St. Johannes Baptist (Altenstadt near Vohenstrauss)
St. Johannes Baptist is a simultaneous church in Altenstadt near Vohenstrauß , part of the Upper Palatinate town of Vohenstrauß . The Catholic part of the church belongs to the parish community Vohenstrauss and Böhmischbruck, the Protestant part to the Evangelical Lutheran parish Vohenstrauss.
history
The church of "Vohendreze" was consecrated in 1124 by the bishop Otto von Bamberg together with the church of St. Margareta von Leuchtenberg on his first missionary trip to Pomerania ; the weather vane on the tower still shows this year. The church was initially built as a fortified church. The area did not remain untouched by the teaching of Johann Hus . The born Vohenstrauss priest Ulrich Grünleder was born on March 31, 1421 by Regensburg Bishop Albert III. solemnly degraded because he translated the writings of Johannes Hus into German and brought them to the people. He was then handed over to secular jurisdiction and burned as a heretic .
The pastor of Vohenstrauss traditionally lived in Altenstadt. The first verifiable pastor was called Georg Erkenbrecht († 1497). Johann Poletus († 1537) was the last Catholic pastor who supplied the parish from Altenstadt. The early knife Johann Schmidthenner and the chaplain Thomas Schieder lived in Vohenstrauss. Due to the Reformation , the large parish broke up and Altenstadt and Vohenstrauss received their own pastors.
The church was originally dedicated to Saint Aegidius . In the second half of the 17th century the patronage of John the Baptist was changed. After the beginning of the Reformation , Protestant services were held from 1542. At that time, the parish Vohenstrauß was separated, with Altenstadt only the branch church of Waldau remained in Waldau Castle . In 1627 the church became Catholic again in the course of the Counter-Reformation , and after the end of the Thirty Years' War again Protestant in 1649. On March 15, 1654, under Palatine Christian August von Sulzbach , the Simultaneum was introduced in Altenstadt , which resulted in the dissolution of the Altenstadt parish. Since that time the church has been used by both denominations jointly and alternately. For a Simultaneum, the motto in simultaneum nihil movetur (German: Nothing is changed in the Simultaneum) applies . Nevertheless, in the middle of the 19th century, a Catholic clergyman tried to set up two confessionals in the church . However, these were removed from the church before the next Protestant service and parked in the village square.
Church building
The church has a recessed choir with a south-facing tower. Most of the structure is of Romanesque origin; These are the south wall up to the tower, the north wall up to the chancel and parts of the tower. Although the church was rebuilt five times, these stocks are still recognizable, namely by the small-format granite blocks and the straight, monolithic lintels of the entrances. A three-aisled, five-bay hall church with a semicircular apse and two towers over the eastern bays of the side aisles and a western gallery may have originally stood here . The wall pillars and free pillars in the east yoke of the north aisle indicate the east towers. The current south tower was rebuilt in 1613 from Romanesque blocks. A reference to a former three-aisled hall church can also be seen in the width of the church (more than ten meters) and the approx. 6.5 m high outer walls. A west gallery can be proven by wall pillars on the north and south walls.
A major renovation took place in the 1st half of the 15th century. Foundations of the foundations reveal a two-bay, polygonal choir. The arcades of the east side aisle bays were bricked up, a sacristy was built in, pointed arched windows were created and wall paintings were added.
At the beginning of the 17th century major renovations were carried out after a lightning strike, in 1612 the west gable was broken off and this was completely rebuilt in 1613, the church was redesigned into a sermon hall. The tower on the southeast wall was also rebuilt. The Romanesque pillars and the west gallery were demolished and round windows, the current galleries and the wooden ceiling were installed. The exterior of the church has changed little since then.
The former defensive wall and the old archway to the church staircase are still partially preserved. The north side of the churchyard protected the building of the former country estate , which ran along the wall and from which a transition led to a mansion gallery in the church that is no longer in existence today. On the south side of the churchyard, the former schoolhouse, the gate and the adjoining former ossuary with the church behind it form a closed ensemble. There used to be a cemetery around the church; In today's church wall there are tombstones from the 19th century. The cemetery was used until the 1920s and deedicated in 1925. In 1922 the Altenstadt community laid out a new cemetery.
In 1990 the church was renovated and the site manager was the architect Peter Bantelmann.
Interior design
In the 18th century the church interior was refurbished in the baroque style.
