St. Laurentius (Cologne-Lindenthal)

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Outside from the southwest

St. Lawrence is a former, desecrated since 2019 Catholic church in Cologne district of Lindenthal , which in 1961 to 1962 after plans of the architect Emil Steffann was built. The church was under the patronage of Lawrence of Rome and has been a listed monument since 2001. The University of Cologne is planning to use it as a lecture hall.

history

The parish of St. Laurentius , which has existed since 1924, had no parish church of its own for a long time, but instead celebrated its services in the chapel of Lindenthal's Hildegardis hospital. That changed from 1959 when the construction of a new parish church with parish center was pushed ahead and the architect Steffann was finally commissioned with the designs. The foundation stone was laid on May 28, 1961, and from November 4, 1962, the church could be used for worship purposes. Four years later, on February 6, 1966, Auxiliary Bishop Augustinus Frotz made the official consecration . In 1967 St. Laurentius was awarded one of the first Cologne architecture prizes.

On April 17, 2001 St. Laurentius was added to the list of monuments of the city of Cologne under the number 8534 . In the following years of the new millennium, a total of four parishes in Lindenthal, including St. Laurentius, merged to form the parish of St. Stephan with a total of five church buildings. Since the use of St. Laurentius had steadily decreased since 1985, the application for profanation was submitted in 2014.

With a last divine service on October 22, 2017, the church was decommissioned and on November 13, 2019 according to can. 1222 CIC profaned by Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki .

In November 2016, the planning for the conversion as a lecture hall was publicly tendered by the University of Cologne, the church is included as building 157 in the site plan of the university.

Building description

Inner courtyard / atrium

From the outside, the church building is a very simple cube with unstructured, almost completely closed walls made of rubble bricks. The end of the roof is clad with metal, underneath a very narrow light joint runs on three sides . Only the single bell, which can also be rung manually from inside, marks the building as a church.

On the entrance side, an atrium with a covered walkway connects the church with the parish buildings. The baptistery connected to the church by a narrow passage is also located here. In the center of the atrium a fountain is set into the ground, the water of which flows as a symbol of the four rivers of paradise in four directions.

The interior is an equally simple, pillarless hall with exposed brick walls, the floor of which is slightly lowered towards the slightly raised altar - on the only wall without a light joint. The actual lighting of the only diffusely illuminated room is provided by a 24- lamp wheel chandelier , which on the one hand contrasts with the cubic shape of the room with its circular shape, and on the other hand spatially connects the community and the altar area.

On the altar wall, behind the location of the tabernacle, there is a tiny window in which the eternal light - visible from the outside - is placed. A correspondingly small window opens on the opposite wall to the atrium. On the north wall, directly at the entrance, a high wall niche offers space for the organ gallery. Opposite in the south side wall opens a rectangular niche with a small Marian place of worship.

“A first, superficial impression that this bare brick cube of St. Laurentius is actually not a 'real church' is deceptive: In multiple changes of direction, the visitor is led across the fountain atrium into the wonderfully feeling of security. Nothing distracts from the essentials to which the liturgy celebrants are led in such a room. "

- Martin Struck, diocesan master builder

Furnishing

Outside bell

The portal of the church is a work by Theo Heiermann ; The large wheel chandelier was designed by Karl Otto Lüfkens in 1962. The central liturgical objects tabernacle , altar table, ambo and Easter chandelier were designed by Klaus Balke. The altar cross from the 15th century and a Madonna figure, which was created around 1500 in the Swabian region, are older.

The foundation stone, which shows Saint Laurentius in his martyrdom , was designed - as well as the floor of the atrium - by the sculptor Jochem Pechau .

A single bell is attached to the outer wall, which was cast by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock in 1961 and has the strike note c 2 .

A one-manual organ with 15 stops was made in 1967 by Leo Verschueren in the Netherlands.

Web links

Commons : St. Laurentius (Köln-Lindenthal)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Monika Schmelzer: Sankt Laurentius . 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. 98-99 .
  2. ↑ a b Church history of our parish. In: st-stephan-koeln.de. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Helmut Fußbroich, Dierk Holthausen: Architectural guide Cologne: sacred buildings after 1900 . 1st edition. Bachem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 182-183 .
  4. ↑ Search in the list of monuments. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
  5. ↑ St. Laurentius. In: st-stephan-koeln.de. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  6. ^ Decree for the profanation of the Church of St. Laurentius in Cologne-Lindenthal . In: Official Journal of the Archdiocese of Cologne . Piece 12 ·. Cologne December 1, 2019, p. 179–180 ( erzbistum-koeln.de [PDF]).
  7. ↑ Property planning services for the conversion of St. Laurentius in Cologne. Notice reference: 157-F-16-178. In: Public tenders Germany. European Union, November 28, 2016, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Site plan of the University of Cologne. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Barbara Kahle: Rhenish churches of the 20th century: a contribution to church building work between tradition and modernity . Ed .: Udo Mainzer, State Conservator Rhineland. Rheinland-Verlag, Pulheim 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0814-0 , p. 119 .
  10. ↑ Bernhard Raspels: Will the church interior become a lecture hall? Considerations for the profanation of St. Laurentius in Cologne . In: Church newspaper for the Archdiocese of Cologne . No. 50 . Cologne December 12, 2014, p. 7 ( uni-bonn.de ).
  11. ^ Gerhard Hoffs: Bells of Catholic churches in Cologne . Cologne 1985, p. 477 ( archive.org [PDF]).

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 44.3 "  N , 6 ° 55 ′ 31"  E