St. Mary's Birth (Kempen)
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The Catholic Provost Church of St. Mary's Birth is a Gothic hall church in Kempen on the Lower Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia . It belongs to the parish of St. Mary's Birth in Kempen in the diocese of Aachen and has an unusually rich interior that survived the severe destruction of the church in the Second World War through outsourcing.
history
The Marienkirche in Kempen was built around 1200 under the patronage of the Gladbach Abbey . The church was initially a three-aisled, originally flat-roofed basilica , which could be verified by building studies and excavations and was converted into a vaulted basilica around 1240. In the 14th century a choir of two yokes with five- eighths was added. Around 1400 the central nave was raised and re-vaulted and a lower southern aisle was built. In the 15th century, the structure was converted into the existing complex in several construction phases. Initially, a pseudo-basilica was planned, from which the higher east yoke of the south aisle comes, which was later completed as a hall church. A two-storey entrance hall was built in the recess between the south aisle and the ambulatory. In the years 1453–60, the early Gothic choir was broken through and converted into a hall choir and the north aisle was built at the same height as the central nave. In the years 1482–90 the construction work was completed with the construction of the sacristy on the north side of the choir. Extensive restoration took place from 1854 to 1876.
In the years 1939–42, essential parts of the furnishings were outsourced, including the high altar, the side altars, parts of the choir stalls and the organ front. The bombing on October 2, 1942 destroyed a window with stained glass, and the remaining stained glass from the end of the 19th century was also moved to another location. On November 8, 1944, the remaining window panes and some tracery were destroyed. On March 2, 1945, damage from artillery fire and a bomb hit, in which the pulpit pillar and the roofs and vaults of the central and south aisles were destroyed and the outer walls were damaged. An emergency roof had already been built in 1945; In the years 1948–58 the vaults and window tracery were restored, with the exterior also being plastered and redesigned based on traditional color versions. The outsourced equipment was brought back in 1945. In the years 1990–93 the interior was restored and given a color scheme based on findings.
architecture
The tower is structured by pilaster strips , round arch friezes and coupled twin sound openings . The arched portal was renewed in the 19th century. The brick gables, over which a tall slate-roofed pyramid spire rises, originate from the renovation from around 1240. A coffin cornice runs around the nave and the choir . The buttresses are covered with pent roofs, the ambulatory with individual hipped roofs, the sacristy and the north transept are covered with tracery-decorated gables with cross-pitched gable roofs. The south aisle had a gable roof with a bricked west gable until it was destroyed, but during the reconstruction it was covered with yoke-like hipped transverse roofs.
Inside, cross-ribbed vaults are drawn in over the rectangular arcade pillars from the renovation around 1240, which are intercepted by the suspended round services from Trachyte , with triple service bundles being used as supports for the central nave vaults . The core of the pillars of the original structure have been preserved; Capitals and work pieces were reused during the renovation. The pointed arches of the upper aisle were broken when the hall nave was added. Parts of the southern upper aisle of the Romanesque basilica are preserved under the aisle roof. The structure is made up of pilaster strips and arched friezes; the frame of the components is pale red with white grouting. The ambulatory is somewhat narrower than the side aisles. The polygon walls are divided into two parts, as the handling is covered with opposing three-ray vaults; as a result, the axes of vision of the inner choir openings are adjusted by the pillars, unlike in the Lambertus Church in Düsseldorf or the Peterskirche in Rheinberg .
The glass paintings in the side aisles with depictions of the rosary mostly come from the Hertel & Lersch workshop and were created between 1893 and 1900. On the side of the west tower, the secrets of the painful rosary and the protective mantle Madonna are depicted in stained glass by Heinrich Dieckmann from 1935–37. The choir windows from 1967 were created by Wilhelm Geyer and are about the imitation of Christ . In the north ambulatory is a badly damaged and poorly preserved mural with saints of the Franciscan order, which is dated to 1453 by a renewed inscription.
Furnishing
Altars
Of the once richer furnishings, which were already decimated in the years 1854–76, the three Antwerp reredos deserve particular mention. They consist of three-part shrines with a raised central part and painted wings. The color version was supplemented by the Krämer brothers in the 19th century. The high altar has been replaced by the Anne's altar since the 19th century, which was made by Adrian van Overbeck in Antwerp for the north chapel next to the tower in 1513/14 on behalf of the Annenbruderschaft . The middle part shows a depiction of the holy clan , with scenes from the life of St. Anne and from the Apocrypha , from the Legenda aurea and from a legend from around 1500 in the shrine and in the predella as well as on the inside of the wings . In conversation Enge St. Anne is shown with her, according to legend three husbands. The Last Judgment is shown on the outside of the wing . The other ten panel paintings on the back wall of the shrine show scenes from the life of Mary that were created at the same time, but not by Overbeck's hand.
In the north aisle is the Antwerp reredos of the James and Anthony altars from the period after 1520 with a 19th century predella. In the shrine there are four scenes from the legend of the apostle Jakobus Maior , two scenes from the Lambertus legend and two from the life of St. Anthony the Hermit . The crowning figure of St. Anthony the Eremita dates from the 17th century. The paintings on the left wing show scenes from the life of St. James maior, those on the right wing from the life of Antonius Eremita.
