St. Johannis (Oeslau)
The core of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Johannis in Oeslau in Upper Franconia , a district of Rödental in the Coburg district , dates back to the 16th century. It is a cycle path church on the Iron Curtain cycle path .
history
A chapel for a moated castle is believed to have been in the 14th century. It was replaced by a new building at the beginning of the 16th century, as evidenced by the year 1517 and a stonemason's mark on the keystone once attached above the west portal, now in the basement of the tower. The late Gothic church, which was part of the moated castle Oeslau, was probably built by Heinz von Rosenau, whose coat of arms is on the two northern buttresses of the choir. The choir vault dates from this period .
Oeslau initially belonged to the Fechheimer Kirchsprengel and from 1535 was a branch of Einberg .
After Duke Johann Casimir had acquired the moated castle in 1600 , he had the church converted into a court church in 1603/04 and painted the chancel. In the nave , instead of a Gothic vault, a flat ceiling in the late Renaissance style , richly figured with stucco reliefs and paintings, was inserted and a two-storey gallery was installed on the north and west walls, the parapets of which were also decorated with colorful stucco reliefs. In addition, two extensions were built, one for the ruler's lodge and one with the sacristy and a staircase. The construction work was completed in 1610 with an attached church tower.
In 1863 Queen Victoria of England arranged for the church near Rosenau Castle to be renovated at her own expense. The interior was painted in white and gold. Duke Alfred (Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) had another renovation carried out in 1889. In 1891 the two daughters Marie and Victoria Melitta were confirmed in the church .
In 1950 Oeslau became an independent parish. Unterwohlsbach and Oberwohlsbach also belong to the church district . In 1953, the municipality acquired the church from the Free State of Bavaria for 768 German marks, which was subsequently extensively rebuilt. According to a design by Reinhard Claaßen , the church tower in the west was replaced with an extension about the length of the old nave with the assistance of the architect Kurt Günther. A new church tower was built on the north side at the transition between the two sections of the nave. It was the same shape as the old church tower, but a little higher. The double gallery was replaced by a single-storey gallery in the nave. In 1974 a further renovation took place with a restoration of the color of the gallery, the pulpit and the stucco as well as with rows of chairs in place of pews.
Building description
The church stands in the center of the village on the Röden next to the former domain. It has a gable roof that is hipped down on the choir polygon. The choir with the final yoke and long yoke mark the outside buttresses, inside the 6.5 meter long and 6.5 meter wide room spans a late Gothic cell vault , which is painted with a herbarium , which indicates the healing mystery of the Savior. On the north-east, east and south-east side there is an ogival, medium-sized window. The extension for the ruler's lodge originally stood on the northern, windowless choir wall. A late Gothic sandstone epitaph of a Rosenauer stands on the north west wall of the choir. In front of it there is a small crypt, which is closed by a stone slab with the coat of arms of the von Rosenau family.
A multi-profiled, pointed triumphal arch decorated with ornament painting in the Floris style and the two coats of arms of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha as well as Hanover-England separates the chancel from the nave .
The long house with a rectangular floor plan was 8.0 meters long before the renovation in the 1950s. Since then it is 17.2 meters long and 6.6 meters wide, or 7.6 meters with the extension. In the area of the old nave, a colorfully figured coffered ceiling, symmetrically divided by a longitudinal beam, spans the interior. Two large oval representations show the Ascension of Christ and his return for judgment on Judgment Day . There are also eight smaller oval pictures, each with an angel figure, including the four archangels . A figure frieze runs below the ceiling on the south wall . A single-storey gallery on the north and west side, decorated with colored stucco reliefs on the parapet, characterizes the room. The series of pictures with 18 scenes begins clockwise in the southwest with the Annunciation of Mary through selected stations of Jesus' earthly activity up to the Passion, death and resurrection. Between the parapets there are white-robed prophets and apostles on consoles on which the heads of women, fools and lions with fantastic grimaces are attached . There are seven more reliefs under the west gallery, for which there were no more parapets when the two-storey to one-storey gallery was converted.
The pulpit south of the choir arch is similar in style to the gallery fields and the ceiling. In the niches of the polygonal parapet stand three figures, in the center Christ, blessing and preaching, flanked by Moses, who points to the tablets of the law in his right hand, and John the Baptist , who gives the church its name.
The massive church tower is octagonal in plan and has a Welsche dome with a lantern. It is connected to the vestibule of the main portal, which shows the lamb by Edmund Meusel in the tympanum .
organ
In 1838 the church received a small organ that was acquired from private ownership. In the late 1860s, the Duke of Edinburgh and his wife gave the church a two-manual harmonium . After the church was expanded in 1953/54, the Steinmeyer organ building company from Oettingen built a new organ on the west gallery with 17 stops , two manuals and pedal, and 952 organ pipes. The free pipe prospect has a low center and tower-like side parts on a curved floor plan.
Bells
The ringing consists of three bells . It was created in 1962 for the 800th anniversary of Oeslaus from the casting of two existing bells and the casting of a larger bell. The small bell was first cast in 1916 and the middle one was last cast in 1863. The big bell is dedicated to the memory of the fallen and missing of the two wars.
literature
- Lothar Altmann: St. Johannis Rödental-Oeslau . Art Guide No. 1068, Schnell & Steiner Verlag, Munich 1976.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paul Lehfeldt: Architectural and Art Monuments of Thuringia, Issue XXVIII, Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha, Landrathsamt Coburg. Jena 1902, p. 24
- ↑ a b Lothar Altmann: St. Johannis Rödental-Oeslau . Art guide
- ↑ www.stjohannis-roedental.de, Sights
- ^ Hermann Fischer, Theodor Wohnhaas: Alte Orgeln im Coburger Land, Part II. Yearbook of the Coburg Landesstiftung 1971, p. 117f
- ↑ St. Johannis Rödental-Oelsau: The bell
Coordinates: 50 ° 17 '15.3 " N , 11 ° 1' 50.3" E