St. John the Baptist (Meckenheim)

Parish Church of St. John the Baptist with adjoining youth home and chapel (2019)

St. John the Baptist is a Catholic parish church in Meckenheim (Rhineland) in the Rhein-Sieg district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ). The parish of the same name forms with St. Jakobus Ersdorf , St. Petrus Lüftelberg , St. Michael Merl and St. Martin Rheinbach- Wormersdorf the parish community Meckenheim in the district dean of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis ( Archdiocese of Cologne ).

History of the parish and church

The first evidence of Christianity in Meckenheim comes from the 9th century. In 853 the priest Herigar bequeathed his manor in Meckenheim to the Bonn Cassius Foundation . This manor was right next to today's church and is likely to have owned a private chapel, which was probably already under the patronage of John the Baptist ; the foundations of the chapel are believed to be under the current building.

A church in Meckenheim is explicitly mentioned in a confirmation of the possessions of the Cassiusstift in Bonn by Pope Innocent I from 1131. Originally probably designed as a hall church, the building was expanded to include a massive square tower in the Romanesque period. This is in the 12./13. Century and exists to this day. In the Gothic period the church was expanded again, presumably as a two-aisled church with a main nave and a south-facing aisle, separated from each other by wide pointed arches . The coat of arms of the Lords of Meckenheim could be seen on one of the keystones of the late Gothic vault.

During the Thirty Years' War , on July 23, 1645, a Hessian company invaded the town, which also robbed and desecrated the church . Numerous citizens of Meckenheim also fell victim to the rising witchcraft madness in the first half of the 17th century; Pastor Hubert Fabricius (1608–1652) vehemently opposed the madness of the burning of witches.

In the years 1889/90, today's church building was erected on the site of the previous building. The medieval church tower was preserved. When the Allies bombed Meckenheim at the end of the Second World War , in early March 1945, St. John's Church was also badly affected, and it took almost ten years before the damage to the church was completely repaired. When the population of the city rose sharply in the 1970s due to its proximity to the federal capital Bonn, it was decided between 1973 and 1976 to enlarge the church space according to a design by the Cologne architect Werner Fritzen. The neo-Gothic choir was replaced by a wide transept with a semicircular choir apse . At the same time the church received a more spacious organ loft and a new belfry of oak , and the entire building was renovated.

The St. Stephen's Chapel , built in 1924, belongs to the parish.

Church building

St. Johannes from the south (2007 before the redesign of main street and church square)

The church faces east and is raised by about 3 m on the middle main street in the Meckenheim core town, the upper church square with the church and the youth center to the north is accessed by outside stairs. Due to the slightly sloping terrain towards the east towards the Swist , a semicircular parish hall with side rooms could be arranged under the new choir apse and the transept. South of the tower in the escape of the youth home stands a hexagonal chapel, which was built in the 1950s . It was decorated with windows by the glass painter Hans Lünenborg (Cologne), in which reference is made to the war events in Meckenheim.

The oldest part of the parish church is the heavy Romanesque church tower from the 12th or 13th century in the west center in front of the nave, which is crowned by a pointed octagonal spire. This is followed by a neo-Gothic three- nave nave , built in 1889/90 by the Bonn architects A. Becker and J. Böhm. To the east of the church was a neo-Gothic high choir with two side choirs. During the expansion in 1973/76 attention was paid to a stylistic and scale unity with the old building. The heights of the eaves and ridge of the roofs of the neo-Gothic church building were incorporated into the new transept and the choir apse, the pointed arched tracery windows were reproduced in abstract form and the masonry character of the brick building was continued. Inside, the Gothic vaulted ceilings were replaced by folded wooden ceilings and ornamental bands. At the intersection of the nave with the transept, in the crossing of the church, is the altar hill.

