St. Georg (Altenrath)
The Catholic parish church of St. Georg in Altenrath , a district of Troisdorf in the Rhein-Sieg district in North Rhine-Westphalia , is a Romanesque pillar basilica. The building is a protected cultural monument and of great importance for the region.
history
When the parish of Altenrath was verifiably sold to the county of Berg in 1311 , St. George's Church had long been the core of this village settlement . Its construction can be scheduled for the middle of the 12th century, although it can be assumed that the location was probably a wooden predecessor, which, however, would still have to be proven by archaeological means . At the time of the Reformation , Altenrath was Lutheran and the Catholics in St. George were forbidden to practice their church. At the beginning of the 17th century there was a simultaneous use of the church.
During the Thirty Years' War Altenrath also suffered from the tribulation of Swedish occupation troops, which u. a. had also led to the looting of the church. The aristocratic houses Sülz and Schönrath can be read from documents from this time, which have church construction obligations on the subject, half of whom were responsible for both the central nave and the tower. Both a separate choir, the so-called Sülzer Chörchen, and a separate crypt for the owners of the Sülz house have been proven.
During this time there was a first thorough renovation and expansion phase of the sacred building. As part of this measure, v. a. the extension of the choir space and parallel to it the flanking additions "Sülzer Chörchen" on the north side and the " sacristy " on the south side of the church. Since the sacristy was looted by the Swedes in 1632, it must have been there at least at that time. In addition, the windows in the nave were bricked up and replaced by larger ones. Further reconstruction measures have been handed down from the years 1866/67. A transept was created from the two choir extensions including the western part of the choir . However, since they did not want to do without the “Sülzer Chörchen” and an extension to the sacristy was also necessary, the remaining part of the choir had to be extended accordingly. In addition, the floor of the church was lowered by one and a half feet (approx. 40 cm) and the position of the windows changed again.
With the establishment of the Prussian military training area " Wahner Heide " in 1817 and its subsequent extensions, it soon reached the outskirts of Altenrath. In 1933 further sections of land were acquired to round off the area used by the military and in 1938 the complete expropriation and eviction of Altenrath was ordered. Subsequently, the village buildings including the church were used to practice street fighting until the end of the Second World War .
After the Second World War, v. a. Restoration work will be carried out to protect the sacred building from the weather. It was not until the beginning of the 1950s that the interior was restored to some degree. A basic restoration took place between 1959 and 1967. From 2009 to 2011 took place the last date remedial measure, which in turn receiving the plaster dry stone - masonry served, the re-roofing of verschieferten roofs and re-upgrading of metal and glass components.
construction
From a historical architectural point of view, it is a flat-roofed, three-aisled pillar basilica with a west tower in front of it , an only slightly protruding transept and an attached long choir with a 3/8 end . From an urban planning point of view, the building is located in a valley basin , but at the site itself, it is about 2.50 m higher than the access road or development on the village side in the middle of its churchyard .
The floor plan of the church according to the liturgical norms of the early Christianity only approximately accurate faces east , d. H. with the choir facing east and the tower facing west. The deviation from the ideal line of 27 degrees to the north is not due to an execution error, but is related to the inclusion of the patronage in the alignment of the church building, which is celebrated for St. George on April 22nd. On this day the sunrise for Altenrath can be fixed at a point that deviates approx. 22 degrees from the exact east direction to the north.
The core of the pillar basilica of Altenrath was built in the 12th century. It is questionable whether the west tower was part of the original concept of the facility. The fact is that the four-storey tower, developed over an approximately square floor plan, has openings that were only broken into the quarry stone masonry at a later time. The sound arcades including the simple entrance portal on the west side of the tower can be dated to the Baroque period as well as the 19th century. The tower itself is crowned with a pointed hood .
The side aisles, which are clearly separated from the central nave, can also be accessed separately from the west side. Windows of the same size with rounded arches are cut into both the aisle walls and the walls of the nave . The transept, which protrudes only slightly over the aisles, is a bit narrower than the central nave, but the eaves and ridge of the two components are at the same height. The front sides of the transept are each enriched by large-format arched windows. A roof turret is arranged above the crossing . The choir consists of a yoke followed by a 3/8 end. The windows are dimensioned like those of the transept and in the central axis of the three sides of an octagon. The roof is on the east side for all three sides hipped . Two extensions, which are now used as a sacristy or as an adjoining room, flank the choir and, in their external design, once again quote the motif of the aisles.
With the exception of the choir, the interior of the church has a flat roof. The smoothly framed space of the central nave shows a four-bay structure. The arcade pillars are only partially profiled. The windows cut hard into the nave wall with their reveals . The side aisles are also covered flat, about half as high as the central nave and connected to the transept on the east side by a closing arch. The transept arms, separated from the nave by an arched opening, make the sections appear more like chapels . A triumphal arch forms the transition to the ribbed vaulted choir.
Furnishing
Originally, the church in Altenrath was a little richer. In addition to the high altar, which was consecrated to St. George, there were two side altars, one of which was consecrated in honor of Our Lady. They are mentioned until the 19th century, after which their trace is lost.
Noteworthy is a still existing holy water kettle, which was donated for the marriage of Wesselingen bailiff Wilhelm Stael von Holstein zu Haus Sülz and his wife Katharina Steinkopp in 1528.
