St. Francis (Cologne)
St. Franziskus is a Catholic parish church in the Bilderstöckchen district of Cologne , which was built between 1957 and 1961 according to plans by the architect Hans Schilling and consecrated in March 1961 . The church is under the patronage of Francis of Assisi and has been a listed building since 2003.
prehistory
The Bilderstöckchen district of Cologne had grown significantly since 1932 due to the conversion of a former artillery depot by the Catholic settlement association Am Bilderstöckchen . In 1935, a chapel on the upper floor of a shed used as a primary school was prepared for the service. The pastoral care area, which until then belonged to the parish of St. Joseph in Nippes , became an independent parish in several stages between 1935 and 1937, but it remained with the existing emergency church until further notice . Francis of Assisi was chosen as the parish patron, but the patronage festival was not celebrated on the day of his death, but on September 17th, the day on which, according to legend, the saint had stigmas on his body.
After large parts of the settlement were destroyed or damaged by air raids in World War II, the settlement grew with more new buildings after the immediate reconstruction in the 1950s, and the need to build a church became more urgent. The church building association, founded in 1949, had to be content with restoring the emergency church due to a lack of financial support from church authorities. From 1951 to 1954, the Catholic community grew from around 1300 to over 2100 members with new residential buildings.
The first prerequisites for building a church were created from 1954 onwards, when two plots of land were acquired by donation or exchange, so that a sufficiently large site for the church, rectory and other buildings was created.
Building history
The archbishop's promise to start construction in the 1956/1957 financial year took place in mid-1955, so that in mid-1956 the community commissioned the architect Hans Schilling to design and build a new church. Final approval was given in October 1957, and on November 3, 1957, the foundation stone was laid in a solemn church ceremony and built throughout the winter.
In March 1958, the archdiocese stopped construction for financial reasons. A complete shutdown could be prevented in favor of a "winter fortification", and the roofed shell was inactive until March 1959, when the approval for further construction was given. In the meantime, the community had sold the property of the old rectory, so that its own financial resources were also available. Nevertheless, due to the general building boom - lack of craftsmen, increased costs - the building continued until the beginning of 1961. Due to higher prices, some plans had to be carried out more simply than originally designed, and some were done in-house. The rectory was occupied in 1959; the church was consecrated on March 12, 1961.
The baptistery in front of the main church building was renovated in 1974 and rededicated as a "weekday chapel". The Cologne architect Karl Band provided the designs . On January 15, 2003, St. Francis was added to the list of monuments of the city of Cologne under the number 8604 .
Building description
St. Francis is an almost completely closed rotunda made of red brick . Two towers extend from this and turn - within the base of the rotunda - as half-shells into the interior and rise in front of the building. In front of these two towers there is a single-storey baptistery a few steps lower than the church (today weekday chapel), also designed as a round body. The entrance area between the baptistery and the two towers is connected by a glazed porch.
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The outer wall is loosened up by a brick relief made by Willi Strauss - an artist from the district - which extends from the northeast, following the course of the sun, to the west side. On the east side it culminates in a brick crucifix , in which the stigmata are designed as small red window openings that guide red light inside, where they in turn serve as a design element of the altar wall located there, which is designed as a relief.
Overall, only a few small windows break through the wall, which is designed as a smooth brick wall inside. The daylight falls into the interior mainly through a ribbon of windows on the upper edge of the outer walls, complemented by the two towers that are completely open on the inside and glazed above the roof, through which light enters the church from above. The flat roof resting on the ribbon of windows is supported by four thin triangular pillars arranged in a square, which visually lift it above the outer walls.
The church is east . A square, multi-tiered altar island rises on the wall opposite the entrance portal. The organ gallery is located on the west side, suspended between the towers. The bell chamber with five bells is located in the tower to the north. On the south side there is another door that leads directly into the interior.
A model for the two half-shell towers can be seen in Notre-Dame-du-Haut by Le Corbusier in Ronchamp .
Jewelry and equipment
Outdoor area
The metallic crowning on the southern tower was made by Hermann Berges; three vertical tubes carry mandorlas , which are supposed to symbolize the stigmata of Francis of Assisi. A lying cross is set over each.
The door handles in the form of angels were designed by Guido Weinert.
Baptistery
The baptistery was converted into a working day chapel in 1974. The original equipment consists of a floor mosaic with white and dark stones, which symbolizes the fight of a cleansing force against evil - symbolized by scorpions and spiders. The baptismal font rises from an area with fish motifs as the “source of salvation”. The motif of the windows of the baptistery takes up chapter 22 from the Revelation of John , with the trees of life that bear fruit twelve times and stand by the river that emanates from God's throne.
inner space
Wall relief
Central and formative is the wall relief on the altar wall on the east side of the church building, "Christ the sacrificial lamb". Like the brick relief of the outer wall, it was designed and executed by Willi Strauss and corresponds to it: while the crucifix of the outer relief depicts the visible crucifixion, the interior shows the underlying symbolism of Christian iconography. It depicts the Lamb of God who is offered to the hand of God in the sacrifice of the Eucharist . In return, the hand of God with the Holy Spirit reaches back the slaughtered lamb, from whose heart wound (one of the red glazed openings on the outside) "the peace, the Pax, flows down over the altar and the community". In terms of color, blue dominates as a symbol of “the faithfulness and truthfulness of God the Father, in the transcendence of gold the divine sacrifice of the Son and in red the glow of love of the Holy Spirit”.
Window of the Song of the Sun
Willi Strauss also designed the ribbon windows and other windows, which take up the elements of the creation of the Canticle of the Sun by Francis of Assisi: Sister Source, Brother Fire, Sister Sun, Brother Wind and others.
Cornerstone
The foundation stone, which is on the inside of the sacristy door, was furnished by Hermann Berges with a blessing from Francis of Assisi. It is frater leo, dominus te benedicat ("Brother Leo, God bless you").
Tower niches
The tower walls turning into the church interior create two prayer niches or cones . The ones in the north tower contain a figure of Francis and the tabernacle by Theo Hammers, which were already part of the furnishings in the old emergency church. The tabernacle shows Christ as a vine on four relief panels . There is an icon in the southern niche.
organ
In the organ loft there is a slide organ with two manuals and a pedal , with electric action. It was built in 1962 by Ernst Weyland from Opladen. The disposition is:
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Bells
The five-part chime consists of four bells newly cast in 1961 from the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock foundry and a loan bell from the Archdiocese from 1602 to which the newer bells have been tuned. The impact sounds are fis 1 -GIS 1 -h 1 -cis 2 -e 2
literature
- Catholic parish of St. Franziskus (Ed.): St. Franziskus von Assisi Köln-Bilderstöckchen . Limburg.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Catholic parish of St. Franziskus (ed.): St. Franziskus von Assisi Köln-Bilderstöckchen . Limburg, S. 7-12 .
- ↑ Search in the list of monuments. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
- ↑ 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. 59 .
- ↑ a b Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 160-161 .
- ↑ a b Catholic parish of St. Franziskus (ed.): St. Franziskus von Assisi Köln-Bilderstöckchen . Limburg, S. 23 .
- ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 245 ( archive.org [PDF]).
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 '17.4 " N , 6 ° 55' 45.6" E