St. Martin (Kornwestheim)
The St. Martin Church is the oldest church in the town of Kornwestheim in Baden-Württemberg . It was built in the Gothic style. The church is also known as the "Evangelical Martinskirche" or the "old village church". This is to avoid confusion with the Catholic St. Martinus Church , which has existed in Kornwestheim since the beginning of the 20th century.
The Martinskirche has a building history that goes back to the 1st half of the 7th century.
location
The Martinskirche stands in the northern part of the large district town of Kornwestheim in the old village, the former center of the village, on a village square with a fountain created in 1980. On the north side are the former Zehntscheuer (1573), which was transformed in 1979/1980 by the Protestant parish into the Philipp-Matthäus-Hahn parish hall, as well as the Luther oak that was planted in 1883.
Building history
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The architectural history of the Martinskirche and its predecessor buildings is well documented by excavations that were carried out in 1967 when the nave was enlarged. They were carried out under the direction of Barbara Scholkmann and have provided extensive knowledge about the history of the place and the surrounding area.
First construction phase
Around 630/640 a first wooden church (9.80 × 4.5 meters), three aisles with a rectangular choir, was built over a brick grave for a 40-year-old man who was violently killed, probably a Merovingian nobleman.
Second construction phase
The first small building was replaced in the second construction phase around the middle of the 8th century by a stone hall church (12.70 × 7.70 meters) with glazed windows and an apse . The previous wooden church was demolished and the grave was partially looted. It is assumed that there was an "intentional destruction" by the Carolingians , who ended the rule of the Merovingians.
Third construction phase
In the third construction phase, a larger hall church (14.7 × 7.80 meters) with a retracted rectangular choir (5.20 × 5.20 meters) was built around 1100 under the patronage of the Hirsau monastery . The first documentary mention of Martinskirche appeared in the deed of donation to Hirsau. In the 12./13. In the 19th century, a Romanesque choir vault was installed in the choir .
Fourth construction phase
After a church fire, a new church with a rectangular choir and an overlying choir tower was built in the fourth construction phase in the second half of the 13th century after the Bebenhausen monastery took over the patronage (22.70 × 9.5 meters).
Between 1481 and 1495 the nave was renewed and new late-Gothic windows and portals were installed under Pastor Jakob Böhmler.
Fifth construction phase
In the fifth construction phase from the end of the 15th century to 1516, a new building was designed under the master builder Hans von Ulm , but only the choir and side tower were built. The planned new building of the nave was probably abandoned due to lack of money. The reasons given for this are the Peasants' War in 1525 and the introduction of the Reformation in Württemberg in 1534, in the course of which the Bebenhausen monastery was dissolved. Since then the church has been a Protestant place of worship. For a long time it was the only church in Kornwestheim.
By the end of the 16th century, the nave was moderately extended to the west and three-lane, post-Gothic windows were used.
Extension and renovation
A renovation took place from 1881 to 1882: the interior of the church was redesigned in Art Nouveau style. The ship got a vaulted ceiling. There were galleries in the choir and in the nave on the north and west sides. The baptismal font was in the middle in front of the altar.
In the years 1967 to 1968 a fundamental change was made to the nave. Only the north wall from the 13th century remained. The south wall - as planned at the beginning of the 16th century and visible on the binder stones in the southwest corner of the choir - was moved 2.5 meters to the south. It kept the look of the old wall with its post-Gothic windows. The ship was now in the center of the nave (22 × 11.7 meters). In the southwest, the main entrance with a staircase leading to the gallery in the western part of the ship was added. The Gothic choir (13 × 8.5 meters) remained unchanged. The total length of the church is now 35.5 meters.
The organ was moved from the west gallery to the choir, the pulpit from the south to the north side of the choir arch.
On a redesigned tympanum above the main entrance, a representation of the handing over of a coat to a beggar by the namesake Martin von Tours was made in 1968 . A Romanesque wickerwork ornament was placed above the entrance to the interior of the church, which probably dates from the time of the third construction phase and was attached to the south side until 1967.
Today the church offers around 400 seats.
inner space
Choir room
The choir room is provided with a Gothic reticulated vault with five colored keystones. Seen from west to east, they depict Saint Anthony, Wendelin , Ottilie , Martin von Tours and Maria (Madonna with a sun wreath).
On the north side of the choir there is a sacrament house , consisting of fragments that were found during the renovation work in 1968. In the sacrament house there is a newly created bronze sculpture, which shows the division of the coat of Saint Martin.
window
In 1968 the artists Rudolf Yelin and Kohler, in collaboration with the Atelier for Glass Design V. Saile (Stuttgart), designed new glass windows: A large round window on the west side shows Michael's fight with the dragon.
