St. John the Baptist (Todtnau)
St. John the Baptist is a Roman Catholic parish church in Todtnau in the Black Forest , which was built at the end of the 19th century according to plans by the architect Georg Schäfer. The neo-Romanesque building quotes addition to style forms of the Renaissance and that of the Baroque and is therefore a particular case of great art historical value. Due to the elevated location, the church is visible from afar in the city and is considered its landmark. At the end of the 13th century Todtnau was raised to its own parish and in August 1288 a stone church was consecrated in honor of St. John the Baptist . The previous churches burned down several times. The immediate predecessor church also fell victim to a devastating fire in July 1876. The parish of St. Johannes together with that of St. Jakobus in Todtnauberg formed a pastoral care unit, which in 2012 merged with the former pastoral care unit Schönau, consisting of the parish of All Saints in Wieden and the branch parish of St. Wendelin (Geschwend) , to form the pastoral care unit of Oberes Wiesental .
history
Origins
Todtnau initially belonged to the parish of Tegernau and from 1164 to Schönau in the Black Forest . In 1283 wealthy silver mine owners from the town submitted an application to the abbot of St. Blasien Monastery to build their own prayer house or a chapel . The request was granted, so that on August 21, 1283, a wooden chapel with a movable altar was most likely consecrated on the grounds of today's market square , in which a priest from Schönau held a service every Saturday. On September 8, 1288 Todtnau was raised to the status of its own parish and a stone church was built in place of the chapel. The consecration of this church was carried out in August by the Teutonic friar and titular bishop of Lithuania , Johann von Letovien, as the deputy of the Bishop of Constance .
First stone church and subsequent building
In 1341 a new building was built on the same site. For the geostete was used material from the driving Auer quarry church. The Gothic church had a three- story bell tower with a gable roof in the south . A carved altar with the Saints Peter and Paul was built around 1490. After this church was destroyed in a fire in the valley on August 12, 1553, it was rebuilt in the Renaissance style between 1578 and 1580. The bells for this church were cast by the Waldshut bell caster Hans Sternecker shortly after the church was built. In 1602 the church received a new high altar. As a result of the Palatinate War of Succession , Todtnau and subsequently also the church were burned down by French troops on June 15, 1689.
Third Church
In 1692 the church was restored using the burnt-out tower and nave walls. The St. Blasien Monastery donated the baroque high altar and several paintings. In 1700 the parsonage was rebuilt by the builder Franz Schuck from Mittelberg in the Kleinwalsertal . The three altars of the church were consecrated on October 20, 1715 by the Constance Auxiliary Bishop Konrad Ferdinand Geist von Wildegg . Daniel Frei, the councilor of Brandenberg and Fahl, found the following about the interior of the church:
“The old church left a lot to be desired in terms of taste and architectural style. It had a clapboard compartment, the nave had uneven side walls, the "Blafon" [ceiling] was made of boards without a painting, whitewashed with lime. There were three altars in it, of which the high altar and the altar of Our Lady stood out, and one will not soon see anything more beautiful. Mainly the last one was worth seeing. The painful Mother of God seated with the corpse of Jesus in her lap was shown in life-size and so gracefully in figures (i.e. not painted) that it had to move the hardest to devotion. The other side altar, the so-called Johannes altar, was not so tasteful. The same was the church patron, St. John, consecrated and the latter was painted on a board like a raw dress made of camel hair and wore a leather belt around his loin, in his right hand he held the bowl for water baptism at the Jordan, in his left he held the staff, representing a cross, entitled: Ecce Agnus Die. The Lamb of God with the cross was presented at his feet. At the pulpit on the wall, John was again presented as he baptized Jesus the Savior in the river Jorden. "
Fourth church
On September 14, 1772, 14 houses and the church tower burned down; the four bells melted. The restoration under Abbot Martin Gerbert took place from 1775 to 1778. The tower was raised by 6.60 meters and Franz Josef Becker from Schönau painted the basement of the tower in which the choir was housed. The new bells were cast by the Freiburg foundry Sebastian Bayer in 1775. The 1000, 672, 336 and 152 pound bells were supplied at a price of 708 fl 46 kr. The former Benedictine Moritz Moyaux from the St. Blasien monastery became pastor in Todtnau with the secularization in 1806. He started a call among the parishioners to look for an organ for the church. In mid-1808, the organ builder Xaver Bernauer (1768–1831) from Staufen im Breisgau received the original order to manufacture an organ with ten registers . After the plans were checked by Kapellmeister Schmittbauer from Karlsruhe, Bernauer had to revise the disposition and created an instrument with 12 registers, which was finally approved.
