St. Boniface (Gotha)
The Church of St. Bonifatius is a Catholic church in Gotha, Thuringia . It is the first Catholic church built in Thuringia after the Reformation . St. Bonifatius is included in the list of cultural monuments in Gotha .
history
Until the middle of the 19th century, there was no separate church for the Catholic community in Gotha. In 1780, the first Holy Mass after the Reformation was celebrated in Gotha, after approval by Duke Ernst II in a private apartment. This situation lasted until 1847, when it was allowed to use the Protestant church “Zum Heiligen Geist” of the breeding and orphanage (today a protected cultural monument of the city of Gotha) between Erfurt and Mönchelsstraße. In 1855, following a fundraising campaign by the then pastor Ludwig Liebherr, it became possible to buy half of the "Musicus Gaßner" garden for 1,500 Reichsthalers. Now the construction of their own church could begin. Planning and construction management were the responsibility of the ducal building officer Gustav Eberhard , builder of various important buildings in Gotha and the surrounding area. From this time only a photo of a draft model has survived, from which it can be seen that the later construction deviated considerably from the draft. A neo-Romanesque church was built from Seeberg sandstone with a gable roof , transept and a choir apse . The construction took place as natural stone masonry on a rectangular floor plan. For urban planning reasons, the church was not geosted , but northed; the entrance portal is located in the south in the towering decorative gable facing the city center.
inner space
The interior of the church is characterized by eclectic style elements, so it offers different styles, according to the taste of the century. The well-known Gotha painter Paul Emil Jacobs created three life-size paintings on canvas, "Madonna", "World Redeemer" and "Resurrection of Lazarus", the latter of which hung over the south entrance and disappeared without a trace after a theft in 1980. The church was decorated with other stations of the cross painted on canvas , decorative paintings and plastic decorations until 1927.
After 1927 the jewelry was gradually removed; In the end, only the fixed components remained, everything that was decorative and creative was removed.
In 1932 the altar was replaced by a new one created by Georg Saumweber from Günzburg . The original pulpit has also been replaced by a smaller, lower one.
After a redesign in 1949 (removal and walling up of the round choir windows, breaking out of the high windows on both sides of the apse, replacement of the painting with a completely monochrome paint, replacement of the church stalls with simple pews), a new redesign was carried out in 1956 by installing a new one Gallery, the installation of the east side entrance and the redesign of the south portal (doors, porch, canopy).
1961/62 the church got a new floor covering. As a result, various remodeling measures led to the fact that in the end almost all of the furnishings from the early days of the church had disappeared. Small side altars were set up on both sides of the choir, and a new way of the cross made of sheet copper was added. The church got an elaborate ceiling gas-jet heater.
In 1972 the high altar, altar steps and communion bench were removed and a new simple wooden altar was placed in the center of the choir, a requirement of Vatican II . The choir received new stalls, and there was a new frame for the tabernacle at the rear of the choir.
In 1974 the next renovation was on the agenda: The gas-jet heating was removed again, the barely functioning organ was removed and replaced by an electronic GDR organ that worked reasonably well until 1990. The interior was painted again, this time old white, the side walls and the barrel vault of the choir and the ceiling beams in cardinal red .
In 1984 the interior of the church was redesigned by Werner Schubert-Deister (then from Friedrichroda ). Among other things, a new font made of Löbauer granite was erected at the side entrance , next to it a new Easter candlestick.
Due to complaints about acoustics, a new sound system was installed in 1991 (two loudspeakers, a radio system and a wireless microphone).
The church received a new bench heater in 1992.
In 1998, there were deficiencies in the roof covering due to the "Friedrichsziegel" from building ruins and demolished objects that had been applied after 1945. In 1999 the roof was re-covered in just three weeks. The costs of 76,000 DM were raised by the parish (26,000), the episcopal ordinariate (25,000) and the Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation (25,000).
From 2004 to 2005 the exterior of the building underwent a renovation, which today gives the beautiful walls their best appearance.
organ
At the end of 1978 it was decided to install a new organ, which led to a contract with the Potsdam company Schuke . The construction, planned for 1986, was delayed until 1989, the organ was to be installed in 1990 with a ten percent increase in costs, which was beyond the financial framework. The church council decided to build a 100,000 GDR mark organ, the prospectus of which was carried out by the PGH "Gustav Freytag" in Siebleben . The last phase of organ building fell during the monetary union in June / July 1990. The costs totaled 165,000 DM, which were raised through collections and donations (140,000 marks) and various grants. On September 16, 1990, the organ was finally consecrated and has been doing its job since then without any complaints.
Web links
- If stones could talk ... , story of St. Bonifatius Gotha (bistum-erfurt.de)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 57 '9.4 " N , 10 ° 42' 7.6" E