St. Georg and Sebastian (Untersulmetingen)
St. Georg and Sebastian , also popularly known as "the Niederkirch" , is a parish church in the Biberach deanery of pastoral care unit 6 Laupheim in Untersulmetingen , a suburb of Laupheim in the Biberach district in Upper Swabia . The church is also the resting place of the last abbot of the imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen , Romuald Weltin . The Upper Swabian Way of St. James leads past the Niederkirch.
Location and history
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The so-called Niederkirch is located at the northern end of the town of Untersulmetingen, near the state road 257 at the junction to Riississer Straße in the valley of the Riß at the foot of the Swabian Alb . From there, the Riss joins the Danube in a north-easterly direction ten kilometers away . The country road to Riißissen, which was recorded in the Roman imperial road directory, connected the Riississen fort with the numerous Burgi in the area.
The first church probably existed as early as the first half of the 8th century. Like many other churches in the area, the Niederkirch was probably destroyed when the Hungarians invaded in 926. The Lords of Sulmetingen, named after their castle in today's Obersulmetingen (mentioned in 973 as the seat of Mangold, a nephew of Bishop Ulrich von Augsburg ), were then probably responsible for its reconstruction.
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In 1275, Niederkirch or Sulmetingen is mentioned as the seat of a pastor who was also dean (for the later dean's office of Biberach). In the same note, Berthold von Heiligenberg and Giselbertus, two owners of benefices are mentioned, one of which was assigned to the Marien Altar, first mentioned in 1353, and the other to the chapel near the castle in Obersulmetingen. Since the end of the 13th century the pastor's seat has been moved to Obersulmetingen . From then on, the former parsonage behind the church is mostly inhabited by a chaplain, who increasingly also takes on the pastoral care of Untersulmetingen and, in addition to the Marien altar in the Niederkirch, also looks after the chapel in the center of the village (St. Otmar and Hieronymus). In 1353 the Niederkirch is designated as the property of the empire. It is part of the imperial fiefdom , which also includes the Obersulmetingen market, while the noble knights of Sulmetingen remain responsible for the Marien Altar and the chaplain. The imperial fiefdom was pledged to the bailiffs of Upper Swabia, the brothers Friedrich and Heinrich von Freyberg, until 1352 and then passed into the hands of the Counts of Helfenstein. Before 1370, Heinrich von Sulmetingen was also the governor for a time.
Since the 15th century, St. Georg testifies to whom the plague saint Sebastian was placed at the side as a further patron in the 16th century . An important pilgrimage has developed around the Marien Altar since the late Middle Ages. The original Madonna figure, which was understood as a miraculous image, is no longer preserved. It was moved to the high altar at the beginning of the 16th century and replaced in 1610 by a large statue of the Virgin Mary made by Hans Dürner from Biberach, which can still be seen there today. The right side altar became the Sebastian altar, on the opposite side the original church patron, St. Georg, his place.
Between 1429 and 1442 the two villages of Ober- and Untersulmetingen separated. However, the Niederkirch remained the parish church for both places as well as for the hamlet of Westerflach and for the hamlet of Niederkirch itself. Until 1819, the common cemetery of the communities of Ober- and Untersulmetingen was also located here. The parish acquired stately property (widum), which in modern times included two farms and a selde in Untersulmetingen, as well as goods for the care of saints (church maintenance). The chaplain also had its own courtyard (Kaplaneihof) until the 16th century. In 1484 Count Georg von Helfenstein sold the imperial fiefdom to the Biberach hospital. In 1543 it came to the Schad von Obersulmetingen family, from whom it passed to the Lords of Ulm-Erbach in the 17th century. Since the beginning of the 16th century, the chaplain no longer lived in Niederkirch, but in the center of Untersulmetingen.
The imperial abbey of Ochsenhausen acquired the rule of Obersulmetingen in 1699 and subsequently also the imperial fief and thus the patronage right of the Niederkirch. In 1719 the parish was incorporated into the imperial abbey, so that from then on the respective abbot was the actual pastor. In 1729/1735 the rule of Untersulmetingen passed from the Fuggers to Ochsenhausen, so that the secular and spiritual sovereignty of both places were united in one hand ever since. Only Westerflach belonged to the Biberach hospital along with Ingerkingen, but spiritually also remained with the parish of Niederkirch-Sulmetingen. Like Tannheim near Memmingen and Ummendorf near the imperial city of Biberach, Sulmetingen was upgraded with an official seat of the monastery. In the course of these political efforts, an elaborate design of the Niederkirch was ordered. The church was made Baroque in 1743/44 under Abbot Benedikt Denzel . The abbot had already worked as a simple clergyman in the church. The craftsman who carried out the renovation was Dominikus Wiedemann from Elchingen . Hans Frey and Hans Rueß are proven to be plasterers. The addition of the sacristy also dates from the baroque phase of the church. Cheeks with the coat of arms of Abbot Benedict and the coat of arms on the arch of the apse indicate the abbot's reign.