Projected but not executed new building
With the increase in Todtnau's population, the cemetery and church became too small. In a report by the Schönau district office of July 12, 1822, it is stated on the one hand that an enlargement of the parish church is urgently required; At least the necessary repair work on the pews and pillars of the gallery should be carried out. The report to the Freiburg district directorate also states that the community is too poor to be able to carry out the necessary work on its own. For this reason, master builder Frinz von Lörrach was commissioned in 1823 to submit a proposal for a new building. However, the plans were not implemented due to a lack of money on the one hand and a lack of support from the district directorate on the other. Even a revision of Frinz's plans was not convincing. Different variants were considered. On the one hand, as much of the old structure as possible was to be preserved in order to reduce costs, on the other hand it was not possible to orientate oneself too closely to the previous building, as the limited plot of land meant that a new building could not be much larger. It was not until 1826 that the final decision was made not to pursue Frinz's plans any further and the master builder was only rewarded for the effort involved in producing the plans. As the problems persisted, repairs were carried out as an emergency solution in 1826 and the nave was extended in 1859. Since the church was still too small with 624 seats after its expansion, the proposal arose to rent 25 of these seats.
Fire disaster and construction of today's church
On July 19, 1876, at lunchtime, a fire broke out in the attic of the Emil Ziegler paper factory, which quickly spread to the surrounding buildings and finally to large parts of the city. It was only four hours later that the fire was prevented from spreading further. He made more than 1000 people homeless and devastated 149 buildings in Todtnau, including the rectory and the church. In the same year an emergency church was built next to the cemetery chapel , which served the community until 1881. In January the ruins of the church, which could no longer be recovered, were blown up.
Even before the fire, the Todtnau congregation was unable to rebuild the church due to limited financial resources. The accident worsened the situation, as the community primarily had to build new town hall, hospital and other public buildings. For this reason, on August 8, 1876, the Board of Trustees launched an appeal to all parishes in the Archdiocese of Freiburg to help the congregation afflicted by the fire. As early as 1877, the new church took concrete shape. For this purpose, the architect Georg Schäfer visited the building site on April 5, 1877 to get an idea of the situation on site. He noted that the church would occupy an imposing location due to the elevated location. At the same time, in order to reduce costs, he suggested removing the mountainside to a depth of about 64 meters so that material for the foundation of the square would already be available. In his planning, he also took into account that the mountain water that occurs must be drained off in order to keep the church site dry. Since Schäfer's plans were very well received at the presentation in the Archbishop's Building Office, the latter announced a resolution on May 3rd that the parish church should be rebuilt as soon as possible. On February 5, 1878, the architect handed over the plans to the Chapter Vicariate in Freiburg with a cost estimate of 213,735.20 marks. Already on February 21, the church authorities approved the plans, but noted that the planned larger-than-life angel figures blowing trumpets on the steeples should not be carried out. Financing was also secured after donations of 61,544.75 marks had been made without outside help until 1878.
After the first blasting work on the mountain slope had already started in 1878, the foundation stone for the new building took place on June 30, 1879. After completion of the stone ramp and driveways, the church was built on a solid rock bed. The white sandstone was brought from Aarburg in Switzerland. On October 23, 1881, a solemn entry and the benediction of the house of God took place. The two church towers were built between 1882 and 1883. The bells made by the Cansardin company in Colmar were donated by a private person. After completion, the church was consecrated on June 20, 1888 by Archbishop Johann Christian Roos in honor of St. John the Baptist.
