St. Peter (Kempen)

St. Peter's Chapel

Floor plan 1891

St. Peter (Kempen) - View of the interior of the chapel

St. Peter (Kempen) - Part of the wooden ceiling

St. Peter is a Romanesque Roman Catholic chapel in Kempen ( Viersen district ).

history

According to local tradition, the origins of the St. Peter's Chapel date back to the Carolingian period around the year 900. This was already called into question by the art historian Paul Clemen regarding the condition of the building of the wall. It is possible, however, that there was a previous wooden building. The Romanesque sacred building is the oldest building in Kempen and in the area of ​​today's Viersen district. The oldest part of today's building is the eastern half of the nave . St. Peter is mentioned for the first time in a document from Archbishop Siegwin of Cologne from the year 1085. It was the oldest parish church in the Kempen region. In the 13th century the parish rights were transferred to the newly built church of St. Mariae Birth in Kempen .

The building made of tuff stone blocks , which is plastered today, consists of a nave (15.90 m × 4.60 m) with a straight, closed, vaulted choir (4.50 m × 4.60 m), which was built around 1220 in place of an older semicircular apse. On the outside, only the choir has an arched frieze as the only decoration . A small, Gothic baptistery (5.80 m × 3.35 m) from the middle of the 14th century adjoins the nave to the south and opens onto the nave with a pointed arched portal and window. Its western part is covered with a cross vault , the eastern part with an irregular star vault. After a lightning strike in 1610, the front part of the nave was rebuilt. Around 1625, a courtroom measuring 5 m × 4 m was built in front of the church building in the west, which was demolished in 1873. In 1983 the chapel was declared a monument.

Ceiling painting

The ceiling painting of the wooden ceiling with depictions of holy popes was carried out by the Friedrich Stummel School after 1889 , it consists of the following picture panels , each with three individual images lying next to each other:

Picture panels (seen from the chancel)
Plate complete	Left	center	Right
	Ornament Florales Renkenweg, a crane (as a symbol of vigilance) is hidden in the lower area between the leaves	"Saint Peter"	ornament
	"Pope Leo I"	Attributes of St. Peter , framed with the inscription: "Tu es Petrus et super hanc Petra aedificabo ecclessia mea."	"Pope Sylvester I."
	Ornament: no description	"Annunciation"	ornament
	"Pope Leo IX."	"The spiritual vessel" inscription: "Vas spiritua le"	"Pope Gregory I."
	ornament	"Mariae Visitation"	ornament
	"Pope Gregory VII."	"The source of living water" inscription: "Fons aqarummviven tium"	"Pope Pius V."
	ornament	"The Birth of Christ"	ornament

Other equipment

In addition to the ceiling decoration mentioned above, the chapel also has the following equipment:

image	description
	Wooden crucifix - Romanesque (after 1300), does not belong to the original furnishings
	Altar - simple oak table with a closed base with a matching ambo
	Vespers picture - it is a copy, the original is in St. Mary's Birth , only the figure of the mourning Mother of God is preserved, Corpus Christi is lost (height 88 cm, end of the 14th century)
	Saint Peter - wooden figure (approx. 16th century), prince apostle , depicted as a Pope with tiara , liturgical vestments and the associated attributes ( key and book )
	Figure of Mary with child - baroque (approx. 17th century), both crowned
	St. Antonius with pig (so-called "Ferkestünn") - patron of St. Tönis (approx. 18th century) , locatedin the small town of Honschaft
	St. Rochus - with his attribute ( plague bump on the thigh ), same baroque furnishings (in white and gold frame) as St. Anthony (approx. 18th century)
	Calling Peter (or the fishing trip) - painting, oil on canvas (around 1700)
	St. Marcus - oil painting (18th / early 19th century), commemorates (see inscription) Bishop Marc Antoine Berdolet of Aachen , who at the beginning of the 19th century approved that Holy Masses continue to be celebrated in St. Peter were allowed to

literature

• Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the district of Kempen. Düsseldorf 1891.
• Georg Dehio , Claudia Euskirchen (new editing): Handbook of the German art monuments. North Rhine-Westphalia. Volume 1: Rhineland. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-422-03093-X .
• Ulrich Stevens : Monuments and history in the district of Viersen. Viersen 2009, ISBN 978-3-933969-95-8 , on St. Peter, p. 13 f.

Web links

Commons : St. Peter (Kempen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The painted wooden ceiling in the St. Peter Kempen chapel. Friends of the St. Peter Chapel, 2015.
2. ↑ The St. Peter Chapel in Kempen - the oldest building in the Kempener Land. Friends of the St. Peter Chapel, 2011.

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 58.1 ″  N , 6 ° 25 ′ 56.7 ″  E