St. Peter (Gau-Odernheim)

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The remains of the ruins on the Petersberg were discovered during excavation work in 1877 and only fully exposed in 1947. (Photo from 2008)

The ruins of the St. Peter Church are located on the summit of the Petersberg in Rheinhessen, between Bechtolsheim and Gau-Odernheim . There are remains of the surrounding wall of a three-aisled basilica from the 10th century, which was consecrated to the eponymous Apostle Peter , as well as remains of the crypt from the 12th century.

history

construction

Around the year 1000 a Romanesque three-aisled basilica with a transept and three apses was built , the middle one encased in the Worms style . The middle nave was 5.7 meters (m) wide, the two side aisles only 4 m. A crypt was laid out below the choir . The total length of the church was 26 m, the width 15 m. On the roof was a small ridge turret with two bells.

Ludwig III. von Arnstein acquired the church and land in the Gommersheim near Odernheim area in 1146 (note: Gau-Odernheim is meant). There he founded a Premonstratensian monastery . In 1184 Werner von Bolanden acquired the Gommersheim monastery . The church on Petersberg, which had meanwhile been annexed by Bechtolsheim, was brought back.

“Werner, the younger of Bolanden, declares that Werner, his grandfather, at the time of Emperor Friedrich , bought the city in Gommersheim and all its accessories in real exchange from the canons of St. Steffan zu Metz . His grandfather wanted to promote the church service there by buying back the justice over St. Petersberg (de monte beati Petri), which the people of Bechtolsheim had appropriated, and transferred a small purchased property in Gau-Heppenheim to this church . Since he was unable to provide sufficient goods for benefices from convent brethren in those difficult times , he left it to the care of Ludwig, the count and founder of the Arnstein monastery and the abbot Richolf there, through priests from the Gommersheim nunnery, whichever one Graf and Konverse had donated to have masses celebrated there. Afterwards, at the request of his grandmother Gude, the Abbot von Arnstein sent Herr Herbord, prior of the church of Gommersheim, under whom his grandfather Werner confirmed this donation from the Petersberg. This Prior was because of the evil of farmers in Gau-Heppenheim, since the small Good little income brought against it ertauscht the same amount of arable land in Bechtolsheim by the knight Karl because a hermit-Priest from Petersberg in that village one Hube bought and for the Divine service of St. Peter had determined. This exchange also happened in front of Sigfrid Malur, Schultheiß and other respected people in Gau-Odernheim as witnesses. "

- Certificate of the Premonstrant Provosty Petersberg near Gau-Odernheim; Proof 1184 : Advertised in the Vidimus of June 15, 1265. Copy in the registrum montis s. Petri, now lost, formerly Gau-Odernheim municipal archive.

1289 conducted so far on the Petersberg were Fairs to Peter and Paul (June 29) and Peter in Chains (August 1), for remission of Rudolf von Habsburg moved to the city or home. Despite the loss of importance, foundations continued to be made in favor of St. Peter's Church. A provost appointed by the monastery administered the church and its not insignificant possessions. Allegedly the system was fortified with a double ditch and wall.

In 1566, as a result of looting in the course of the Reformation, the Petersberg provost was dissolved and sold to the city of Odernheim. This committed itself to the maintenance of the church and transferred the bells into the city. Although the tower was repaired in 1594 and 1614, stones were used to build the Obertor in Odernheim as early as 1582. During the Thirty Years War the church was destroyed and subsequently used as a quarry for the surrounding villages. A reconstruction plan from 1754 was not implemented.

In 1772 a stone cross was erected over the apse of the crypt by citizens of Odernheim and Bechtolsheim. This took place on the basis of a vow, since a cattle epidemic ravaged the region in 1763, but spared Odernheim and Bechtolsheim after a procession . This floor cross was destroyed during the French occupation after 1792. The base stone with volute is still preserved.

Until 1832, sermons and supplication processions for the Catholics from Bechtolsheim and Odernheim were held regularly during the week of prayer .

Excavations

In 1877 the Catholic priest Heinrich Gredy from Odernheim accompanied the Mainz prelate Friedrich Schneider on a first excavation on the Petersberg. The foundations were uncovered and in addition to a cursory determination of the floor plan of the church, ceramic floor tiles were also recovered from the Gothic building equipment of the church. Some of the original tiles have been preserved from these ornamental decorative floors. A few years later there was a landslide on the eastern slope in 1882 and on the northeastern part in 1940 .

