St. Joseph (Elberfeld)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View from the south (Kiesberg, Schwarzer Weg )
View from Nützenberger Strasse

The St. Joseph Church in Wuppertal is the Catholic parish church for the west of Elberfeld . In addition to the churches of St. Suitbertus , St. Marien and St. Laurentius, it is part of the parish of St. Laurentius in Elberfeld-Mitte and its westernmost preaching site.

Building description

The building designed by the Düsseldorf architect Alfred Tepe is designed as a neo - Gothic three-aisled hall church with a square west tower in front of it. Attached to the tower, which can be seen from afar, is a narrow spiral staircase as access to the bell tower. The building is walled up with red bricks on the outside, the building corners and window frames with four-part tracery windows are made of light sandstone . The asymmetrical building, fitted into the triangular property, was given a transept-like extension in the north, the width of which corresponds to two bays of the nave and the interior is designed as a choir room with an organ stage. The top of the property behind the 5/8 end of the choir apse and the side apses with three sides of an octagon fills a two-storey sacristy .

In front of the church on the side is a small forecourt, which, due to the height difference between the diverging streets, has two staircases as access. It is bordered on the east side by the church and on the west side by the Vogelsaue 73 residential building, which was built at the same time and originally designed as a parish and rectory.

history

inside view

Mainly due to the constant expansion of the Elberfeld Bayerwerke in the valley, the number of Catholics living on the Nützenberg rose sharply at the end of the 19th century. Until then, this was part of the pastoral care area St. Laurentius in the center of Elberfeld. The latter was ultimately unable to fulfill its tasks due to the increased population and in 1903 initiated the establishment of its own church building association for the Nützenberg. As no suitable plot of land could initially be found in the difficult terrain of the residential area due to the steep slope, the decision was made as an alternative to acquire a triangular plot of land between Vogelsaue and Nützenberger Strasse and to adapt the building plans to this property. After enough donors were found, the foundation stone was laid on August 1, 1909. On April 30, 1911, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Müller undertook the consecration , and on April 1, 1913, St. Joseph was declared an independent parish and separated from the parish of St. Laurentius.

In 1924, a used organ could be acquired cheaply from the collegiate church in Dortmund - Hörde , which was only built in 1902 in the Veith organ building workshop in Paderborn . It was badly damaged in the war and was not repaired until 1967 by Romanus Seifert , with a new gaming table being installed. The organ prospectus has remained unchanged.

During the air raid on Wuppertal-Elberfeld on January 24, 1943, the church was badly hit, with all but five choir windows being destroyed and initially temporarily walled up. It was not until the first major renovation in 1967 that all windows except for a narrow window on the left gallery were restored in a modified form. All bells that replaced the bells drawn in during the First World War were all drawn up again for war purposes and replaced in 1962 by a six-part chime.

During the major renovation in 1967, among other things, the vault was completely refurbished, which, however, due to poorly executed work, meant that the floor partially sagged and had to be stabilized again in 2001. Tie rods were also inserted into the tower and columns to protect the church against further sagging.

The church has been home to the Spanish Mission Wuppertal since 1961 .

In 2011 the parish, which has meanwhile (re) united with the four largest Elberfeld parishes, celebrated its 100th anniversary.

gallery

  • View from the east

  • View of the tower from the Vogelsaue

  • The Vogelsaue 73 building, originally designed as a parish hall

  • Detailed view of the window below the organ loft on Nützenberger Str.

literature

Web links

Commons : St. Joseph  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of the Church of St. Joseph ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2017 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. Parish of Sankt Laurentius Elberfeld-Mitte. Retrieved January 15, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gemeinden.erzbistum-koeln.de
  2. ↑ 100 years: St. Joseph celebrates its anniversary on the Nützenberg. West German newspaper . Retrieved January 15, 2016.

Coordinates: 51 ° 14 '59 "  N , 7 ° 7' 22.7"  E