St. Catharinen (Westensee)

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The Catharinenkirche from the north with (from the right) the Ahlefeldtschen, the Bosseer and the Bülowische Kapelle; the latter is now the sacristy.

The St. Catharinen Church is the church of the Evangelical Lutheran community in Westensee (Schleswig-Holstein).

history

View to the altar

The church dates from shortly after the country was settled after the battle of Bornhöved (1227) . It was first mentioned in 1253 as a branch of the Neumünster monastery . The 13th century nave, made of field stones, originally corresponded to the field stone churches of Ratekau and Flemhude . In the east there was an apse , in the west possibly a round tower as in the Vicelinkirchen . You entered the church through two entrances in the north (women's door) and south (men's door). The doors that are now walled up can still be seen.

After 1300 it was supplemented by a Gothic brick choir towering over the nave . The shape of the pentagonal choir is based on that of the church of the Cismar monastery . The Knight of Westensee, the patron of the Westenseer Church, sold Grömitz to him at about the same time . According to legend, the construction was financed with money from a treasure find between the villages of Emkendorf and Brux, which are part of the parish . At that time, the church dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria was a pilgrimage church with five vicarages and a fair on Catharine day, November 25th. Possibly the intention was to replace the whole church with a new Gothic building. In 1505 the nave was extended to the west and the west tower added.

The Reformation was introduced relatively early in Westensee by Johann von Wehrden , the former tutor for the children of Duke Friedrich , who was the first Protestant pastor from 1529–1539. After the Reformation, the owner of the Bossee estate became the patron of the church. After a long-standing dispute between the landowner Wilhelm von Rumohr von Gut Westensee and the owners of the surrounding estates Bossee, Deutsch-Nienhof, Emkendorf , Schierensee and Klein Nordsee , a convent consisting primarily of all landowners regulated the interests of the community from 1724 to 1876. Only three years after the introduction of the parish and synodal order of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein in 1876, a church council was set up in 1879 .

Patronage boxes

From the second half of the 17th century, the lords of the estates had boxes built in the church. These boxes were originally in the choir. The noble landowners were also buried in the church. In 1691, on the occasion of the death of his wife , Bendix von Ahlefeldt had the first of six grave chapels added to the church. Later he himself († 1701), his son Hans Heinrich and his wife were buried there. Until 1851, the owners of the other estates also built such burial chapels. Today's sacristy was the Bülow family's chapel . Diana von Reventlow-Criminil , the so-called Halliggräfin von Südfall , was the last to be buried in the family chapel in 1953 .

During the Thirty Years' War , all movable art objects such as a bronze baptismal font were stolen and the first organ donated by the Rantzaus at Nienhof in 1503 was destroyed.

In 1753 the pastorate fell victim to an arson with all church records and documents. In the new pastorate established by Sonnin in 1754 , Matthias Claudius was a guest in 1813 while fleeing from the French. The church was severely neglected during this period. In 1777 it was even considered to replace it with a new building, but this was not done due to lack of money. At the beginning of the 19th century, dilapidation made it necessary to stabilize the choir with pillars from the outside and beams from the inside. Around 1820 the narrow Gothic windows were enlarged and the painted panes replaced by plain glass. The choir arch was also widened to give the congregation a better view of the altar.

In the 1930s, a pulpit cage was reconstructed from the remains of the Renaissance pulpit integrated into a gallery. In 1954 new windows were installed in the choir and the manor boxes were relocated to the entrance of the nave. Instead of the baroque altarpiece, the remains of an early modern carved altar were placed in the altar shrine.

In the 1970s, cracks in the wall in the choir made a thorough renovation necessary. The supporting pillars, originally hollow and filled with bones, were erected in the 19th century and replaced by reinforced concrete pillars clad with brick. The church received a new roof structure; the original beam ceiling in the nave was exposed under a layer of plaster. New tie rods were drawn in in the choir to secure the building. In addition, the previous organ was replaced by a new swallow's nest organ and the pulpit was given its current location to the left of the choir arch. The galleries were removed, the side door, which had previously led directly into the choir from the south, was bricked up and the entrance area was redesigned through the west tower. The coffins from the burial chapels were reburied in the cemetery.