The glazing of the choir windows is due to a donation from Pastors Kemper and Daniels and the Spirtz family from Aachen.
organ
The organ dates from 1965 and was built by the Romanus Seifert company (Kevelaer). The instrument is a high positive with two manuals and - with the exception of the independent sub-bass 16 '- an attached pedal.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
Bells
Altenrath's bells, which hung in the church tower for centuries, were replaced in the first half of the 19th century by three bells made in the Sieglar foundry Claren. This three-way bell was replaced by three new casts from the Otto company in Hemelingen as early as 1929. And already in 1938, when the village of Altenrath was forcibly evacuated, these bells came out of the tower again and were deposited "in the hope of better times" at the Klöckner-Mannstaedt works on the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Hütte. Like thousands of other bells in the Reich, they were confiscated there in 1942 and transported away to be melted down. The two bells hanging in the tower today are so-called "loan bells", which were found in 1952 at the Hamburg bell warehouse (former assembly point for bells that were still to be melted down) and were sponsored.
The cemetery chapel is located in the immediate vicinity of St. George's Church. In its roof turret, which was attached in 2009, there is a bell made from a halved bomb from the Second World War.
| No. |
Name, place of origin |
Casting year |
Foundry, casting location |
Diameter (mm) |
Mass (kg) |
Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trinitatis, (loan bell), place of origin: Pestlin, St. Michael, Stuhm district / West Prussia | 1673 | Johannes Breufelt, Damblain / Lorraine | 921 | 464 | g sharp 1 -5 |
| 2 | Maria , (loan bell), place of origin: schools, Hl. Kreuz / St. Jakobus, Heilsberg district / East Prussia | around 1500 | Caretaker's trademark, Königsberg / East Prussia | 780 | 280 | h 1 -1 |
Pastor in Altenrath
- around 1448: Gevave
- 1474: Johann Stephani
- 1590–1597: Johann Adam von Schwanenberg
- 1597–1613: Gerhard von Emmerich
- 1613–1645: Arnold Mohrenhofen 1613–45 (died in Altenrath)
- 1645–1664: Johann Füssenich
- 1664–1701: Hermann Jungk
- 1702–1730: Heinrich Gilles (born in Altenrath)
- 1731–1741: Andreas Frings
- 1742–1752: Johann Keyser
- 1752–1777: Hermann Joseph Brandts
- 1777–1808: Johann Georg Gines (died in Altenrath)
- 1808–1819: Ignatius Heller
- 1819–1826: Christian Höhr
- 1832–1835: Christian Kemper
- 1835–1865: Johann Söntgerath
- 1860–1865: Mathias Klemens (parish administrator)
- 1865–1888: Herbert Daniels
- 1888-1910: Herbert Delvos
- 1910–1922: Hermann Joseph Brinkmann
- 1922–1934: Adolf Melder
- 1934–1938: Gerhard Bendermacher
- 1945–1958: Hermann Richarz
- 1958-1960: Maximilian Zymolka
- 1960–1966: Hugo Ophey
- 1966–1978: Josef Junkersfeld
- 1978–1981: Gerd Hagedorn
- 1981–1983: Manfred Lazar
- 1983-1992: Fred Schmitz
- 1992-2008: Joseph Steffl
- from 2009: Peter Orth
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Troisdorf historical information in short form up to 1932 ( memento of the original from July 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Helmut Schulte: From the building history of the parish church St. Georg zu Altenrath , in: Troisdorfer Jahreshefte 1972, p. 4 ff.
- ↑ Intercommunal working group Wahner Heide (ed.): The Wahner Heide. A Rhenish landscape in the tension field of interests. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1989, p. 81 ff.
- ↑ Gerhard Bender makers: History of the parish of St. Gerard in: Troisdorf through the ages, Siegburg 1950, S. 162 f.
- ↑ a b c d Michael Werling : The St. Georgskirche zu Altenrath , in: Troisdorfer Jahreshefte 2011, p. 82 ff.
- ↑ Christian Hubert Thaddeus Delvos: History of the parishes of the deanery Siegburg , Cologne 1896, p 122
- ↑ Helmut Schulte: Old cult devices in the parish churches of Altenrath, Bergheim, Sieglar and Troisdorf , in: Troisdorf annual books 1972, p. 53 ff.
- ↑ Helmut Schulte: From the building history of the parish church St. Georg zu Altenrath , in: Troisdorfer Jahreshefte 1972, p. 9 f.
- ↑ Seifert organ building
- ↑ Organ in St. Georg ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Albert Schulte: The many memorable bells of St. George in Altenrath , in: Troisdorfer Jahreshefte 1992, p. 55 ff.
- ↑ Bells in the Deanery Troisdorf ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Christian Hubert Thaddäus Delvos: History of the parishes of the dean's office Siegburg. Cologne 1896.
- Paul Clemen (Hrsg.): The art monuments of the Rhine province . The art monuments of the Siegkreis, edited by Edmund Renard. V. Band, Düsseldorf 1907.
- Carl Rademacher: The prehistoric settlement of the heather terrace between the Rhine plain, Acher and Sülz. The creation of the village of Altenrath. Leipzig 1920.
- Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Cologne 1958.
- Rolf Müller: History of the Troisdorf Parishes. Siegburg 1969.
- Marianne Vogt-Werling / Michael Werling: Monument conservation plan for the city of Troisdorf. (as PDF document on CD-ROM) (= series of publications by the Troisdorf archive. Volume 31.) Troisdorf 2010.
Web links
- City of Troisdorf, Catholic parish church “St. Georg “ ( Memento from December 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 9, 2015
- The community of St. Georg in Troisdorf accessed on January 9, 2015
- Entry on the parish church of Sankt Georg in Altenrath in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association
- Sankt Georg in Altenrath, Great renovation celebration, accessed on January 9, 2015
- Duds ring in the roof turret accessed on January 9, 2015
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 27.9 ″ N , 7 ° 11 ′ 34 ″ E