St. Margareten (Tinz)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Margareten is located in the Tinz district of the independent city of Gera in Thuringia .
history
The church was built around 1200 under the abbess of the Quedlinburg monastery on the southern edge of the historic center of Tinz and is one of the oldest churches in the Gera area. From the time of the 13th century ( late Romanesque ), the tower basement is still preserved today as the oldest component. Until 1540 the church was equipped with an indulgence for Margaret's Day (July 13th), combined with an annual pilgrimage and the holding of a fair, to which “people came from far and wide on foot to Tinz to receive the blessing and the To implore the intercession of St. Margaret ”. With the growing importance of Tinz as a place of pilgrimage , the church was rebuilt in late Gothic style around 1472 , which included the addition of a Gothic choir in the east with several altars and the construction of a nave on the west side of the tower instead of the original apse. Until the introduction of the Reformation , the pastor of the church at the same time was Tinzer castle chaplain at the nearby Castle Osterstein . Further modifications in the 17th century led to the addition of an octagonal tail dome with a helmet tip. Since the demolition of the nave in 1838, the floor plan of the church has remained unchanged until today. Only a few surviving views of the town show the Tinzer church with the nave on the west side of the tower. After the church was closed in 1973, parish life took place in the assembly room, which was built in 1952 on the walled cemetery area opposite the west portal of the church. The interior of the church was used as a storage room until the late 1980s. Only extensive repair measures from 1990 onwards were able to halt further structural deterioration and make the building sacral again at the turn of the millennium. Today there are weekly services again in the church. It belongs to the parish Gera-Langenberg in the parish of Gera the Evangelical Church in Central Germany .
Repair and restoration of the church since 1990
- 1990: Start of draining the masonry and renewing the drainage system
- 1995: Restoration of the church windows and new installation of the electrical system
- 1999: Renewal of the interior plaster and floor installation
- 1999: Uncovering a sacrament niche and a sacristy access in the east choir as well as uncovering a Gothic tracery window on the outside wall of the church
- 1999: Repair of the slate roofing and sheeting on the church tower
- October 12, 1999: Tower button opening
- December 1, 1999: First service in the church after more than 25 years
- 2000: Renewal of the interior painting
- 2002: Equipped with pews and return of the winged altar from the Roschützer Church St. Nikolaus to Tinz
- 2005: Repair, restoration and return of the Eifert organ to Tinz
- from 2008: step-by-step installation of a pew heater
- 2009: Restoration and modernization of the church clock
- 2017/2018: Tower renovation with new slate roofing and facade renovation
inner space
The floor plan of today's choir room of the Tinz church is composed of five irregular wall sides, which symbolize the five stigmata of Jesus. It is historically certain that up to the Reformation at least two other altars adorned the church interior in addition to the main altar, including the Valentine's altar (1513). With the demolition of the nave, the congregation gathered on the tower ground floor and in the choir room. The five tall and small choir windows are due to the former access to the sacristy on the south side and the sacrament niche in the north-east wall. The stained glass from the 1950s show, starting from the north: Last Supper, baptism, Margaret of Antioch - patron saint of the church, George (killing the dragon) and Martin (sharing the cloak).
Winged altar
Before the Reformation, the pilgrimage church in Tinz received a winged altar made by Matthias Plauener from Zeitz with two movable and two inactive wings, the construction of which is dated to 1497 and is an important late Gothic masterpiece. The festive page shows splendid carved figures: in the center is Mary as a crescent moon Madonna with the baby Jesus. Maria Magdalena with the ointment vessel follows on the right and Anna Selbdritt on the far right . On the left of Maria are St. Margaret with the dragon and on the far left St. Barbara . The right wing of the altar is occupied by the bishops Wolfgang (inside) and Valentin von Terni (outside). The left wing shows St. Andrew (inside) and St. Sebastian (outside).