In 1803, the year of secularization , the church became the property of the legal successor of the Ochsenhausen Abbey, Count Franz Georg Karl Graf von Metternich-Winneburg . The former monk and now secular priest Johannes Ev served as pastor until 1815. Steinherr, who resided temporarily in Untersulmeting Castle until the death of the last abbot Romuald Weltin , who lived in Obersulmetingen (1805), but then moved back to Obersulmetingen. Weltin, who had lived in Obersulmetingen as abbot since his dismissal in 1803, was buried in the lower church on the southern pillar of the choir arch. An epitaph by the ambo with his coat of arms reminds of him. In the same year Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis acquired the rights and ownership of Ober- and Untersulmetingen. In 1806 both places became part of the Kingdom of Württemberg ; but the Princely House of Thurn und Taxis retained the patronage right over the Niederkirch for a long time.
In 1813 the parish seat was relocated to Untersulmetingen and a parish chaplain was established in Obersulmetingen, which in 1819 was raised to the status of an independent parish. Since then there have been two parishes in the area of the former general parish Sulmetingen. They continue to belong to the Biberach deanery, as they have been for the longest time, until they are assigned to the Laupheim deanery in 1949. They are now part of the (expanded, including the former Laupheim deanery) Biberach deanery again. The two Sulmeting parishes are now looked after by the same pastor (based in Untersulmetingen).
Furnishing
To the west, includes church tower from the late Gothic to the church. The onion attachment dates from 1679.
In the high altar is the Madonna Maria Königin by the Biberach artist Hans Dürner from 1610. It had been integrated into a neo-Gothic altar structure since 1863, which the Biberach artist J. Winter had created, but which had already been created by Schnell in 1904 with the current classical high altar Ravensburg was replaced.
The two baroque side altars were also replaced by neo-Gothic altars in 1882. They were already provided with the wooden sculptures of the church patrons Georg and Sebastian , which are still displayed here today. Below St. Georg is today the impressive mourning group from the early 16th century, which was privately owned for a long time.
To the left and right of the high altar are two wood sculptures by Dominikus Hermenegild Herberger with the Benedictine saints Ottilie and Walburga, a last remnant of the baroque furnishings from 1843/44. The neo-Gothic renovation of 1863 had the figures of St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist is integrated into the high altar as accompanying figures of the Mother of God and the baroque figures of saints are placed on the side walls of the nave. When the interior was redesigned in 1957/58, they came back to the classicistic high altar, while Saints Joseph and John now changed over on the side walls.
The church has a pulpit on the south side with a basket and lid on which there is a lamb on a book with seven seals. An elaborately carved shell is attached above the pulpit door. The impressive Way of the Cross from 1820 comes from the painter JA Neher and was donated by Michael Schwarz from Laupheim. In that year the gallery on which the organ is located was enlarged.
For the redesign of the interior in 1957/58, the Wangen artist Toni Schönecker created three new ceiling frescoes. Above the organ loft he positioned St. Cäcilia as patroness of church music. Above the central nave, the monumental representation of the Blessed Mother Mary opens up as the advocate of all those in need and afflicted. The scene of the Assumption of Mary into heaven unfolds above the choir room.
The choir was redesigned in accordance with the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council in 1992. The former high altar was reserved for the storage of the altar sacrament (tabernacle). A new free-standing altar was created by Gerhard Tagwerker from Leinfelden-Echterdingen together with a matching ambo and a baptismal font .
At the southeast end of the church there is a memorial for the sons of the village who died in the two world wars of the last century.
Bells
The church has four bells :
- Weather bell Jesus Nazarenus cast by Theodor Ernst from Ulm, 1687
- Ave Maria bell with Benedikt Denzel's coat of arms, cast by Melchior Ernst Memmingen, 1756
- Jesus Christ the King of Peace bell cast by Engelbert Gebhard, Kempten, 1952
- Saint Joseph bell cast by Engelbert Gebhard, Kempten, 1952
Tombstones
- Maria Sabina Fugger with the alliance coat of arms of the Fugger and Freyberg as well as a figurative representation of the resurrection of Christ, 1600
- Alexander Fugger with a cross and the Fugger coat of arms as well as a representation of the Trinity with Mary, 1607
- Maria Jakobea Fugger with Christ on the cross and the alliance coat of arms of Fugger and Freyberg, 1599
- Pastor Hans Adam Biedermann, died on November 24, 1592
- Pastor Johann Baptist Lutz, died 1714
literature
Dehio : Baden-Württemberg II. The administrative districts of Freiburg and Tübingen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1997.
Plaque of the traffic and beautification association Laupheim in the Niederkirch, Die Niederkirch , 1993
Web links
Individual proof
- ^ Table of the traffic and improvement association Laupheim in the Niederkirch, 1993
- ↑ Liber decimationis (ed. Haid, FDA 1 [1865], 146-147) . In: Person-Weber, Gerlinde (Ed.): The Liber decimationis of the Diocese of Constance. Studies, edition and commentary . Freiburg-Munich 2001, p. 295-296 .
- ↑ Liber taxationis (1353) . In: Haid (Ed.): FDA . tape 5 , 1870, p. 5–65, here 56 .
- ↑ Hans Beth: History of Untersulmetingen . In: Laupheim 778-1978. Edited by the city of Laupheim looking back on 1200 years of Laupheim history . Weißenhorn 1979, p. 397-424, especially 402-408 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 14 ′ 17.2 ″ N , 9 ° 49 ′ 46.5 ″ E