St. Elisabeth (Koblenz)
The parish church of St. Elisabeth is a Catholic church in Koblenz . The church built in the Rauental district is one of the most important churches of the 1950s on the Middle Rhine . Since 2012 it has been used mainly as the youth church “X-Ground”. She bears the patronage of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia .
history
First Elizabeth Church
Originally the Rauental belonged to the parish Herz-Jesu . As the population grew, the parish was divided. In 1933, which was in Rauental parish St. Elisabeth decorated. Its first pastor was Johannes Klein (1901–1967), previously chaplain of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The first Elizabeth Church was consecrated on January 15, 1933 in Steinstrasse in Rauental. The former riding arena, which was converted by Huch & Grefges , was given a small bell tower. However, this first church building was destroyed to the ground during the heaviest air raid on Koblenz on November 6, 1944 during the Second World War .
New building 1953–1954
In 1947 St. Elisabeth was raised to an independent parish by the Trier bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser .
The new parish church of St. Elisabeth was built from 1953 to 1954 according to plans by Dominikus Böhm with the help of his son Gottfried Böhm in Moselweißer Straße. The foundation stone was laid on June 14, 1953, the inauguration was carried out on August 1, 1954 by Trier Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard Stein in the presence of Prime Minister Peter Altmeier . The free-standing bell tower was built in 1962.
St. Elisabeth is not only used as a parish church, but since October 2012 mainly as a youth church for the Koblenz area. The youth church has been called “X-Ground” since May 2014 and is operated by the Trier diocese .
Construction and equipment
Outside
The parish church of St. Elisabeth is a skeleton structure made of reinforced concrete with brick lining and a semicircular choir . On the outside, the church building is covered with red, ornamentally placed bricks on seven axes . The floor plan forms a trapezoid with converging side walls on which vertical grid elements are highlighted like buttress-like pillars.
To the north of the main building there is a small decagonal baptistery with a convex facade. The roof is equipped with copper covered and carrying at an acute cone a Heiliggeist pigeon . A five-storey bell tower , which was built as a concrete skeleton structure, stands free on the street to the northwest . The first floor of the tower is open, the upper floors are closed with brick-colored wooden slats.
Inside
Inside, slender columns made of mild steel in two rows that lead around in the semicircular choir behind the altar create a three-aisled impression. The outer walls show a structure three grid units high in the concrete skeleton.
Typical of the Böhm style is the surrounding glass mosaic light band in the top grid unit. It makes the church so bright on sunny days that you can do without artificial light. In the interior there were originally 31 opal glass light pendulums above the four rows of benches and around the altar, which were replaced by Plexiglas during a renovation in 1998. This construction should be a harmonious addition to natural daylight on dull days and a creative light architecture in itself for church services at dark times.
In the east, the lower grid unit opens up to a low weekday church. At the north end there is an elliptical gallery with tong-shaped stairs on which the organ stands. Below that, a narrowing corridor leads to the baptistery a few steps below. In the entrance area there is a copy of the limestone figure of St. Elisabeth from the Teutonic Order . A Pietà rescued from the ruins of the first Elisabeth Church decorates the grave of the first pastor Johannes Klein in the new church.
Parish community
St. Elisabeth is part of the " Parish Community Koblenz (Moselweiß)", which also includes St. Beatus and St. Hedwig auf der Karthause , St. Laurentius in Moselweiß , St. Franziskus in der Goldgrube and St. Martinus in Lay .
Monument protection
The parish church of St. Elisabeth is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz-Rauental at Moselweißer Straße 37 .
The parish church of St. Elisabeth has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .
See also
literature
- Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH (ed.): History of the city of Koblenz. (Overall editing: Ingrid Bátori in conjunction with Dieter Kerber and Hans Josef Schmidt)
- Volume 1: From the beginning to the end of the electoral era. Theiss, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8062-0876-X .
- Volume 2: From the French city to the present. Theiss, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1036-5 .
- Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People from the city's history - namesake for streets and squares. Verlag für Werbung Blätter GmbH, Ed .: Bernd Weber, Mülheim-Kärlich 2005 (2nd revised and expanded edition), p. 145 f. and pp. 289 f., ISBN 224-0-00345-226-2 .
- Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Vol. 3, 3). Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .
Web links
- Parish Church of St. Elisabeth (accessed December 30, 2016)
- Church of Youth Koblenz (accessed December 30, 2016)
- Video about youth churches from 2009 on kathisch.de (accessed December 30, 2016)
Individual evidence
- ^ Church gives impulses for Rauental in: Paulinus , weekly newspaper in the Diocese of Trier, April 7, 2013
- ↑ Get involved in the unknown "X" in: Diocese of Trier , May 7, 2014
- ↑ https://www.pfarierendengemeinschaft-koblenz-moselweiss.de/
- ↑ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 37.8 " N , 7 ° 34 ′ 59.1" E