When the Tinzer Altar is closed, the everyday side, filigree paintings become visible. The back of the right wing of the altar shows Ottilia von Hohenburg (inside) and Saint Lucia of Syracuse with the sword in her neck (outside). The depiction of saints on the back of the left wing has unfortunately been lost. St. Lawrence can be seen on the right inactive wing and John the Baptist on the left inactive wing .
crucifix
Next to the ornate carved altar is a crucifix from the year 1505 attached to the north wall of the choir room at a height of five meters. It depicts the crucified Jesus Christ, whose legs are nailed one above the other ( three- nail type ). The body hanging from straight arms pointing upwards and the painful face of the Savior indicate a late Gothic type (around 1500) of the carved image.
organ
In 1895, the organ builder Adolf Eifert, based in Stadtilm , built a mechanical organ with ten sounding stops on two manuals with a pedal for the Schmirchau church . The place Schmirchau had to give way in the 1950s to the expanding uranium ore mining around Ronneburg . Before the church was demolished, the organ was removed and moved to the Tinz church in 1954. In 1955, the Schmeißer organ builder from Rochlitz renewed the organ front , electrified the fan and redesigned the sound of five stops. Moisture, woodworm infestation and the low level of use made it necessary to move the organ to the Gera town church St. Johannis from 1978 onwards . Damage to the wind chests made the organ there unplayable from 1984 until it was dismantled in 2005. After the organ was returned to the renovated Tinz church and the extensive repairs were carried out, the organ consecration was celebrated in Tinz on August 28, 2005 in a festive service.
| Manual I | Manual II | pedal | Couple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal 8 ′ | Lieblich Gedackt 8 ′ | Subbass 16 ′ | Pedal coupler |
| Hollow flute 8 ′ | Principal 4 ′ | Chorale flute 4 ′ | Manual coupling I-II |
| Reed flute 4 ′ | Cimbel 3-way 1 ′ | ||
| Octave 2 ′ | |||
| Mixture 3-fold 2 ′ |
Bell and tower clock
After the bronze bells were melted down for war purposes in 1941, three steel bells with the following inscriptions have been hanging in the 36 meter high church tower since 1963 :
- big bell: "Stop praying"
- middle bell: "patiently in tribulation"
- little bell: "Be happy in hope"
The clockwork with two striking mechanisms, which was originally donated by Princess Luise Christiane zu Reuß-Gera (1748–1829) and repaired in 1930, is also on the rope floor . After the installation of electric weight trains and the restoration of the wheels and hands, the three dials on the north, west and south sides of the church tower have been driven by a radio pendulum control since 2009.
Parish hall
In the interior of the parish hall built in 1952 on the cemetery grounds, 18 Christian symbols can be found in the ceiling area, the design and execution of which are from Gera artist and restorer Kurt Thümmler . The glass paintings on the window front show the four evangelists. The order is explained by the meaning of the evangelist symbols in relation to the life of Jesus Christ. Starting from the altar: Matthew (attribute: human → incarnation), Luke (attribute: bull → sacrificial death), Mark (attribute: lion → resurrection) and John (attribute: eagle → ascension).
literature
- Alexander Jörk: The former pilgrimage church of St. Margareten in Gera-Tinz. Gera 2014
- Alexander Jörk (Ed.): Building blocks of the local history of Gera-Tinz. 6th edition, Gera 2019
- Paul Heller, Guntard and Renate Linde: Churches in and around Gera. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-374-00211-0 , p. 32
Web links
- History of the church on the website of Ev.-Luth. Church district Gera
Individual evidence
- ^ Anja Löffler: Cultural monuments in Thuringia. City of Gera . Ed .: Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation. tape 3 , 2007, ISBN 978-3-937940-33-5 , pp. 499-500 .
- ^ Newspaper clipping St. Margarethen Fair . III F 26 / Kröhl - 172. Gera City Archives.
- ^ Tinz near Gera from the south side . (Lithograph around 1820, Gera City Museum).
- ↑ Alexander Jörk (ed.): Elements of the local history of Gera-Tinz . 5th edition. Gera 2015.
Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 6.3 ″ N , 12 ° 4 ′ 22 ″ E