St. John the Baptist (Witzmannsberg)
The Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist in Witzmannsberg , Upper Franconia , a district of Ahorn in the Coburg district , dates back to 1711.
history
At first there was a medieval fortified church in Witzmannsberg . Remnants of the previous church are still contained in the church wall. In 1670 the church received parish rights and belonged to the parish association of Seßlach . Today St. Johannes is a branch church of the parish of Neundorf .
On April 23, 1708, construction work began on today's church. The planning and construction management was the responsibility of the master mason Hanns Michael Schmitt from Sesslach. The church was consecrated on September 29, 1711. The altars date from 1730/1740. Supplementary measures to the current appearance with a new roof and roof turrets were implemented in 1790. In addition, a two-storey gallery was built in and a stucco ceiling was laid out by the Staffelstein artist Heinrich Seelmann. In 1904, among other things, the ceiling was redesigned and the gallery parapet renewed.
In 1960 the roof and the slate covering of the church were repaired. In 1980, renovation measures followed with external plastering and roofing work. In addition, the community had the altar area redesigned with the popular altar and ambo using the historical church furnishings. In 2010 a general renovation of the church inside and outside including the roof structure was carried out.
Building description
The church stands, characterizing the townscape, northwest of the village square on the highest point of the place Witzmannsberg. It is surrounded in sections by a medieval churchyard wall made of large sandstone blocks up to 2.5 meters high.
The church has plastered ashlar and chunks of masonry, which is structured with sandstone in the surrounding plinth, the corner pilaster strips and the profile frames of the windows and doors. The entrance portals are decorated with apex stones and horizontal cornice roofing .
The hall church has a recessed, high rectangular choir . The choir is spanned by a flat ceiling. On the north and south sides there is a rectangular window with a slightly arched reveal . A recessed, round choir arch connects the chancel with the nave .
The nave has two wide window axes and is spanned by a flat plastered ceiling with a cornice-profiled groove. The rectangular windows in the long sides sit in arched reveals . The entrances are centrally located on the south and west sides. The two-story, wooden gallery is on the west side. The middle section of the upper gallery with the organ is drawn forward with multiple kinks.
The choir and the nave are arranged under a uniform gable roof with a slate roof, which is hipped to the east and has a profiled, wooden eaves cornice. Above the choir is an octagonal, slate roof turret with segment-arched, blind-clad sound openings. The upper end is formed by a hood with a lantern with four rectangular openings and another small hood with a point, knob and cross.
Furnishing
The high altar was made in 1711, a rotating tabernacle was added around 1740. In the lower part there is a three-figure crucifixion group with Jesus on the cross, Mary his mother and the apostle John , framed by Corinthian columns in a large, rounded, flat central niche. In the middle part stands the wooden figure of the risen Christ in a round arched niche, surrounded by four angels who hold Jesus' instruments of torture in their hands (including nails, lance, ladder, hammer, pliers). In the upper part there is a neo-baroque ray glory with the inscription "GOTT".
The two side altars have completely similar wooden structures with Corinthian columns. They date from around 1711 and their wooden figures are from around 1730/1740. The altar of Mary shows the standing Mother of God in a halo with the baby Jesus. Above this, in the gable, there is a crowning glory of rays with the monogram of Mary. The right altar, the Josephaltar, depicts Saint Joseph with a carpenter's angle and a saw. Above that, in the gable, is a glory of rays with the monogram of Jesus. To the left of the Marien Altar is the pulpit with the “Savior of the World” on the sound cover .
On the left side wall of the nave is the Annunciation group, wooden figures that represent the proclamation of the conception of Jesus by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary. It is a work by the Bamberg artist Michael Trautmann, which he created around 1780 for the Tambach monastery church and which the community acquired in 1806. Other figures on the lower gallery show St. Ottilie , probably from the 17th century, above the side entrance the church patron John the Baptist, created around 1730, and between the pulpit and altar St. Wendelin , a work of the late 18th century.
The stucco ceiling with a double frame in the choir shows a triangle with the eye of God and winged angel heads in the glory of clouds and rays in the mirror. The ceiling of the nave has a large rectangular outer frame made of rococo stucco and inner frame with the Jesus monogram and with the designation "MARIA", each decorated with cloud and ray glory with winged angel heads. In the middle mirror of the nave ceiling there is a ceiling painting depicting John in the desert. It is a work by the Staffelstein artist Theodor Stengel from 1904.
Above the choir arch of the nave, the Langheim abbot's coat of arms reminds of the affiliation to the Tambach monastery office of the Langheim monastery .
The entrance doors were made in 1980 by the metal artisan Franz Kammerer from Schlüsselfeld based on a design by the Bamberg painter Alfred Heller. They show a relief of Pope John XXIII carved in copper . and scenes from the Old and New Testaments. In the interior there is a wood-carved Way of the Cross by the Eicha artist Hermann Kotschy from 1989/1990.
organ
In 1870, the Nuremberg organ builder Augustin Ferdinand II. Bittner built the organ with ten stops on a manual and pedal . In 2011, the Cadolzburg organ building workshop Andreas Hemmerlein restored the instrument. The three-part organ prospectus has arched fields which are structured by pilasters and decorated with tracery rosettes. The middle field is elevated and is closed by a flat triangular gable.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Bernd Scholz: St. John the Baptist Witzmannsberg . 2014, pp. 1–10.
- ↑ a b Karl Ludwig Lippert: Bavarian art monuments, district Staffelstein. Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich 1968, p. 309 f.
- ^ Lothar Hofmann: Monuments Region Coburg - Neustadt - Sonneberg: Places of contemplation and prayer. Historical sacred buildings. A guide through the churches in the districts of Coburg and Sonneberg . Verlag Gerätemuseum des Coburger Land, Ahorn 2007, ISBN 3-930531-04-6 , p. 13.
- ↑ Hermann Fischer, Theodor Wohnhaas: Alte Orgeln im Coburger Land, Part IV. Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation 1980, p. 141.
Coordinates: 50 ° 13 ′ 21 ″ N , 10 ° 54 ′ 8 ″ E