St. Nikolaus (Waldmühlbach)
The Catholic parish church of St. Nikolaus is a neo-Romanesque church in Waldmühlbach , a district of Billigheim in the north of Baden-Württemberg . It is dedicated to St. Nicholas .
location
The church is located on a hill in the center of Waldmühlbach.
history
There is evidence of a Gothic St. Nicholas' Church in Waldmühlbach as early as 1274 . From this, representations of the fourteen helpers in need are preserved, which are today above the entrance to the sacristy . Since then, Waldmühlbach has been an independent parish and was part of the Würzburg diocese until the beginning of the 19th century . Since then it has been part of the Archdiocese of Freiburg .
The direct predecessor of today's church was a baroque building, which was probably built in 1748. This church was 21.9 m long and 9.6 m wide. It held about 210 people. The neighboring Katzental was and is a subsidiary of the parish Waldmühlbach. Therefore the church in Waldmühlbach had to be able to accommodate the population of both places. However, the new church could not be built in sufficient size, perhaps due to lack of money. Therefore the church was soon too small. Around 1830 the two places together had about 1000 inhabitants.
In 1865 it was decided to build a new church. The new church was built on the site of the previous building. In 1883 an emergency church was built for the transition period in the neighboring parish barn. Then the demolition work began. Roman sculptures and inscription stones from the first centuries after Christianity were found here. These are now in the Römermuseum Osterburken .
The construction plans for the new church come from Ludwig Maier , the head of the archbishop's building department in Mosbach . The foundation stone was laid on May 22, 1884. The church was completed in December 1885.
Furnishing
The church is a three-aisled neo - Romanesque pillar basilica .
It has a north-south orientation. The choir with the apse faces north, the tower south.
The church tower is 46.08 m high.
A baroque cross hangs above the choir. In the choir there are statues of St. Nicholas, St. Kilian and other saints.
Depictions of the Stations of the Cross hang on the sides of the nave . There is also a statue of Mary as Queen in the church.
The organ was built in 1885 by Ignaz Dörr from Hardheim .
There are four bells in the tower . The three larger ones date from 1951 and are replacements for three bells that had to be given to the armaments industry during World War II.
| year | Weight | volume | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christ king bell | 1951 | 693 kg | f sharp |
| St. Nicholas bell | 1951 | 380 kg | a |
| St. Mary Bell | 1951 | 260 kg | H |
| St. Joseph Bell | 1927 | 241 kg | cis |
literature
- Working group Heimatbuch Waldmühlbach (ed.): Mein Waldmühlbach - Heimatbuch 2008 . ISBN 3-88260-080-2 .
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 44.2 " N , 9 ° 16 ′ 56.6" E