The wall paintings, which were plastered over in the 16th century, were partially uncovered in 1962 in the area of the north wall of the choir and in the years 1989 to 1996 on the south wall of the choir and the east and north wall of the nave. The wall paintings originally decorating the entire choir contain scenes from the legend of the first church patron, St. Agidius. The middle picture of this cycle shows the Leuchtenberg castle and Altenstadt with church and military cemetery in the background. These are the earliest specifically recognizable local views in the Vohenstrauss area.
The high altar on a Gothic altar plate made of granite dates from 1752; Individual parts (e.g. the columns) came from a side altar in the Vohenstrauss parish church. The current high altar replaced another one that was brought to Altenstadt from the Weiden St. Sebastian Church at the beginning of the 18th century . Since the evangelical pastor Caselmann refused to subsidize the altar out of thrift, the construction of the altar was passed on to the Catholics. The pictorial program is accordingly Catholic: Saints Sebastian and John the Baptist kneel in front of the Holy Trinity , under which Mary appears on the crescent moon . In the glass case below, St. Anna is shown, the patroness of the then Principality of Pfalz-Sulzbach .
The left side altar contains a replica of the Mariahilf picture by Lucas Cranach the Elder , the original of which is in Innsbruck Cathedral . The right side altar is dedicated to St. Wendelin .
The most important work of art in the church is the wooden epitaph on the south wall of the nave, which the Altenstädter Landsasse Stephan Schwab had made in 1662 in memory of his family. In the middle part it shows the stoning of St. Stephen , the gable above contains a medallion image of God the Father . In the lower part of the epitaph is the founder with his two wives Sibille, geb. Hopfner, and Salome, widowed Zepf, and the children are shown.
A gallery runs along the left side of the nave . The ceiling in the nave is designed with wooden panels. Many epitaphs of the former lords of the castle were once in the floor of the nave and were placed on the north wall of the nave in 1897 and 1990 respectively.
organ
The first organ came from 1929 and was the conversion of a school exercise organ, probably from the teacher training institute in Weiden . According to a report by cathedral organist Eberhard Kraus in 1992, this was an inferior instrument (4 / I / P).
In 1974 a series organ (7 / I / P) from the Walcker company from Ludwigsburg was acquired, which was previously in the church in Ossenheim . In 1993 the company Thomas Jann Orgelbau from Laberweinting carried out a revision.
Since 2014, the community has a newly built plant from Orgelbau Sandtner (10 / II / P).
Web links
- Peter Staniczek and Dr. Volker Wappmann: Simultaneous Church of St. John the Baptist in Altenstadt near Vohenstrauss . Forays - Contributions to local lore and local history of the city and large community of Vohenstrauss and the surrounding area, Vol. 22, 2000.
- Of houses, churches and chapels. Forays 12/1992. Local history working group Vohenstrauss.
- Simultaneous Church Cycle Path
Individual evidence
- ^ Parish community Vohenstrauss and Böhmischbruck
- ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Church Community Vohenstrauss
- ↑ Historical Atlas of Bavaria, Altbayern Series I, Issue 39: Vohenstrauß. Komm. Für Bayerische Landesgeschichte, Munich, 1977, p. 69.
- ↑ City of Vohenstrauß (Ed.): Vohenstrauss in the course of time: local history on the history of the city on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of its first mention 1378 - 1978. Vohenstrauß 1978, p. 110.
- ↑ Simultankirchenradweg, Route 9.
- ↑ Excursion on the renovation status of the Altenstädter Simultankirche. In Streifzüge - Contributions to local lore and local history of the city and large community Vohenstrauß and the surrounding area, Vol. 10, 1990, p. 78.
- ^ Hans Frischholz: Medieval military cemetery Altenstadt / Voh. In: Of houses, churches and chapels. Forays 12/1992. Local history working group Vohenstrauß; Pp. 47-49.
- ↑ Andreas Weiß: The organs in the churches of the large community Vohenstrauss. In church guides to churches and chapels in the city and large parish Vohenstrauss. (= Streifzüge - contributions to local lore and local history of the city and large community Vohenstrauss and the surrounding area, 15th year, 2000, issue 22 ), p. 82.
- ↑ Information about the organ on orgbase.nl. Retrieved March 17, 2019 .
Coordinates: 49 ° 37 ′ 58.4 " N , 12 ° 19 ′ 47.4" E