St. Martinus (Linnich)

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Parish Church of St. Martinus

The parish church of St. Martinus is a Roman Catholic church in the core of the city of Linnich in the Düren district , North Rhine-Westphalia .

History of the church

On the site of today's churchyard was in Merovingian a royal which a presumably in the 8th century as a time half-timbered building on field stone base built chapel possessed. Instead of this chapel building, a single-nave Romanesque church was built in the 12th to 13th centuries, including the western tower, which is built up from field stones and still exists today. The defensive-looking tower originally only had narrow slits of light; it is assumed to be used as a shelter for citizens in times of war.

In the 15th century, a three-aisled, late-Gothic brick hall was built in place of the Romanesque nave and the tower was raised. The gothic nave has four bays, the arching is supported by outer buttresses . In the east there is a single-nave choir with two bays and a 5/8 end; In the choir, too, the vault forces are absorbed by external buttresses. Below the head of the choir is an originally open hall resting on short heavy pillars as a structural solution to the drop in terrain caused by the location on the immediate steep slope above the Rur valley . The choir and nave have star vaults with slender, pear-shaped ribs and three-part tracery windows divided halfway across and rich couronnements.

The church and the entire town of Linnich were badly damaged by the fighting in World War II . Among other things, all but one of the vaults were destroyed and the western part of the upper floor of the tower and the south wall of the church were blown up. The reconstruction took place between 1948 and 1955, which was not completed until 1973 with the addition of a new spire.

The earthquake in Roermond in 1992 and another earthquake in 2002 hit the church building hard again. First, after the severe earthquake of 1992, errors in the reconstruction came to light that had to be eliminated at great expense. After the second quake, the church was even threatened with collapse because the building site on the Rurhang began to slide. So the church had to be closed and could only be reopened in 2005 after lengthy foundation work to secure the foundations and modifications to the bell chime .

Attractions

  • The church has three winged altars . These are carved altars from the Antwerp School with additional painting on the side wings, they are known as the Antwerp reredos . Opposite the two smaller altars in the side aisles, the large main altar from 1520 dominates the chancel.
  • Font from Blaustein from the 13th century with a bronze Taufsteindeckel by Elmar Hillebrand .
  • Late Gothic tabernacle : the somewhat more than nine meter high tabernacle was built in 1520 from tuff and savonnieres. The actual case, which is open on three sides with grilles, rests on a column base supported by lions; it is crowned by a three-storey spire.

literature

  • Paul Clemen (ed.), Karl Franck-Oberaspach, Edmund Renard (editor): The art monuments of the Rhine province. 8th volume, I: The art monuments of the Jülich district. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1902, p. 159 ff.
  • Jülich History Association 1923 eV (ed.): The high altar in the parish church of St. Martinus in Linnich . Wienand, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-86832-119-7 .

Web links

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

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 44.5 ″  N , 6 ° 16 ′ 11 ″  E