station was carved in stone by C. Weis. She stands in a grotto on this hill. The whole project ended with the design that is in the Wirges cemetery chapel.
Rectories
The oldest rectory of Wirges was in the area of the "fortress" on the place that is still called the "rectory garden" today. It burned down during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) when the Swedes set fire to it. All parishes were lost in the process. The second rectory was built next to the church on the hill. It is said to have been a half-timbered house with thin walls, the weather side of which had slate fittings. It was laid down in 1895/96, rebuilt in Waldstrasse, and the current rectory, adapted to the style of the church, was built.
Pastor
Until 1827 the pastors of Wirges were subordinate to the diocese of Trier , from 1827 to the diocese of Limburg .
| until 1827 | from 1827 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1325 | Arnoldus | mentioned by name as
"Plebanus de Weydergis" |
1838-1868 | Quirin Josef Klau |
| to 172 | NN | 1868-1879 | Peter Proetz | |
| 1572-1586 | Abel | "pastor" | 1879-1884 | Franz Hannappel |
| 1592 | NN Johann | 1884-1889 | Bernhard Feldmann | |
| 1599-1602 | Konrad Tholis | 1889-1898 | Adam Sturm | |
| 1603 | Philip Arnoldi | 1898-1938 | Dr. Josef Ignaz Luschberger | |
| 1604 | Nikolaus Bredburg | 1938-1960 | Robert Flink | |
| around 1641 | Franciscan priest | from Montabaur | 1960-1971 | Karl Brand |
| 1657 | Thomas Stein | 1971-1991 | Albert Diefenbach | |
| 1660 | Adam Oster | 1991– | Winfried Karbach | |
| 1669-1673 | Peter Otto I. | 1991– | Ralf Plogmann | |
| 1673-1675 | Adam Hartenfels | |||
| 1675-1679 | Jakob Leuterod | from Montabaur | ||
| 1679-1693 | Peter Otto II. | |||
| 1693-1701 | Johann Visen | |||
| after 1700 | Mareshall | Vice Curate | ||
| 1701-1748 | Johann Jakob de Barre | |||
| 1749 | Johann Christoph Schunk | |||
| 1749-1766 | Johann Heinrich Schwickert | |||
| 1766-1796 | Johann Castor | |||
| 1769-1837 | Heinrich Hannappel |
Web links
- Homepage of the parish Wirges
- Presentation of the organ by the organist Fraser Gartshore; with audio sample
literature
- Catholic parish of St. Bonifatius Wirges: Festival book on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the parish church of St. Bonifatius Wirges . Wirges, 1987.
- Catholic parish of St. Bonifatius Wirges: St. Bonifatius Wirges . Wirges, 1989.