St. Mauritius (Hittfeld)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mauritius is the oldest church in the Hittfeld district of the Seevetal municipality in the Harburg district in Lower Saxony .
Building the church
There are no written sources on the founding of the Hittfeld Church. The chronological classification is based on examinations of the building fabric itself. Post holes in the interior of the church are documented from the early 9th century, from which one can conclude that the first, at least 14 m long, wooden church was built at that time. From the 11th century, the wooden structure was replaced by a stone nave , which was extended at least once. The western boundary of the first structures was in the same place as today's western wall, all extensions took place in an easterly direction. First of all, a roughly square choir with an edge length of 6 m was created in today's transition area between the nave and the chancel. In the 13th century the nave was lengthened and widened so that it covered an area of almost 300 m².
When Mauritius became the namesake of the church is not exactly known, but it is likely that the church was named after him quite early on. First of all, the increasing popularity of St. Mauritius as the patron saint of churches in the Franconian Empire from the 10th century speaks for this assumption. Furthermore, the Counts of Northeim , who were sovereigns of Hittfeld in the 11th century, are considered to be the supporters of Mauritius worship in northern Germany. The church soon formed the center of an archdeaconate subordinate to the Diocese of Verden and has been the seat of the district court since 1236 .
A first church tower was located on the west side of the nave, but it was demolished in 1353 due to disrepair and was initially replaced by the ridge turret in the western part of the roof. The northern small extension building was probably built in the 14th century. In the 15th century the roof structure of the church and the pastorate burned down completely. The roof structure was rebuilt in two steps and has been preserved to this day. At the same time, the whole building was completely renovated. In the annex, remnants of the inventory that had become unusable due to the fire were later found, such as a smoke barrel, remains of a chandelier, colorful broken glass and splinters from three different bronze bells.
It is unclear when the current bell tower was built. From investigations of the wood one concludes that this must have been before 1620. Renovations and repairs to the tower are documented for 1687, 1742 and 1862. During the last renovation it received today's slate roof and the horizontal wooden planking.
The current west gable is from 1768, the entire building underwent extensive renovations and repairs from 1971 to 1972. On almost all the outer walls there are traces of the continuous repair over the centuries, such as repaired masonry, wall anchors and supporting pillars .
Furnishing
One of the oldest pieces in the church is the bronze baptismal font by Lorenz Grove , which is dated to 1438, but whose porter figures are significantly older. A picture inside shows Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms .
In the church important personalities of the area were buried again and again. A particularly splendid tombstone for Fritz von dem Berge from Lindhorst , created in 1575, has stood upright on the left below the pulpit since 1966. A tombstone for Clas Neymann from Over from 1670 is now used as part of the altar.
The brass chandelier in the chancel was added to the church in 1620.
Today's pulpit was made by the carver Tamke from Buxtehude in 1657 . The angel figures on their canopy, which are depicted with some of Christ's instruments of torture , are striking details . They are complemented by a central figure, Christ as the world saver. In the lower part there are figures of the four evangelists . Several historical color schemes can be traced for the entire pulpit; today's colors correspond to those of 1690.
The altar is more recent, there are no remains of the original picture altars in the church. The holy figures from Ingeborg Steinohrt's workshop were placed behind the altar in 1957 and depict Moses with the tablets of the Law, John the Baptist with the lamb, Peter with the key and Paul with the sword.
The interior had galleries for a very long time, which were only reduced to the current level in the second half of the 20th century. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the paintings with which the galleries were decorated. In the north wall there has been a coat of arms window since 1955, which was donated by Jagow von Fachenfelde in the 16th century.
The tendril painting visible today on the flat wooden beam ceiling was discovered in 1972 during repair work. It is certainly a few centuries old, but there is no precise information about its origins.
The Dornbusch , a sculpture in a sand bowl in the northeast corner of the church, was created in 2000 by the artist Sabine von Diest-Brackenhausen . It symbolizes the burning bush that Moses came across on his way through the desert.
Bells
Bells can be found in the church since 1556. The casting of a cracked bell is known for 1608. After that, bells cracked again on December 27, 1781 and April 6, 1787. In the 1780s, the cracked bells were brought to Celle and had them poured over there. Both "new" bells have been in the bell tower again since September 16, 1787. The bells of the church should have been melted down for armament purposes in the Second World War , but could be retrieved undamaged from the bell cemetery in Hamburg after the end of the war . The community commissioned an iron bell as a souvenir of those who fell in the world wars. Since the bell tower could not support its weight, it was removed again and now serves as a memorial in front of the main entrance.
organ
The church has had an organ since 1677, which originally came from Hamburg and was initially installed on the east side. Two stops from this first organ are still preserved today. In the middle of the 19th century, the organ builder from Lüneburg, Hildebrandt, rebuilt the organ; it was given today's prospectus and its current location on the west gallery. Another fundamental redesign, which determined the character of today's organ, was carried out by Furtwängler in 1880 . During the necessary restoration in 2001, the organ builder Franz Rietzsch added two new registers.
The organ has two manuals, a pedal , 24 registers and 1568 pipes .
Photographs and map
Coordinates: 53 ° 23 '8 " N , 9 ° 59' 4" E
Bell tower
South side of the nave
Sanctuary
pulpit
literature
- Markus Zacharias: A chronicle of the Hittfeld parish . ( Excerpts online [accessed November 17, 2015]).
- Dirk Jäger: The Mauritius Church in Hittfeld . In: Hittfeld as we like it . 3. Edition. Rasta Verlag Schubert, Seevetal 2016, p. 26–27 ( hittfeld-wieesunsgefaellt.de [accessed on November 16, 2015]).
Web links
- Homepage of the community
- Description of the organ on the municipality's website
- Chronicle of the village of Hittfeld on the website of the municipality of Seevetal
- Presentation of the church on the website for churches and monasteries in the Lüneburg Heath
Individual evidence
- ↑ Floor plan of the church with explanations of the construction on an information board near the south entrance. See picture on Commons .