St. Lawrence (Chodov)
The Catholic parish church of St. Laurentius (Czech Kostel svatého Vavřince) in the Czech city of Chodov (German Chodau ) is a protected architectural monument.
history
Previous construction
Today's church has several previous buildings. In the course of the establishment and colonization of Chodau by German settlers, monks of the Cistercian monastery Waldsassen built a wooden church in the center of the village at the end of the 12th century, which was later replaced by a Gothic stone building. Until 1348 the abbot of the Waldsassen monastery had the right of patronage. The church has only been definitely occupied since the middle of the 14th century, when it already had the character of a parish church.
In the 16th century, the village split in half with separate administrative units. The church and parish was in Unter-Chodau. In addition to Chodau, Münchof, Hunischgrün, Granesau, Wintersgrün, Stelzengrün, Braunsdorf and Pechgrün were included. With the Reformation , the landlord appointed a Lutheran preacher, in 1553 it was Andreas Lang. After the battle of the White Mountain , the church was re-Catholicized and in 1626 received a Catholic priest again in Adam Sustius. The pastor's position was initially not permanently occupied and the houses were partly abandoned after the Thirty Years' War. In 1651 a total of 124 Catholics and 9 Protestants lived in Lower and Upper Chodau.
The church was destroyed by a lightning strike in 1654. According to the parish chronicle, the heat was so intense that the bells melted and the masonry collapsed. Four years later, the landlord Johann Wilhelm von Plankenheim ordered a new building in the same place. The bell still preserved today was supplied by the Pilsner bell founder Melchior Matthias Michelin. The organ was obtained from St. Joachimsthal in 1667. From 1695 to 1700 the bell tower was built from scratch. The church, which had become too small, soon no longer met the requirements of the growing parish. At the beginning of the 18th century, the pastor Michael Hönig complained about the poor state of construction when he took office.
New building
Originally the church patron Franz Flamm von Plankenheim planned to build a pilgrimage church around his 1718 by Pope Clemens XI. preserved relics, including a cross particle and bone fragments of St. Lawrence. The place chosen was a hill above the old cemetery. The foundation stone was laid on July 23, 1725. The builder was Wolfgang Braunbock, who also directed the new construction of the parish church of St. Wenzel in Elbogen. The carpenters Laurenz Jeckel from Luck and Bartel Scharf from Bernklau were involved in the construction, and since 1733 the master carpenter David Schmidt from Elbogen. After the builder's death in 1729, his son Hans Andreas Braunbock continued the project.
The church was built on an unstable loam base, which had a negative effect on the statics. Due to lack of money, the construction work had to be temporarily suspended. The presbytery was roofed over in 1731. The first holy mass took place on August 10, 1733. The founder of the church, who had died only a few weeks earlier, found his final resting place in the crypt. In 1733 the demolition of the old church began, the stones of which were used for the new building. In 1790 the old cemetery on the north side of the church was abandoned. In 1812 the right of patronage fell to the city of Elbogen.
Restorations took place in 1865, 1890 and 1930. In the second half of the 19th century, two priests worked for the parish. The last German pastor was Ferdinand Brändl, who was born in Chodau until 1945. After the expulsion of the German population, the church remained unused and was in need of renovation at the end of the 1960s. Prefabricated houses were built below the church hill, which again had a negative effect on the church foundation. In order to prevent an impending collapse, urgent repair work was carried out in the 1970s. Since 2005 the church has been owned by the city of Chodov. Further renovations are planned.
description
The entrance to the single-nave baroque church with an east-facing presbytery is via the south side of the nave. There is a 35 meter high prismatic tower above the west facade. The interior is divided by pilasters. To the side of the presbytery are the sacristy and an oratory.
Furnishing
Frescoes
The walls and ceilings were designed by the painter Paul Mayer. The dome fresco in the presbytery "Coronation of the Virgin Mary" is the work of the Baroque painter Elias Dollhopf. The original ceiling painting in the nave was lost during the reconstruction in the second half of the 20th century.
Altars
The main altar dates from 1835, the carving was carried out by Joseph Fischer from Elbogen. The altar painting "Passion of St. Laurentius" was created by the painter Christoph Maurus Fuchs from Tirschenreuth . On the walls of the nave there are two Marian altars, the altars of St. Aloisius and the altar of the Sacred Heart of the Lord. On the walls of the nave there are pictures of a station of the cross from the 1840s. The stained glass windows were donated by an entrepreneur from Chodau at the beginning of the 20th century.
Grave slabs
The tower houses a stone Renaissance epitaph by Bernhard Unruh from 1573 on the ground floor with the inscription: “DREY VND SEVEN / ZICK IAR DAMALS / MAN ZELT IS / AS THIS JVNGER / BERNHARDT VNRV / HER SCHIED VON / THIS WORLD / IN THE TWO VND / VIRZIGISTS / WEEKS TO BE / AGE DECLARED / GOD CONSOLE / HIM TO ABRAHAMS / SCHOSZ ”. A total of ten people from the Flamm von Plankenheim aristocratic family are buried in the crypt .
Peal
In the church tower hangs a relief-decorated bell by the Pilsen bell founder Melchior Matthias Michelin from 1658, which still comes from the previous building. It has a diameter of 74.5 cm and a height of 72 cm and bears the inscription: "† AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM ET HONOREM BEATISSIMAE VIRGINIS MARIAE AC S. LAVRENTII IUSSU GENEROSI / DOMINI IOANNIS GUILIELMI PLANCKENHEIMB PRO TEMPODU KOLLSIS COLLISIS nn) O XPI 1658 "and below:" MELCHIOR MATTHAEUS MICHELIN BÜRGER ZU PILSEN HAT ME GOSSEN ". In 1917 two bells were removed and melted down for war purposes. Two new church bells were consecrated for the 340th Laurentius Festival in Chodov 2017. Delegations from the twin towns of Oelsnitz in the Erzgebirge and Waldsassen were also invited to the festival.
literature
- Anton Gnirs: Topography of historical and art monuments: the political district of Elbogen, German Society of Sciences and Arts for the Czechoslovak Republic, Prague 1927, pp. 27-30.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ German genealogy: Sudetenland, Parish Books, Chodau, Elbogen. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Jaroslav Vyčichlo: Chodov - kostel sv. Vavřince | Památky a příroda Karlovarska. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Johann Gottfried Sommer: The Kingdom of Bohemia: bd. Elbogner Kreis. 1847 . JG Calve, 1847 ( google.de [accessed April 21, 2020]).
- ↑ Blessings for new church bells. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 25.6 ″ N , 12 ° 44 ′ 56 ″ E