St. Pankratius (Schwetzingen)
The Catholic Church of St. Pankratius in Schwetzingen was built in its current, baroque form in the 18th century and goes back to an older church building.
history
The oldest written evidence of a parish and church in Schwetzingen dates back to 1305, the church patron Pankratius is first recorded in 1435. Around the medieval church was the original cemetery of the place, to the west the original market place was connected.
At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century and in the subsequent period, the Schwetzingen community went through the religious confusion in the Electoral Palatinate with seven changes of religion. In 1698, the Pankratius Church was simultaneously assigned to Catholics and Protestants and, according to the Palatinate Declaration of Religions in 1705, only to Catholics, while the other religions received churches in the surrounding areas.
When Schwetzingen Castle was expanded in the early 18th century and the place grew, the old church, which was in a desolate state, turned out to be too small for the growing community. The electoral court architect Sigismund Zeller was therefore commissioned in 1736 to rebuild the Pankratius Church using the tower on the west side. The new nave was built in the years 1737–1739 and was consecrated on June 14, 1739 by the Worms auxiliary bishop Christian Albert Anton von Merle . Since the base of the old church tower had been changed statically during the new construction, the old tower had to be demolished in 1750 when it threatened to collapse. In 1755 a new tower was built on the east side of the church according to plans by the court architect Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti . At that time, the attic of the church was still used to dry tobacco, and the bricks that were removed for better ventilation quickly caused water damage. The urgently needed renovation work was used in 1763–1765 to expand the nave to the west, according to plans by the electoral chief building director Nicolas de Pigage .
After the electoral Palatinate was dissolved, the church was transferred from the diocese of Worms to the archbishopric of Freiburg , which was newly founded in 1807 . As Schwetzingen continued to grow, the church gradually became too small for the community again, and there were temporary efforts to demolish and build a larger church. The demolition plans were discarded, however, mainly due to the economic consequences of the First World War and the later obstruction of the church building association during the National Socialist era. The space problems were resolved after the Second World War by the construction of the Marienkirche , which was an independent parish from 1970 to 2005, before it was again assigned to the Pankratiuskirche as a branch.
The Pankratius Church was extensively renovated in 1870, 1931/32 and 2005–2007. In all recent renovations, such as the painting of the ceilings in 1931, the refurbishment of the choir after the liturgical reform in 1970 or the installation of a new organ in 2005, efforts have been made to largely preserve the baroque overall impression of the church interior. The crypt under the choir was converted into a prayer room.
The sandstone epitaph of the Palatine Chamberlain Peter Anton von Wolkenstein-Trostburg († 1729), ascribed to Paul Egell , is embedded in the outer wall of the sacristy . He was the brother of the Trent prince-bishop Anton Dominikus von Wolkenstein-Trostburg (1662-1730).
description
The Pankratiuskirche has a rectangular, single-nave nave that is spanned by a hipped roof . The somewhat narrower choir area , under which there is a crypt , faces east and has side galleries . A choir organ is set up on the left side gallery, the main organ is on the large west gallery. The church and the tower are predominantly built in the Baroque style, only the extension of the nave to the west with the western main portal show early classicist features. There is a statue of Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms above the main entrance. Because of a mix-up during a renovation, Maria holds a lance and the child a scepter.
The core of the high altar dates from the time the church was rebuilt in 1739, but was later changed several times, including a. reports of a renewed consecration of the altar in 1770. Like the two side altars from 1767 and the pulpit from the same time, the high altar with its dark marbling, gilded column capitals , gilded decorations, rocailles and putti angels has Baroque style features. The side extensions of the main altar are provided with large angel figures, which are attributed to the environment of the court sculptor Paul Egell. In the church there is further historical figurative jewelry of the same provenance, u. a. a representation of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist on the baptismal font as well as figures of St. Charles Borromeo and Francis Xavier on the side walls of the choir. The main image of the high altar with Christ crucified and the medallion above it with the Archangel Michael were inserted in 1967 instead of older images. The tabernacle , the figures of the princes of the apostles Peter and Paul, as well as the celebration altar, sideboard and ambo also date from the second half of the 20th century .
The right side altar bears the alliance coat of arms of the noble families Pollheim / Winkelhausen . It can therefore be assumed that its founder is the Electorate Palatinate Court Master Therese Wilhelmine von Pollheim-Winkelhausen († 1757). She was married to Count Andreas Ehrenreich von Pollheim († 1735) Prime Minister of Augsburg and later President of the Secret Council of Palatinate-Neuburg . In 1742, the noble widow also donated a magnificent pulpit with this alliance coat of arms in the Mannheim parish church of St. Sebastian . From 1743 to 1757 she officiated as the abbess of the Lindau canonical monastery and donated her entire fortune to the construction of the local collegiate church of Our Lady . Here, too, in a central place, above the choir arch, there is the same alliance coat of arms as in Schwetzingen, now provided with the attributes of an imperial duchess.
The ceiling paintings of the church were created in 1931 by the Hemberger brothers from Karlsruhe. Above the choir is an allegorical depiction of Ecclesia as a woman with a chalice and cross, above the nave is Mary as Queen of Heaven, and above the western gallery Saint Cecilia, who makes music, is depicted as the patroness of church music.
The choir organ was made in 1967 by Michael Weise in Plattling. The instrument has 8 registers on a manual and pedal . The main organ was built in 2005 near Mönch in Überlingen using a historical organ prospectus from 1767 . It has 35 stops (2207 pipes ), the keyboard action is mechanical, the stop action is electric. The choir organ can be played from the 3rd manual. Part of the program of the Schwetzingen Festival has already been played with the two organs .
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P, III / I, III / II, III / P
- Secondary register: Glockenspiel, 39 bells (c 0 –d 3 ), can be linked to any manual
- Playing aids : electronic typesetting system
There are nine bells in the bell tower. The Marienglocke dates from 1484, the rest of the bells were renewed in 1964.
literature
- Otto Thielemann: The Catholic churches of Schwetzingen - St. Pankratius, St. Maria, St. Josef , Weiler im Allgäu 2010
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schwetzinger Zeitung of July 17, 2013
- ↑ Information on the main organ
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 23 ′ 7.5 ″ N , 8 ° 34 ′ 18.6 ″ E