St. Clemens (Solingen)
St. Clemens is a Roman Catholic parish church in Solingen . It was built in the neo-Gothic style in 1890/92 according to the plans of the Cologne cathedral master craftsman Franz Schmitz and after severe war damage it was restored in the 1950s with the participation of Dominikus Böhm .
architecture
The church is a three-aisled basilica with a transept and a representative double tower facade. It has a size of approx. 1000 m². The height of the vaulted ceiling is 17.50 m, that of the outer roof 29.00 m. The towers are 63 m high.
Furnishing
The altar dates from 1960 and was originally a block of white marble. Since 1978 it has been clad in bronze relief panels. On these plates, which were created by the artists Hillebrand and Heiermann, the following scenes are depicted: Paradise - the expulsion from Paradise - Cain kills his brother Abel - the sacrifice of Melchizedek - Abraham is to sacrifice Isaac - the crucifixion of Christ.
The cross behind the altar, designed by Hanns Rheindorf, shows Christ without a crown of thorns and is reminiscent of the Gero cross in Cologne Cathedral .
In 1984 the side chapel was redesigned to its present form. The tabernacle stands on a stone pedestal, the four copper plates embedded in the wall, also by the artists Hillebrand and Heiermann, show what God prepares for those who love him: the tree of life in the middle of paradise - the fountain of living water - the feast where the angels serve - the foretaste of heavenly bliss.
The neo-Gothic pulpit from 1899 in the front left part of the main nave is no longer in use. Until the ambones were set up in the chancel, it was the place of the Annunciation. That is why their design is conceived. Four heads appear on the column under the pulpit, representing the four great prophets of the Old Testament: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Above, at the lower edge of the pulpit, the heads of a lion, a bull, a human being and an eagle can be seen, the symbols of the four evangelists Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. In the pilasters are - recognizable by their attributes - John the Baptist, the apostles Peter and Paul as well as Saints Boniface and Peter Canisius . The bas-reliefs between the pilasters show the four great Latin Fathers of the Church, Ambrose, Hieronymus, Augustine and Pope Gregory the Great. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, can be seen on the underside of the sound cover. Above all stands Christ, the Risen One.
The Otto bell foundry from Hemelingen / Bremen cast four bronze bells for the newly built church in 1892. The bells have the following disposition: c sharp '- e' - f sharp '- a'. The diameters are: 1520 mm, 1276 mm, 1086 mm, 867 mm and weigh: 2326 kg, 1356 kg, 787 kg and 410 kg. The bells survived the destruction of the bell in the two world wars of the past century.
The organ of the Seifert company in Kevelaer was inaugurated in 1958 and is the largest church organ in Solingen with 3380 pipes , 46 registers and 3 manuals.
history
The first church in Solingen, consecrated to St. Clement of Rome , was built around 1000 on the site of the current Protestant town church.
During the air raid on November 5, 1944 , the Solingen city center and with it the Clemenskirche was badly damaged. After the war, a new vault was built in 1951, and in 1955 Dominikus Böhm created the two spiers out of concrete.
The interior of the church was extensively renovated in the summer of 2006.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 27.6 ″ N , 7 ° 5 ′ 10.2 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular pp. 442, 443, 444, 457, 506 .
- ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular 473 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (PhD thesis at Radboud University Nijmegen).