St. John Baptist (Mesum)
The Church of St. Johannes Baptist in Mesum is the Catholic parish church of the municipality of Mesum near Rheine . In this capacity, in 1890 she replaced the old church of the same patron saint of St. John the Baptist in the cemetery.
Since 2012, the neo-Gothic building has been the parish church of the pastoral care district of St. John the Baptist, consisting of the formerly independent communities of Elte ( St. Ludgerus ), Hauenhorst ( St. Mary's Visitation ) and Mesum ( St. John Baptist ).
history
Due to the industrialization in the textile trade at the end of the 19th century, the number of inhabitants in Mesum grew considerably. The connection to the railroad and the construction of the train station favored the founding of some important textile companies, which attracted workers from the community, but also from the surrounding regions such as the Emsland and Tecklenburger Land .
The old Gothic church in the cemetery became too small for the community. The then pastor Pelle gave the impetus to build a new parish church and in 1879 a church building committee was founded. This project was an important concern for many citizens. This can be seen from the fact that many Mesumers donated large sums of money for the new building, committed themselves to annual donations or set out on a journey to carry out so-called house collections in the neighboring communities.
planning
Originally, a building plan for the new parish church was negotiated with the master builder Ch. Külbs from Rheine. The idea was to adapt the already existing building plan for a church in Bausenhagen to the requirements in Mesum. The contact to Bausenhagen came about when the pastor working there in Mesum had collected for his new building. After the damning verdict of the famous architect Franz Anton Nordhoff, the contract with Külbs was withdrawn. The death of Pastor Pelle in 1881 initially brought all further activities of the new church to a standstill.
It was not until 1884 that Mesum received a new pastor, Johann August Bisping from Emsdetten . He immediately took up the plan of his predecessor and turned to one of the most famous church architects of his time: cathedral builder Hilger Hertel the Elder . On September 27, 1885, Hertel submitted his first drafts to the community, which were apparently approved without objection.
financing
The construction costs estimated by Hertel in the amount of 66,000 marks were to be covered by various measures. Donations from the pastor and wealthy Mesum citizens alone raised 20,755 marks (converted into purchasing power in 2014 that is around 172,200 euros). The church collection brought in 9727.50 marks, the sum from the laborious house collections amounted to 12,118.37 marks. Including all other income z. B. by awarding church places at fixed prices to citizens of Mesum, the community raised a total of 60,000 marks.
Construction progress
In the presence of Auxiliary Bishop Franz Wilhelm Cramer , the foundation stone for the new church was laid in a solemn act on July 20, 1887 . It is located just below the surface of the earth in the foundation of the eastern crossing pillar , so it is buried invisible to today's eye. The Mesumers helped with the construction as much as possible. They did haulage and handyman services to keep construction costs down. While the necessary stone material from an Ibbenbüren quarry had to be brought in by horse and cart for the construction work in neighboring Borghorst (St. Nikomedes) , the Mesumers took advantage of their connection to the railway network. A great relief considering the 2570 tons of rubble stone required.
The savings plans of the Mesum parish went so far that it was decided to demolish the old church in the cemetery, which had been the parish church of the parish for centuries, and to use the stones obtained in this way in the new building. The west tower fell victim to this project in 1888 before any further demolition of the Gothic gem was stopped by the Münster government. The timber required for the scaffolding and roof structure of the new building was obtained from the community's forests.
The participating construction companies Poggemann and Middendorf and the stonemason company Josef Rumöller completed their work on time after exactly three years of construction. The new building of the parish church of St. Johannes Baptist could thus be inaugurated on June 3, 1890 by Bishop Dingelstad .
architecture
Hertel designed the building entirely in line with historicism . This style epoch at the end of the 19th century draws on the formal language of older styles, in this case the Gothic period. However, when designing the Mesum parish church, it deviated from the regional vocabulary of forms in terms of both outline and elevation. The typical Westphalian village church traditionally shows the floor plan of a path church with a clear orientation towards the high altar in the east choir . Even this easting is not to be found in Mesum - less for architectural and aesthetic reasons, but more for practical reasons. The available building site forced Hertel to orient his plans north-south.
Layout
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Hertel described the Mesum type itself as a “Kreutzkirche (Centralbau)” , a floor plan often used for both sacred and secular buildings, especially in the Romanesque , Renaissance and Baroque periods . He took one of the few examples of the central building in the Gothic architecture of the Rhineland (Hertel came from Cologne) as a model: the Liebfrauenkirche in Trier , the first high-Gothic church in Germany. In addition to its central character, it has an extremely complicated floor plan. Four cross arms of equal length extend from the square central crossing (on the eastern side with a choir apse), on the sides of which there are lower diagonal chapels to connect the cross arms. All the angular spaces created in this way are closed by choir chapels with 5/8 polygons arranged in pairs.