In 1947 there was another intensive excavation by Friedrich Behn and archeology students from the University of Mainz , which provided numerous indications of the age and dimensions of the church, including the foundation walls of the crypt built in the 12th century with the ashlar plinths of the former wall structure. After the well-documented excavation ended, the artistically worked stones , some of which were provided with so-called Romanesque half-column bases, remained on site. In the 1950s - in the meantime the Petersberg was used by the Americans and the Bundeswehr as a practice area and cases of vandalism increased - the pastor of the Protestant parish Dolgesheim and his confirmands set out to secure the stones. These were placed in the local church and in the surrounding cemetery; the handover to the state monument preservation department did not take place until spring 2014.

legend

According to a legend , the church was built by one of three sisters. Each of the three inherited so much fortune that the bushel measure was used to divide the coins . All three decided to make part of their inheritance available for a church building and to erect the structures on hills so that the other two can be seen from each building. One of the three sisters was blind and so the other two decided to take advantage of her by always turning the measure of capacity around when the blind sister got her share. When she later found out that she had been cheated , she cursed her two sisters, whose churches were on the Petersberg and the Nazarienberg near Mommenheim (which was mentioned in 1194), that they should not stand for eternity, both are during the Thirty Years War destroyed. The smaller mountain church in Udenheim , built by the blind sister, still exists today.

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Behn: Excavations on the Petersberg. in:
    • Jb Diocese of Mainz 3, 1948, pp. 334–336.
    • Mainzer Zeitschrift 41/43, 1948, pp. 52–59 (special print) with 15 illustrations
  • The story of Gau-Odernheim. Edited by the community of Gau-Odernheim. 5 volumes. Krach, Mainz 1954ff.
    • Volume 1. H. Gredy: History of the former free imperial city "Odernheim". With a view from Odernheim to Merian and old town seals. From several 100 previously unknown documents u. Documents and some known zsgest. Krach, Mainz 1954.
    • Volume 2. Christoph Einsfeld, Adam Reck, Heinrich Mildenberger: The story of Gau-Odernheim. Bilderbd. and additions over the past 100 years. Krach, Mainz 1957.
  • Informational directory of cultural monuments - Alzey-Worms district, publisher General Directorate for Cultural Heritage of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, as of January 15, 2009, p. 23.
  • Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany: Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 20.1: Alzey-Worms district . Verbandsgemeinde Alzey-Land . Published on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Science, Further Education and Culture by the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate Directorate State Monument Preservation. Edited by Michael Huyer and Dieter Krienke. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft : Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-327-5 , p. 262.
  • Lecture: Mons Beati Petri - Petersberg; IG Petersberg, Heimatverein Bechtolsheim: "A basilica with a hall crypt of the procession type on the Petersberg: old things re-valued, from archeology and monument preservation between Gau-Odernheim and Bechtolsheim"

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Basilica on Petersberg on regionalgeschichte.net
  2. ↑ Travel guide of the Premonstratensian order to the present and former monasteries in the German-speaking area: Gommersheim in Gau-Odernheim
  3. ^ Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 20.1, p. 262.
  4. ^ Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 20.1, p. 262.
  5. ^ Heinrich Gredy, History of Gau-Odernheim, Volume I.
  6. ↑ Dehio 1972, p. 257.
  7. ↑ Nadine Herd: Dolgesheimers give back “treasure” - finds come from Petersberg / For archaeologists important witnesses of the architecture of the Middle Ages. In: Allgemeine Zeitung. April 22, 2014.
  8. ↑ Christoph Einsfeld, Adam Reck, Heinrich Mildenberger: The story of Gau-Odernheim. Volume 2: Illustrated book and additions over the last 100 years. Krach, Mainz 1957.
  9. ↑ The legend of the three sisters
  10. ↑ Werner Lang: Mommenheim - The three sisters. In: Heimatbuch Landkreis Mainz . Printed by Wilhelm Traumüller, Oppenheim am Rhein 1967, p. 159.
  11. ^ Dehio Rhineland-Palatinate. 1972, p. 580.
  12. ↑ The Protestant mountain church in Udenheim