St. Georg (Wittershausen)
The Roman Catholic branch church of St. George is the village church in the Lower Franconian Wittershausen , a district of the Bavarian district of Bad Kissingen located Oberthulba . Wittershausen used to be a branch of the Aura parish and is now part of the Oberthulba parish.
The medieval tower of the church is one of the architectural monuments in Oberthulba and is registered under the number D-6-72-139-58 in the Bavarian list of monuments . The church is dedicated to St. George consecrated.
history
Predecessor church
The original predecessor of St. George's Church was built in the 14th century from red sandstone . The Würzburg prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn added a church tower in the post-Gothic style to this church building in 1612 . The real coat of arms above the year shows that the church was restored in 1615, during which the nave was increased, among other things . The sacristy was also added in 1726 . Until the cemetery on the southern outskirts was laid out, the deceased were buried in the church yard around the church. In 1760 a baroque high altar with a representation of the Trinity was erected, reaching almost to the ceiling; it was later provided with a large Gothic tabernacle and painted over with oil paint.
When the cemetery at the church was abandoned and the school building next to the church was built, the wall around the cemetery was torn down so that the cemetery and school yard were united.
The first plans to expand the small church were made in the 1920s. In autumn 1921, 70,000 Reichsmarks were collected. but inflation put an end to the expansion plans.
At the end of the 1940s, three new bells for the church were commissioned from the Bochumer Verein . This had become necessary because the larger of the two original church bells from 1695 had to be delivered in 1942 during the Second World War . Pastor Remigius Rudolph suggested to Mayor Josef Weigand that the project of church expansion should be tackled with preference, as this was more important and the church would receive new bells in this context anyway. However, the local council was unwilling to change its decision, and the Bochum association was unwilling to forego the order. The three new bells were consecrated on December 22nd, 1949 by Pastor Rudolph.
New church building
During a visit to Wittershausen on May 10, 1950, the Würzburg bishop Julius Döpfner campaigned for the construction of a larger church and promised Pastor Rudolph financial support. After lengthy planning with regard to the financing and the choice of the builder as well as negotiations with the State Office for Monument Preservation in Munich, work began on May 17, 1957 to demolish the old church, whereby the church tower built by Prince-Bishop Julius Echter was retained. On July 14, 1957 the foundation stone was laid for the new church built in 1957/58 by Würzburg master builder Hans Skull , which replaced the nave of the previous church with a new nave. On September 20, 1958, the new church was consecrated by the Würzburg bishop Josef Stangl .
It required a certain effort to combine tradition and modernity in the pentagonal church building. The Lady altar of the old church and its 14 Nothelfer -Figuren were transferred to the new church, as well as the revised figures of the hl. Georg and Wendelin . The baroque high altar of the old church was sold for 800 DM to the church in Bischwind am Raueneck and redesigned there. The mural in the nave was painted by Karl Clobes from Tückelhausen . The ceiling painting in turn represents the throne of God according to the Revelation of John ( Rev 4,2-8 EU ).
Description and equipment
The church tower is a massive Julius Echter tower with a pointed helmet and pointed-arch sound windows . It stands to the west of the new pentagonal nave and is connected to it by the sacristy .
Peal
It consists of three steel bells and forms the Te Deum motif.
| No. | Chime | Surname | inscription | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | e´ | St. George | Saint George, pray for us! | 1920 kg |
| 2 | G | Mother of God | Hail Mary! | 1230 kg |
| 3 | a´ | Poor souls | Lord give eternal rest to poor souls! | 900 kg |
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments : Bavaria I: Franconia: The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia: BD I , Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, 2nd, revised and supplemented edition, 1999, p. 1125
- Robert Kümmert : The bells of the Hammelburg district , Würzburg 1955
- Werner Eberth : Prince-Bishop Julius Echter and his building inscriptions - A PR gag of the 17th century , Theresienbrunnen-Verlag Bad Kissingen, 2017, p. 52
- Gottfried Hönlinger, revised. by Hans Dünninger: History of church building in Wittershausen , in: Dr. Erwin Muth MA, Hans Dünninger, Gottfried Hönlinger, Ed .: Fruit and Horticultural Association Wittershausen: Wittershausen - 700 years and more. Beginnings and the present of a Franconian village , 2nd edition 2017, pp. 53–76
Web links
- The St. George's Church on the website of the Oberthulba market
- The St. George's Church in the "Parish Community St. Michael im Thulbatal"
- The organ in organindex.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 10 ′ 46.1 ″ N , 9 ° 59 ′ 23.4 ″ E