St. Johannis (Schalkau)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Johannis is located in Schalkau in the Sonneberg district ( Thuringia ). The listed city church, which occupies the highest point of a sandstone rock, is characteristic of the cityscape due to its exposed location.
Parish
Assigned to the original parish of Meeder in the high Middle Ages , the parish of Schalkau was separated from it in the 13th century. A pastor was first mentioned in Schalkau in 1232. From 1445 the Wettins had the right of patronage. In 1507 the parish district was attached to the Electoral University of Wittenberg . The first Protestant church visit took place in 1528/29, which also resulted in a new parish structure. At that time, the parish also included Heid , Döhlau and Steinheid in addition to the current localities . Steinheid was assigned to an independent parish, Döhlau to the parish of Effelder , Heid and Görsdorf to the parish of Rottenbach and Truckendorf , Emstadt and Almerswind to the parish of Weißenbrunn . Grümpen and Theuern stayed with Schalkau, like Rauenstein until 1892. Schalkau was subordinate to the superintendent in Eisfeld . In 1578, the newly founded adjuncture in Neustadt followed , until 1623 Schalkau became an independent adjunct, which, like the Schalkau court, also included the parish of Effelder. With the establishment of the Principality of Saxony-Hildburghausen in 1680, it rose to the position of superintendent, which in addition to Effelder also included the parish of Mengersgereuth and Rauenstein, which was separated in 1726 . The superintendent was ecclesiastical as well as secular administrative officer responsible for the school system. After the Thuringian regional church was founded in 1920, the church's administrative structure was reorganized and the superintendent of Schalkau became part of the upper parish, and from 1944 the superintendent of Sonneberg . After 1945, the inner-German border meant that the places Görsdorf, Truckendorf, Emstadt and Almerswind again belonged to the Schalkau parish. Since then, this has included the city of Schalkau and the villages of Weitesfeld , Bachfeld , Gundelswind , Truckenthal , Katzberg , Ehnes , Roth , Oberroth and Selsendorf in addition to the places mentioned .
Building history
The sacristy is the oldest part of a Romanesque church building from the 13th century. In 1516, after a fire in 1505, a new building with the late Gothic choir was built. In 1520, the church was consecrated as St. John's Church.
The nave was first built in the 16th century and was rebuilt in 1663. A fire in 1690 destroyed large parts of the city center and the church. The rebuilding of the nave was completed in 1700, and that of the tower six years later.
In 1884 a renovation was carried out according to plans by the Saalfeld regional building councilor Karl Rommel. Among other things, the organ was moved from the choir room to the west gallery and the choir was given star vaults. The interior of the church was redesigned in the neo-Gothic style by the Schalkau sculptor Louis Blechschmidt and the Coburg court painter Arthur Wang. The triumphal arch received slightly profiled pillars, the nave a wooden flat ceiling. In 1933/34 the interior was redesigned with a lighter version. A restoration followed in 1967/68.
architecture
The nave is characterized by a gable roof and large rectangular windows. Inside there is a two-storey gallery decorated with carvings on three sides . A field ceiling forms the upper part of the room . The entrances are in the south, west and north.
In the east stands the retracted, polygonal closed choir. Its pointed arched windows with tracery are probably late Gothic. The northeastern choir windows created an in transforming 1884. stellar vault with keystones bearing the coat of arms of the countries that dominated the city over the centuries, and with Gothicising buds capitals spanning the space. It has a length of 10 meters and a width of 7.4 meters. The crypt of the Lords of Schaumberg is located under the choir .
The church tower in the northeast has a roughly square bottom plan and an octagonal top plan. The base of the tower is the 3.7 meter long and 3 meter wide sacristy with a barrel vault . The upper end is a Welsche hood with a lantern.
Furnishing
inner space
The altar is decorated with neo-Gothic tracery . The crucifix behind the altar was donated in 1711. The neo-Gothic pulpit has a polygonal pulpit cage with tracery. It was created in 1884 by Ludwig Krapp from Schalkau. The wooden lectern in the shape of an angel is the work of Louis Blechschmidt. In the choir there are two tombstones of members of the von Schaumberg family, dating from 1532 and the 17th century.
The organ was built in 1875 by the Schmiedefeld master organ builder Friedrich Wilhelm Holland and his son using older parts . They placed the instrument on the west gallery with 23 registers on two manuals and a pedal .
On the south-eastern side of the choir there is a war memorial outside, which the painter and graphic artist Herrmann Blechschmidt from Eisenach designed in 1925.
Bells
In the church tower there are three bronze bells, which were cast by Franz Schilling & Sons in Apolda and which replaced the bells given in the two world wars. The big bell with the sound f sharp (low) has a weight of 750 kilograms and a diameter of 108 centimeters was cast in 1920. The middle bell with the sound ais (deep) weighs 350 kilograms with a diameter of 85 centimeters and is one year younger. The small bell, a prayer bell with the tone c sharp, 71 centimeters in diameter and 210 kilograms in weight, dates from 1949.
literature
- Thomas Schwämmlein: Cultural monuments in Thuringia. Sonneberg district . E. Reinhold Verlag, Altenburg 2005, ISBN 3-937940-09-X , p. 347 .
Web links
- suptur-sonneberg.de: Church of St. Johannis zu Schalkau ( Memento from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ City of Schalkau (ed.): Festschrift 1362–2012 Schalkau , p. 27
Coordinates: 50 ° 23 ′ 37.5 ″ N , 11 ° 0 ′ 19.1 ″ E