St. Johann Baptist (Cologne)

St. Johann Baptist - Cologne (2017, from above)

St. Johann Baptist is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne .

history

St. Catherine and St. Johann Baptist (1571)

The church on Severinstrasse is one of the oldest in the city; it was first mentioned in 948 and has been attested as a parish church since 1080 . The Teutonic Order Church of St. Katharina from 1219 stretched parallel to the south until secularization . Between 1943 and 1945, St. Johann Baptist was almost completely destroyed, with the whole tower and the choir destroyed down to the base. Part of the aisles and the central nave remained standing. The latter was supplemented in the years 1960–1962 in the course of the new building with a west tower made of brick. This includes the old central nave and represents the building as a whole in the style of a basilica .

St. Johann Baptist in Cologne from the northwest. On the left in the background St. Gregorius in misery

The Church of St. Johann Baptist belongs to the parish of St. Severin , is looked after by the Friends of Roman Churches in Cologne and has housed the youth pastoral center of the Archdiocese of Cologne, CRUX , since 2009 . Since 2009, the church has been rebuilt on the occasion of the renovation work and a church café has been separated.

Furnishing

inside view

• Seated Madonna (around 1320)
• Reliquary of St. Antonina (2nd half of the 14th century)
• Brass Baptismal Font (1566)
• Bronze eagle consoles (1629/1723)
• Modern ornamental colored glazing by Willi Strauss (1963)

Bells

Up to the Second World War, four bells formed the bells in the church. Three bells for Sundays and public holidays were hung in the bell room of the west tower. The big bell, called "Antonina", cast by Johannes Duisterwalt in 1400 and the hll. Consecrated to Johannes Baptist and Antonina, it was about 1.25 meters in diameter. The middle bell, about 1.10 meters in diameter, was also built in 1686 by Johann and Laurentius Wickrath in honor of St. Antonina poured. The third, St. The bell consecrated to Anna was cast by Johann Reutter in 1626 with a diameter of 88 centimeters. The small measuring bell with a diameter of 56 centimeters was hung in the roof turret. It was cast by Johann Heinrich Dinckelmayer in 1730. There was a tower clock with a face to the west. The bell ensemble included the three bells from the 15th and 18th centuries from the neighboring Elendskirche , which have been lost since the Second World War.

The bells of St. Johann Baptist were also destroyed in the Second World War, with the exception of the large bell from 1400, which is privately owned. Six bells have been hanging in the newly built tower since 1962. They were cast in 1958/59 by the Feldmann & Marschel bell foundry in Münster. The ringing is coordinated with the bells of St. Severin :

No.	Surname	Diameter (mm)	Weight (kg, approx.)	Strike tone (435 Hz)
1		1,300	1,400	it 1 - 5 / 16
2	Antonia (sic!)	1,090	800	ges 1 - 5 / 16
3	Maria	965	550	as 1 - 5 / 16
4th	Joseph	837	350	b 16 / 16
5	Anna	802	320	ces 2 - 6 / 16
6th	Catharina	712	220	of 2 - 9 / 16

A small bell 45 centimeters in diameter and 40 kilograms in weight, based on the lost measuring bell, hangs in a small bell carrier on the roof east of the north portal.

Leaning Tower of Cologne

"Leaning Tower of Cologne" (until 2005)

In 2004, the 44 m high church tower of St. Johann Baptist hit the headlines for some time as the “Leaning Tower of Cologne” when it tilted 77 cm to the west on September 29, after a supply shaft for the im The north-south light rail under construction was driven in 14 m depth under the church.

To prevent the church tower from collapsing, it was supported at an angle from the outside with six pieces of steel profile. After the cavities under the tower were also filled with concrete, the neighboring Severinsbrücke , which had been closed for safety reasons, was opened to traffic on October 4th, 2004.

According to an expert opinion, the tower could have remained in place without the attached supports; However, the parish council agreed to the erection of the tower. This was originally supposed to happen by the World Youth Day 2005 (with a papal visit); However, the plans were only realized on October 26, 2005, when the tower was straightened again with the aid of hydraulic presses. The west side of the tower was raised by 13.5 cm in controlled 10 mm steps. The repair work cost about one million euros, for which the insurance of the Cologne transport company had to pay.

Youth pastoral center Crux

On Sunday, June 28th, 2009, St. Johann Baptist reopened after extensive renovation work. As the owner of the church, the parish of St. Severin handed the renovated church over to the youth of the city of Cologne. Since then the official name of the church has been CRUX-Kirche St. Johann Baptist. Auxiliary Bishop Melzer then consecrated the new altar in the interior of the church. St. Johann Baptist is now the center of the Crux , the youth pastoral center of the Archdiocese of Cologne.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Albert Verbeek: Cologne churches. Church architecture in Cologne from the beginning to the present . Pp. 53-54.
2. ^ Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the city of Cologne. I. Dept. 4. The ecclesiastical monuments of the city of Cologne: St. Alban, St. Andreas, Antoniterkirche, St. Aposteln, St. Cäcilia, St. Columba, St. Cunibert, Elendskirche, St. Georg. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1911, p. 122 f .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Seidler: Cologne bells and peals . In: Förderverein Romanische Kirchen Köln e. V. (Ed.): Colonia Romanica . tape IV . Greven-Verlag, Cologne 1989, p. 21 .
4. ^ Gerhard Hoffs (Ed.): Bell music of Catholic churches in Cologne . Pp. 139-145. ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2014 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. (PDF file; 5.3 MB) 

literature

• Albert Verbeek: Cologne churches. Church architecture in Cologne from the beginning to the present . Greven, Cologne, 2nd edition, 1969.
• Dominik Meiering and Joachim Oepen (eds.): Breaking up instead of breaking off. St. Johann Baptist in Cologne Cologne 2009.

Web links

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

• Parish side with churches
• Internet presence of the youth pastoral center CRUX
• Literature on St. Johann Baptist in the catalog of the German National Library

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 44.4 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 28"  E