St. Dimitrios

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Exterior view

St. Dimitrios , formerly St. Markus , is a Roman Orthodox church in the Seeberg district of Cologne . Until 2001 it was a Catholic branch church of the parish of St. Christ's Transfiguration; Between 1971 and 1973 it was built according to plans by the architect Fritz Schaller . It had been in use since May 1973, but was not consecrated until 1984. The church was initially under the patronage of the Evangelist Mark before it was rededicated as the Orthodox Church of Demetrios of Thessaloniki .

Prehistory and construction

As part of the implementation of the “New City” settlement concept in the Chorweiler district , a plot of land for a Catholic church was provided in the development plan as early as 1963. The actual construction was then coordinated with the progress of the residential development, and from 1967 the mother community of St. Christ's Transfiguration commissioned the architect Schaller with the preliminary planning for a branch church with 250 seats, a sacristy , a multi-purpose room and a kindergarten. Schaller's plans from the beginning of 1968 were initially viewed with skepticism by the community, but were approved by the archbishopric's art commission in January 1969. The actual execution was carried out by the architect Josef Lorenz, who was also a member of the parish church council.

During the construction itself, the first groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 25, 1971, there were some delays and rescheduling. The topping-out ceremony and the laying of the foundation stone took place simultaneously on 20/21 May 1972, and from May 1973 the church was put into use after a blessing by Prelate Josef Pock. A few years later there was water damage to all roofs, whereupon the architect Lorenz equipped the flat roof building with pyramid roofs in 1976/1977 without Schaller's consent .

The official consecration of the church took place on January 16, 1984.

At the end of 1996 the parish leased the church to the Roman Orthodox parish of St. Dimitrios for 25 years, but continued to use it for the Saturday evening service. After a fire in 2000, St. Markus was renovated and transformed into a purely Orthodox church. In May 2001 the parish of St. Dimitrios bought the building; a Catholic mass is read there once a week.

In 2013 St. Dimitrios became the bishopric of the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of Antioch in Germany and Central Europe.

Building description

The church is part of a larger complex of community buildings that lie on a lower forecourt. The church protrudes from the single-storey ancillary buildings on an elongated octagonal floor plan with about three storeys. On the side of the choir is a tower with a partially open construction, which is beveled at its upper edge. The outbuildings are brick buildings, the church building was originally made of exposed concrete inside and out, which only received additional structure through a few joints - now the outer walls are plastered white, the tower remained in exposed concrete. Lorenz's roof landscape, which was added in 1976, covers the entire ensemble (except for the tower), on the main building with an eight-sided pyramid roof.

A single-storey extension accompanies the outline of the church on three sides; here are the entrance, the weekday chapel and - to the side of the choir - the sacrament chapel, which is surrounded by a ribbon of windows.

The interior is oriented towards the altar with its octagonal window in the rear wall. Another window to the left of the altar used to indicate the place of worship of Mary.

A strong coffered ceiling made of smooth concrete with square segments that merge into a pyramid shape and each contain a light source is "suspended" over the entire church hall.

The interior has since been significantly changed in terms of design.

Furnishing

The original furnishings included basic elements designed by the architect Schaller for the altar, ambo , tabernacle and baptismal font and were implemented by Paul Nagel . The tabernacle, whose surrounding sacraments house is a pinnacle from Cologne Cathedral , moved to the Church of Christ's Transfiguration in Heimersdorf after the church was sold in 2007 .

An outside sculpture of a lion of St. Mark comes from Jochem Pechau . In 2004 an iconostasis made in Homs , Syria , was installed.

An Oberlinger organ ( positive with five registers), which originally served in Christ's Transfiguration, was in use until 1998, but then ailing and damaged by water ingress. This year it was replaced by a two-manual digital organ made by Eminent with 26 registers.

A steel bell was cast in 1954 by the Bochumer Verein für Gußstahlfabrikation and has the strike tone a 1 . It originally hung in the Church of St. Pankratius in Cologne- Worringen .

Web links

Commons : St. Markus / St. Dimitrios (Cologne-Seeberg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Emanuel Gebauer: Fritz Schaller: the architect and his contribution to sacred buildings in the 20th century . Editor: Ulrich Krings. Ed .: The Lord Mayor / City Conservator (=  Stadtspuren . Volume 28 ). Bachem, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7616-1355-5 , p. 323-327 .
  2. ↑ a b c Chronicle of Christ's Transfiguration . In: Christ's Transfiguration 1966–1999. Yesterday Today Tomorrow. Festschrift on the occasion of 50 years of fair festival Edited by friends and supporters Transfiguration . Cologne 1996, p. 24-25 ( freundecv.de [PDF]).
  3. ↑ a b St. Dimitrios parish Cologne - Chronicle. Retrieved April 16, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Worship services and proclamation. In: gemeinden.erzbistum-koeln.de. Retrieved April 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Rum Orthodox Church has had its own church since 2001: Celebration in honor of St. Dimitrios. November 5, 2019, accessed April 16, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 246-247 .
  7. ↑ Monika Schmelzer: Saint Francis . In: Manfred Becker-Huberti, Günter A. Menne (Ed.): Churches in Cologne. The churches of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Cologne. Bachem, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7616-1731-3 , p. 120 .
  8. ↑ Rum Orthodox Church has had its own church since 2001: Celebration in honor of St. Dimitrios. November 5, 2019, accessed April 16, 2020 .
  9. ↑ God's house of concrete and light . In: Friends and Patrons of Christ's Transfiguration (ed.): Christ's Transfiguration Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow. Festschrift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the church fair . Cologne 2016, p. 44–61 ( freundecv.de [PDF]).
  10. ↑ Church music around Taborplatz in five decades . In: Friends and Patrons of Christ's Transfiguration (ed.): Christ's Transfiguration Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow. Festschrift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the church fair . Cologne 2016, p. 64–68 ( freundecv.de [PDF]).
  11. ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 696 ( archive.org [PDF]).

Remarks

  1. ↑ The terms refer to the Catholic form of use, unless otherwise stated.

Coordinates: 51 ° 0 ′ 59 "  N , 6 ° 54 ′ 53.9"  E