In the choir there are three windows depicting biblical motifs. The windows on the north side are adorned with Old Testament stories. They show the fall of man (Genesis 3), Cain and Abel (Genesis 4), the visit of the three men (God) to Abraham (Genesis 18) and the brazen serpent (Numbers 21). The windows in the middle are decorated with motifs from the life of Jesus and show his birth with a star, baptism, cross and empty grave. The windows on the south side show the beginning of the church and the Ascension according to the Acts of the Apostles: Pentecost, the stoning of Stephen, Christ appears to the Apostle Paul (Acts 1: 2, 7 and 9).
Further equipment
On the south side there is a Gothic crucifix , probably from the previous church around 1480, with a baroque Maria-Johannes group around 1680 and a skull.
organ
In 1682 the first organ was installed on a gallery in the choir, followed by a new Walcker organ with two manuals in 1841 . In 1882 the organ was moved to the west gallery. It has been operated electrically since 1906. In 1968 a new two-manual organ was installed in the choir room. It has 25 registers and 2000 pipes and comes from the organ builder Friedrich Weigle .
Bells
The church has four bells :
- E-bell ("Laurentius bell") from 1508 from Hermsdorf / Silesia (Dominica and death bell)
- F sharp bell from 1949 (prayer bell and our father's bell)
- A-bell from 1699 (cross and drawing bell)
- H bell from 1949 (christening and blessing bell).
The steel bell chair dates from 1968.
tower
The tower is around 45 meters high and was originally a defensive tower . In 1773 it received an onion roof and in 1881/1882 a pointed, 21 meter high spire . The tower cock is gold-plated and 0.65 meters high. Large clock faces of the tower clock are attached to all four sides of the tower .
Outdoor area
The coats of arms of the Württemberg lords and the Bebenhausen monastery can be seen above the south entrance. On the south side of the church there are several plaques commemorating important personalities associated with the church:
- Pastor Jakob Böhmler (1460 to 1500), promoter of the church renovation at the end of the 15th century
- Pastor Philipp Matthäus Hahn (1739–1790), theologian, pietist and inventor (clocks, scales, celestial and calculating machines, etc.), who was pastor at St. Martin's Church from 1770 to 1781
- Rudolph Lechler (1826–1908), from 1847 to 1899 pioneer missionary of the Basel Mission in Hong Kong and southern China (Hakka area), spent his old age in Kornwestheim.
Württembergisches (left) and Bebenhauser coats of arms above the south entrance
Commemorative plaque for the pastor and inventor Philipp Matthäus Hahn
Commemorative plaque pastor Jakob Böhmler
Aerial view of St.Martin, behind the Philipp-Matthäus-Hahn parish hall (Zehntscheuer)
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literature
- Barbara Scholkmann, Sören Frommer: St. Martin in Kornwestheim. Archeology and History of a Church. (= Research and reports on the archeology of the Middle Ages in Baden-Württemberg, Volume 33.) Theiss-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8062-2792-5 .
- Barbara Scholkmann: Sankt Martin in Kornwestheim. Archeology and History of a Church. In: Kornwestheimer Geschichtsblätter. 20th edition, 2010, pp. 9-22.
- Sören Frommer: Kornwestheim, St. Martin.
- Klaus Graf: On the history of the Martinskirche.
- Martinskirche. In: Evangelical Church Community Kornwestheim. 1980, pages 19-23.
Web links
- Martinskirche Evangelical Church Community Kornwestheim, accessed on April 6, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ^ Barbara Scholkmann and Sören Frommer: St. Martin in Kornwestheim. Archeology and History of a Church. Research and reports on the archeology of the Middle Ages in Baden-Württemberg . Theiss-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8062-2792-5 , p. 272 .
- ↑ Sören Frommer: Kornwestheim, St.Martin. (PDF) Retrieved March 19, 2016 .
- ^ Barbara Scholkmann and Sören Frommer: St. Martin in Kornwestheim. Archeology and History of a Church. Research and reports on the archeology of the Middle Ages in Baden-Württemberg. Theiss-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8062-2792-5 , p. 272 .
- ^ Barbara Scholkmann: Sankt Martin in Kornwestheim. Archeology and History of a Church . In: Kornwestheimer Geschichtsblätter . No. 20 . Kornwestheim 2010, p. 19 .
- ^ Website Orgel-Weigle. Retrieved March 18, 2016 .
- ↑ www.historische-archaeologie.de
- ↑ archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '59.26 " N , 9 ° 11' 22.24" E