St. Nikolaus (Cologne Thin Forest)

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St. Nicholas
Floor plan 1901

St. Nikolaus is a Roman Catholic parish church in Cologne-Dünnwald in North Rhine-Westphalia . It was originally built as a collegiate church of the Premonstratensian Sisters.

history

St. Nikolaus goes back to an Augustinian canon monastery founded in 1117/18, which was occupied by Premonstratensian women from Steinfeld Monastery in 1143 . The foundation building was initially a short, flat-roofed pillar basilica without transepts, which was extended by three bays to the west, a nun's gallery and a tower for the Premonstratensian women as early as the middle of the 12th century. In 1122, the Archbishop of Cologne, Friedrich von Schwarzenberg, gave the church full parish rights. For a long time it was believed that a planned second tower was never implemented. Research by the Rhenish Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the years 1997-2007 as part of an extensive renovation of the church building, however, has shown that the south tower existed and was demolished at the end of the 16th century because it was dilapidated. In the course of this, the roof of the central nave was raised from 42 ° to 54 °. In addition, three small Romanesque windows in the west facade were replaced by today's large arched windows with tracery. The blooming of the monastery led to the establishment of subsidiaries in the Rhineland in Meer and Füssenich and the Doksany monastery in Bohemia. In the 14th century, the north aisle was vaulted.

In the course of the Thirty Years' War the monastery was abandoned and converted into a priory in 1643 by the Abbot von Steinfeld. In 1653 the north aisle was redesigned in Baroque style, in the course of which it received the characteristic transverse gable roofs. The apse received the curved dome. At the end of the 17th century, the Collegium Nobertinum, the college of the Premonstratensian order, was relocated to Dünnwald for a few years.

In 1803 the monastery was secularized and St. Nicholas' parish church. In 1875 the south aisle was renewed in romanised forms.

In the course of the renovation from 1997 to 2007 and the selective opening of the church floor, remains of the foundations were discovered in the north aisle, which come from a previous building (thus from the time before 1100). They are documented in the church on a display board and should therefore be the oldest structural evidence in Dünnwald.

The sacred fixtures of the church (altar, baptismal font) were designed by the sculptor Eduard Schmitz (1897–1965), who was very much influenced by Ernst Barlach in his work.

The artistic highlight of the church can be found in the Gothic chapel (1480–1500) on the south side of the church. One of the rare painting cycles of the 15th century has largely been preserved here. The Gothic room contains representations of the 12 apostles, the Annunciation and the representation of the holy clan.

On the north side of the church there is a front inner courtyard, the former cemetery, on which several old tombs in the form of the Bergisch stone crosses from the 17th / 18th centuries. Century are preserved. The oldest grave cross dates from 1572. From 1860, however, no more burials were carried out here.

literature

  • Manfred Becker-Huberti, Günther A. Menne (ed.): Cologne churches. The churches of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Cologne . JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2004.
  • Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the Rhine province , Volume 5, Section II: The art monuments of the Mülheim am Rhein district . Schwann, Düsseldorf 1901, pp. 214f.
  • Leonard Korth: The Dünwald Monastery. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine (AHVN) 44 (1885).
  • Teacher Josef Winter: Kleine Dünnwalder Chronik , 1927, accessed on December 11, 2012.

Web links

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

Coordinates: 50 ° 59 ′ 57.4 "  N , 7 ° 1 ′ 54"  E