St. Crucis (Bad Sooden-Allendorf)
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The Protestant church St. Crucis is a Grade II listed aisled hall church in the district Allendorf community Allendorf in Werra-Meissner of the country Hessen . It was built from field stones .
history
Direct sources for the spread of Christianity are lacking in detail, but there is no doubt that Saint Martin of Tours enjoyed a special reputation among the Franks, not only in western Franconia but also in Austrasia . Where there were Franks, there are also Martinskirchen . The starting point for the Christianization of the area were the large churches in the episcopal cities or the baptismal churches in the country with the seat of an archpriest . In Heiligenstadt, Kirchgandern, Kirchworbis, Bischhausen bei Witzenhausen and Niederhone, where there were Martinskirchen, Christianity had already gained a foothold before Boniface , but it had sunk again. It was only Boniface who took over the patronage of his churches, established dioceses and connected them with Rome. In 1218, Ludwig IV of Thuringia transferred the parish church of St. Georg in Eisenach and the Cruciskirche of the old village of Allendorf to the Katharinenkloster, founded in 1208, which was already in existence between 1212 and 1218 at the time the market rights were granted . Allendorf later became the seat of a deanery under the Thuringian archdeacon of Heiligenstadt. The construction of the nave was finished in 1386.
At the foot of the tower, to the left of the entrance, there is an inscription in Latin that the construction of the tower began on May 26th in 1424, one day after Urban Day , and that it was completed in 1476. However, the Romanesque components walled up on the south side show that a previous building existed. Apparently the building was extended to the north at that time.
Building description
The nave was originally built on Romanesque remains, mainly recognizable on the south wall, as a two-aisled Gothic building with a ribbed vault and a central row of pillars. Field stones were mainly used for the nave wall surfaces.
On the east side, the main building closes with a choir room consisting of a rectangular vestibule with an apse with a 5/8 end. While the Gothic architectural elements with ribbed vaults and five large tracery windows in the choir have largely been preserved, the nave's two-nave structure and the Gothic ceiling vaults were lost in the great fire of 1637, when the almost complete burning of the city by imperial troops also seriously damaged the church has been. Some of the original vaults are still visible in the nave today. With the restoration in the 17th century, the church was redesigned as a hall church with a flat ceiling made of oak beams. Today's single-arched triumphal arch to the choir replaced the original double arch that belonged to the previous two-aisled structure. The three keystones in the choir indicate the name of the church. The phoenix , the pelican and the lamb are the symbols of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
The bell tower on a square floor plan rises approx. 65 m upwards without buttresses on the north-west corner of the nave. In 1719 it was given a French hood and a surrounding gallery with three large arched windows on each side. Behind the three northern gallery windows is the bell house with a historic three-ring bell, the hour and quarter bells are in the tower lantern.
The portal in the tower possibly dates back to the 14th century and was moved here from where the passage to the nave is today. On the left wall there is a memorial for the victims of the two world wars. In the far left corner of the tower hall there is a small passage to a spiral staircase to the upper floor of the baptistery, formerly also the stairway to the tower. During the last reconstruction of the church, an exit leading into the tower cellar was walled up. On the floor of the passage lie the fragments of two epitaphs from the 13th or 14th century. The old weather vane from the 18th century, which was replaced by a replica on the top of the tower in the 1970s, hangs on the wall above the wooden staircase as today's tower entrance .
In the tower hall there was originally a Gothic vaulted tower chapel. Like the rest of the church, the tower was badly damaged in 1637, the entire interior floor extension, including the vaulted ceiling above the tower hall, was destroyed. The beginnings of the arches are still there.
Several steps lead from the tower hall to the so-called "Winter Church", which is located under the gallery and separated from the western nave. From there, a baroque staircase from the first decades of the 18th century leads to the gallery .
Several walled-up passages can be seen on the eastern half of the south wall of the nave. An old chapel and a sacristy were located there until the 18th and 19th centuries . In addition, the pulpit was located in the middle of the south wall of the ship , originally with a spiral staircase in the wall . This proves that the St. Crucis Church was built as a preaching church. After the church tower was built, the baptistery was added to the north, leaning against the corner between the tower and the nave. After the Reformation , it served as a room for the Allendorf Latin School together with the upper floor . From 1906 this chapel housed the city archive, which was brought to the wedding house in 1959 and is now in the Rathof building. Today the baptistery is a room for smaller church events.
On the outside of the north wall between the eastern end of the baptistery and the door leading into the nave, the remains of an older door can be seen, which was probably bricked up after the baptistery was built. The year 1506 can be read on the lintel of another walled-up passage. In the corner behind the door leading to the choir, the remains of a broken turret can be seen.
