St. Martin (Rheinbach)

St. Martin Rheinbach

St. Martin is the Roman Catholic parish church of Rheinbach in the deanery Meckenheim-Rheinbach ( Archdiocese of Cologne ). It is located in the core town of Rheinbach between the main street and Langgasse.

history

History of the original parish church

View to the altar

A church in Rheinbach consecrated to St. Martin of Tours is first mentioned in 943. Its foundation walls have been made visible again today in the old Rheinbach cemetery, including a notice board. Since it was outside the city ​​walls , it has increasingly lost its importance since the Middle Ages, after the church “Our Lady and St. George” was built inside the city. Although this had no parish rights, it quickly became the main church. When the actual parish church was struck by lightning in 1789 and burned down, the parish rights and the patronage of the parish church were transferred to the church in the city. The foundation walls of the former parish church can still be seen in today's Martinsfriedhof. At 23 m long and 11.5 m wide, this church was smaller than its branch church within the city.

Our Lady and St. George

The church was built in 1313 and had a bell tower that was off the axis of the choir . The church was expanded in several construction phases and finally formed a three-aisled hall church in late Gothic design with a west choir and two polygonal choirs in front; a sacristy was added to the northeast . Equipped with three vaulted yokes , the length from west to east was 21.40 m, the width from north to south 18 m. The area of ​​the church, excluding the chancel and pillars, should have been 280 m². The furnishings included a choir stalls from the 15th century.

On the way to the first new building

As early as 1813, the city council stated that the former branch church, which is now the parish church, was insufficient in size. In 1829 the galleries of the church were enlarged, which meant that some space could be gained. In the decades to come, there was maintenance work on the church as well as various interior embellishments, but the building was not expanded. The St. Martinus Parish Association was only founded on November 12, 1882, with the aim of building and financing a new and larger parish church. At this point in time the old town church was already in a very bad condition.

The first new building

The first new building of the church was not actually a new building, but an extension, because it still contained parts of the old church and was built in his plans in 1902. While the north aisle was laid down, the tower, the main aisle and the south aisle remained. The new building was attached to the old main nave and was now oriented to the north. The old organ remained in its old place, but is now in a side aisle, and a new Klais organ was added in the opposite aisle . Adapted to the old building and in line with contemporary tastes, the new building was designed in the neo-Gothic style.

The second new building

After the church was almost completely destroyed by bombs on March 5, 1945, it was rebuilt after the Second World War , between 1948 and 1950. Only the tower of the old church was preserved. The architect Toni Kleefisch (1888–1975) designed a church the size of the old church.

architecture

With its large and high nave and its two small, low side aisles, it is modeled on a Romanesque basilica . This is evident not least in their windows and the wooden coffered ceiling. This is painted and shows neumes , which remind of the musical tradition of the parish. The higher chancel is spacious and has choir stalls. Under the tower of the church there is a Lady Chapel, opposite the baptistery.

In 1968/1969 the church got its windows with paintings by Ernst Otto Köpke .

In 1983 the gallery of the church was extended and a Rieger organ was installed; it has 3156 pipes in 43 registers on three manuals and pedal and 4000 composers .

Under the chancel there is a crypt supported by four pillars and kept in a very simple style.

Bells

There are five bronze bells hanging in the tower today .

No.	Surname	Strike / nominal	Diameter (mm)	Weight (kg)	Casting year	Caster
I.	Christ king	it ' - 7	1343	1550	1960	Hans Georg Hermann Maria Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock , Gescher
II	Maria	f ' - 7	1188	1050	1960	Hans Georg Hermann Maria Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock, Gescher
III	Johann Baptist	g ' - 7	1059	0750	1960	Hans Georg Hermann Maria Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock, Gescher
IV	Georg + Matthias	as' - 7	1020	0600	1928	Werner Hubert Paul Maria Hüesker, Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock, Gescher
V	John	b ' - 6	0492	0070	Mid 16th century	Heinrich (II.) Ouerraide (?)

Parish

On January 1, 2010, the parishes in the urban area of ​​Rheinbach were merged from the Archdiocese of Cologne to form the Catholic parish of St. Martin, Rheinbach . Only the Catholic parish of St. Martin in Wormersdorf remained in the Meckenheim pastoral care area.

The parish church of the new parish was St. Martin's Church in the city center. The following churches and chapels also belong to the parish :

• St. Martin in Flerzheim
• St. Martin in Hilberath
• St. Bartholomew in Kalenborn
• St. Mary's Assumption in Merzbach
• St. Margareta in Neukirchen
• St. Antonius in Niederdrees
• St. Aegidius in Oberdrees
• St. Joseph in Queckenberg
• St. Basilides in Ramershoven
• St. Hubertus in Todenfeld

In addition, there is the forest chapel as a regional place of pilgrimage, which however does not have an altar and therefore does not form a regular place of worship.

Since the 1970s, Pallottines (SAC) have been pastors in several of the then independent parishes. The pastors have been provided by the German Order (OT) since 2012 . The activities of the three fathers ended on November 15, 2014, after conflicts with the congregation had arisen and a conflict moderation by the Archdiocese of Cologne also failed. Since then, Hermann Josef Zeyen has been the parish administrator, and Bernhard Dobelke has been the pastor of St. Martin Rheinbach since February 1, 2016.

literature

• 200 years of the parish church of St. Martin Rheinbach 1789–1989. Rheinbach 1989
• Peter Jurgilewitsch, Wolfgang Pütz-Liebenow: The history of the organ in Bonn and in the Rhein-Sieg district , Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-416-80606-9 , pp. 441-444. [not yet evaluated for this article]

Web links

Commons : St. Martin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• St. Martin Rheinbach on the website of the parish Rheinbach
• Rheinbach, Catholic Church of St. Martin. Research Center for Glass Painting 20th Century e. V.
• The bell on wdr.de.Glockenpforte

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerhard Hoffs, Achim Bursch: Glocken im Deanery Meckenheim / Rheinbach, edited: January 2014 ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on August 17, 2014. 
2. ^ Official Journal of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Piece 1, January 1, 2010, No. 38
3. ^ Generalanzeiger Bonn of October 18, 2014, accessed on December 1, 2014.
4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.katholische-kirche-rheinbach.de, November 9, 2015. 

Coordinates: 50 ° 37 ′ 33.8 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 2.9 ″  E