In the south aisle there is the reredos of the Marian altar from Antwerp from around 1520, as is the case with the aforementioned altar with a predella from the 19th century. In the shrine there is a depiction of the Calvary and scenes from the life of Mary, most of which have been renewed in the lower compartments. The body of the crucifix probably also dates from the 19th century. The crowning figure of St. George, on the other hand, is probably an originally associated work. The wings show scenes from the lives of Saints Rochus, Cosmas and Damian on the inside, while Saints Antonius Eremita and Sebastian are depicted on the outside. The altar extract shows Saints George and Quirin. A small house altar from Mechlin from around 1510 depicts a carved group of St. Anne herself .
Further liturgical equipment
A tower-like sacrament house was created from sandstone in 1460/61 by Konrad Kuyn . A two-storey tracery tower reminiscent of goldsmith's work rises above the block-like base and a rectangular tabernacle housing. The elegantly shaped work is determined by a strict architectural structure and the graphic sobriety of the details. Most of the figures have been supplemented and show the patrons of the daughter parishes on the tabernacle , the Virgin Mary, Peter and Paul in the crowning of the eyelashes and Christ between angels with instruments of suffering in the tracery tower .
A baptismal font with a round basin with heads and a bas-relief of mythical animals was made from Namur bluestone around 1200 . The profiled octagonal base comes from the late Gothic period. A three-seat celebrant's chair from 1486 is decorated on the back with the coat of arms of Cologne Archbishop Hermann von Hessen and the city coat of arms. The openwork tracery, the ornaments and the hallmarked curtains on the unmounted wood are very finely worked.
The two-row oak choir stalls were created in 1492 by Johannes Gruter. The carved cheeks of the stalls show the four church fathers as standing figures as well as the four marshals of the Archbishopric of Cologne (Antonius Eremita, Hubertus, Kornelius and Quirinus); kneeling angels with the tools of passion and the coat of arms of the city are depicted on the cheeks. The richly carved misericords are adorned with magnificent reliefs depicting the animal fables of Aesop and proverbs from the Lower Rhine.
The splendid Mary chandelier was created in 1508 by the master of the von Carbenschen Memorial Foundation . Angels are attached to the wrought iron candlestick arms as half-length candlesticks, in the center there is a double Madonna in a halo, whose crown is held by two floating angels. The candlestick is comparable with those of St. Nicolai in Kalkar , St. Aldegundis in Emmerich and St. Lambertus in Erkelenz .
Wooden sculptures
A Vesper picture from around 1380 was created in Cologne; the body of Christ was lost. An enthroned mother of God made of walnut wood from around 1420/40, venerated as a miraculous image, was revised in the 19th century, with the head of the child and the left hand of Mary being added. This Madonna is now flanked by two candlestick angels from the Lower Rhine region. A Lower Rhine-Maasland figure of St. Peter enthroned from around 1480 comes from the Peterstor. A standing figure of St. Christopher in double life size on an angel console is a Maasland work from around 1480/1500. A group of figures of St. Anne herself was created in 1492 by Peter von Wesel, the color version was restored in 1956. A crucifix from around 1525 is an artistically outstanding work that is attributed to Heinrich Douvermann and is related to the crucifix in the altar of seven pains in the Nikolaikirche in Kalkar. Finally, figures of St. Catherine and another martyr from the 18th century, presumably with the original version, should be mentioned. A war memorial was created in 1926 by Gerhard Brüx.
Organ and prospectus
The organ is a work by Albiez from 1979 with 45 stops on three manuals and a pedal.
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- Coupling : I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
A valuable organ prospectus has been preserved on the south pore, it comes from an organ by Veit ten Bendt from Cologne from 1541 and is the only surviving Renaissance organ prospectus in the Rhineland. The prospectus shows a three-tower upper structure, the central tower of which rests on a horse console and the side towers of which each rest on a bearded head. The base is provided with carved panels, which are decorated with arabesques and head medallions in the style of Heinrich Aldegrevers . Only the four panels under the cornice are in their original location, the rest were arbitrarily joined together after renovations and losses. The former color version was lost. In the years from 1991 to 2002, the prospectus was therefore reconstructed by the Cologne restorers Röthinger / von Welck based on a design by Cornelius H. Edskes and the missing parts were added. So far, however, no new organ has been installed.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. North Rhine-Westphalia I. Rhineland. Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-422-03093-X , pp. 532-536.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hartwig Beseler, Niels Gutschow: Kriegsschicksale Deutscher Architektur. Loss - damage - reconstruction. Volume I. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1988, ISBN 3-926642-22-X , pp. 513-514.
- ↑ Information about the organ on the website of the Friends' Association of Kempen Organ Concerts. Retrieved June 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Information on the renaissance organ on the website of the Friends' Association of Kempen Organ Concerts. Retrieved June 5, 2018 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '50.6 " N , 6 ° 25' 8.6" E