St. Dionysius (Elsen)
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The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Dionysius is a listed church building in Elsen , a district of Paderborn in the Paderborn district in North Rhine-Westphalia . The church building and the rectory belong to the Elsen-Wewer Pastoral Association , which is subordinate to the Paderborn Dean's Office in the Archdiocese of Paderborn .
Parish
A reliable foundation date for a parish and also no consecration date for a church building can be determined from documents. The parish was first mentioned in a document in 1231, but it is certain that a parish already existed in Elsen well before this date. Not least due to the structural substance and the fact that St. Dionysius was chosen as patron, one can assume that this is one of the oldest parishes in the Paderborn Monastery.
The church was the mother church of the communities Neuhaus and Sande .
Parish church
location
Most of the church's church buildings are located on a small hill in the center of the village. Like most medieval church buildings, the parish church is faced .
The building that defines the townscape is visible from afar and is framed by a number of other church buildings:
- In the north-west is the rectory with the rectory's office. Behind it is the parish home, the Dionysius House (completed in 2001).
- In the north are the two Elsen cemeteries with the cemetery chapel and morgue , which are now under the municipal administration .
- In the northeast, in the former youth home, one of the two Catholic kindergartens has been located since 2005. This is followed by the vicar's official residence .
tower
The massive, five-story, Romanesque tower is the oldest part of today's church and the remnant of a single-nave Romanesque church building, which was replaced by a new building completed in 1850 from 1840/41. The tower, covered with a pyramid-shaped roof, is made of limestone like the rest of the church. The wall design is simple and only interrupted by window openings and loopholes (on the two lower floors), which can be attributed to the earlier use as a fortified church .
The two lower floors are probably much older than the upper rest of the tower. The wall thickness of only one meter in this area suggests that initially it was never planned to erect a five-story building. The bottom floor is closed off by a cross vault and is now used as a baptistery . The second floor was difficult to reach via a 40 cm wide and 170 cm high staircase until a stair tower was added. The upper floors are believed to have been built around 1200. For comparison, various buildings from the area were used that have a similar design of the window openings; for example the Paderborn Cathedral .
On each side, with the exception of the eastern one, there are clock faces of the tower clock between the fourth and fifth floors . A weathercock "perches" on the top of the tower .
Bells
Today (as of 2012) there are five bronze bells of different sizes and pitches in the tower :
|
Surname |
Casting year |
foundry |
Diameter (mm) |
Weight (kg) |
pitch |
Consecration date |
inscription |
| Christ the King bell | 1930 | Heinrich Humpert bell foundry (Brilon) | 810 | 310 | H | October 19, 1930 | "O all of you who hear me, give praise to Christ the King of kings." |
| Dionysius bell | 1948 | Bell foundry A. Junker vorm. H. Humpert (Brilon) | 950 | 462 | a´ | March 15, 1949 | "The white-robed army of martyrs praises you, holy Dionysius pray for us." (German translation) |
| Marienbell | 1050 | 653 | G | "Greetings, Queen of Heaven, greetings, Mistress of Angels." (German translation) | |||
| Peace bell ( death bell ) | 1250 | 1,116 | e´ | "Glory to God in the highest and peace to people on earth who are of good will." (German translation) | |||
| Urbanus bell | 1992 | Bell and art foundry Rincker (Sinn) | 1580 | 2,420 | c´ | 2nd August 1992 | "St. Urban please for us." |
The Dionysius bell is the second of its kind, as its predecessor, cast in 1641, was confiscated together with another bell during the Second World War and most likely melted down in the summer of 1942.
The festive bells sound like c´e´ g´ a´ h´ and can be heard on the community website.
Church interior
Until the opening of the new building in 1850, the church consisted of a single-nave Romanesque church space, which was formed by two yokes that corresponded to the shape of today's baptistery. The choir, made up of two narrow bays, was connected.
For reasons of space, this building, with the exception of the tower, had to give way completely and was replaced by a three-nave, neo-Gothic church. As early as 1925, the new building was too small for the steadily growing community, so the building was supplemented by a transept, the choir and two sacristies.
Since June 25, 1984, the entire building has been on the monument list of the city of Paderborn .
Furnishing
Inside
Most of the furnishings can be traced back to the 17th and 18th centuries and were added to the building when it was rebuilt in 1850. The Romanesque baptismal font is one of the great exceptions: It was created around 1260 and is located in the cross vault of the tower, today's baptistery . There are artistic representations of the baptism of Jesus and Our Lady on it . There are also pairs of apostles and evangelists on it .
Outside
On the outside of the choir there is a stone crucifix , marked 1673.
Renovation 2016/2017
More than two decades after the last major interior renovation, the church was closed after Easter 2016 for a comprehensive renovation and redesign of the interior. The measure was originally supposed to be implemented much earlier, but extensive planning and approval procedures repeatedly caused delays.
First the church was cleared and the organ dismantled, which will be rebuilt in the cathedral of Sanremo (Italy) after an extensive restoration. Then the entire floor including the screed was removed and a new entrance portal was broken into the wall of the former location of the organ in the left transept. The choir and chancel were lowered by one step and pulled further into the nave. The Pietà has found a new, worthy place in the right transept . The so-called "Kresing grid" will also be installed here, which will allow limited access to the church area on weekdays and which should contain vandalism.
The hitherto rather simple painting was picked up by the Rottweiler church artist Tobias Kammerer and further developed in a complex and modern way. Through the use of colored LED spotlights, the vault can be illuminated as required.
On Palm Sunday 2017, the services could be resumed, for which one had to move to the neighboring Dionysius house during the renovation.
In October 2017 the new altar will find its way into the church and consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Hubert Berenbrinker . The new organ is to be installed in winter 2018 by the company Hermann Eule Orgelbau Bautzen . She will find her new place in front of the baptistery.
See also
Trivia
- There is an above-average number of priestly vocations in the parish.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Recording of the bells on the website of the community ( memento of the original from July 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ List of architectural monuments in Paderborn
- ^ Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments, North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume 2, Westphalia, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1969, page 151
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments, North Rhine-Westphalia. Volume 2, Westphalia, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1969
- Wilhelm Hucke: The parish of Elsen then and now. Junfermann printing works, Paderborn 1960.
- Compilation of information from the parish chronicle
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 3 ″ N , 8 ° 41 ′ 7 ″ E