St. Johannes Baptista (Ringelheim)
The Church of St. Johannes Baptista , also called St. Johannis in older writings , is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Ringelheim , a district in the southwest of Salzgitter .
Church building
A church in Ringelheim was first mentioned in 1050. The place at that time was the main town of Salzgaus based the Gaugerichtes . In this function, Ringelheim became the seat of an archdeaconate under the Hildesheim bishops , to whose area the place belonged . The church was built on the highest point of Ringelsheim where until the early 14th century, the Thingstätte was the Salzgaus.
The first church was probably made of wood. During construction work in 1993, remnants of sandstone foundations were found that can be assigned to this building. The church tower was built around 1200, which served as a defensive tower to protect the residents from raids. The walls of the 11.10 m by 7.30 m high tower have a wall thickness of 1.50 m in the lower area, the tower is about 15 m high up to the roof approach. The sound openings in Romanesque form - two each on the east and west side and one each on the north and south side - are decorated with columns and cloverleaf arches. Around the 13th century, the old wooden church was demolished and replaced by a larger stone building in the form of a hall building. In the 18th century the choir was extended to the east. The entrance to the church was moved from the south side wall to the west side of the tower at the end of the 18th century. In 1819 the tower was given a new roof clad with slate and an octagonal lantern with a sphere and a weather vane on the curved hood . It resembles the lantern of the neighboring Catholic Church of St. Abdon and Sennen, built in 1694, and is also at the same height. The originally Romanesque windows of the nave were bricked up in 1868 and larger arched windows were broken into the walls. On the north wall of the church there is a well-preserved grave slab on which the life-size figure of Pastor Andreas Kirchhoff, who died in 1621, is depicted.
Equipment of the church
17th century altar
Baptismal font from 1814
Pulpit from 1698
Organ from the 1880s
Detail of the ceiling painting (evangelists)
Grave slab of Pastor Andreas Kirchhoff from 1621
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inner space
The oldest inventory of the church is the wooden crucifix hanging on the south wall next to the altar . It was carved from linden wood around 1300 and is about 1.1 meters high; one arm was replaced by a replica, and later the crucifix was also given a new, simple cross.
The copper baptismal bowl bears an inscription from 1487. The round bowl has a diameter of 39 cm, on the bottom it bears a depiction of the Fall. The sandstone baptismal font was donated to the church in 1814. The basin bears the initials of the donor couple and the year of the foundation, framed by a heart shape.
The two bronze chandeliers carry six chandeliers in two rows. The older chandelier is 0.90 m high, has a diameter of 0.95 m and was created around 1600. He is crowned by a bearded warrior with a turban who carries a sword. On the younger and smaller chandelier (height 0.65 m, diameter 0.56 m) there is a dedication from 1768, it is crowned by an eagle with outspread wings, on which a man wearing a loincloth rides.
Three oil paintings hang on the side walls. The larger one, 1.95 m by 1.15 m, shows the crucifixion , the two smaller ones, 1.71 m by 1.10 m, depict the ascension of Jesus . All three paintings were made by the then patron Graf in the middle of the 19th century Georg created by the ceiling . Georg von derdecke was the grandson of Friedrich von derdecke , who in 1817 had acquired the buildings and lands of the neighboring former monastery of Ringelheim . The patronage of St. John's Church was also associated with the acquisition. Georg von der Betten, who worked for a time as attaché to the Hanoverian embassy in Paris, had developed his painting skills there. For the Luther year 1883 (400th birthday of Martin Luther ) von der Ceilings also painted the church ceiling. Ornamental representations alternate with images of the apostles and evangelists . Casein paints were used to paint the ceiling of the church, which was used to draw directly on the wooden paneling of the ceiling. The figurative representations are oil paintings that have been painted on linen and then glued to the ceiling.
The gallery on the north wall used to be separated in the area of the choir. This part was reserved for the patron, an additional entrance to the church and a separate staircase led to it. Even today, this area can still be recognized by the two specially shaped supporting columns of the gallery, which stand out from the other four simple columns in the rest of the area.
altar
The altar table from the second half of the 17th century is made up of a monolithic cover plate with a recess that was originally used to store a relic . The carved altar wall was created in 1698 by the Goslar sculptor Jobst Heinrich Lessen . The three oil paintings on the altar wall were created in the same year; its painter is not known. The oil painting of the predella shows Moses knocking water out of the rock. The Lord's Supper is depicted on the large oil painting behind the altar , and above it in a small oil painting Jesus in Gethsemane .
The wooden cross on the altar is from 1813. A silver, partially gold-plated chalice with a small crucifix from 1656, a silver paten and a tin cinder box from 1724 are still preserved as sacrificial implements . Two wine jugs have also been preserved, the older one is made of silver and dates from the 18th century, as well as six bronze candlesticks from around 1800.
pulpit
The hexagonal pulpit from 1698 bears depictions of Christ and three of the four evangelists on four sides : Matthew , Luke and Mark . The lettering in the decorative shields above the figures indicates the year the pulpit was built and the names of the founder Hans Philip, the pastor Johannes Henricus Rungius and the altarist Henni Stroven. John the Baptist , to whom the church was consecrated when it was built, stands on the two-storey sound cover , which is also hexagonal . As a symbol of his function as “patron or builder” of the church, Johannes carries hammer and pliers in his hands.
organ
The organ's prospectus dates from the 1880s, in 1998 the organ was comprehensively renewed.
Bells
The first bells were cast in 1661 and 1793. In 1908 they were cast into two new bells by Radler in Hildesheim. These two bronze bells had to be given in during the Second World War and were replaced by two steel bells from the bell foundry JF Weule in Bockenem in 1946 .
Parish
After an intermediate phase from 1542 to 1547, the Reformation was finally introduced in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1568 , when Duke Julius took over the throne. This remained so after Ringelheim was returned to the Prince Diocese of Hildesheim in 1643 . Today the Protestant parish of Ringelheim forms a parish association together with the parish of Alt Wallmoden and belongs to the Goslar Provostry.
literature
- Jörg Leuschner, Reinhard Försterling, Renate Vanis, Christine Kellner-Depner, Walter Wimmer, Dirk Schaper: Ringelheim . Ed .: Archives of the City of Salzgitter - Editing: Jörg Leuschner, Reinhard Försterling, Gabriele Sagroske, Bettina Walter and Sigrid Lux (= contributions to the city's history . Volume 29 ). Salzgitter 2015, p. 128-134 .
- Church buildings in Salzgitter . In: Department for Public Relations of the City of Salzgitter (Ed.): Salzgitter Forum . tape 12 , 1986, DNB 880735341 , p. 54-55 .
- O. Kiecker, C. Borchers (ed.): Art monuments of the province of Hanover . Issue 7: District of Goslar. Self-published by the provincial administration, Hanover 1937, Ringelheim. Evangelical Church, S. 199-203 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Church buildings in Salzgitter , pp. 54–55
- ↑ Chronicle Ringelheim , pp. 128–130
- ↑ Kunstdenkmäler , p. 203
- ↑ Kunstdenkmäler , pp. 200–203.
- ↑ Chronicle Ringelheim , p. 130.
- ↑ a b Website of the Ringelheim Citizens' Association: St. Johannis
- ↑ Kunstdenkmäler , pp. 200–203
Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 10 ″ N , 10 ° 18 ′ 41 ″ E