St. Johann Baptist (Vicht)

St. Johann Baptist in Vicht

St. Johann Baptist is the Roman Catholic parish church of the Stolberg district of Vicht in the city ​​region of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist consecrated.

location

The church building is located in the northern part of Vicht on Eifelstraße (L 238) between the junction of Kranzbergstraße and Rumpenstraße. Across the street from Eifelstraße is a green area with the Johannes chapel, which is a remnant of the old parish church.

history

Vicht became an independent parish on July 11, 1694. Before that, the place was a branch of the extensive parish of Lendersdorf . Vicht did not have a church of his own until the 17th century. Only at the instigation of the military master Theodor von Leers was the first church built between 1672 and 1676.

Between March 1, 1804 and September 14, 1805, Mausbach belonged to the Vicht parish, but was then elevated to a parish. At the same time Vicht came to the newly founded diocese of Aachen . Since the diocese was dissolved again in 1825, the parish came to the Archdiocese of Cologne , to which it belonged before. Since 1930 Vicht belongs again to the newly founded diocese of Aachen.

Building history

The first church in Vicht was built between 1672 and 1676 at the instigation of the military master Theodor von Leers. The first service could be celebrated on April 20, 1676. Between 1849 and 1853 the church was expanded. Since the building fabric was inadequate, it was decided at the beginning of the 20th century to build a new church opposite the previous parish church. The Aachen architect Franz Wildt was commissioned with the planning and on June 25, 1911 the foundation stone was laid . The new parish church could be completed by summer 1912, so that on August 18, 1912 the first Holy Mass could be read in the new church. The solemn church consecration took place four years later on July 23, 1916.

The old parish church initially remained and was not demolished. It was not until 1964 that the nave from 1849/53 was laid down, so that today only the old choir and the sacristy from 1672/76 are preserved as St. John's Chapel.

In contrast to the churches in neighboring towns, the parish church was largely spared from destruction and damage during World War II , so that it has remained structurally unchanged to this day.

Building description

St. Johann Baptist is a three-aisled hall church made of quarry stone in the neo-Gothic style . The three-part west building consists of the three-storey bell tower , which is built in front of the north aisle, the middle part in which the two-part main portal is located in the lower area and a rose window in the upper area . Inside, this part takes up the organ gallery with the organ. There is a small chapel room in front of the south aisle. In the east, the three-aisled nave adjoins the west building in four bays , which is spanned by cross-rib vaults and net vaults. While the south aisle is just closing in the east, the north aisle closes with a choir closed on five sides . The main choir in the east of the nave also closes with a five-sided choir closure.

Furnishing

Only the pews, a confessional, a Maria-Hilf altar and the altar-hall of the former high altar have been preserved from the original neo-Gothic furnishings .

The organ from 1962 was made by the Aachen organ building company Karl Bach and has 18 stops. The font was taken from the old church and is a work of bluestone from 1694.

Also worth mentioning are the stained glass windows in the nave, which survived the war. They were made in 1914 by the Linnich glass painting workshop Dr. H. Oidtmann and depict scenes from the New Testament.

Bells

There are four bells in the bell tower . The smallest bell was cast by the Otto bell foundry in 1912 and is made of bronze . The three larger bells are made of cast steel and were cast by the Bochumer Verein in 1923 .

No.	Surname	Diameter (mm)	Mass (kg, approx.)	Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 )	Caster	Casting year
1	-	1260	770	f ′	Bochum Association for Cast Steel Manufacture, Bochum	1923
2	-	1100	-	as ′	Bochum Association for Cast Steel Manufacture, Bochum	1923
3	-	950	-	b ′	Bochum Association for Cast Steel Manufacture, Bochum	1923
4th	-	500	70	as ″	Karl Otto, F. Otto, Hemelingen	1912

Pastor

The following pastors have been pastors to St. Johann Baptist so far:

from ... to	Surname
1929-1950	Peter Oebbecke
1950-1959	Alexander Klein
1959-1977	Paul Piontek
1978-2007	Hans Doncks
Since 2007	Norbert Bolz

Web links

• Internet presence of the parish

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 267.
2. ↑ Short chronicle. In: Parish website. Retrieved December 2, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 268.
4. ↑ Episcopal General Vicariate (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 265.
5. ↑ Stolberg-Vicht, Catholic Church of St. Johann Baptist. In: Internet site Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhundert eV Retrieved on December 9, 2017 . 
6. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, especially page 519 .
7. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, especially p. 482 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).
8. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 268.

Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 34.8 "  N , 6 ° 15 ′ 51.3"  E