St. Gordianus and Epimachus (Dietersheim)
The old Catholic parish church of St. Gordianus and Epimachus in Bingen - Dietersheim dates back to the 8th century . The church is located on the southwest side of the village on the former cemetery with honorary burial ground.
architecture
It is a Romanesque, single-nave church building with a crooked hip roof that was newly remodeled in the Gothic period. A memorial plaque at the northern entrance reminds of its use as a parish church until 1912. During a one-year renovation work in 2006, the church was given a new exterior plaster and the entrance was moved to its original location. Inside, too, it was liturgically redesigned, the sandstone altar was restored and is now used in the choir.
The sacrament house, which protrudes from the wall like a small bay window and can be considered an art-historically significant piece of its genre, has been preserved from the late Gothic furnishings .
The fortress-like massive tower with slate roofing and the entire building complex suggest that it is very old. Professor Jakob Como, a local historian from Bingen, believed, on the basis of his site studies and measurements, to be able to date the Romanesque original building back to around 800.
In the Gothic period, between 1250 and 1500, the building underwent a profound change. The column-shaped holy water basin, the vault system of the tower sacristy, the tracery of the windows, the cantilever arch of the portal and the late Gothic sacrament house date from around 1391. The year 1391 is carved with a maker's mark on the oak bell cage.
history
An important wall painting cycle with scenes of the Passion of Christ from around 1420 was removed and is now in the Landesmuseum Mainz . Around 1630 during the Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War , this venerable church was destroyed along with the village. It burned out and the vault collapsed. The ruins were only rebuilt in the sixties of the 17th century. On April 29, 1698, the building was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Matthias Starck .
The high altar at that time was built in baroque style in pillars set across the corners, a clever contemporary composition. A shrine above the rotating tabernacle surrounded the late Gothic Madonna, while the figures of the two titular saints, Gordianus and Epimachus , were placed on separate consoles to the right and left of the high altar.
The two side altars, which were erected around the same time, were only of medium quality and contained the statues of Saints Anthony of Padua and John Nepomuk . On the north wall there was a sorrow , also called Wilgefortis.
In 1770 there was another extensive church repair. Damage occurred regularly due to many nearby floods, which almost always also flooded the interior of the church and caused great damage to the structure. In 1838 the building was statically checked and officially declared dilapidated.
For a long time attempts were made to preserve the church, but when it became too small as a parish church, interest in preserving the old church also waned.
The fenced-in churchyard is around the old church. The burial mounds are equipped with some artistically designed monuments. It is worth mentioning a crucifix that rises on a typical baroque plinth on which the inscription: “Ecce viator, num sim verus amator, ut vivas morior, quaenam dilectio major!” Is carved. The translation is as follows: “Look up, you pilgrim on earth, whether this is not true love: I am dying that you may live. Where is there still greater love? "
In the final phase of World War II, 181 dead from the Rhine meadow camps were buried in the old cemetery in the shadow of the old church. This honorary burial ground was one of the reasons to give more importance to the old church.
New building
The late Gothic sculptures of the church patrons St. Gordianus and Epimachus and a Mother of God, dated around 1460, were transferred to the neo-Gothic parish church , completed in 1912 , which has the same patronage of the two Roman martyrs. The Mainz bishop Georg Heinrich Maria Kirstein allowed the use of the original patronage.
The patronage of Saints Gordianus and Epimachus indicates that it was a church founded under the influence of the Kempten Monastery . The early Kemptic rights could have been endowed by Hildegard , the wife of Charlemagne , or by their son, Louis the Pious .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Figura: Foundation stone laid for the new parish church St. Gordianus and Epimachus in Dietersheim on March 19, 1911. Association of Heimatfreunde am Mittelrhein eV, ed., Heimatbuch. My home district Mainz-Bingen, Bingen, 2011, pp. 168–172, ISSN 0171-8304
- ↑ Heinz Bühler: Nobility, monasteries and lords of the castle in the old Duchy of Swabia. Collected essays . Konrad Verlag, Weissenhorn 1996, ISBN 3-87437-390-8 , p. 163.
literature
- Joachim Glatz: The Passion Cycle from the old church of Bingen-Dietersheim ; Mainzer Zeitschrift, 73/74 (1978/79), pp. 89-96, Taf.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 56 ′ 13.5 ″ N , 7 ° 54 ′ 21.8 ″ E