This plan had to be simplified to a form suitable for Mesum. Hertel took over the crossing and the connecting arms of the same length. He filled the corners with lower square spaces. In the south he added the choir with a 5/8 end, which has its northern counterpart in an extra yoke in front of the tower, which is therefore outside the church. Hertel positioned two symmetrically arranged polygonal sacristies in the angles created between the choir yoke and corner rooms .
Elevation
The unconventional plan also has some special features for the elevation. Since the 13th century, the Westphalian village church has almost always been a hall church with central and side aisles of equal height. This means that only the side aisles have windows. In Mesum, however, there are tracery windows high above the flatter corner rooms . This is also an element that Hertel took from the Liebfrauenkirche in great detail. As in the prototype, these windows are half walled up, only the Gothic pointed arches with three-pass openings remain open . The main light penetrates into the church through the two opposite, huge four-lane windows of the transverse arm and additionally emphasizes the central space of the crossing. However, to speak of a basilical shape with its own lighting for the main and central aisles would go too far, as Hertel originally did not envisage a clearly defined multi-aisle concept in the floor plan - required for the basilica. It was not until a necessary expansion by cathedral builder Wilhelm Sunder-Plassmann was carried out in 1934 that the model character of the Trier building was largely lost and the similarity to the basilica was emphasized: the northern corner rooms were copied towards the tower, giving real aisles and a more clearly perceptible central nave.
Later, the architect's son, Hilger Hertel the Younger , took up the model of the Liebfrauenkirche in Trier again when he built a new parish church for the parish of St. Gudula in Rhede (consecrated 1901). Here, due to the larger dimensions of the building, he came noticeably closer to the model than his father in Mesum. Also in the collaboration of the two Hertel sons (Hilger the Younger and cathedral master builder Bernhard Hertel ), church buildings were created in a combination of Gothic style and the central building, recognizable e.g. B. in the Holy Cross Church in the north of Münster , consecrated in 1902 .
Choir room
Half-walled windows over the corner rooms
View through the crossing. On the far right is the new room created in 1934
Pale through the aisle to the north
In 1973, in the course of a thorough renovation of the church, the congregation considered moving the altar, which had symbolized the symbolic center of the church since the 2nd Vatican Council , to actually move it together with the baptismal font in the center of the building. They wanted to group the benches around this slightly raised chancel. The choir was to be lowered and offered as a place to the worshipers. The organ should also be there. If these plans had been implemented, they would have emphasized the central building character of the church like no other measure. The project was stopped, the altar remained in the choir.
Furnishing
Altars, pulpit, confessionals
The new parish church was given a rich, uniform neo-Gothic interior in keeping with its architecture. By redesigning the z. B. became necessary due to changes in the liturgy after the 2nd Vatican Council , there is not much left of this initial equipment. The high altar of the choir apse as well as the side altars consecrated to St. Mary and St. Joseph (all designed by the architect Hertel) were removed in 1961, as were the three wood-carved confessionals. The pulpit made of stained and painted oak, which was attached to the eastern crossing pillar, was removed at the same time, no longer meeting the liturgical requirements.
The choir seating made of carved dark oak was only restored in fragments in the course of the remodeling after the Vatican.
Some of the furnishings were taken over from the old church. So z. B. the now lost Gothic baptismal font , as well as a Flemish chandelier that has meanwhile returned to the old church.
Painting
In 1952, almost all of the Nazarene-style painting by church painter Anton Soetebier from Münster was removed. It gave way to a solid white frame. In the 1990s, this was supplemented by painting the belt arches, vault ribs, pilaster strips and pilasters with floral ornaments.
Sculptural works
There are four figures of saints made of Baumberger sandstone on the corner pillars of the inner aisle arms . It concerns St. Elisabeth and St. Agnes as patron saints of women and virgins on the left side (the former women's side), and on the right side of the church, formerly reserved for men, to St. Anthony of Padua and St. Aloisius as the patron saint of men and young men. These figures are also made in the typical form language of the Nazarenes.
St. Elisabeth
St. Agnes
St. Aloisius
St. Anthony
In the side aisle walls there are 14 stations of the cross , made by an unknown sculptor from Baumberger sandstone. They show the passion of Christ in moving scenes that are surrounded by richly decorated frames.
A Pietà by the Rheiner sculptor Bernd Meyering from the last quarter of the 17th century also comes from the old church . Church painter Soetebier adapted the figure to the colors of his church painting with a new version. The figure stands today - still highly venerated by the Mesum Christians - on the northeast pillar.
