St. Lambertus (Holzheim)

St. Lambertus, view of the Romanesque tower

View from the southeast

St. Lambertus is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Mechernich district of Holzheim in the Euskirchen district in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The church is dedicated to St. Bishop Lambert of Liège consecrated and entered under number 28 in the list of architectural monuments in Mechernich . The village of Weiler am Berge is also part of the parish .

location

The church building is located in the southern part of the street village of Holzheim on Heistardstrasse. The parish church is surrounded by the cemetery.

history

The place Holzheim was first mentioned in 893 in the Prümer Urbar . The church was first mentioned in a document from 1067. In it, the Archbishop of Cologne , Anno II , donated the church and its properties to the newly founded Georgsstift in Cologne. This fact suggests that this could originally have been an episcopal church .

In the Liber valoris from 1308, Holzheim is listed as a parish in the extensive Eifel dean of the Cologne archbishopric. Up until the French times , the canons of St. George were the collators of the parish church. From the year 1550 it is reported that the canons took turns exercising the collature with the Counts of Manderscheid-Blankenheim. In the 16th century, in addition to Holzheim itself, the parish also included Breitenbenden , Harzheim , Weiler am Berge and Vussem .

In 1802 the parish came to the newly founded diocese of Aachen , nothing changed in the composition of the parish. In 1821 Holzheim came back to the Archdiocese of Cologne, in 1857 Harzheim was parish and raised to an independent parish, and since 1919 Vussem-Breitenbenden was raised to a parish vicarie and has been in fact independent since then. The only remaining branch is now Weiler am Berge. Holzheim has been part of the Aachen diocese since 1930.

Building history

The Romanesque bell tower of the church, mentioned in 1067, has been preserved to this day . This was originally followed by a small hall church the width of the bell tower. In the centuries that followed, the church was rebuilt several times.

In the middle of the 19th century the parish church became too small and it was decided to demolish the existing nave and build a new one. The construction of the current nave is due to a fortunate circumstance. The pastor Damian Velder unexpectedly made a big lottery win and donated the money for the new church. Matthias Plum drafted the first plans, but these were never implemented. Architect Johann Peter Cremer from Aachen was ultimately commissioned with the planning. The new church was finally built between 1844 and 1845 after the old nave was demolished. The old tower was retained. Matthias Plum was the site manager. In September 1845 the new church was completed and was on 21 September 1845 benediziert . Extensive restoration work was carried out in the 1970s.

Building description

St. Lambertus is a rectangular five-axis hall church in the classicism style with a bell tower of the previous church in the west. The retracted choir bay joins in the east , which closes in a semicircle inside. On the outside, the choir closes on three sides. The interior is spanned by a structured coffered ceiling, the choir is vaulted with a barrel vault.

Furnishing

St. Jude Thaddeus above the entrance

The interior is rich in equipment. In contrast to many other church buildings in the diocese, almost all of the furnishings from the pre-war period have been preserved here. Particularly noteworthy is the fully preserved, lavish painting. The paintings on the ceiling and the east wall date from the end of the 1840s, in 1903 all other walls were painted.

The organ was built in 1850 by the Müller brothers from Reifferscheid and has 25 stops on a mechanical action . The high altar , side altars and the pulpit date from the same time. In the middle of the nave hangs a large brass chandelier, also from the time it was built. Furthermore, several figures of saints from the 17th century can be seen, as well as two larger than life figures of St. Franz Xavier , Anthony of Padua and Catherine of Alexandria . All three figures were made in the 18th century and probably come from the Steinfeld monastery . The pews are works from the 19th century.

The stained glass windows by the artist Bertrand Bardenhewer from the two years 1899 and 1900 have also been preserved. The total of 14 windows represent the joyful and glorious rosary , above the entrances are St. Archangel Michael and St. Depicted Jude Thaddeus .

Bells

There are three bronze bells hanging in the Romanesque bell tower . The largest and smallest bells were cast by Hans Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock in Gescher in 1954 , the valuable middle bell was cast by Jan van Alfter in 1485. Two more historic bells hung in the tower until 1910, but these were worn out new bells replaced. While these new bells were melted down during World War I , the historic bells still exist. One is in the tower of the orphanage church in Cologne-Sülz , the other in the community center in Overath .

No.	Surname	Diameter (mm)	Mass (kg, approx.)	Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 )	Caster	Casting year
1	Great Maria	1,111	835	f sharp ' −5	Hans Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock, Gescher	1954
2	Little Maria	1,022	700	g sharp ' −9	Jan van Alfter	1485
3	Lambertus	810	340	h ' −8	Hans Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock, Gescher	1954

Pastor

The following priests have worked as pastors in the parish of St. Lambertus:

from ... to	Surname
1927-1958	Josef Koch
1958-1965	Matthias Reuter
1965-1977	Father Peter August Buedts
1977-1982	Karl-Heinz House
1982-1994	Father Alfons Theo Maessen
1994-2009	Pastor Winfried Reidt
Since 2009	Erik Pühringer

Web links

Commons : St. Lambertus (Holzheim)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Recording of the bell ringing on Youtube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Episcopal General Vicariate (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen, Aachen 1994, p. 557.
2. ↑ Episcopal General Vicariate (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen, Aachen 1994, p. 558.
3. ↑ Mechernich-Holzheim, Catholic Church of St. Lambertus. In: Internet site Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhundert eV Accessed on December 16, 2018 . 
4. ^ Matthias poet: Holzheim (D), cath. Church of St. Lambertus - full bells. In: Youtube video cover text. Retrieved December 18, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Episcopal General Vicariate (ed.): Handbook of the Diocese of Aachen. 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 557.

Coordinates: 50 ° 33 ′ 58.7 "  N , 6 ° 41 ′ 52.4"  E