St. Michael (Euerfeld)

The Church of St. Michael

The parish church of St. Michael is the Catholic village church of Euerfeld , a district of Dettelbach in the Lower Franconian district of Kitzingen . The church is located on Kirchstrasse in the middle of the village and is now part of the Kitzingen deanery .

history

The history of the Euerfeld church is closely linked to that of the village. Possibly the place of worship rose to an independent parish as early as the 14th century , the original parish affiliation is unclear. On October 26, 1363 the parish probably already existed and had the Simon and Judas Thaddäus Church in neighboring Bibergau as a branch . By 1450 at the latest, Euerfeld was an independent parish. The first pastor is recorded in 1482.

In the 16th century, the parish was temporarily not provided and the parishioners of Euerfeld were provided by the pastor of Schernau . The Euerfelder turned to Protestantism in this century, in 1576 all residents were Lutheran. Under the Würzburg bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn , the re-Catholicization of the place was pushed and the prince-bishop endowed the parish again.

During the Thirty Years' War the Euerfelder were looked after by the pastor of Dettelbach. In 1627 the church burned down and a new building was built. On September 29, 1627, the auxiliary bishop Jodokus Wagenhauber authorized the new church. It was then dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours . In 1672 the Würzburg prince-bishop received the right of patronage from his cathedral chapter, i.e. the right to appoint the pastor of Euerfeld.

A second fire in 1685 destroyed the church again. The new building was built by the master builder Johann Höfling between 1685 and 1688. The murder of Michael Estenfelder in 1692 resulted in a pilgrimage sponsored by the pastor , which began again in the 18th century. In 1701 the tower , which dates from the real time, was extensively renovated. Between 1808 and 1810 the gallery was built .

Michaelskirche received its present appearance in 1892. At that time the choir was enlarged and the transept was erected. Either Friedrich Friedreich from Würzburg or Georg Fehn from Bibergau was employed as master builder. The church could already be re-benedited on September 25, 1892 . In 1960 the exterior of the church was renewed, and in 1961 the interior was renovated. The neo-Romanesque furnishings were also removed. The church was renovated again in 1981 and 1984.

In 2007, the interior renovation of the church began for around half a million euros, which should give the church a new liturgical concept. The aim of the construction work is also to restore a reference to the building history of the church. The renovation ended in the spring of 2009. The Michaelskirche in Euerfeld is classified as an architectural monument by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments .

description

The parish church presents itself as a small hall with a polygonal choir closure. It is easted and has a tower in the west. As a typical Julius Echter tower, it has all the characteristic features such as the pointed helmet. A transept was added at the end of the 19th century.

Furnishing

Bells

The chimes of the Michaelskirche consists of a total of four bells . Most of them were made in 1950, and the original bells were probably given to be melted down during World War II . Only the smallest bell from 1922 remained in the community.

Surname	Keynote	Casting year	Diameter in centimeters	Weight in kilograms	inscription
Warrior memorial bell	f sharp ¹	1950	110	800	"In memory of the fallen 1914-18 and 1939-45"
Marienbell	a ¹	1950	93	500	"St. Maria, pray for us "
Michael's Bell	h ¹	1950	82	370	"St. Michael, you strong hero, protect and shield your field "
Joseph Bell	c sharp ²	1922	60	250	"St. Josef, pray for us "

Further equipment

A reference to the former pilgrimage to "Euerfelder Michele" is an oil painting from the 18th century. It came to the church in 1751 through the foundation of the students Johann Paul Rosskopf, Johann Wendelin Hesse and Johann Baptist Euersheim. The picture shows the naked body of the murdered man in the open field in front of the church. The painting "Christ on the Cross" dates from 1724. It was created by the court painter Anton Clemens Lünenschloß .

Another painting with unknown content came to the church in the 19th century. In the choir there is a figure of Our Lady created by the sculptor Matthäus Schiestl the Elder. Before that, in 1857, the depiction of the fourteen helpers in need, an oil painting by the Volkach artist Peter Geist, came inside the church. The figures of John and Paul can be found on the former high altar and were made in 1893.

The organ has 18 stops and was created in 1931 by Willibald Siemann from Munich . In 1992 the Werner Mann company from Marktbreit restored the instrument. Rudolf Schieblon created the choir window from 1961. In the course of the Second Vatican Council, a people's altar was brought into the house of God. Michael Altenhöfer from Würzburg worked on the altar in 1962. He also created the tabernacle.

Pilgrimage

The pilgrimage goes back to a so-called ritual murder legend . On April 6, 1692, Easter Sunday , three-year-old Johann Michael Estenfelder from the village was missing. A shepherd reported that he wanted to see the child on the way to neighboring Schernau. Now rumors arose; the boy is said to have been seen alive for the last time in the house of the Jewish family Lämblein from Schernau.

On April 9, 1692, the farmer Johann Michael Scheller discovered the body of Estenfelder in the "Ötzfeld" corridor . In total, the boy was stabbed to death by 17 stab wounds. The Jews from Schernau were quickly identified as the culprits, who are said to have killed the boy in a ritual . The authorities of the village master, the Hauger Stift in Würzburg, soon had to intervene to avoid violent excesses.

The Schernau Jews were arrested and taken to prison in Dettelbach and Kitzingen . The suspects' interrogation yielded no results and the Jews were released. On May 17, 1692, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg ordered interrogations under torture for Sarah Lämblein from Schernau and Salomon from Bibergau, which did not produce any results. On June 16 of the same year the prince-bishop's government issued a search notice. The murder remained unsolved in the end.

The Euerfeld pastor Johann Martin Förtsch had the body buried in front of the Marien Altar and with his sermons fueled a pilgrimage to the "Euerfeld Michele", whom he described as the "innocent martyr of Christianity". The first miracle healings are said to have taken place quickly. The diocese administration in Würzburg did not support the illegitimate pilgrimage, but neither did it forbid pilgrims to travel there. Only in the 18th century did the pilgrimage dry up.

literature

Hans Bauer: The Kitzinger Land. Valuables, monuments, curiosities. Volume II . Volkach 2007.
Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
Thomas Wehner: Real Schematism of the Diocese of Würzburg. Kitzingen Dean's Office . Wuerzburg 1997.