St. Marien (Bad Laer)
St. Marien is a Roman Catholic church in Bad Laer ( Lower Saxony ). The oldest component is the church tower built as an early Romanesque defense tower in the 11th century.
history
In Bad Laer, which was settled as a double round shape in the form of a reclining figure eight on a sintered lime slab, the church of St. Marien is located in a churchyard castle that can still be recognized today by the buildings . The round of the Kirchhofsburg is followed by the second round with the Thieplatz, the center of profane development. Bad Laer probably had its first wooden church around 800.
In the time of Osnabrück bishop Benno II , who built the Iburger Benedictine abbey as a monastery and bishop's seat from 1080 onwards, the defensive tower in Laer was probably built on his initiative as a further means of strengthening his area of influence. The stone works were built with two meter thick walls on a surface area of nine by nine meters and served the population as a place of refuge in times of distress.
Romanesque hall church
In the 13th century, a Romanesque single-nave hall church made of quarry stone was added to the tower . During this time, the defense tower was given a gable roof with a stepped gable . The Grise Torn or Griese Toarn became the symbol of the Bad Laer community; their coat of arms shows the stepped gable.
After the new building, the entrance to the defense tower was in the hall church, the nave of which was 26 meters long and twelve meters wide. A square choir was added later, as well as the sacristy in the southeast . The church had two side altars; the baroque high altar came to Laer in 1707 from the Marienfeld monastery in Harsewinkel . Parts of him have been preserved in Springmeyer's chapel and in today's church. In the 1860s, the hall church proved increasingly dilapidated; it was closed. The community moved to an emergency church built between 1868 and 1874 behind the Legge , which was consecrated by Osnabrück Bishop Johannes Heinrich Beckmann on November 20, 1874.
Neo-Gothic church
The Romanesque hall church on the defense tower was demolished and replaced by a larger three-aisled new building in neo-Gothic style. The design came from the architect Johann Bernhard Hensen , who died before construction began. The foundation stone was laid on May 28, 1872; The new building was built by a construction company from Beckum . Laerer sintered lime was used as building material . The Laorske Steene were dismantled until 1937. The window reveals are made of sandstone. With a length of 42 meters, the nave is significantly larger than the previous building. Two saints of the baroque high altar were taken from the Romanesque hall church into the church. They show Mary and the apostle John .
During the Second World War , the church bells were added to a metal collection. In 1949 the church received four new bronze bells.
The church was renovated in 1966 and 1985. During the renovation in 1985, the chancel was redesigned with the altar, ambo and sacrament stele. In 1991 a new organ was installed, which had been made by the organ building workshop Seifert from Kevelaer .
literature
- Karl-Heinz Neufeld: The Laerer Church in the course of time In: Community Bad Laer (ed.): Bad Laer - Suderberger Hefte No. 6 , Bad Laer 1985, pp. 40-49
Web links
- Catholic parishes of Mariae Birth Bad Laer and St. Antonius Remsede
- The “Grise Torn” of the church on the side of the Bad Laer community
Coordinates: 52 ° 6 '9.4 " N , 8 ° 5' 21.9" E