St. Gangolf (Mettlach)

St. Gangolf, view of the monastery church and remains of the monastery buildings

Way from the farm to the church

St. Gangolf, view from the church over the historic Hofgut St. Gangolf to the Saar valley

The St. Gangolf Church is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Gangolf between Besseringen and Mettlach , Merzig-Wadern district , Saarland . It is owned by the parish of St. Gangolf Besseringen and served as a parish church until the Sacred Heart Church in Besseringen was consecrated in 1909 . Between 1901 and 1974, St. Gangolf was also the monastery church of a Capuchin monastery . Since the regional and administrative reform of the Saarland in 1974 , the church of St. Gangolf , which until then was on the territory of the independent municipality of Besseringen, has been in the territory of the municipality of Mettlach. The sacred building is listed as an individual monument in the Saarland's list of monuments.

history

Parish

In 10./11. In the 19th century the parish of St. Gangolf was probably founded by the Benedictines , although the first documentary mention of the parish dates from around 1230/31.

The parish of St. Gangolf , which was subordinate to the Mettlach Abbey, included the towns of Besseringen, Ponten, Schwemlingen , Dreisbach , Saarhölzbach and the area around Montclair Castle around 1560 . The Saarhölzbach branch had its own chapel since 1434 and its own chapel was built in the Besseringen branch in 1497.

When Mettlach Abbey was abolished in 1802 and St. Gangolf became an independent parish, Mettlach was also assigned to the parish until 1851, and Keuchingen from 1815 to 1851.

After the last parish service was held on September 1, 1907 in the church of St. Gangolf , the parish moved to Besseringen. As a result, the church lost its status as a parish church.

View of the extension built onto the church choir. The part of the building with the ridge turret was joined by the Capuchin monastery wing, built in 1900, which was demolished in 1985.

Church building

The previous building of the present church was by the year 1729. As in the 1770s the willed by the then Mettlacher Abt construction of a parish church did not materialize in Besseringen-Ponten, instead, was the present church building in the years 1775 to 1776 to plans by the lay brother with the Nicknamed "Little Brother" from the Minorite Monastery of St. Gervasius in Trier and has remained unchanged since then.

In 1900 a monastery building was added to the church, which was used by Capuchins between 1901 and 1974. The monastery building was demolished in 1985 with the exception of a small remainder on which there is a roof turret.

In the 1990s the church underwent a restoration .

Architecture and equipment

View inside the church

The church of St. Gangolf is a baroque hall church . It is divided into a tower with a pointed helmet , to which a four-axis nave with a three-sided polygonal end of the choir adjoins.

The church is equipped with a restored and preserved baroque high altar , which was last in the church of Gutenberg and was originally set up in the parish church in Oberwesel . Until 1967 there were neo-Romanesque altars in the church , although the altar tables are still in use today.

Since 2008, located in the church restored in sandstone - figures existing Station of the Cross "Entombment of Christ". It is the only surviving part of a way of the cross created between 1792 and 1793 by the sculptor Johann Bohr ( Tünsdorf ). The other Stations of the Cross are in ruins. Sculptor Karl Riemann ( Blieskastel - Lautzkirchen ) created new stations of the cross in 1934.

In the outside area behind the church there are some old tombstones that are embedded in the wall of the cemetery of the Capuchin Fathers.

organ

Prospectus of the Klais organ

The organ of the church was built in 1935 by the Klais company ( Bonn ) for the newly founded parish of St. Josef in Merzig and was initially installed in the hall of a former excursion restaurant that served as an emergency church . In 1959 the instrument was transferred to the newly built Josefskirche in Merzig. When a new organ in the Josefskirche was consecrated by the Führer ( Wilhelmshaven ) company , the parish of Besseringen purchased the Klais organ to replace a harmonium on the gallery of the Capuchin monastery church of St. Gangolf. As part of a general overhaul by Thomas Erz in 1990, the wind chest , which stood on the gallery without a prospect , was rotated 180 degrees and again provided with a prospect, which partly consists of blind pipes or decorative grilles.

The Kegelladen instrument has 9 (12) registers , divided into 2 manuals and pedal . The playing and stop action pneumatic. The disposition is as follows:

I Hauptwerk C – g ³
1.	Principal	8th'
2.	Night horn covered	8th'
3.	Gemshorn	4 ′
4th	Progressio II-IV	2 ′

II upper structure C – g ³
5.	Wooden flute	8th'
6th	Salicional	8th'
7th	Singing Principal	4 ′
8th.	Flageolet	2 ′

Pedal C – f ¹
9.	Sub bass	16 ′
	Subtle bass	16 ′ (weakened wind)
	Dacked bass	8 ′ (Ext. Subbass 16 ′)
	Bass flute	4 ′ (Ext. Subbass 16 ′)

Pairing :
- Normal coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
- Sub-octave coupling: II / I
- Super octave coupling: II / I
Playing aids : 2 free combinations, tutti

literature

Frey, Günter: St. Gangolf Besseringen - a holy place on the lower Saar . Besseringen 2009.
Support group Sankt Gangolf <Besseringen>: 210 years of St. Gangolf Church . Besseringen 1986.
Krebs, Fulgentius M .: History of St. Gangolf near Besseringen, Saar . Saarbrücken 1936
Koll, Roman: The heavy cross - the way of the cross from Mettlach to St. Gangolf . Self-published, Mettlach 1930.