St. Epiphany

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Epiphany window on the portal side

St. Dreikönigen is a Catholic parish church in the Cologne district of Bickendorf , which was built between 1928 and 1929 according to plans by the architects Hans Peter Fischer and Heinrich Forthmann and consecrated in January 1929 . The church is under the patronage of Cologne's patron saint, the Three Kings , and has been a listed building since 1982.

history

St. Dreikönigen shortly after completion - no connecting arcade yet

With the construction of the GAG housing estate in Bickendorf - which developed from a village to a rapidly growing suburban district - the Catholic population of the parish of St. Rochus had increased significantly, so that the construction of a new church was required. Bickendorf II was a settlement planned by Wilhelm Riphahn and Caspar Maria Grod in the style of Rhenish Expressionism with a tendency towards new building .

In June 1927, as a result of an exchange agreement with the city of Cologne, a suitable building site was acquired in the estate. A competition among 44 Catholic architects in Cologne asked for a church for 800 adults and 300 children, which had to fit organically into the settlement. The jury saw this task best fulfilled in the design by the architects Fischer and Forthmann, so that the groundbreaking ceremony took place on February 26, 1928, and the foundation stone was laid on June 10 of the same year. After ten months of construction, Auxiliary Bishop Hermann Joseph Sträter celebrated the consecration of the church for the Epiphany on January 6, 1929 . However, the church was far from finished: the furnishings, wall painting and some additions including apartments for the clergy dragged on over the following years - it was the time of the global economic crisis - until 1934, when the tower clock was installed as the last detail for the time being. In June 1931 the parish of St. Rochus became independent and raised to the status of the rectorate parish .

During the Second World War , the church was not completely destroyed, but it was badly affected by air raids and, in 1945, by shell fire, so that at the end of the war only the confessional chapel could be used for church services. In the immediate post-war period, St. Dreikönigen could be used again very quickly - unlike other Cologne churches. Cardinal Frings , for example, celebrated Mass for the Epiphany here for three years before it could be celebrated again in the cathedral from 1948 . The first radio transmission of a cardinal's sermon in connection with a Eucharistic celebration by the NWDR on January 6, 1948 also took place from St. Dreikönigen.

After the currency reform in 1949, a new bronze bell was donated as the first new piece of equipment, and another, which completed the chime, was added in 1955. From 1950 onwards, the stained-glass windows that had been destroyed were also renewed - partly by reconstructing the originals. In 1959, the restoration work, which the architect Fischer himself directed, was completed.

As a follow-up to the Second Vatican Council , the chancel, the sacristy and the confessionals were rebuilt from 1964; the old altar table was - sawn up - the altar of a new weekday chapel.

On June 1, 1982 St. Dreikönigen was added to the list of monuments of the city of Cologne under the number 1034 .

Building description

Exterior view from the southeast, 2014

The reinforced concrete building , with its simple cubic shapes and white walls clear to the new building committed, but also has expressionist echoes, such as the coated narrow Gothicising lancet windows, and the pointed arch entrance portals.

The entrance hall, the nave and the choir consist of a slightly staggered structure of the same height that becomes narrower towards the choir. On the entrance side, this is accompanied by a slim, two-fold tower. The connection to the surrounding buildings is through an arcade with three arches, which together with another arcade wall forms a small forecourt. Opposite the tower side, a low entrance extension complements the front, while a further extension on the opposite side of the choir houses a side chapel with apse, also single-storey.

A gallery supported by brick pillars takes up the entire width of the southern entrance wall of the church hall. A flat, dark wooden beam ceiling connects all parts of the building up to the choir area. The steps to the raised altar area with a floor-to -ceiling niche ( exedra ) extend over the full width of the nave, and at the same height an exposed brick plinth runs along the otherwise white plastered wall.

The light structure of the interior is largely determined by the lancet windows inserted on three sides. These stand individually on the side facades, while they run in five lanes on the portal side and three lanes on the side walls of the choir.

Furnishing

Tower crown and clock

All nave and facade windows by Jan Thorn Prikker with their geometric compositions from the years 1932/33 were opened on 20./21. Destroyed April 1944. The figurative “Epiphany Window” in the portal wall, consisting of five tight lancet windows, was created by Thorn-Prikker student Wilhelm Schmitz-Steinkrüger . The artist restored its war damage himself in 1952, as did the reconstruction of the other destroyed windows using photographs.

There are further windows in the baptistery and in the sacristy, they were made by Josef Henseler in 1965 and 1975.

The church is otherwise very sparingly furnished - there are no sculptures. A simple cross hangs in front of the altar wall, and the post-conciliar pieces of ambo, altar table and tabernacle are by Heinz Gernot .

Two of the original bronze bells from the Otto bell foundry from 1932 had to be delivered for war purposes in 1942. Bells with the same name (and identically labeled) were re-cast by foundations in 1949 and 1955 in order to complete the three-part ringing again. The strikes are g 1 - b 1 - c 1 .

A three-manual Sauer organ with 44 stops dates from 1986; it incorporates parts of the original Stahlhut organ from 1933–1935.

Web links

Commons : St. Epiphany  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Monika Schmelzer: Sankt Dreikönigen . 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. 51 .
  2. ↑ a b Origin of the community . In: Festschrift for the silver jubilee of the house of God and the parish “St. Dreikönigen ”in Cologne-Bickendorf . Cologne January 6, 1954, p. 6–8 ( erzbistum-koeln.de [PDF]).
  3. ↑ a b c d e 50 years of the Epiphany . (Festschrift). Cologne 1979 ( erzbistum-koeln.de [PDF]).
  4. ↑ a b c d Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 56-57 .
  5. ↑ Search in the list of monuments. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Cologne-Bickendorf, Catholic Church of St. Dreikönigen. In: glasmalerei-ev.net. Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20 Jahrhundert eV, July 8, 2008, accessed on April 10, 2020 .
  7. ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 235-238 ( archive.org [PDF]).

annotation

  1. ↑ The information in Fußbroich p. 57 seems to be incorrect here, there is talk of a four-part bell, different chimes and a completely different foundry, which also contradicts the information in the parish chronicle regarding the number of bells.
  2. ↑ Here too, Fußbroich seems to be wrong ("Johannes Klais, Bonn, 1998")

Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 43 "  N , 6 ° 53 ′ 42.9"  E