St. Leonhard (Hilfarth)

St. Leonhard in Hilfarth

St. Leonhard is the Roman Catholic parish church of the Hückelhoven district of Hilfarth in the Heinsberg district in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The church is dedicated to St. Leonhard von Limoges and entered under number 14 in the list of architectural monuments in Hückelhoven .

location

The church building is located on the eastern outskirts of Hilfarth on the corner of Im Winkel and Brückstrasse.

history

On the part of the church, Hilfarth originally belonged to the Brachelen parish and initially did not have its own church. When a Franciscan convent was founded in the town in the 15th century, a monastery church was built at the same time, which was also accessible to the local believers. In 1802 the monastery was closed during the French era and the Franciscan Sisters were expelled. The former monastery church was elevated to a parish church and thus Hilfarth was separated from Brachelen and became an independent parish .

Building history

The monastery church of the Franciscan nuns, built in the 15th century, burned down in the middle of the 17th century and was renovated in 1641. Since the monastery church was designated the parish church of the place in 1802, it escaped destruction. The building was expanded in 1850.

Around 50 years later, the church finally became too small for the growing number of parishioners. Since the previous church was in a rather unfavorable place and a new building was not possible at this location, it was decided to build a new one elsewhere. In 1905 the construction of today's parish church began, the plans were made by the Aachen building officer Heinrich Gottfried Daniels . In 1906 the new church was already completed. The first service took place in November 1906. The solemn consecration took place on June 1, 1911. The old church initially remained standing, but was no longer used for church services. It was only demolished in 1968.

The church was damaged in the Second World War in 1945, but services could be held again from 1948.

A comprehensive renovation of the building took place between 1987 and 1988, during which the original paintings were uncovered again.

Building description

St. Leonhard is a three-aisled hall church in the neo-Gothic style . The bell tower in the west is built in front of the nave, has four floors and an eight-sided rhombic roof . The four-bay and three-bay nave is attached to the tower . Behind it is an only slightly protruding transept , to which the two- bay, three-sided choir is attached to the east . The interior is spanned by ribbed vaults, only in the crossing there is a star vault . There are 500 seats available for the faithful.

Furnishing

Much of the original equipment has been preserved. Particularly noteworthy is the preserved painting from 1914, which the church painter Heinrich Holtmann from Kevelaer , he was a student of Friedrich Stummel , put on. Due to the taste of the times, it was whitewashed after the war, but in 1987/88 it was exposed and restored. Furthermore, the marble baptismal font , the wooden neo-Gothic choir stalls in the choir, a neo-Gothic confessional and the pews from the time of construction have been preserved. The figures of the 15th century Madonna and Child and St. Leonhard from the 15th / 16th centuries Century. The neo-Gothic high altar originally stood in the church of St. Adelgundis in Arsbeck and was set up here in the course of renovations in the 1980s.

The organ is a work of the Bonn company Johannes Klais Orgelbau (Opus 1058) from 1953. The instrument has 20 stops on an electric action . The stained glass windows in the nave are works by Peter Thomas from 1976/77, the windows in the choir designed by Wilhelm de Graaff in 1961 and the windows in the transept by Ernst Jansen-Winkeln in 1978.

Bells

No.	Surname	Casting year	Caster	Diameter (mm)	Weight (kg, approx.)	Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 )
1	Memorial bell	1958	Otto company, Bremen - Hemelingen	1250	1600	e 1
2	Bartholomew Bell	1715	Henios Reichel, Cosmichin Neis	-	-	g 1
3	-	1893	Carl Edelbrock	-	-	a 1

Hilfarth has a relatively small peal for the tower with the three bronze bells. The two historic bells were returned to the tower after the war. The big bell was cast in 1958 by the Otto bell foundry from Bremen-Hemelingen. Before the war there were four bells in the tower, which were not cast by the Otto foundry in Bremen-Hemelingen, but by the bell foundries Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock. They sounded in the ideal quartet (c sharp¹ e¹ f sharp¹ a¹).

The historical clockwork in the tower chamber is out of order. It was built in 1906 by the Ulrich / Weule company in Bockenem.

No bell hangs in the roof turret.

Pastor

The following priests were past pastors in the parish of St. Leonhard:

from ... to	Surname
1803-1837	Paul Ingermann
1925-1953	Christian Woebel
1953-1982	Johannes Heidenthal
1982-1987	Heinrich Fimmers
1987-1988	Dieter Wintz
2000-2014	José Kallupilankal
2014-2016	Vacant
2016-2018	Georg Kaufmann

Web links

Commons : St. Leonhard  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The church on www.limburg-bernd.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 769.
2. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 769.
3. ↑ Episcopal General Vicariate (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 770.
4. ^ Hückelhoven-Hilfarth, Catholic Church of St. Leonard. In: Internet site Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhundert eV Accessed on March 21, 2018 . 
5. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular pp. 559, 574 .
6. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular 510, 530 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (PhD thesis at Radboud University Nijmegen).
7. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 769.

Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 11.3 "  N , 6 ° 13 ′ 15.1"  E