St. Maria (Kassel)
St. Maria , also known as the Rosary Church, is a Roman Catholic parish church in Kassel - Vorderer Westen , which belongs to the diocese of Fulda . It was built from 1899 and consecrated in 1901.
history
The Kassel suburb of Wehlheiden had grown to almost 7,000 inhabitants by 1892, including 650 Catholics. They had to walk 4 km to the Elisabeth Church on Sundays . Thereupon the parish council of St. Elisabeth decided to found a chapel congregation and to build a church in Wehlheiden. In 1893 he bought an acre of land on lower Kirchweg as a building site. In 1894 an emergency chapel was built, but it could only accommodate 200 people.
In 1897, when Wehlheiden had grown further and had become its own parish "ad Sanctam Mariam", the parish received a building site on Neumarkt, today's Bebelplatz, as a gift from the banker Sigmund Aschrott . The architect Georg Kegel , himself an active parishioner, was commissioned by the church council with the design and detailed planning as well as the construction management. In keeping with the taste of the late 19th century, Kegel designed a neo-Romanesque church that was to be slightly larger than the St. Familia church in Kassel that he had planned and construction of which began that year. The foundation stone was laid on July 3, 1899 , and the consecration took place on June 17, 1901 .
During the Second World War , the church initially survived several air raids on Kassel, including the one on October 22, 1943 . On September 28, 1944, however, it was hit by heavy bombs and the entire vault collapsed. Four days later there was an incendiary attack in which the organ was destroyed by flames. After the end of the war, reconstruction work began in 1946. The roof was finished on July 10, 1949, and the arching work was finished at the end of the year. In 1953 an organ was installed.
Pastor
- 1896–1924: Heinrich Burchard
- 1924–1929: Oskar Haseneier
- 1929–1964: Heinrich Roßbach
- 1964–1994: Phillipp Heim
- 1995–2010: Reinhold Kircher
- since 2010: Paul Schupp
architecture
The Rosary Church is a neo-Romanesque style church with a large nave , two side aisles and a transept. Originally planned as a brick building, it was built primarily from rubble stones at the express request of the church council.
Based on the Romanesque church buildings, Kegel used the typical basic geometric shapes of square, circle and semicircle in the floor plan as well as individually or grouped arched windows in the facade. The floor plan shows an exact regularity: the dimensions of the transept and the nave are completely the same - so the crossing forms a perfect square of 12 × 12 meters. All areas can be divided into squares; large squares are multiples of the smaller ones. The upper storeys , the stone round windows, the blind arcades of the choir, the dormer windows and the design of the main entrance with the archivolt are also typical .
The clear architecture has only a few decorative details. At the top of the half-columns to the apse are small angel heads; towards the organ gallery there are two portraits made of stone: on the left architect Georg Kegel, on the right Heinrich Burchard, the first priest. The wrought-iron grilles under the organ gallery and the balustrade in front of the Pietà contain floral patterns, typical of the Romanesque style of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, whose carefree lines lead to the emerging Art Nouveau .
Extensive building security and repair work were carried out in 1974/75. In this context, the chancel was redesigned: the new altar moved into the crossing; The main and side altars have been removed, as have the communion pews and choir stalls.
literature
- Rita-Maria Schwalgin: A striking silhouette and the slender roof turret - commemorative publication “St. Marien yesterday this morning - 100 years of the Rosary Church ”, publisher: Catholic parish of St. Maria, 2001.
Web links
- official website of the Church of St. Mary
- Parish of St. Maria on the website of the Catholic Church Kassel
Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 59 " N , 9 ° 27 ′ 46.4" E