St. Michael (Niederrotweil)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Michael, Niederrotweil

St. Michael is the Roman Catholic parish church in Niederrotweil , a district of Vogtsburg in the Kaiserstuhl in southern Baden. It is the oldest church in Breisgau with the oldest organ in Breisgau from 1759. The patronage of the church is St. Michael . The supra-regional importance of the church is based on its carved high altar, a masterpiece of the Upper Rhine late Gothic by master HL .

The church stands out due to its well-fortified structure in the building itself and the churchyard wall, and its protected location in a former loop of the Rhine and the mountains clearly shows that it was also intended as a refuge for the population.

history

View to the choir and altar
View of the organ and the main entrance

The first written mention of the early Romanesque church comes from the year 1175, this also agrees with more recent studies of the old building fabric. Documents show that the parish in Niederrotweil had close contacts with the St. Blasien monastery in the Black Forest . In 1350 decisive parts of the tithe and the right of patronage passed to the monastery. This transition to the monastery is also reflected in the Gothic redesign of the church around 1350. In 1632 the bell tower burned during the Thirty Years' War , in 1668 the bells were re-cast and in 1688 they were brought to the St. Nicholas Church in Oberrotweil. In 1680 the mayor of Breisach Johann Jakob von Dischinger bought the so-called Zehnthof and the connections to St. Blasien decreased. From 1702 the church was rebuilt in the baroque style by the pastor Nikolaus Wilhelm . In 1712 a new bell was procured, which was supplemented in 1714 by a Magdalena and Apollinaris bell. In 1722 the bell tower was rebuilt and equipped with three new bells by JH Weitenauer from Basel . In 1729 the church was extensively rebuilt and given a baroque style. In 1818 there was a risk that the church would be demolished. By order of the Grand Ducal Interior Ministry of Baden, the church was allowed to continue to exist as a branch church or Gottesackerkapelle. In the same year the choir roof collapsed and was repaired along with the other roofs. In 1833 it became a parish church again, as the St. Nicholas Church in Oberrotweil had to be demolished due to the risk of collapse. The wall paintings were rediscovered in 1908. Since the choir altar was badly messed up, it was supposed to be sold to a museum by the Board of Trustees in 1917, although it was restored from 1918 to 1920 with funds from the Baden Ministry of Culture. In 1922 the nave received a new plastered ceiling, although the baroque paintings and stucco frames were not restored. In 1932 the church was closed because the tower roof threatened to collapse. In 1939 the altar was dismantled and stored in Bettmaringen , and in 1946 it was taken to the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg. From 1949 to 1952 the paintings in the choir were exposed and the altar returned to the church. In 1960 the paintings in the nave were uncovered and fixed in their condition. Extensive restorations were carried out between 1996 and 2000.

Today the church is located on a section of the Kinzig valley Jakobsweg from Lossburg via Schutterwald, Rust to the Rhine bridge in Breisach , where it connects to the Alsatian Jakobsweg .

Layout

Building history

The origins of the church are early Romanesque . This includes the lower floors of the tower and the choir, and in the nave there is an early Romanesque tall window. The ribbed vault of the choir dates from the Gothic period. The sacrament house and the sacristy annex date from the late Gothic period. In 1729 the church was made Baroque with a new roof structure, windows on the south side and plaster ceilings with stucco work, as well as a new pulpit and church stalls.

Furnishing

High altar
Ceiling of the choir
Sacrament house

The showpiece of the church is the high altar with the depiction of the Coronation of Mary , which is dominant in the Gothic choir. It is a carved altar with two wings. It was executed around 1525 in Baroque late Gothic by master HL (possibly Hans Loi), the same master who also created the high altar in the Breisach Minster . In the wings on the left the weighing of the soul on the day of judgment and the baptism of Christ are shown and on the right the decapitation of John the Baptist and the fall of the angel , the predella shows Christ and the apostles. The ceiling of the choir is decorated with paintings from the middle of the 14th century, the six vaulted caps show the enthroned Christ in the middle, to the left and right of it the symbols of the four evangelists (eagle for John , bull for Luke , man for Matthew and lion for Markus ). In the sixth field, which faces west to the choir arch, St. Michael fights with the dragon. The paintings on the walls of the nave are from the same period, but unfortunately badly damaged. Groups of apostles are shown, of which Peter and Paul can be recognized, as well as the donor coat of arms on the north wall. The sacrament house was erected on the north side of the choir in 1492, as was customary in the Middle Ages. It is made of late Gothic ceramic , the individual pieces are up to 70 cm high. The parts are connected with stucco mortar and fixed with forged anchors in the specially converted wall niche. The sacrament house rises up to the choir vault. It shows two coats of arms, one is that of Upper Austria, the other that of Count Konrad and Jörg von Tübingen, Lords of Lichteneck. In 1472, the counts received the pledge rule over Burkheim and donated the sacrament house.

On the south side next to the choir is a baroque St. John 's altar The Beheading of John the Baptist , on the north side next to the choir is the St. Michael's Altar St. Michael in the fight with evil . Since 2001, a painting of the Virgin Mary, dated Rothweil 1690 , has been attached to the west side , which presumably comes from the Oberrotweiler St. Nikolaus Chapel and was acquired by Baroness Ilka von Gleichenstein in the Freiburg art trade and donated to the church. A memorial plaque for the theology professor Joseph Sauer has also been attached to the west side since 1986 , who made great efforts to restore the church and preserve the carved altar. The inscription reads Professor Dr. Joseph Sauer 1872–1949. The savior of St. Michael's Church and the carved altar. Dedicated in gratitude to the parish of Oberrotweil . It was made by the Freiburg cathedral master craftsman and sculptor Sepp Jakob . Archangel Michael in knight armor as a soul weigher. An early baroque statue is carved naively in a rural way and probably comes from an earlier St. Michael side altar.

The organ is the oldest in Breisgau, it was created in 1758 by the Burkheim organ maker Adrien Joseph Pottier for the St. Nikolaus church in Oberrotweil and moved to Niederrotweil after 1833. It has a manual with ten registers and a pedal with three registers. The parapet of the organ gallery is decorated with eight pictures of the Passion of Christ by Franz Bernhard Altenburger , which are painted in brown tones in grisaille . On the ceiling under the organ loft there are three paintings in a stucco frame that depict The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit , The Ark and the Sacrifice of Noah , but these paintings are unfortunately heavily painted over.

The richly decorated pulpit is from 1729, created by Johann Bargör , who worked for a time in Endingen and Riegel. A parallel piece can be found in the former Ursuline Church in Freiburg.

In the side aisle there is a Romanesque font and a simple baroque confessional . As art objects there are a rosary Madonna from the 17th century, which comes from the former John the Baptist altar, as well as a late Gothic crucifixion of Christ with Simon of Cyrene , the corresponding wooden cross is dated to the year 1822. On the east side is the Apollinaris altar , which was rebuilt in 1707 , whereby the middle part of the previous St. Michael altar from 1669 was used.

  • St. Apollinaris Altar

  • Wall painting on the south side

  • Wall painting on the north side

  • The outpouring of the Holy Spirit

  • Romanesque font and baroque confessional

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://saint-jacques-alsace.org/
  2. ↑ Hans-Wolfgang Theobald : The organ by Adrien Joseph Pottier (1759) in the St. Michaels Church in Vogtsburg-Niederrotweil . In: Acta Organologica 22, 1991, pp. 249-278.

literature

Web links

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

Coordinates: 48 ° 5 '5.7 "  N , 7 ° 36" 43.7 "  E