St. Hedwig (Cologne)

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North side with parish buildings
View from the south
A stylized pine cone crowns the roof pyramid

St. Hedwig is a Catholic church in the Höhenhaus district of Cologne , which was built between 1966 and 1967 based on designs by the architects Emil Steffann and Gisberth Hülsmann and consecrated in October 1969 . The church is under the patronage of Hedwig von Andechs and was awarded the Cologne Architecture Prize in 1967.

History and construction

In the parish of St. Johann Baptist in Höhenhaus, due to the influx of war returnees and expellees, there was a need for another church in addition to the St. Johann Baptist and Zur Heiligen Familie, which were built in the 1950s . The district was further developed both by the city and by the Catholic building cooperative DEWOG, so that at the beginning of the 1960s another parish was to be founded for the archbishop's general vicariate. The fact that Hedwig von Andechs , also known as Hedwig of Silesia , was chosen as the parish patron should appeal in particular to the new citizens from Silesia .

Emil Steffann was commissioned to do the design planning, and the foundation stone was laid in 1966 . Even before the consecration, the congregation started liturgical use of the church on June 29, 1967; the official consecration took place on October 18, 1969.

In 1967, the year the Cologne Architecture Prize was founded, St. Hedwig was awarded this prize. The draft model of the church is kept in the model collection of the German Architecture Museum.

Building description

Within an ensemble of parish buildings, St. Hedwig stands free as a simple, rectangular building made of unplastered natural stone with a large pyramid roof (one author names stones extracted from rubble as building material). Only a few, niche-like arched windows open outwards, three walls are divided along three axes by protruding stone pillars. A golden pine cone sits on top of the roof pyramid .

The semi-dark interior opens through a single-storey extension on the north side, which houses the atrium, working day chapel and sacristy. From there one arrives in an anteroom, which opens up the square church space via arcades. The inner walls are also structured by pillar templates, and they also support the beams of the open, barn-like wooden roof structure. On the choir wall, a single central niche opens up between the pillars, marking the altar area. This rises freely in the room over two steps.

Furnishing

The pine cone on the roof was made by Klaus Balke.

A wooden sculpture of the patron saint contains relics of the saints on its pedestal and a stone from the Trebnitz monastery ; both are gifts of a religious sister who after the Second World War from Trzebnica had fled to the West.

In the center of the church hangs a 24- lamp wheel chandelier by Jakob Overzier with a diameter of eleven meters.

The altar cross is the combination of the body of a former South Tyrolean wayside cross and a new colored cross in the form of a tree of life created by Jochem Pechau .

In the weekday chapel, a stone Madonna was walled in, which the first pastor of St. Hedwig had brought from Spain.

The three-manual organ by Paul Ott from 1954, installed on the south wall, was expanded in 1996 by Fischer & Krämer Orgelbau . It has 18 registers.

The bell, which is attached to the outside of the building - without a bell tower - was cast in 1967 by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock . Their strike note is e 2 .

Web links

Commons : St. Hedwig (Cologne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b St. Hedwig 2016 - 50th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone - Brief history of the parish of St. Hedwig. In: gemeinden.erzbistum-koeln.de. 2016, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  2. ^ Architecture Forum Rhineland: Cologne Architecture Prize 1967. In: koelnerarchitekturpreis.de. Retrieved April 19, 2020 .
  3. ^ Gisberth M. Hülsmann, Josef Lorenz, Emil Steffann: Catholic community center St. Hedwig . June 25, 2013 ( dam-online.de [accessed April 19, 2020]).
  4. ^ Tino Grisi: The liturgical design in selected church buildings by Emil Steffann . In: the minster. Journal for Christian Art and Art History . No. 4 , 2014, ISSN  0027-299X , p. 307-313 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Monika Schmelzer: Sankt Hedwig . In: Manfred Becker-Huberti, Günter A. Menne (Ed.): Churches in Cologne. The churches of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Cologne. Bachem, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7616-1731-3 , p. 68-69 .
  6. ↑ a b c Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 226-227 .
  7. ↑ Norbert Ramme: Not only church rooms in the right light. In: ksta.de. May 6, 2003, accessed on April 19, 2020 (de-).
  8. ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 400 ( archive.org [PDF]).

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 '59.3 "  N , 7 ° 1' 22.4"  E