St. Marien (Lünen)

St. Marien, seen from the southern bank of the Lippe

Inside, look at the altar; on the left the chapel with the miraculous image

St. Mary's is a Roman Catholic parish church in Lüner district Luenen-Nord , Westphalia . As it is located north of the Lippe, the district is also called the old town or Lünen-Alt. The neo-Gothic basilica was built from 1894 to 1896 according to plans by the Benedictine priest and architect Wilhelm Rincklake . As Mary - Sanctuary she continues a local tradition that dates back to the early Middle Ages. The church is a listed building.

history

The old Marienkirche

Miraculous image

Baptismal font

The first church on the hill on the north bank of the Lippe , a Romanesque stone building, was built in 1018 as a parish church for the then Südlünen (Südluinen) - located north of the Lippe - and the neighboring farmers Alstedde, Nordlünen and Wethmar (which later jointly formed Altlünen ). In 1254, like the whole town, it was destroyed in the wake of the battle on Wülferichskamp (Brechte) and then used as a fortress and dungeon for a few years .

After the reconstruction in Gothic forms - only the Romanesque tower remained - the image of the Mother of God with the child was created in the 1260s, who received the Marian relics of the church and was soon venerated as miraculous. In today's church, this miraculous image has its place in the northern choir side chapel.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the Counts of the Mark gained control of Lünen. However, since their rights north of the Lippe remained contested, Count Adolf II had the city relocated to the strategically safer south bank from 1336. The old settlement (often also called Alten = Lünen, Lünen-Alt, Altstadt, but also called Altlünen) on the north side remained unprotected and legally disadvantaged. However, the parish church gained importance through the pilgrimage to Mary, which was first documented in 1319. She is considered the oldest in the diocese of Münster .

When the Reformation was introduced in the county of Mark , St. Mary's remained Catholic as the only church in the north-western county of Mark, even after the bishopric of Münster recognized in 1575 that the "old town" in the north of Lippe belonged to the county. Pilgrimages and Marian processions were also continued, interrupted by times of war and the Reformation and made more difficult by the border location.

In 1609 the county of Mark came to Brandenburg . In 1729 King Friedrich Wilhelm I had the Marienkirche in Lüner closed in retaliation for the re-Catholicization of the Reformed Church in Werth by the Bishop of Münster. It was reopened in 1735.

On January 7, 1834, after the service, nine believers and the ferryman drowned in a boat accident during the journey home to Beckinghausen on the flood-leading Seseke .

The industrial development in the 19th century led to the rapid growth of the city and the Catholic community. After much deliberation, the decision was made to tear down the old church and replace it with a large new building. The consecration of the completed basilica took Bishop Hermann Dingelstad 1896. 1936 was the celebration of the 600th anniversary pilgrimage with Bishop Clemens August von Galen to a religious demonstration. After the pilgrimage almost came to a standstill after the Second World War, it has been intensified again in recent years.

In World War II, St. Mary's was spared major damage. A redesign of the interior in 1976 and the replacement of all stained glass windows from 1991 to 2003 give the church its current appearance.

architecture

The cathedral builder Wilhelm Rincklake designed a church in classic Gothic forms. It followed the basilica scheme with a three-aisled nave , transept, choir and 5/8 apse as the east end. Two side chapels flank the choir. To the west of the square bell tower with a slim rises above the main entrance cone - helmet . The total length of the church is 66 m. The tower is 83 m high with a cross and a cock, making it one of the 100 tallest church towers in Germany.

The interior with its ribbed vaults , ceilings , pointed arches, tracery windows , columns and services draws its effect particularly from the contrast between the dark structural elements and the lightly framed surfaces.

Furnishing

Several important pieces of equipment were taken over from the old church. In addition to the oak wood sculpture of the enthroned Mother of God with the child, created around 1260/70, venerated and crowned as an image of grace , the figurative baptismal font and the triumphal cross from the 14th century are particularly noteworthy. The neo-Gothic pulpit from 1855 with the figures of Christ and the four evangelists was transformed into an altar in 2003. Historical votive offerings are exhibited in the Marienkapelle .

