St. Georg (Rittersbach)
The neo-Romanesque church building St. Georg is a Roman Catholic church in Rittersbach , a district of Elztal in the Neckar-Odenwald district in northern Baden-Württemberg .
overview
St. Georg in Rittersbach is largely a copy of the Georgskirche on the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance . The reason for the construction of a replica was above all the paintings of the Reichenau church that were exposed in 1880/1882 and the head of the Archbishop's Building Office in Mosbach, Ludwig Maier , was involved in the restoration . Maier's suggestion of a replica was far more favorable than the other considerations made in Rittersbach about a new church. The church was built from 1886 to 1888, the paintings were made by the painter Fritz Kohlund from Freiburg. Next to the church is the historic rectory, which was expanded in 1843 and whose barn now serves as the community center.
history
Rittersbach had been predominantly Catholic since the Thirty Years' War . In 1705, the Catholic community was awarded the old church of the village, which had been documented since the early 14th century, and enlarged it in 1736/1837. The old church often had to be renovated, and it was soon too small for the growing community, which at times also included the Catholics from Auerbach, Muckental, Rineck and Großeicholzheim . From 1820, there were considerations to expand or renew the nave. Since Auerbach meanwhile had its own church in prospect, Rineck was dissolved and the Catholics from Großeicholzheim stayed away, the Schaffnerei in Lobenfeld initially rejected an expansion of the church in 1855. In 1866 the Schaffnerei agreed to the necessary construction work, but there were disputes among the subsidiary communities over the allocation of the construction costs. In the meantime, the church was already badly dilapidated, so that in 1868 the first plan for a completely new building was made, which, however, could not be pursued because of the cost dispute. Another plan for a new building dates from 1881, which was not implemented due to the high construction costs of 72,000 marks .
Meanwhile, in 1880/1882, the building inspector Ludwig Maier was involved as an assistant to Franz Bär in the uncovering of the historical wall paintings in the Georgskirche on the island of Reichenau . The exposed paintings aroused great interest among experts and the general public. As head of the Archbishop's Building Office in Mosbach , Maier proposed in 1883 that a copy of the church on the island of Reichenau be built in Rittersbach. As arguments for his project, he stated that the art world would be interested in a copy supplemented by the missing parts of the original paintings, that a copy could serve as a preliminary study for the upcoming restoration of the church on the island of Reichenau and that the Unterland in the possession of one important early Christian art genre. In addition, the simple architectural design would be cheap to replicate and the paintings would also be cheaper to copy than to commission new works of art. Since Maier's plan was 7,000 marks cheaper than the previously submitted new building plan, the Board of Trustees approved the execution of the new Rittersbach church as a copy of the Reichenau church.
The foundation stone was laid on the site of the old Rittersbacher church on May 24th, 1886. The sandstone necessary for the construction of the church was broken in the Rittersbacher quarries and worked on at the site of today's school building opposite the church. The construction manager was Paul Schaufler , who had previously directed the construction of the Heilig Kreuz parish church in Stein am Kocher , also planned by Ludwig Maier . The topping-out ceremony was celebrated in September 1886 . The Freiburg painter Fritz Kohlund was hired for the painting, and he transferred the breaks from the Reichenau paintings made by Bär and Maier to the walls of the church in Rittersbach from March to June 1888. Kohlund had the stipulation not to make any major changes to the originals, so that major motif deviations can be found mainly in the architectural elements in the background, while the figure staffage essentially follows the original paintings. The overall impression of the paintings in Rittersbach is, however, significantly softer than that of the originals. While the paintings on the island of Reichenau have a certain iconic severity, the copies in Rittersbach are close to the Nazarenes' style . No templates from Reichenau were available for the choir walls; Kohlund implemented his own designs there with scenes of the Last Supper and the sacrifice of Melchizedech in the style of the rest of the painting. Kohlund also painted the coffered ceiling of the choir and the central nave with mostly his own motifs, the central ceiling area in the choir with a copy of the lamb with the milk bucket from the Domitilla catacombs in Rome. The high altar of the church came from the Freiburg sculptor Wallisser.
The image program of the church was severely affected when the building was extensively renovated in 1969/1970: the ceiling paintings were removed, the painting of the choir and vestibule were whitewashed in one color. The church building management originally wanted to have all the paintings whitewashed. It is thanks to the resistance of the parish council that at least the Reichenau copies have been preserved. The high altar and the side altars from the 19th century have also been removed.
Through further conservation measures in the years since 2000, some of the interventions from 1969/1970 could be reversed.
Image program
The pictures of the central nave side walls show a total of eight depictions of the miracles of Jesus, the pictures are each about 2.30 meters high. The sequence is described in clockwise direction, first the left side wall from back to front, then the right side wall from front to back:
- Healing of the possessed of Gerasa
- Healing the dropsy
- Sea storm
- Healing a man born blind
- Healing a leper
- Awakening the Naim Young Man
- The daughter of Jairus is raised
- Awakening of Lazarus
The twelve apostles in the window area on the miracle cycle that were preserved only in fragments in the Reichenau Church, Kohlund has to go through attributes supplemented indicated as figures.
The painting of the triumphal arch corresponds to the Reichenau model only in terms of the division of the area and some architectural elements. The figures, however, were freely designed by Kohlund. So left z. B. the Rittersbacher church patron Georg shown fighting the dragon. Opposite him on the right side is St. Vitus, to whom one of the side altars of the Rittersbacher Church was consecrated. While a long Latin saying in praise of Christ moves the triumphal arch on the Reichenau, Kohlund in Rittersbach decided on the short saying DOMINE DILEXI DECOREM DOMUS TUAE (“Lord, I have grown fond of the decoration of your house”).
literature
- Karl Wilhelm Beichert, Werner Blesch: Rittersbach. A walk through the village and its history. Neckarburken 1993.
- Dörthe Jakobs, Ulrike Piper, Günther Dürr, Georg Schmid: Two masterpieces in Baden? The Georgskirchen in Reichenau-Oberzell and in Rittersbach. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg , 32nd year 2003, issue 3, pp. 258–272 ( PDF )
Web links
- Two masterpieces in Baden? The Georgskirchen in Reichenau-Oberzell and in Rittersbach at rittersbach.de
Coordinates: 49 ° 25 ′ 30 ″ N , 9 ° 14 ′ 0.1 ″ E