While the exterior of the church was renovated in the 1950s - in 1951 the church roof was re-covered with slate and in 1959 the sacristy was expanded and a ditch was dug around the choir for drainage - the interior of the church was rebuilt in the early 1960s at a cost of 360,000 marks newly designed. In addition to a new plaster, the church received new pews, two glass paintings in the transepts and the choir mosaic by Hans Baumhauer . On June 18, 1961, the high altar was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Karl Gnädinger . In 1964 the church received a new organ. In the first half of the 1980s, both church towers were renovated - the west tower from 1982 to 1983, the east tower from 1984 to 1985. Further renovation measures, which were carried out by the end of the 1980s, claimed costs of over 2.8 million marks. On September 8, 1988, the community celebrated the 700th anniversary of its existence and on this occasion set up a protective coat Madonna by the Rheinfeld artist Leonhard Eder on the eastern staircase to the church.
description
Location and church building
The parish church stands at an altitude of 659 meters east of the market square in the center of Todtnau in the axis of the main street. A staircase and two ramps lead from the market square to the site, which is reinforced and raised by retaining walls. The church stands between six and ten meters behind the retaining walls to ensure an even foundation. The central building with a cross-shaped floor plan has two slender church towers, each 42 meters high, on the east side. The east facade is clearly structured with plastered surfaces and green-gray sandstone. The round arches, triangular gables, protruding cornices and pilaster strips allude to the neo-Romanesque design language. There is a striking semi-arched window above the main portal, which was originally divided by two columns. These were removed in 1960 in favor of a concrete framework. A pointed gable with an ornamental frieze forms the upper end of the entrance facade . The heavy copper portal doors are engraved with the tribes of Israel that are on their way home.
The two towers initially rise up in a square plan - the clock faces of the tower clock are on the top floor - and continue with an octagonal plan. In this construction phase, both towers each have eight slender, rounded arched sound arcades . Above this, the roof is closed off by baroque-looking green onion domes and a narrow rising lantern with a gilded tower ball and cross.
Interior and equipment
The cross-shaped floor plan can also be seen inside. The length of the cross is 42.50 meters, the width 30.80 meters. The arms of the cross reach out around a yoke from the structure . The interior height is 15.90 meters; the outside height is 19 meters. The intersection of the main and transverse axes forms an eight-sided center of the room, which is elevated by a conical wooden ceiling, creating a dome-like impression. The wooden ceilings above the gallery and the choir were drawn in flat. A semicircular apse adjoins the rectangular choir, raised by four steps . The choir and prayer hall are also separated from each other by a low choir screen. The interior is characterized by pillars with round arches and pilasters rising from their cornices . The interior space around the central octagon is divided into galleries and side rooms.
Until the interior renovation in the 1960s, the high altar from 1880 to 1881 from the Marmon art workshop in Sigmaringen was the spatial highlight of the furnishings. This was replaced by an eight-ton altar block made of Werdenfels marble. To the right of the altar is a modern tabernacle . The work of the Pforzheim goldsmith Anton Kunz shows a rock crystal and radiant sun. The altar candlestick and the gilded lecture cross made of brass are also by Kunz. The baptismal font , which also serves as a holy water container, is made of the same marble as the altar table . On the left choir pillar is a pulpit-like ambo , the forged latticework of which shows a gilded representation of the Whitsun events. The ambo and communion bench were made by the sculptor Harry MacLean . On the left side altar is a 170 centimeter high gilded Madonna and Child. The cast concrete figure comes from the Karlsruhe sculptor Emil Sutor . The two 96 centimeter high statues of the apostles Peter and Paul are among the oldest pieces of equipment. They date from around 1480 to 1490 and used to stand on the medieval high altar.
A striking, meter-high mosaic image in the apse wall is particularly noticeable and thus in stylistic contrast to the rather simple furnishings in the choir. The picture designed by the painter Hans Baumhauer depicts a mighty Pantocrator above the four symbols of the Gospel , who is holding the Book of Life in his left hand. To the left of him stands in a dark robe the intercessing Mary, to the right the church patron John the Baptist, who holds the Lamb of God. In the apse ball, the universe and the omnipotence of God are metaphorically represented in a sea of elements.
The two windows in the transverse arms are by Edzard Seeger (1911–1990). The windows measure 8.50 by 4 meters. The window motif in the eastern transept shows the fall of Adam and Eve, predominantly in shades of blue, with the tree of paradise wrapped by the serpent and above which is the hand of God. In contrast, the window in the other transept depicts the tree of life from the New Testament , predominantly in red tones . The figure of Jesus is shown with raised arms and below it Mary with the disciple John. The motifs of both colored windows are composed of individual pieces of glass like a mosaic.
