St. Nikolaus (Gersdorf)

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The Roman Catholic Church of St. Nikolaus is a branch church of the Raitenbuch parish in the Gersdorf district of Nennslingen in the Eichstätt diocese and in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district in Central Franconia .

Catholic branch church St. Nikolaus

location

The church stands in a walled cemetery on an elevation in the village of 508  m above sea level. NN in northwest-southeast orientation. The district road WUG 16 leads past it.

Parish conditions and building history

Gersdorf belonged to the original parish Bechthal of the diocese of Eichstätt. The first church was probably a wooden structure; it was rebuilt in 1182 under Bishop Otto as a stone building. In 1336, Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian swapped the parish of Bechthal and thus also the Gersdorf branch from the Eichstatter bishop and gave the parish of Bechthal to the Heilig-Geist-Spital in Nuremberg, which also received the right of patronage . According to the visitation files from 1601, the next church building was carried out in 1440. In 1486 the bishop of Eichstätt received a whole range of goods from the Rebdorf monastery by way of barter , and in the same year Emperor Friedrich awarded the bishop of Eichstätt neck court , stick and gallows to Gersdorf.

After Nuremberg had accepted the Reformation in 1525 , the new teaching was also introduced in Bechthal and Gersdorf in 1528. Thereupon the bishop of Eichstätt Gersdorf and Reuth am Wald changed to Raitenbuch and withdrew the tithe from the Protestant pastor of Bechthal through the keeper of Raitenbuch , whereupon the imperial city of Nuremberg captured the keeper within its walls. In 1629 there was a settlement between Nuremberg and Eichstätt, according to which Nuremberg also had to pay the Catholic priest, among other things, and ceded the patronage rights to Eichstätt; In return, Eichstätt undertook to bear the building load for the church and rectory for all future. At the ratification in 1630, however, changes were agreed; Among other things, the tithe and the income from the Widdum should be left undiminished in Nuremberg . Thus, the construction work continued to lie with the Heilig-Geist-Spital, which, however, showed little interest in correcting any construction defects that occurred in the Gersdorf Church. As early as 1601/02, a visitation report found the church to be in a poor structural condition, as the Protestant Widdumbauer, who belonged to the Nuremberg hospital and on whose yard the Catholic sacristan service was located, hardly cared about the church.

In 1732 the prince-bishop's government in Eichstätt was informed of considerable damage to the church. In 1736 the ruinous church was demolished and in 1737 the nave was rebuilt with the voluntary financial contribution of Nuremberg according to plans by Gabriel de Gabrieli, the court building director from Eichstätt . The tower, which had been demolished except for two stories, was raised by one story and given a domed roof. The hope associated with the new building of attending more services than every third Sunday service held by the Raitenbuch pastor was not fulfilled despite numerous negotiations and ultimately failed due to resistance from the other Raitenbuch branches.

From 1753 the Gersdorfer were able to bury their dead in their own cemetery. In 1876 the tower, the church roof, the windows and the side altars were damaged by lightning; The repair took place in 1877. Renovations were also carried out in 1923, 1937 and 2016.

Building description

The church of the type choir tower church is entered in the west; the portal area is covered. It has a choir with a ridged cross vault in the east tower. The three-bay nave has a flat roof. The windows are arched. The square-shaped tower shows no structure; It is crowned by a brick dome on which a four-sided brick obelisk sits. The sacristy is on the south side of the choir.

Furnishing

  • The two-column high altar dates from 1737, whereby the plans of the Eichstätter carpenter Georg Leonhard Koller were implemented "somewhat more Rococo ". The sculptor work on the choir altar was carried out by the Eichstatt sculptor Joseph Schorer .
  • The side altars, which also have two columns, were built in the second half of the 17th century. They come from Pollenfeld and came to the church after the lightning strike in 1876, whereby the current altarpieces were added.
  • The pulpit on the north side and the stucco on the ceiling and the gallery were created by the Eichstätter stucco maker Franz Xaver Horneis in 1738; the images of the apostles on the curved body, framed by bandwork, are more recent. The stucco sound cover is designed in the shape of a dome.
  • The antependia painted Hugo Ernst Murmann of Eichstatt, the silver plated four candlesticks and a crucifix summarized .
  • Another four candlesticks and another crucifix were made by the Eichstatt painter Martin Lukas Zwickl in 1744.
  • The figures include a Saint Nicholas from 1470/80 (on the high altar instead of an altarpiece painted by Martin Lukas Zwickl in 1748, which was removed in the 19th century) and a Madonna from the second half of the 17th century.

literature

  • Felix Mader and Karl Gröber (editor): The art monuments of Bavaria. Middle Franconia administrative region. V. City and District Office Weißenburg i. B . Munich: R. Oldenbourg 1932, p. 278f.
  • Benedict Kössler: Gersdorf on the Anlauter. About the culture and past of a village . Regensburg 1962.
  • Erich Strassner: rural and urban district of Weißenburg i. Bay. Series of Historical Place Name Book of Bavaria. Middle Franconia, Vol. 2 . Munich: Commission for bayer. Landesgeschichte 1966, No. 54, p. 18f.
  • Theodor Neuhofer: Contributions to the art history of Bavaria. Eichstätt Monastery. Land area of ​​the Hochstift . In: Collective sheet Historischer Verein Eichstätt 62 (1967/68), pp. 16–27, especially pp. 18–20.
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia. The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia. Edited by Tilmann Breuer and others. 2nd, revised and supplemented edition, Munich / Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag 1999.
  • Johann Schrenk and Karl Friedrich Zink : God's Houses. Church leader in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen. Treuchtlingen / Berlin: wek-Verlag 2008, p. 62f.

Web links

Commons : St. Nikolaus (Gersdorf)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kössler, p. 5
  2. ↑ Kössler, pp. 5f., 11; Strassner, p. 19; Neuhofer, p. 18
  3. ↑ Strassner, p. 19
  4. ↑ This section after Kössler, pp. 5–19, 23f.
  5. ↑ Neuhofer, p. 18
  6. ↑ Mader / Gröber, p. 278; Kössler, p. 11
  7. ↑ Neuhofer, p. 18f.
  8. ↑ Kössler, pp. 13-20
  9. ↑ Kössler, p. 12f.
  10. ↑ Mader / Gröber, p. 278
  11. ↑ Neuhofer, p. 19; Mader / Gröber, p. 278
  12. ↑ Mader / Gröber, p. 278; Kössler, p. 20
  13. ↑ a b Neuhofer, p. 19
  14. ↑ a b Mader / Gröber, p. 279
  15. ↑ Mader / Gröber, p. 278f .; Neuhofer, p. 20

Coordinates: 49 ° 1 '54.1 "  N , 11 ° 9' 29.7"  E