St. John the Baptist (Castle)

Exterior of the church with a view of the choir

The Church of St. John the Baptist is the Catholic church in Burg , the district town of the Jerichower Land district in Saxony-Anhalt . The church named after St. John the Baptist belongs as a parish church to the Stendal deanery of the Magdeburg diocese . It is listed as an architectural monument in the register of monuments of the state of Saxony-Anhalt under registration number 094 10168.

history

From the end of the 18th century, Catholic church services were occasionally held again in the castle, which has been Protestant-Lutheran since the Reformation was introduced . They were held by priests from the Agnetenkloster in Neustadt near Magdeburg or the Ammensleben monastery .

At Christmas 1814, Columban Valensieck, a monk from the Huysburg Abbey, which was dissolved in 1804 , began his work as the first Catholic pastor of Burg since the Reformation. The chapel of the St. Johannes Hospital was rented for the services . In 1815 the parish of Burg was established, and from 1822 Burg belonged to the diocese of Paderborn . In 1827 the parish had to give up the chapel again because the hospital was about to be demolished; From then on the services took place in different private rooms. In 1835 the plot of land at Berliner Straße 38 was purchased and a church, parsonage and school were set up in the building there. In 1839, the barn on the property was converted into an emergency church, but it was closed in 1899 due to dilapidation.

In 1902 and 1903, the parish acquired the land on Blumenthaler Strasse and Grünstrasse, on which the rectory and church are today. The foundation stone for the church was laid on November 6, 1904, and the consecration of the bells took place on October 22, 1905 . On May 27, 1906, provost Franz Schauerte designated the new church, which received its episcopal consecration on May 20, 1908 by Wilhelm Schneider .

In 1911 the church got its organ , but in 1917 the bells were removed again for war purposes and melted down. In 1923 two new bells were consecrated, which were also removed and melted down again in 1941 during World War II . In 1956 three new bells were consecrated, and in 1981 Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Braun consecrated a new altar on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the church .

The diocese of Magdeburg was founded on July 8, 1994, to which Burg has belonged ever since. On February 1, 2006, the community association Burg-Gommern-Loburg was established, to which the parish of Burg belonged from then on. On May 2, 2010, today's parish of St. John the Baptist was created from the community association , to which, in addition to the church in Burg, the two churches of the Heart of Jesus (Gommern) and St. Mary's (Loburg) belong. The latter was sold and profaned in 2018, a chapel built in the GDR in Möser , which belonged to the parish of Burg, was closed and demolished earlier.

Location, architecture and equipment

Interior

organ

The east-facing church is located on the property at Blumenthaler Straße 3/4, and its rectory is on the neighboring Grünstraße. It was built according to plans by Arnold Güldenpfennig in the neo-Gothic style and offers seats for 238 visitors. There is a crucifixion group above the entrance portal . In the anteroom of the church there is a Pietà , a memorial plaque for the fallen of the First World War and a copy of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help , in front of which sacrificial candles can be placed.

The windows in the choir , designed by the glass designer Christof Grüger from Schönebeck (Elbe) , were made in 1960 by the glass workshops Müller from Quedlinburg . 14 stations of the cross hang on the side walls. The interior also includes a baptismal font , a statue of St. Anthony of Padua and two confessionals . The organ was built in 1911 by Anton Feith jr. Built by the Eggert Orgelbau-Anstalt from Paderborn as Opus 204.

The parish also includes the St. John's day-care center located next to the church , which moved into its current building in 1998 and currently offers 65 places.