Furnishing
The baroque pulpit with its varied decor was built in 1684. A carved pelican stands on the sound cover . In front of the pulpit stairs there is a so-called parish chair (a retreat for the pastor, no longer used as such today).
The triumphal arch - until 1840 there were two triumphal arches at this point, corresponding to the previous two naves - separates the church from the choir.
Organs
In the choir, behind the baroque stone altar from 1637, there has been a small single-manual organ with an independent pedal since 1973 , which comes from the old village church of Weißenbach am Meißner , which is in danger of collapsing . Presumably the Weißenbacher organ was built around 1875.
On the gallery stood a large organ with three manuals , electric action and 35 stops , which was built in 1959 by Euler (Hofgeismar) using older parts. It had not been playable since the 1970s and was dismantled in 2015 and sold to Italy.
From January 2018 a new organ was built on the western gallery and inaugurated on June 3, 2018 in a festive service. The new instrument was created using essential parts of a romantic organ from the Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge (England) originally from 1852, which Orgelbau Schulte (Kürten) restored, rebuilt and expanded to 61 registers (divided into 3 manuals and pedal ) and with newly designed modern prospectus was provided. With 3,547 pipes, the new organ will be the largest church organ of the English Romantic era on mainland Europe and is popularly known as the “Queen on the Werra”.
The disposition of the new main organ is:
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- Manual coupling : III-I, I-II, III-II
- Octave coupling : : Super III-I, III-I Sub, Sub-III II, III Super-II, Sub III, Super III, III Sub, Sub-P II, II Super-P, III-P Sub , Super III-P
- Pedal coupling : IP, II-P, III-P
- Tremulants : I, III
- Further playing aids : Composition system with 9999 free combinations, fixed combinations, sills for I (Choir) and III (Swell), crescendo pedal
- ↑ Extension series 16 ′ Trumpet - 8 ′ Tromba from c 0 .
- ↑ Transmission from Choir.
- ↑ Transmission from 2 (Liebl. Bourdon 16 ′ / Great).
- ↑ Acoustic 32 '.
- ↑ Extension series 32 ′ - 16 ′ - 8 ′ from c 0 .
- ↑ Extension series 32 ′ - 16 ′ - 8 ′ from c 0 .
- ↑ Transmission from 43 (Tromba / Choir).
- ↑ Transmission from 43 (Tromba / Choir).
- ↑ Transmission from 43 (Tromba / Choir).
- ↑ Letterpress: all four sub-works can be played.
window
The three middle of the five Gothic choir windows were created during the renovation of the church in 1959. The right Christmas window shows:
| Creation of the world | Cain and Abel | Angel |
| Adam and Eve in Paradise | 2 prophets | Adoration of the 3 kings |
| Fall of Man | Annunciation of Mary | Adoration of the Shepherds |
| Expulsion from Paradise | Prophets | Dream of the 3 kings |
| Noah's covenant | Angel | Escape to Egypt |
| Isaac's sacrifice | Birth of Christ | Child murder in Bethlehem |
The middle Easter window shows:
| 3 angels making music | Lamentation of Christ | Flagellation of Christ |
| Disciples at the Ascension of Christ | crucifixion | Jesus before Caiaphas |
| Resurrection of Christ as ascension | Descent from the Cross | Judas kiss |
| Women at the grave | Descent from the Cross | Entry into Jerusalem |
| Unbelieving Thomas | Denial of Peter | Last supper |
| Mary appears to Magdalena | Carrying the Cross | gethsemane |
The left Pentecost window shows:
| Pantocrator - Lamb - Worshiping Angels | Angel shows John the heavenly Jerusalem | 7 Trumpet angels at the Last Judgment |
| 4 apocalyptic horsemen | Michael's fight with the dragon | 7 Trumpet angels at the Last Judgment |
| Parable of the 10 virgins | Parable of the Good Samaritan | Parable of the pounds entrusted |
| Parable of the prodigal son | Pentecost miracle | Stoning of Stephen |
| Parable of the 10 virgins | Parable of the 10 virgins | Parable of the 10 virgins |
| Mary appears to Magdalena | Baptism of the eunuch by Philip | Conversion of Paul (with St. Crucis Church) |
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments, Hessen . Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 1966.
- Adolf Reccius, Horst Schütt: History of the city of Allendorf in the Sooden. Bad Sooden-Allendorf 2000.
- KKV: City Guide Bad Sooden-Allendorf. Nordhausen 2001.
- Holger Hermann: A little church guide St. Crucis Church Bad Sooden-Allendorf. Bad Sooden-Allendorf.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 11.1 ″ N , 9 ° 58 ′ 33.9 ″ E