St. Marien (Laucha an der Unstrut)

Marien Church in Laucha an der Unstrut

The town church that defines the townscape

Look at the choir

View through the nave

Eifert organ

The Marien-Kirche is a sacred building of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany in Laucha an der Unstrut in the Saxony-Anhalt district of Burgenlandkreis . The town church stands right in the center of the town on Thomaeplatz and, with its 53 meter high tower and the 18 meter high interior of the nave, is an outstanding part of the town's silhouette .

history

The town church of St. Mary was built between 1476 and 1496 as a single-nave building in the late Gothic style . The hall church stands in the same place as its Romanesque predecessor, a chapel from the 12th century. Features from the time of origin are the crossed bars of the portal and the fish bubble pattern on the windows.

In the stair tower on the south side, parts of the Romanesque complex are walled in. Hence the stone image of Christ praying - also called Lord God of Laucha - in the interior of the church from the 14th century, as well as the statue of Mary carved as a portal figure. So-called chessboard stones, which come from the earlier Romanesque church, are installed on the outer facade .

The church tower was built from 1498 to 1514. The interior construction lasted until 1532. At the end of the 17th century, St. Mary's Church was given a new, 56-meter-high tower, which was destroyed together with the church roof in a town fire in 1731. It was rebuilt from 1757 to 1759, omitting the tower house, and a balcony-like porch was built on the upper part of the tower. This was eliminated during restoration work in the middle of the 19th century. In 1974 the church tower was restored again. In 1992 the church roof was re-covered, as was the church tower in 2006.

From 1896 to 1898 numerous structural changes were made, the wooden barrel ceiling and today's glass windows were installed. This was created by master glazier Franke from Naumburg, the middle one was created in Quedlinburg.

Furnishing

The picture on the side wall in front of the organ gallery is by Rocco Pagel and shows a heart with a crown of thorns. In summer 2005, the artists Marc Haselbach and Georg Sadowitz created a linocut and two stone sculptures. There are also two works of art from 1986 by Rudolf Wissel d'Arrest from Weischütz: Die Elitären (1990) and Christ in the Café (1986).

organ

The first organ was installed in 1505 . Heinrich Compenius the Younger replaced it in 1599. The instrument fell victim to the town fire in 1731. Conrad Wilhelm Schäfer created a new work in 1741. In 1888, court organ builder Adam Eifert from Stadtilm built one of the first organs with a pneumatic action in the baroque case . Seven registers are not originally from Eifert, but were added in 1963. In the course of this conversion, the upper works was shut down. Since 2001 the "Förderverein Eifert-Orgel Laucha" has taken care of the fact that the organ was restored from 2005 to 2007, initially to the condition from 1963. The arrangement of the organ is as follows:

I main work C–
Principal	8th'
Dumped	8th'
Viol	8th'
Octave	4 ′
flute	4 ′
Fifth	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
Octave	2 ′
third	⁴ ⁄ ₅ ′ / 1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
Sif flute	1'
Mixture V
Trumpet	8th'

II breastwork C–
Dumped	16 ′
Violin principal	8th'
Dumped	8th'
Reed flute	8th'
Octave	4 ′
flute	4 ′
Schwiegel	2 ′
Fifth	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Octave Zymbel II
Seventh sesquialtera III

III Oberwerk C–
Salicional	8th'
Flauto amabile	8th'
Lovely Gedackt	8th'
Flauto dolce	4 ′
Angel voice	4 ′

Pedal C – d ¹
Pedestal	32 ′
Pricipalbass	16 ′
Sub bass	16 ′
Octave	8th'
Dumped	8th'
Choral bass	4 ′
Aliquot bass IV
Rauschpfeife III
trombone	16 ′

Coupling : II / I, I / P

Bells

In 1516 the church tower received three bells weighing 70, 35 and 17 quintals, which melted during the major fire on April 10, 1731. In 1732 the medium and small bells were re-cast by bell founder Georg Ulrich from Hirschfeld in Hesse; In 1744 he cast the large bell weighing 70 hundred pounds, which was destroyed by lightning on May 25, 1879 and was re-cast by Gottfried Ulrich in 1880. In 1905 Emil Ulrich cast it over because of discord.

The middle and small bells were forcibly withdrawn and melted down for armaments production during the First and Second World Wars . The hour bell and the large bell cast in 1905 remained from 1945.

On October 9, 2009, two new bronze bells were raised. Since the 1st of Advent 2009 there has been a triple ring with the tones H (3,385 kg, cast in 1905), D +6 (1,590 kg) and F sharp (885 kg). The two bells were cast in the Lauchhammer art and bell foundry . The small bell was donated by the local community for the 600th anniversary of Laucha's town charter, the middle one by the Laucha family Heise and friends.

Tower clock

The clock in the church tower has been the property of the city since 1810. In 1949 the clockwork from 1905 was technically serviced by master watchmaker Fritz Riechardt from Eckartsberga. In 2008 it was rebuilt by Christian Beck from Kölleda, and since 2009 it has had an electric elevator.

Parish

The parish of Laucha consists of three parishes, Laucha and Kirchscheidungen with a total of eleven places. In addition, the parish of Gleina is currently (2017) as a vacancy administration.

The parish of Laucha belongs to the Saale-Unstrut-Finne region (abbreviation: surf) in the Naumburg-Zeitz parish.

literature

The town church of St. Marien in Laucha an der Unstrut. Leaflet, A5 format with 12 pages, published by the Laucha parish office, created by Angelika Jebsen, June 2017.
http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Die_Kirchenb%C3%BCcher_der_evangelischen_Kirchen_in_der_Provinz_Sachsen_(1925)/L
Descriptive representations of the older architectural and art monuments. Issue 27, Querfurt district. Halle (Saale) 1909.