The Pietà Meyerings
One of the 14 stations of the cross
Easter candlesticks of the original equipment
Rest of the old paintwork
window
The three choir windows by the glass painter Anton von der Forst from Münster have been preserved from the time it was built. In two-lane colored glazing, they show six figures in addition to Gothic ornaments and canopy architecture : in the center the baptism of Christ by the parish priest John the Baptist, on the sides the four Latin doctors of the church (from left) Ambrosius , Gregory , Hieronymus and Augustine . The depiction of the figures is based on the Nazarene style, with a clear model in the Renaissance painting of the 16th century in Italy . All other windows in the main church dream are tracery windows with simple colorless or single-colored lead glazing from Melchior Junglas from Münster, manufactured in the 1970s.
Left choir window (detail)
Middle choir window (detail)
Right choir window (detail)
The windows of the former eastern sacristy were redesigned by the artist Josef Dieckmann in the course of the conversion of this room to the baptistery in 1977 with two brightly colored windows on the subject of "The purifying elements of water and fire".
Newer sculptures
The church has recently received two sculptures: a Russian icon work in the type of the Mother of God of Tikhvin (1993) in the adoration chapel (the former eastern sacristy) and a powerfully colored picture of the parish priest Johannes (1994) in the style of neo-expressionism by Đuro Seder above the baptismal font.
organ
history
When the congregation “moved” from the old parish church to the new building, it was decided not to transfer the damaged old organ . A few years later they were sold to the Redemptorists in Glanerbrug . Friedrich Fleiter received the order for the new building in Münster , and he delivered the instrument in 1890, the year the church was consecrated. This organ is the oldest church organ in the Rheine deanery today. It is also the only 19th century church organ in Rheine.
brochure
The five-axis prospectus made of dark-stained oak with encompassing tracery gables and pinnacles shows silent zinc pipes. The console with its two manuals and pedal is integrated in the middle of the brochure, slightly raised. Game and stop actions are mechanical. A curiosity is the air pressure measuring device integrated into the wall of the prospectus, which showed the organist whether the Kalkant with his work on the back of the organ was producing enough air pressure to play the organ. The lever that the Kalkant used to fill the wind chests is also still preserved on the back of the organ, but has not been used since the organ was electrified in the 20th century.
Disposition
Originally the work from 1890 had 15 stops plus tremulant on slide chests , game and stop action were fully mechanical. However, it was impossible to set up a schola or a choir in the small organ loft. Thus the organ was supplemented in 1990/91 by adding a choir organ from Fleiter, the number of sounding registers increased to 28. Of the 13 new registers, 7 were integrated into the case of the old organ. Both the historic organ and the new choir organ can be played from the new mobile console.
In the disposition, new registers are marked with an asterisk:
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anniversary
On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the parish fair, the community organized a series of events in summer 2015. In addition, a commemorative publication provides information on the building history of the church; it was given out to the parishioners free of charge.
literature
- Catholic parish St. Johannes, Mesum (Ed.): 600 years parish Mesum. Festschrift for the 600th anniversary of the parish of St. Johannes Baptist. Mesum 1973.
- Rudolf Breuning and Karl-Ludwig Mengels: The art and cultural monuments in Rheine, Part IV: The monuments in Elte, Hauenhorst and Mesum , City of Rheine (ed.) 2011, ISBN 978-3941607-07-1 .
- Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments: Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland Deutscher Kunst Verlag 1984, ISBN 3-422-00382-7 .
- Rolf Toman (Hrsg.): The art of the Gothic: Architecture - Sculpture - Painting . Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89508-313-5 .
- A. Ludorff, The architectural and art monuments of the Steinfurt district , Münster 1904
- Floor plan from: Rheine yesterday-today-tomorrow , Volume 25 (1/90, p. 57), Rudolf Breuing
Web links
- Parish website (has not been updated since the merger to form a pastoral care unit) ( Memento of October 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Website of the parish of St. John the Baptist in Rheine
- Website of Josef Dieckmann, the artist of the windows in the former baptistery (with pictures of the windows)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 2, 2015 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.
- ↑ Catholic parish of St. Johannes, Mesum (ed.): 600 years parish of Mesum. Festschrift for the 600th anniversary of the parish of St. Johannes Baptist, Mesum. 1973, p. 61.
- ↑ http://www.glasmalerei-ev.net/pages/b4298/b4298.shtml
- ↑ http://www.glasmalerei-ev.de/pages/b4298/b4298.shtml
- ↑ http://johannes-der-taeufer-rheine.de/?sis_accordion=viel-lob-fuer-die-festschrift-zum-kirchjubilaeum-sie-macht-neugierig
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 45.8 ″ N , 7 ° 29 ′ 28.7 ″ E