A larger than life figure of Christ stands in front of the choir head in a blessing pose. It was created in 1933 by the sculptor Heinrich Bäumer senior. (1874–1951) from Münster. She remembered the parishioners who died in World War I. The inscription plaque has been lost. The following dedication was written on it:

"231 heroes of our congregation sacrificed their lives for the fatherland in faith in Christ. In grateful loyalty: The Catholic parish Altlünen."

From 1991 the glass painter Hubert Spierling created a cycle of picture windows for the entire church interior with biblical scenes of death and life, sin and redemption. The windows of the Marienkapelle are by Wilhelm Rengshausen .

Organs

St. Marien has two organs . The large organ was built between 1996 and 1998 by the Stockmann Brothers (Werl) organ building company. The instrument has 45 registers on three manuals and a pedal . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.

I Hauptwerk C – g ³

1.

Drone

16 ′

2.

Principal

8th'

3.

Gamba

8th'

4th

Wooden flute

8th'

5.

Flûte harmonique

8th'

6th

octave

4 ′

7th

flute

4 ′

8th.

Fifth

2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′

9.

Super octave

2 ′

10.

third

1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′

11.

Mixture IV-V

1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′

12.

Trumpet

16 ′

13.

Trumpet

8th'

Tremulant

II breastwork C – g ³

14th

Dumped

8th'

15th

Principal

4 ′

16.

Reed flute

4 ′

17th

Sesquialtera II

2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′

18th

Schwiegel

2 ′

19th

Fifth

1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′

20th

Scharff III

1'

21st

Cromorne

8th'

Tremulant

III Swell C – g ³

22nd

Pommer

16 ′

23.

Violin principal

8th'

24.

Hollow flute

8th'

25th

Salicional

8th'

26th

Vox coelestis

8th'

27.

Principal

4 ′

28.

Dumped

4 ′

29

Nasat

2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′

30th

Forest flute

2 ′

31.

third

1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′

32.

Piccolo

1'

33.

Mixture IV

2 ′

34.

oboe

8th'

35.

Trumpet harm.

8th'

36.

Clairon

4 ′

Tremulant

Pedals C – f ¹

37.

Double bass

16 ′

38.

Sub-bass

16 ′

39.

Fifth bass

10 ² ⁄ ₃  ′

40.

Octave bass

8th'

41.

Thought bass

8th'

42.

Chorale bass

4 ′

43.

Aliqotbass II

3 ¹ ⁄ ₅  ′

44.

trombone

16 ′

45.

Trumpet

8th'

Coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P

The choir organ by Henk and Gerrit Klop was created in 1983 and was acquired for St. Marien in 2005.

Peal

The west tower has a four-part cast steel bell from 1922, tuned to the tone sequence h ° -d′-e′-f sharp ′.

literature

Parish council of the parish of St. Marien zu Lünen (ed.): 950 years of Lünen St. Marien 1018–1968. Lünen 1968.
Imagination of the invisible. Exhibition of the Westf. Landesmuseum 1993, ISBN 3-88789-111-2 ; Werner Freitag : Visible Salvation - Pilgrimage Images in the Middle Ages and Modern Times , p. 122 ff.
Wilfried Heß: St. Marien zu Lünen - chapter on the city's history (2 volumes). Series of publications by the Lünen City Archives, 1993/1996 ISSN 0932-1667.
Matthias Laarmann: Psalms, Virgil and Ovid: Protestant Latin biblical poetry by Helius Eobanus Hessus (1488–1540) in the choir stalls of the Catholic parish church of St. Marien Lünen-Altlünen. In: Contributions to the history of Dortmund and the county Mark 107 (2016), pp. 71–99.