St. Paulus (Schwaan)

St. Paul from the southeast

The St. Pauluskirche is the church of the Evangelical Lutheran parish Schwaan in the district of Rostock . The community belongs to the church region of Güstrow in the Rostock provost in the Mecklenburg parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany .

Building description

altar

Wiendorf Madonna

St. Paulus is a single-nave church with an indented two-bay choir and a western tower in front. The construction was completed in the middle of the 13th century. Investigations revealed that the roof structure over the choir was built around 1254 and over the nave around 1260. St. Paulus is one of the oldest town churches in Mecklenburg.

The tower was built much later. The wooden structure inside dates back to 1459, although the spire was given its current appearance after a complete renovation in 1840. On the south side of the church, a neo-Gothic extension made of old bricks was added in 1830.

Furnishing

The altar and all the furnishings date from 1828 and 1829. During this time, extensive renovations took place. A triumphal cross group is attached to the north wall of the chancel . The corpus of Christ is Gothic and was created around the year 1300. The two assistant figures, Maria and Johannes, are younger and were dated to the Baroque era by a restorer .

The baptismal font is in the middle of the chancel. This was made in 1589 from gray sandstone. On the six pages you can see the blessing Christ with the globe, John the Baptist, as well as the four evangelists with their symbols : Mark (with lion), Matthew (with winged person), Luke (with bull) and John (with eagle ). On the upper edge there is a band with the Low German inscription ?? “WOL DAR GELOVET VNDE GEDOFT WERT DE WERT SALICH WERDEN. MARCI 16 “( Mark 16,16 LUT ) On the south wall there are portraits of the reformers Luther and Melanchthon .

A little further to the right on the southern pillar is a late Gothic representation of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child, probably made around 1500 by Henning Roleves from Rostock . In Schwaan it is called the Wiendorfer Madonna because it was found in the church attic in Wiendorf in 1945 .

Above the Madonna is a sandstone plaque donated by the princely gardener Siman Hase in 1598. The letters GSMSG stand for "God have mercy on me, sinners". The further text reads "Anno 1598 I gave Siman Hase disen Predigstol to Got (s) Ehren". The plaque depicts the founder, Siman Hase, praying to the crucified Jesus. The plate looks like an epitaph today , but according to the inscription it is the only surviving part of a Renaissance pulpit that was replaced in the 19th century.

The clockwork of the church tower clock was installed in 1841 by the court clockmaker Gärtner from Bad Doberan and was restored from 1994 to 1996. The four dials each have only one hour hand ( one-hand watch ). A quarter and an hour strike are set in motion by the clockwork. To this day, the watch is wound with a crank once a week.

Two bells hang in the church tower today, the larger of which was cast from bronze before 1603 and weighs 1.76 tons with a diameter of 1.44 m. Two more bells, one of which was from the Gothic period and the other was cast in 1754, were still in place in 1901, but were later melted down for armament purposes. Today's smaller bell dates from 1956 and was made of cast iron.

organ

Winegrower's organ from 1861

The organ on the west gallery was built in 1861 by the Wismar organ builder Friedrich Wilhelm Winzer and is still in its original state, with the exception of an electric motor that was added later. The instrument with mechanical slide chests has 21 registers , which are divided into two manuals and pedal. The neo-Gothic prospectus is characterized by three ogival pipe fields, which are structured by pilasters . The middle flat field is slightly elevated and divided into seven smaller fields. The lower case is decorated with a pointed arch frieze and the upper part with tracery with three-pass and four-pass and crowned with pinnacles with finials . The front game table is attached in the middle. The disposition is as follows:

I Manual C – f ³
Bourdon	16 ′
Principal	8th'
Gemshorn	8th'
Hollow flute	8th'
Gedact	8th'
Octave	4 ′
Fourth	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′ + 2 ′
third	1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
Mixture IV
Trumpet	8th'

II Manual C – f ³
Lovely Gedact	16 ′
Viola di gamba	8th'
Flauto	8th'
Lovely Gedact	8th'
Prestant	4 ′
Flauto traverso	4 ′

Pedal C – d ¹
Sub-bass	16 ′
Principal bass	8th'
Gedactbass	8th'
Fifth flute	5 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
trombone	16 ′

Coupling : II / I, I / P
Calcanten bell

Triumphal Cross Group
Baptismal font
Tablet of the Siman Rabbit

literature

Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume 4: The district court districts Schwaan, Bützow, Sternberg, Güstrow, Krakow, Goldberg, Parchim, Lübz and Plau. Schwerin: Bärensprung 1901, pp. 1–15
53 historic churches in the Warnow river landscape. Bützow 2007, p. 24