Parish Church of St. Pankratius (Roding)

Exterior view of the Roding parish church

The parish church of St. Pankratius is a Roman Catholic parish church in Roding . The Pancras - patronage is in Roding is the oldest in Germany. The preserved tower of the baroque predecessor of today's modern church building is a landmark of the city.

history

The early church in Roding, existing at least since the 9th century, was dedicated to St. Gallus ; Roding was mentioned in 844 as a place of a royal palace . A document dated August 2, 896 records a chapel into which Emperor Arnulf had the relics of St. Pancras brought. Arnulf had received the relics from Pope Formosus as a gift of thanks; he had helped the Pope in 895 out of distress. Roding is the site of the oldest Pankratius patronage in Germany; it can be assumed that the transfer of the relics of the saint there forms the starting point of the Pankratius veneration in Germany.

After the Gallus Church and Pankratius Chapel, both remained in existence for a long time until a Gothic church was built in their place - at least until 1526 it had both saints as patrons. It was burned down by imperial troops in 1634 during the Thirty Years War . The Gothic church was replaced by a Baroque successor in 1649, with a newly built tower from 1660. This building also fell victim to a fire, the great Rodinger market fire on September 9, 1755. The Pösingen master mason Kaspar Hecht and the master carpenter Hans Heimerl, also from Pösing, had it rebuilt in the following years.

After the Second World War and Roding's elevation to town, the baroque church was demolished in 1959 and the old remains of its Gothic predecessor were removed. It was replaced by the bright and spacious modern building designed by Friedrich Ferdinand Haindl , which still exists today. A new tower was not erected, the old baroque tower was retained as a campanile . On May 3, 1964, the new church was consecrated by Bishop Rudolf Graber .

Location and building

The baroque church tower as the symbol of the town of Roding

The parish church of St. Pankratius is located in the center of Roding. In the immediate vicinity on the Rodinger Kirchplatz are the much older buildings of the Josephi Chapel and the Anna Chapel .

The church building, which began in 1959, is the work of Friedrich Ferdinand Haindl . The church has an octagonal floor plan and has a tiled gable roof; Below the edge of the roof there is a ribbon of windows made of triangular elements that run around the entire building. The building offers seats for 850 worshipers.

In the north-west of the church, the tower of the previous Baroque building by Kaspar Hecht and Hans Heimerl has been preserved as a campanile . The cornice structure on the facade corresponds to its four storeys. It is decorated with two pilasters on each of its four sides and on each floor . The tower has an onion hood , the top is a lantern .

Furnishing

The most important work of art is a gothic, colored, stone statue of the Virgin Mary . Mary wears a crown and veil and is dressed in red and brown. She is shown in a lively posture and with natural facial features. On her right arm she carries the baby Jesus who is holding a book; in her left hand she is carrying a bouquet of holly leaves . The portrait was created in the 1820s; its creator probably comes from the Regensburg sculpture school. The statue was acquired in 1907 for the Rodinger Church; previously it belonged to the beer brewer Johann Zimmermann and stood in the chapel of Regenpeilstein Castle . The baptismal font , with a hemispherical, tendril-ornamented basin, dates from the 13th century and was part of the furnishings of the Rodingen church from the very beginning.

Bronze statue of St. Pancras on the church square

The large silver-plated wooden cross above the altar was made by Anton Rückel . Jesus is not represented here as a suffering, but as a glorified, exalted Lord; his arms are detached from the cross, just as to embrace the believers; his feet are fixed next to each other on the cross. The bronze lid of the baptismal font comes from the same artist; depicted is the rise of Jesus in the Jordan. Also works by Rückel are the two statues of the church patron, St. Pancras, belonging to the church . One, made of wood, erected in 1980, stands in the interior of the church on a stone plinth, which contains the relics of the saint given to Emperor Arnulf . The other statue, made of bronze, can be seen in the southern church square on a stone column.

The tabernacle and ambo , both erected in 1979, were created by the painter and sculptor Curt Porzky from Altötting . The motif of the metal decorations is the burning bush from the Second Book of Moses of the Old Testament or a selection of scenes from the Revelation of John from the New Testament . The Way of the Cross, in the church since 1977, also comes from Curt Porzky. It is executed as a reverse glass painting in simple, clear forms.