St. Corpus Christi (Cologne-Porz)

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Exterior view from the south

St. Corpus Christi is a Catholic branch church in the Cologne-Porz district , which was built as a parish church from 1958 to 1960 according to the designs of the architect Gottfried Böhm . It has been a listed building since 1997.

Prehistory and construction

In the 1950s a new settlement was built on the former farmland in Porz, for which a parish was founded in early 1958. This initially used the Franz-Wärme- Haus , which had already been used by Catholic groups, and a nearby school as an emergency church , before the groundbreaking ceremony for the church's own building took place at the end of 1958. Only thirteen months passed between the laying of the foundation stone in May 1959 and the inauguration on Pentecost 1960. For financial reasons, the archdiocese did not initially plan a tower, but was then financed by the municipality itself through a loan. One had to make do with bells too - the mother parish of St. Bartholomew in Urbach gave St. Corpus Christi a historic bell from 1457, which was no longer needed there. It was not until 1965 that five more bells could be added. A year later, however, the historic bell was also replaced by a new one - the Christ the King bell - for reasons of sound. The medieval bell is now in the Porz district town hall.

Other pieces of equipment were also only acquired years after completion.

The first roof renovation was carried out in 1973, followed by a major restoration in 1984. On December 22, 1997, the church was included in the list of monuments of the city of Cologne under number 8224.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the parish church was downgraded to a branch church as part of a parish amalgamation. The new parish of St. Maximilian Kolbe comprises four formerly independent parishes.

Building description

Side view - chapel and conical roof over the place of baptism
Inside with a central pyramid roof

The building of the church is based on the idea of God's tent among people , as formulated in the Revelation of John (21.3 EU ): God does not appear as king in a palace, but lives in the midst of people, in their tents. On the rectangular floor plan, the church is surrounded by thin white round pillars, which are connected by a cornice at eaves height. This supports the roof, which consists of a large, pyramid-shaped "tent", a smaller pyramid and folded roof structures that only protrude slightly above the cornice.

Inside the "tent poles" there is a generous vestibule, the square church room and a square tower, the bell house of which is also surrounded by white round bars.

The interior is structured by further thin pillar bars, which - according to the distance between the outer bars - define a square interior for the community in pairs. Above this, the central roof pyramid in exposed concrete arches up and forms the space. The bordered area forms small, chapel-like areas in interaction with the regularly folded roofs. Only above the altar is the ceiling fold larger than in the other niches, and at the corners of the room the areas are vaulted with smaller pyramids.

The windows running on three sides structure the outer wall in such a way that it appears as a crenellated wall, with regular rectangular cutouts. On one side of this window wall, a glass niche with a pyramid roof, which breaks through the contour and serves as the baptismal font.

An altar pedestal extends with its area from the dimensions of the columnaround into the main room; otherwise the altar does not dominate in its dimensions - the back wall of the altar is one of the “battlements” on which a cross is attached in a recessed niche.

On the left there is a larger niche in the chapel, which houses a choir gallery and the organ. This is also vaulted with a flatter, pyramid-shaped roof.

Furnishing

The drafts for all windows, the portal, the crowning of the tower and the weather vane come from the architect Gottfried Böhm himself. The windows are mostly made of very light textured glass, with the exception of an abstract window in the chapel, which is made of colored antique glass. The glass in the arched baptistery also contains an ornament with the symbolic dove of the Holy Spirit .

Altar and baptismal font are made of Main sandstone ; the latter designed by Theo Heiermann . Other pieces of equipment include an Easter candlestick , also by Heiermann (or Egino Weinert ), and a wood-carved Pietà from the 18th century. The altar cross is a gift from the Böhm family.

The sandstone sacrament column with the tabernacle was designed by Eva Burgeff in 1967. A medallion embossed in copper depicting a lamb is attached to the tabernacle door made of forged lattice.

The current organ (II / 18) was manufactured in 1995 by the Oberlinger organ building company , and Gottfried Böhm himself was again involved in designing the case .

The six-part bell was cast by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock , five of them (Maria, Joseph, Don Bosco, Hedwig, Raphael) are from 1965, a sixth, the so-called Christ the King's bell , from 1966. The strikes are g 1 –b 1 –C 2– es 2 –f 2 –g 2 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b History of St. Corpus Christi. In: st-maximilian-kolbe.de. St. Maximilian Kolbe, Catholic Church Community Cologne Porz, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Jan Hendrik Stens: St. Corpus Christi in Porz - Erzerne Rufer. In: domradio.de - Catholic news. January 3, 2016, accessed April 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Search in the list of monuments: Bonner Str. 3, Porz district. In: stadt-koeln.de. City of Cologne, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  4. ↑ The parish of St. Maximilian Kolbe. In: st-maximilian-kolbe.de. St. Maximilian Kolbe, Catholic Church Community Cologne Porz, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Research Center for Glass Painting of the 20th Century eV: Research Center for Glass Painting of the 20th Century eV July 8, 2008, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 162-163 .
  7. ↑ a b Carsten Schmalstieg: Saint Corpus Christi . 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 .
  8. ↑ https://www.eva-burgeff.de/bildverzeichnis/sakramentss%C3%A4ule-st-fronleichnam-k%C3%B6ln-porz/
  9. ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 636 ( archive.org [PDF]).

Coordinates: 50 ° 53 '16.9 "  N , 7 ° 3' 57.5"  E