St. Karl Borromeo (Cologne)
St. Karl Borromäus is a Catholic parish church in the Cologne district of Sülz , which was built and consecrated in 1930 according to plans by the architects Ferdinand Pasmann and Joseph Bonn . The church is under the patronage of Karl Borromeo and has been a listed building since 1983. Among the Catholic churches of modernism in Cologne, it occupies a double position between Expressionism and New Building and is the first church in Cologne that was built as part of a closed apartment block.
history
The Sülz district grew so much in terms of population in the 1920s that the parish of St. Nikolaus still had 30,000 members despite previous spin-offs. A corner plot of land on Zülpicher Strasse was therefore acquired on the site of a former gravel pit and the Cologne architects Pasmann and Bonn were commissioned to build the church and the surrounding residential development.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 30, 1930, the foundation stone was laid on June 9, and the building was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Hammels on November 9 of the same year .
During the Second World War , St. Karl Borromeo was badly damaged by air raids, but not destroyed. The roof and sacristy were badly damaged, and the windows were all smashed. The repair work was completed in 1946. In the years that followed, the community was elevated to the status of a rectorate parish, then in 1950 to an independent parish. Georg Meistermann created the 14 new windows in 1959; A major redesign of the interior and renovation in the wake of the Second Vatican Council was carried out in 1967 by the architect Gottfried Böhm in collaboration with the artist, who mainly renewed the altar area for this purpose.
On January 20, 1983, St. Karl Borromeo was added to the list of monuments of the city of Cologne under the number 1307 . In the 1980s there were a number of renovation and reconstruction work in the immediate vicinity of the church and the windows, supplemented by further modernizations in 1991, during which the organ was renewed, the high choir was modernized and a weekday chapel was added. Bert Kellermann was in charge of this .
At the turn of the year 2001/2002 the congregation - like its former mother congregation St. Nikolaus - dissolved and re-founded as St. Nikolaus and Karl Borromäus . Plans to rededicate the church as a columbarium were dropped; Instead, the community rooms in the basement are now also used secularly by various institutions.
Building description
The large brick clinker building, the ornaments of which show echoes of Expressionism, stands on a corner plot and fits into the residential development in terms of height and facade material on two streets. The north side and the tower are only open to Zülpicher Straße and lead to a small forecourt, which is slightly elevated towards the street. Opposite the tower, which is oriented towards the street, the main building steps back a little, making space for one of the two entrance portals. The second opens from the north aisle to the forecourt.
The structure is straight and is covered by a simple gable roof. The nave facade is structured in eight narrow axes, the first of which is on the portal side without a window. The narrow, rectangular windows between the wall sections are divided into a line of squares by narrow frames. The narrower choir area can hardly be seen in the exterior, as it merges into the residential development on the opposite street - it only protrudes slightly from its surroundings with a small gable.
Inside, the current appearance of which is primarily a result of the 1967 redesign, a different impression emerges: Brightly plastered, cool, and pillarless, a “one-room” extends from the vestibule, which is built over by a gallery, to the choir. The lack of supports is made possible by strong concrete beams , which also lead to different ceiling heights - this is raised in the central axis continuously up to the choir compared to the side room areas. It also stands out from the rest of the walls and ceilings thanks to its strong dark blue color.
The altar area is elevated and is illuminated by high-lying windows - this is made possible by the height of the choir compared to the residential buildings.
In the tower, which previously served as a baptistery, there is now a working day chapel. It has no windows and ends with a diamond frieze under the eaves; on its hipped roof is a cross to crown the tower. A bronze sculpture by Karl Borromeo is placed above its outer portal, which is stepped like the entrance portal.
Furnishing
The Meistermann windows from 1959 show a “gathering of saints”: Therese von Lisieux , Christophorus , the Holy Family , Gabriel , Raphael and Elisabeth on the south side, Hildegard , Bonifatius , Albertus Magnus , Petrus , Laurentius , Don Bosco and Francis on the north side . The lead glazing was made from flashed and opal glass in white and gray tones by Wilhelm Derix and painted with black solder by Meistermann .
The mural behind the altar is also by Meistermann, an “optical variation on some of the thoughts of St. Johannes ”, in front of which the forked cross with two accompanying sculptures by Wilhelm Tophinke was placed. Until the redesign, this hung on the altar wall as a crucifixion group - with Maria Magdalena as the middle figure, deep below the cross, but carved from the same trunk. This has been removed for the new concept.
A side sacrament altar made of white marble was designed by Gottfried Böhm as part of the redesign, the new tabernacle door by Klaus Balke . When the baptistery was rededicated to the weekday chapel, the baptismal font from around 1930 was placed in front of the sacrament altar.
The three-manual Seifert organ with 37 registers dates from 1954 and was completely overhauled in 1990/1991. The pipes stand symmetrically and freely in the room without a prospectus .
The two-part ringing consists of a borrowed bell from 1924 from the Otto bell foundry , which was installed in 1930 and purchased by the foundry in 1947, as well as a so-called sponsor bell. This is a Gothic bell from 1521 that originally came from the town church in Świerzawa in Silesia and was handed over and stored for war purposes, but then survived the war unscathed. The strikes are D flat 1 – F sharp 1 .
literature
- Heinrich Loosen, Ursula Knott: St. Karl Borromeo, Catholic parish church in Cologne-Sülz. History, building, design . (Church leaders, text is largely identical to the text on the website, this is more up-to-date and more complete). Ed .: Parish of St. Karl Borromäus. Cologne 1996.
Web links
- Website of the municipality with detailed descriptions and historical and current photos
Individual evidence
- ^ The story of St. Karl Borromaeus Cologne-Sülz. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Chronicle of the Church of St. Karl Borromäus Cologne-Sülz. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Search in the list of monuments. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
- ↑ St. Charles Borromeo. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural Guide Cologne: Sacred Buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 64-65 .
- ↑ a b Monika Schmelzer: Saint Karl Borromäus . In: Manfred Becker-Huberti, Günter A. Menne (Ed.): Churches in Cologne. The churches of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Cologne. Bachem, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7616-1731-3 , p. 87 .
- ↑ window. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Cross and choir mural. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ^ The organ of St. Karl Borromäus Köln-Sülz. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ^ The bells of St. Karl Borromäus Köln-Sülz. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
- ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 703 ( archive.org [PDF]).
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 '19.9 " N , 6 ° 55' 21.9" E
