St. Clemens (Mayen)
The parish church of St. Clemens is the landmark of the town of Mayen in the Vulkaneifel .
history
The parish church of the former capital of Mayengau (with a spacious parish parish) was formerly the Mother of God and has been consecrated to Pope Clement since 1409 . It was a collegiate church from 1326 to 1802 . In 1326, Elector Balduin von Trier moved the regulated Augustinian Canons from Lonnig to the Mayen parish church. 1592 klösterlich (with alternated vow living) canons the life, the pen was the secular Kollegiatstift . It was abolished in 1802.
As excavations have shown, previous buildings of today's church date back to the early Middle Ages (around 600 a small wooden church, around 800 a stone church, around 1000 a larger hall church). From the fourth, Romanesque church of the 12th century the lower South Tower (or south west tower) originates, called Eulenturm .
Construction of the fifth Gothic church is scheduled to begin after the monastery has been relocated. Several altars were donated in 1382, but the construction was not yet completed.
On January 2nd, 1945 the church was destroyed along with the remains of the former monastery. After the Second World War , it was initially rebuilt rather poorly (1947–1953). From the 1970s, the complete restoration took place, in which the facade, which previously consisted of Mayen basalt lava , was provided with a white plaster. The characteristic helmet of the north west tower has been reconstructed in a shortened form.
description
Sankt Clemens is a three-aisled hall church covered by a continuous roof without a transept and one of the oldest hall churches in the Rhineland. The nave is square and has no gallery. The interior is divided by slender columns without capitals.
A special feature is the pointed spire of the north west tower, which is twisted in a spiral due to a construction error in the roof structure. The south west tower, Owl Tower, is much shorter and has a more compact helmet (see photo).
Furnishing
Only a few figures of saints in the choir (mostly at the end of the 18th century) as well as the baptismal font and the sacrament tower survived the destruction of the Second World War. A highlight of the church treasure is a tower monstrance made in Trier .
The organ was built in 1997 by the organ building company Fischer & Krämer (Endingen, Kaiserstuhl). The slider chest instrument has 42 stops on three manuals and a pedal. The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.
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- Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P (also as super octave coupling)
- annotation
- (h) = Register in whole or in part from the previous instrument
Say to the tower
The following legend is told about the conspicuous leaning tower of the church :
Hundreds of years ago, the people of Mayen began to build a church because they were very religious. The church was to be large and magnificent and so large, mighty basalt blocks began to be broken in the Mayen basalt pits. The blocks were lifted from the quarries with chains and winches and then driven on bumpy roads to the construction site, where the bricklayers and stonemasons worked hard. But there was not much progress. Yes, if you only had enough basalt stones, the building would have been faster. One day, when the builders had to wait for stones again, a stranger came with a cock feather on his hat and a long coat that reached down to the floor. He tried to hide his clubfoot under his long coat, but the builders had discovered him and now knew: this is the devil. But they didn't let him see. The devil asked the men from the building what they were building. Because he had heard that it should be a dance hall in which people could dance to Lukasmarkt or to the fair. An inn should be integrated. The builders confirmed this and the devil was so glad that he promised them to help with the construction. When the stonemasons came to the construction site the next morning, they were astonished to find that so many basalt blocks had been built overnight that they would be enough to complete the church. They began their work happily and the church grew rapidly. She was ready by autumn. The Mayener prepared a big festival, the consecration of the church. While the bishop was moving in, the devil flew over the Hochsimmer to look at the inn and to celebrate Lukasmarkt with the Mayans. But when he saw the house of God instead of the inn, he furiously reached for the towering church tower to break through it. He pulled and tugged at it, twisted and twisted it, but in vain, the tower withstood the attacks. The devil realized he was faint and drove away howling.
The tower still stands today as a landmark with a crooked top, from which a golden cross is visible far beyond the city of Mayen.
In Kaisersesch, just under 20 km away, there is also a twisted church spire, see St. Pankratius (Kaisersesch) .
literature
- The Middle Rhine Basin (= values of the German homeland . Volume 65). 1st edition. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, ISBN 978-3-412-10102-2 , pp. 162, 166-167.
- Bruno P. Krämer et al. (Ed.), Laacher See - Landscape. Nature . Art . Culture , Cologne: Wienand Verlag ISBN 3879094381
- Dehio Rheinland-Pfalz Saarland 1984, pp. 649-650
- Hans Schüller, Catholic parish church St. Clemens Mayen , Kleiner Kunstführer 2420, Regensburg: Verlag Schnell and Steiner 2000, ISBN 978-3-7954-6262-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the organ in St. Clemens
Web links
- Side of the city of Mayen
- Single sheet kirchbau.de
- to the pastoral care unit of St. Clemens
- Lonnig / Mayen monastery history PDF (670 kB)
Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 47.6 " N , 7 ° 13 ′ 23.4" E