St. Michael (Piesport)
The Catholic parish church of St. Michael is a listed church building in Piesport in the Alt-Piesport district (Rhineland-Palatinate).
predecessor
A pagan sanctuary was dedicated to the local deity Bigontius , which, first mentioned in 1295, stood on the north, left bank on the mountain slope ( location → ). In Christian times it was made by a St. Archangel Michael replaced the house of God, which was attested in 1350 as matrix ecclesia ("mother church"). However, because of the long and arduous path to the parish of Piesport on the banks of the Moselle, a new church was built with the patronage of St. Michael, today's parish church of St. Michael. The old mountain church lost its rank to the church of the 12 apostles in town. The name was later changed to that of the plague patron Sebastian (today Sebastianuskapelle near the parish hall). A visitation protocol from 1569 mentioned it as the main church. In 1609 baptisms and services were held in it. It is said to have been dilapidated in the middle of the 18th century.
Today's church
The rural rococo church was built from 1776 to 1777 under the direction of the builder Paul Miller from Tyrol. The construction was financed by the parish (tower and sacristy), by the Mettlach Abbey (nave) and by the cathedral chapter in Trier (choir).
The 52.5 m high tower forms the western end of the church, which is built in an east-west direction. In front of the entrance portal on the west side of the tower are two portal pillars from 1780, which come from Klausen , probably from the Augustinian canons dissolved in 1802. With their figures at the top, they symbolize love and faith , two of the three theological virtues .
Memorial
To the right of the entrance, a neo-Gothic open hall was added in 1850, which is covered by a hooded roof. It hides a memorial for the victims of the First World War: on a pedestal, the front of which bears the memorial inscription made of mosaic stones, there is a larger than life crucifix with the crucified crucified man with his loin clad. The wall behind is decorated with a round-arched mosaic. It shows two winged angels paying homage to Christ and an angel at his feet who pours blood from a bowl. Opposite this angel is a figure, obviously a winegrower, who tramples grapes in a wooden tub with his feet and crushes them with a club.
High water marks
There are several high water marks on the wall next to the entrance portal. The top one, right next to the blue cultural asset symbol, is missing; only the empty space is evidence of it. The highest remaining mark shows the date December 30 [19] 25.
entrance
You enter the church through a tower portal, above which the figure of the dragon-slaying Michael is enthroned in a niche. The inscription under the figure is a chronogram and reads: (The letters in lower case are capitals in the original .)
The inner
The vaulted hall building with a three-sided choir closure is furnished with a rich rococo interior . The three monumental ceiling paintings from 1778 are also called Piesporter Himmel and are by Johann Peter Weber from Trier. Above the chancel the Assumption of Mary is depicted with the open sarcophagus and the twelve apostles, in the middle the fall of the angels by Archangel Michael and towards the entrance the missionary sermon of St. Francis Xavier to Indians and Negroes, including a self-portrait of the artist at the bottom right Feet of his blue-clad wife. She is holding a sign in her left hand that reads JP Weber invenit et pinxit, Paulus Miller Architectus 1778 .
JP Weber is also the creator of the large oil painting above the high altar, which depicts a child with a guardian angel . The two are blessed by Mary. At the bottom left is the devil with his discarded mask. He tries to set the globe on fire with a torch. The three wooden altars and the magnificent pulpit date from the time it was built. The organ gallery was built in the middle of the 19th century.
The bells of the church are five-part and were consecrated on January 25, 2004. By Hermann-Josef Schmitt from the bell foundry Glocken- und Kunstguss Hermann Schmitt from Brockscheid cast the smallest bell in Piesport on August 30, 2003. The two-tonne Michael bell is decorated with a carrot bundle , a small reference to the nickname of the Piesporter Mortepänz . The four earlier steel bells from 1950 ring today in the Catholic pilgrimage church in Servanitza, southwest of Ternopil ( Ukraine ).
The "Piesport Treasure Chamber" contains an ivory comb and two pieces of a linen cloth, relics that were ascribed to the Mother of God in the Middle Ages.
The church also features a relief of a station of the cross and a crucifixion shrine from the 17th and 18th centuries. Century.
The feud between pastor and church painter
At the time the church was built, Johannes Hau was the pastor of the parish. As early as 1763, he succeeded in convincing the Piesporter to plant only Riesling vines, 24 years before the last Trier prince-elector, Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony, issued a decree . Hau sold selected Riesling cuttings from the church's vineyards, with which he made a major contribution to the spread of Riesling on the Moselle. The 1983 fountain in front of Michael’s Church commemorates him.
His relationship with the church painter Weber was probably not untroubled. Because of the bad pay, there was an argument between the two. Weber used the paintings in the church sky to express his disregard: in the painting of the Fall of Hell, he gave the devil lying on his back the facial features of Johannes Hau, who is the only one looking at the pastor celebrating at the high altar with an arrow-pointed tongue sticking out. In addition, the initials of pastor JH are hidden in the cracks and crevices of the shattering rock of hell. In the scene of the missionary sermon, the artist, the only one almost naked, and his wife take a clear distance from the missionary on the fringes of the group of pagan listeners in a self-portrait.
Important pastors
- 1765–1803: Johannes Hau
- 1834–1870: Philipp Lichter
photos
Tower above the portal
Sanctuary
Organ with a church sky
Rococo pulpit
Church heaven
fall into hell
Church heaven
missionary sermon
swell
- Reclam's Art Guide Germany III, Monuments, Rhineland and Westphalia, 1975, ISBN 3-15-008401-6
- Information boards at the church
Web links
- Entry on St. Michael in the database of cultural assets in the Trier region .
Individual evidence
- ^ Piesport; Buildings and culture guide. Edited by the local community of Piesport; Idea, advice and participation: Edgar Breit, local mayor; Texts and co-creation: Josef Schemer; 1995
- ↑ Reclam's Art Guide Germany III, Monuments, Rhineland and Westphalia, 1975, ISBN 3-15-008401-6 , page 611
Coordinates: 49 ° 53 '11 " N , 6 ° 55' 3" E