St. Margareta (Asbeck)
The Church of St. Margaret in Legdener district Asbeck is the former collegiate until very recently, parish and since 2008 daughter church of St. Brigida .
Building history and description
The Asbeck collegiate church clearly shows two different construction phases. The two-bay, single - nave nave of the structure built on a cross-shaped floor plan is the older and dates from the 12th century. From the outside, with almost no decoration or structure, it is still completely Romanesque . Inside, groin vaults on cube capitals are supported by half-column services . The transept and choir show a change in style towards the beginning Gothic , which are dated to the first half of the 13th century. The Vierungsjoch is connected to the north and south transepts with a single bay and the rectangular choir to the east. On its eastern outer side is a pent roof-covered wall projection, and the northern side of the younger part of the church facing the town of Asbeck is structured in more detail by blind niches and round arch friezes. In the choir the rib vault is equipped with a hanging keystone . The capitals in the newer part are also decorated with leaf patterns.
While the windows in the nave were restored to their Romanesque shape during the restoration in 1969/70, the windows in the east wall of the choir and some in the south and north transepts are pointed arched and with tracery . The other windows there, for example in the north wall of the choir, are still originally rounded.
The tower stands on the south side in the far west of the nave. Presumably a double tower facade was planned. The upper floor and the pointed helmet replaced a stepped gable in the 19th century .
The sacristy is located between the choir and the north transept . When the floor was lowered by 50 cm during the restoration in 1969/70 in order to make the bases of the columns visible again, a kind of atrium was built in the entrance area in front of the west facade to avoid a descending staircase, using columns from the Romanesque double - Cloister of the monastery.
Of the isolated, heavily weathered reliefs inserted into the north nave wall like spolia, only the Romanesque figure of a skiapod , the mythical creature known since antiquity, which held its only large foot above itself as a source of shade, can be named.
Furnishing
In the choir and transept in particular, considerable early Gothic wall paintings have been preserved, some of which have been added. This is a sham architecture and in the choir it is the rest of a painted tapestry. In the upper area of the southern nave wall there is still a walled-up doorway to the formerly existing nun's gallery, which leads into the void .
- The oldest piece of equipment is the baptismal font from around 1230. The decoration, unfortunately only moderately preserved, is a circumferential arcade frieze with palmettes .
- A Pietà with a setting from the 19th century is from 1460 and is in the south transept.
- The stone candlestick (around 1500) for the Easter candle comes from the workshop of Berndt Bunickmann .
- A late Gothic towel holder in the sacristy is almost a curiosity .
- Several figures come from the Baroque era , protruding on the sides of the high altar are two of the four (today five) teachers of the church : Ambrosius and Augustine and on the north wall of the nave a representation of the church patroness; opposite a crucifixion group from the Rococo (last quarter of the 18th century). The figure of St. Margareta was a venerated image of grace in earlier centuries, as evidenced by the votive offerings with which the statue was hung for the patronage festival.
- An epitaph on the south wall of the choir from 1706 shows a relief of the " Presentation of the Lord in the Temple ".
- A bell from the Kleinburlo monastery hangs in the tower . It was cast by Pieter van Seest in Amsterdam in 1765.
- Also worth mentioning are a Christ carrying a cross and a so-called Coesfeld cross made of stone, which used to be the Asbeck cemetery cross. The latter is a classicist work around 1800.
- The wood-sighted, obviously pre-historicist communion bench with turned columns now serves as the frontal closure of the otherwise extremely simple rows of pews from the renovation phase in 1969/70. It may have been adapted with this new use (or already before) and no longer fully preserved.
- The high altar is neo-Romanesque, the organ front is neo-Gothic. Part of the historicist glazing has been preserved, with figurative representations in the window behind the high altar.
- The painted, historicist Way of the Cross now hangs in a row on both sides of the nave under the organ gallery.
- In the south transept, besides a more recent “ Perpetual Help ”, there is a wooden sculpture of St. Dorothea (perhaps in the Lower Rhine region, around 1490), recognizable by the boy who, according to the legend of Dorothee , presented her with a flower basket on the way to the execution.
- Folk altar , ambo and lecture cross are woodwork by the Horstmar artist Büscher-Eilert (senior) from the “ post-council period ”. The first two are provided with carved, framed reliefs , the lecture cross is a forked cross with the figure of Christ wearing a long tunic in the style of the “ Volto Santo ” .
- The pulpit from 1720 was removed during the restoration in the 1970s, but has been almost completely preserved. It is described as unique in the Westphalian region because of its special bandwork ornamentation . The railing of the pulpit staircase is an exhibit in the Asbeck Abbey Museum.
- The baroque high altar by Johann Christoph Manskirsch was demolished in 1865. It is assumed that it was made according to a design by Schlaun. Various figures from this altar remained in the church, two putti belonging to them that were lost were recently acquired in the Dutch art trade and are part of the exhibition in the monastery museum.
Web links and sources
- Foundation Research Center for Glass Painting of the 20th Century eV on www.glasmalerei-ev.de
- Ursula Ninfa: From Anholt to Zwillbrock - buildings and works of art in the Westmünsterland district of Borken; Series of publications of the district of Borken Volume XV; Editor: District of Borken 1999; Printing: Druck & Litho Reichenberg GmbH Bocholt; ISBN 3-927851-56-6 .
- Asbeck Abbey, Bernhard Laukötter, publisher: Heimatverein Asbeck 2005.
- Information boards in the Asbeck Abbey Museum.
Coordinates: 52 ° 3 ′ 14.4 ″ N , 7 ° 8 ′ 37.6 ″ E