Furnishing

Principals

Altar , ambo and tabernacle with tabernacle made of white French Savonnières limestone and red Italian marble. The sacrament house rises behind the altar on a pedestal and is decorated with reliefs on Eucharistic motifs from the Old and New Testaments . The principles , like the hanging cross above the altar, were created by the sculptor Theo Heiermann from Cologne- Sürth .

The baptismal font probably dates from the Romanesque period and, after extensive restoration, found its place in the choir.

window

The new windows in the nave and choir are also by glass painter Hans Lünenborg . While the windows of the eastern part of the new building shine intensely in a wide range of colors and enrich the economical architecture, those in the neo-Gothic side aisles are limited to repeats of simple leaf ornaments in white-gray glass. In the small conche next to the entrance and in the two side entrances, Lünenborg also depicted the head of the church patron John the Baptist (on this Mk 6.27-28  EU ), in the side entrances the Mother of God with the baby Jesus and an angel with a trumpet.

Other furnishings

Some of the saints belonging to the church were restored and brought into the newly designed church interior: a “St. John the Baptist ”(around 1700) and a stern figure of Mary by Rudolf Peer (Meran, 1954) carved from an oak beam of the old belfry , statues of Saints Peter , Jude Thaddäus and Joseph . The stipes of the earlier side altars with the symbolic figures of the Easter lamb and the pelican are placed as sideboards in the choir area. Parts of the old confessionals decorated with neo-Gothic carved elements were converted into side tables.

The stations of a neo-Gothic Way of the Cross of unknown origin found their place in 1979 in the choir and transept of the church. The richly colored high relief depictions in carved oak frames decorated with finials were restored by the restorer Roland Gassert (Wachtberg).

organ

The organ dates from 1860 ( Gebrüder Müller , Reifferscheid ). It was rebuilt and expanded for the new church in 1890 by Johannes Klais (18 registers ); in 1950 the Klais company also repaired war-related damage. In 1979, after the church was expanded, Willi Peter carried out a largely new building, although many of the old pipes were preserved; the complete expansion was finished in 1998. Today the instrument has 34 registers on three manuals and a mechanical action pedal .

Bells

The bell consists of four bells in the church tower. Two bronze bells were melted down during World War II and replaced by steel bells in 1952.

No.	Surname	Strike / nominal	material	Diameter (mm)	Weight (kg)	Casting year	Caster
I.	Johann Baptist	d ′ - 4	steel	1510	1307	1952	Bochum Association
II	Catherine	f ′ - 4	bronze	1125	0900	1819	Claren brothers , Sieglar
III	Maria	g ′ - 5	steel	1110	0518	1952	Bochum Association
IV	Joseph	a ′ - 8	bronze	0935	0500	1922	Albert Junker and Bernard Edelbrock , Brilon

literature

• Catholic parish of St. John the Baptist, Meckenheim (Ed.): 1890-1990. Hundred years of parish church St. Johannes d. Baptist Meckenheim. o. O. (Meckenheim) o. J. (1990)
• Karl von Lassaulx: On the history of the parish St. John the Baptist Meckenheim. Meckenheim 1961.

Web links

Commons : St. John the Baptist (Meckenheim, Rhineland)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of the parish community Meckenheim

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Catholic parish of St. John the Baptist, Meckenheim (ed.): 1890-1990. Hundred years of parish church St. Johannes d. Baptist Meckenheim. P. 58.
2. ^ Orgelbau Klais: Opusliste ; church music rhine victory: organ table
3. ^ Gerhard Hoffs and Achim Bursch: Bells in the deanery Meckenheim / Rheinbach. Status of processing: January 28, 2014, pp. 30–35, www.glockenbuecherebk.de (PDF) ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2013 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. 
4. ↑ Catholic parish of St. John the Baptist, Meckenheim (ed.): 1890-1990. Hundred years of parish church St. Johannes d. Baptist Meckenheim. P. 46.

Coordinates: 50 ° 37 '18.4 "  N , 7 ° 1' 21.9"  E