The organ is set up on a gallery above the main entrance. The façade window in the semicircular arch from 1961 is visible above the organ prospect. The Dall glass framed in a concrete framework shines in bright colors and allows the organ to shine in colored light depending on the incidence of light.
Bells
The church has a five-part bell made of special bronze made in 1949 by the Junker bell foundry in Brilon :
| Surname | Chime | Dimensions |
|---|---|---|
| St. Michael | f ′ | 900 kg |
| St. John | as ′ ′ | 540 kg |
| St. Mary | b ′ ′ | 390 kg |
| St. Joseph | c ′ ′ | 270 kg |
| St. Cecilia | it'' | 180 kg |
The bells were ordered together with two more for the churches in Aftersteg and Brandenberg for a total of 250,000 marks, which was raised in full within three months through donations from the community members. All nine bells were consecrated on January 29, 1950 by the Freiburg cathedral capitular shepherd in the Johanneskirche in Todtnau.
Organs
The first organ of today's church was delivered on May 29, 1898 for 8,000 marks. It comprised 20 registers . Today's organ from the Rieger organ workshop in Vorarlberg was completed in 1964 and is on the gallery above the main entrance area. The instrument has an electric stop and mechanical game action with slide chests and is played via three manuals and a pedal and comprises a total of 38 stops. The otherwise soberly designed prospectus is only decorated in the middle with a picture depicting four red angels blowing trumpets against a blue background. The organ pipes , which are arranged according to size in several groups , each rising at a steep angle from the center outwards, are framed by the case. The colored dall glass of the semicircular arched window appears behind the organ prospectus and partially covered by it, which allows the organ to be immersed in colored light depending on the incidence of light.
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literature
- Manfred Hermann: Catholic Churches Todtnau. 2nd Edition. Verlag Schnell and Steiner, 2001, ISBN 3-7954-4753-4 , pp. 2-21.
- Johannes Helm : Churches and chapels in the Markgräflerland. Müllheim / Baden 1989, ISBN 3-921709-16-4 , pp. 389-390.
- Catholic Church Todtnau (Ed.): 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau. Festschrift. Todtnau 1988, OCLC 258227411 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Hermann: Katholische Kirchen Todtnau , p. 20.
- ^ Helm: Churches and chapels in the Markgräflerland , p. 386.
- ↑ Catholic pastoral care unit Oberes Wiesental online
- ^ CG Fecht: The Grand Duke of Baden District of Schönau , 1860, pp. 98–99.
- ↑ Humpert: Todtnau - Wesen und Werden einer Schwarzwaldstadt , 1959, p. 183ff.
- ↑ FX Kraus: The art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden , Volume V, 1901, p. 173.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 19.
- ^ Helm: Churches and chapels in the Markgräflerland , p. 386 (01.3)
- ^ Hermann: Katholische Kirchen Todtnau , p. 5.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 40.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 41.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , pp. 42–44.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , pp. 44–47.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 48.
- ↑ a b 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 52.
- ↑ Hermann: Catholic Churches Todtnau , p. 8.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 54.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 59.
- ^ Hermann: Catholic Churches Todtnau , p. 11.
- ↑ Hermann: Katholische Kirchen Todtnau , p. 12.
- ↑ Hermann: Catholic Churches Todtnau , p. 13.
- ↑ Hermann: Katholische Kirchen Todtnau , p. 16.
- ^ Hermann: Katholische Kirchen Todtnau , p. 18.
- ↑ 700 years of St. John the Baptist Todtnau , p. 68.
Evangelical Churches: Evangelical Church (Muggenbrunn) (St. Cornelius) | King Christ Church (Todtnau)
Catholic churches: St. Anna (Aftersteg) | St. Wendelin (Brandenberg) | St. Wendelin (Geschwend) | St. Cornelius (Muggenbrunn) | Maria Queen (Schlechtnau) | St. John the Baptist (Todtnau) | St. James the Elder (Todtnauberg)
Coordinates: 47 ° 49 ′ 53 " N , 7 ° 56 ′ 47.1" E