The Protestant parish Westensee belongs to the parish of Altholstein in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany . The parish also includes the parish of Westensee, the municipal parishes of Felde , Kleinvollstedt , Emkendorf, Rodenbek and Schierensee . In Felde and Kleinvollstedt there are chapels from the 1960s. Another chapel in Bokelholm was demolished in 2005.

Furnishing

altar

Of the late Gothic carved altar , only the central shrine with a depiction of the crucifixion remains , the colored painting of the carving was removed in the 1950s. The shrine is carried by a predella with a picture of the Passover meal from the 18th century. The masonry altar table has two cavities on the sides that were used to hold relics in the pre-Reformation period .

The simple, hemispherical baptismal font made of granite probably dates from the time the church was built. It stood for a long time as a flower pot in the park at Gut Emkendorf. In addition, there are five-seated choir stalls from the 15th century in front of a niche with late Gothic tendril decoration.

Epitaph by Daniel Rantzau

Between the nave and the choir there is a triumphal cross with a late Gothic body and the pulpit , whose renewed basket still contains carved elements from 1560. On the north wall of the nave there is a wooden epitaph of Pastor Balthasar Oldeneiken, who died of the plague with his wife and two daughters in 1579, as well as two pictures that were successively altarpieces of the Baroque altar, which was replaced by the carved altarpiece in 1954, a depiction of the Lord's Supper from the 18th century and a copy the Lamentation of Christ by Jürgen Ovens (original in the St. Christophorus Church (Friedrichstadt) ) by Julius Fürst (1911). The crowning of the baroque altar, a representation of the Trinity as an eye in the triangle surrounded by rays, was hung on the ceiling of the tower room,

The largest tomb in the nave is that of the Danish general Daniel Rantzau south of the choir arch. Originally it consisted of an epitaph and a free-standing cenotaph with a reclining figure. The cenotaph, damaged by the Swedes in the Thirty Years War, was dismantled around 1770. In 1917 the monument was reconstructed from the fragments and a gravestone from 1840 as a cover plate directly in front of the epitaph. In addition, three grave slabs of noble landowner couples from the 16th century have been preserved and attached to the south wall of the nave: by Daniel Rantzau's parents, Godske and Margaretha Rantzau (both † 1564) from Deutsch-Nienhof, and his grandparents, Tonnies († 1533) and Drude Rantzau († 1540) from Bossee, as well as Jürgen and Lucia von Ahlefeldt from Gut Westensee, who are buried in Stellau . The two Rantzau grave slabs originally lay over the Rantzau crypt in front of Daniel Rantzau's epitaph. The Ahlefeldt grave slab still bears its original painting in some places (coat of arms, writing). The missing death dates indicate that it was not used.

The church has two bells that are rung by hand. The Neuthor organ from 1979 is located on the north side of the choir. It is the fifth organ in the church: the first was destroyed in 1645, the second existed from 1666 until the pipes were handed in for the metal donation during World War I, the Marcussen organ acquired in 1918 was replaced by a Kemper organ in 1963, which was used in 1979 Redesign of the choir had to give way.

literature

Web links

Commons : Catharinenkirche (Westensee)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Ricker: Westensee. Chronicle of a noble church village ; Wachholtz Neumünster 1994², p. 34ff
  2. ↑ Jensen / Michelsen: Schleswig-Holstein Church History Vol. 3 p. 31 . Johann von Wehrden succeeded Johannes Jüngling in Bovenau in 1539.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Ricker: Westensee. Chronicle of a noble church village ; P. 52f
  4. ^ Anhalt / Schütz: Ev.-luth. St. Catharinen Church Westensee ; P. 6.
  5. ↑ The remains of the side wings are kept in the depot of the State Museum for Art and Cultural History at Gottorf Castle.
  6. ↑ Organ


Coordinates: 54 ° 16 '32.4 "  N , 9 ° 54' 4.7"  E