St. Mauritius (Erfweiler-Ehlingen)
The St. Mauritius Church is a Catholic parish church in Erfweiler-Ehlingen , a district of the Mandelbachtal community . The patron saint of the church is Saint Mauritius . The neighboring towns of Rubenheim (18th century) and Ormesheim (11th century) also have churches that are dedicated to St. Mauritius.
history
The church goes back to the castle men of Blieskastel . The round tower of their Erfweiler Castle with the four sound arcades from the 12th century and the rectangular medieval choir from the 14th century have been preserved to this day.
The first written mention of a parish in Erfweiler dates back to 1347. The document mentions the parish priest Reynero de Erfwilr . But the construction of the first church, from which the present choir has been preserved, should be planned even before this first mention. In 1612 the church was enlarged under the patron saint Junker Damian von der Leyen by an extension on the southwest side of the chancel and the round tower was given a spire with a cross .
In 1824 the nave was enlarged by adding a nave on the southwest side . As early as the 1870s, the church had become too small again, but a renewed expansion failed because of a farmhouse that stood directly in front of the south-west side of the church and could only be purchased for demolition in 1891.
As a result, a church building association was founded in 1891 under Pastor Arnold Rütter , which collected the necessary funds for a new church. In the years 1904–1905 the new nave was built and inaugurated in the form of a neo-Gothic hall with an open roof . The plans for this came from the architect Wilhelm Schulte senior. ( Neustadt an der Haardt ) In the following years the organ loft was enlarged to accommodate a larger organ . In addition, a two-storey extension for the sacristy was added. During the Second World War , the church was badly damaged, especially the roof and the windows. As part of the repair of war damage, the interior was redesigned and the side altars were changed. In 1955, a new bell tower was built above the main portal to accommodate larger bells and a side entrance was built. In 1976/77 the choir room was redesigned. Between 1998 and 2001 a new organ was installed. In the outside area, the natural stone stairs and the outdoor facilities were redesigned.
The inside of the church
In 1977, a sacrament niche with an oculus window was discovered during renovation work in the chancel and the original design of the main altar was exposed under the plaster. Style elements from many centuries were found here: the oldest is the early baroque stone retable and the equestrian figure of St. Mauritius in the aedicula , the neo-Gothic canteen (altar table) and from 1928 the altar sheet with a view of Erfweiler-Ehlingen .
The exterior of the church
A special feature of the church is the round tower, which presumably dates from the 12th century. It probably served as a defense tower and was probably part of a fortified house of the knights who named themselves after Erfweiler. The defense tower theory is supported by the lack of an entrance door and by the light slits or loopholes in the tower. There are two more churches with round towers in Saarland. One in Bebelsheim and one in Reinheim . There are 17 more in neighboring Lorraine .
There are still old graves on the slope side of the church. On a cross of a grave from 1800 the memento warns : "Rosina Kihm is buried here in this cold earth. The ravens of death warn us that they will pray for her"
organ
The organ of the church was built in 1999 by the company “Werkstätte für Orgelbau Mühleisen GmbH” ( Leonberg ) in a housing made of solid oak. The instrument, with 18 registers , is set up on a gallery and has a free-standing console . The wind chests are slide chests with mechanical play and electrical stop action .
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
- Playing aids : 64 typesetting combinations
- annotation
- (v) = vacant
literature
- Oberhauser, Fred: The Saarland: Art and culture in the triangle between Blies, Saar and Moselle . DuMont, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-1643-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d according to the information board next to the church
- ↑ Organ of the Church of St. Mauritius (Catholic) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 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. Info page of the Orgeln im Saarland website , accessed on June 30, 2012
Coordinates: 49 ° 11 ′ 47 " N , 7 ° 11 ′ 14" E