St. Peter (Merzig)

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St. Peter from the northwest
St. Peter from the East (around 1900)
for comparison: Maria Laach
Lintel
Fork cross in the triumphal arch
View of the organ
St. Peter from the north
St. Peter in Merzig, design of a neo-Romanesque two-tower facade based on the model of Andernach, 1894, architect Brecht

St. Peter in Merzig ( Merzig-Wadern district ) is the largest preserved Romanesque church in the Saarland . The church bears the patronage of the apostle Simon Peter . In the list of monuments of the Saarland the church building is a single monument listed.

history

Merzig is one of the oldest places in the Saarland, a Roman vicus has been replaced by a Franconian royal court . At the end of the 9th century, the place came into the possession of the Archbishops of Trier . The monastery church of St. Peter is only attested from 1152 as an Augustinian canon monastery settled by Springiersbach . In 1182 the monastery was converted into a Premonstratensian priory, which was settled by the Wadgassen Abbey . During this time, the monastery church was completely rebuilt, essentially the structure that exists today.

In the wake of the complete destruction of Merzig by the troops of Duke Charles I the Bold of Burgundy in 1475, the church suffered damage to the nave , which was repaired in the same year, but there were changes to the church structure. At the end of the 16th century the nave collapsed and the west tower was also damaged. In the years 1595 to 1597 the nave was rebuilt and the west tower was restored . In the period from 1657 to 1714, five fires in Merzig caused damage to St. Peter. From 1714 to 1725 the church was restored taking into account the original structure and the west tower was expanded. In a visitation report from 1739, the choir flank towers were described as "ruinous", and in the following year as "roofless". The towers were then removed down to the eaves height of the transept . In the middle of the 18th century, renovations took place, during which the Gothic windows were replaced by Romanesque round arches . In 1760 there were further modifications: the north wall of the transept was given a large window and the aisles in the west were shortened. In 1764 the church underwent a restoration. According to the Topographica Charter , the yokes in the aisles were missing in 1770 .

The monastery was closed during the French Revolution . In the years 1887 to 1898 a thorough restoration was carried out, the interior of the church was also completely painted. After the Second World War, the painting was whitewashed, but large parts of it were restored during an interior renovation that was completed in 1985. Today the church is the parish church of the pastoral care district of Merzig.

architecture

The monastery church, completed at the beginning of the 13th century, is a late Romanesque building. It belongs - unique in Saarland - to a group of buildings in the Rhineland , in eastern Belgium and in the southern Netherlands, which Kubach / Verbeek assigns to the “Rhine-Maas Romanesque”.

In plan it is a cruciform three-aisled basilica with a west tower, originally a flat-roofed nave, vaulted transept and choir with a round apse , choir side towers and side apses . A relationship to Maria Laach and Knechtsteden is particularly evident in the eastern section , the main difference being the lack of a crossing tower . A peculiarity of Merzig are the round stair turrets attached to the choir flank towers , which in their upper part appear like slender apses.

The exterior of the east section is richly structured by chessboard friezes , pilaster strips and blind arches, cloverleaf arcades on pillars at the gable triangle of the antechamber, peculiar swallow-shaped window openings on the roof gables of the choir flank towers, on the forechoir gable and the transept windows, overall characteristic of the so-called "Romanesque Rhine-Maas", the clusters of stylized foliage in the spandrels of the apse arches, however, refer to Lorraine - Metz models.

The nave is undivided in the high wall, on the side aisles by the windows raised triple arcatures and little protruding strut pillars . The west section is entirely modern . The tower, which appears Romanesque due to its double acoustic arcades, dates from the 18th century. The thesis of a double tower facade, which was assumed on the basis of a drawing from the 17th century, could not be confirmed by archaeological investigations from 1963 (the two towers on the drawing probably mark the choir flank towers), rather there was apparently always a west tower.

Inside, the nave in the central nave was originally flat-roofed. Slightly pointed arcades on solid round pillars open to the side aisles. These rows of columns create a huge spatial impression. It is rare in Romanesque architecture in the Rhineland that the central nave rests on pillars. One can speak of a “Ravenna on the Saar” here, as one does in analogy with St. Georg in Cologne . The vaults were pulled in after a documented fire in the 15th century and are comparable to the collegiate church in Marsal .

The transept and crossing are vaulted with ribs, the vestibule has a barrel vault . The apse is richly structured by blind arcades over bundles of pillars with semi-dome vaults with ten ribs (cf. Trier Cathedral Choir ). In the south transept there is a lintel from the 12th century, probably from the previous building.

Furnishing

The church is equipped with a larger than life high medieval forked cross in the triumphal arch, created around 1300 (arms and cross added in 1959). A revision was probably made in the 14th century.

Other furnishings include baroque sandstone figures of Christ and the 12 apostles from around 1700 , which were moved from their original place in the central nave to the transept arms in 1966. In 1984/85 the figures of the apostles were relocated to the upper nave of the nave.

In the chapel of the north choir angled tower there is a lamentation group from the 17th century, in the Marienkapelle in the west there is a figure of Mary from the 18th century, in the north wing of the transept a wall-mounted baptismal font from around 1700 with the baptism of Christ. Additional facilities in the church in 1750 created delicate rococo - high altar of the sculptor Balthasar Ferdinand Ganal ( Saarlouis ), a Pietà from the 17th century, including 14 carved Stations of the Cross from 1961 to designs by the architect and glass painter György Lehoczky ( Saarbrücken ).

Bells

In 1954, the Saarlouiser bell foundry in Saarlouis-Fraulautern, which was founded by Karl (III) Otto from the Otto bell foundry in Bremen-Hemelingen and Alois Riewer from Saarland in 1953, cast three bronze bells for St. Peter with the tones: c ′ - as ′ - b ′. After the Saarlouis bell foundry had ceased operations at the end of 1960, the Ottosche bell foundry from Bremen-Hemelingen delivered two more bells (b 0  - g ′) in 1966 . The Otto bells have the following strikes: b 0  - c ′ - g ′ - as ′ - b ′. The bells have the following diameters: 1839 mm, 1651 mm, 1093 mm, 1030 mm, 927 mm and weigh: 3400 kg, 3025 kg, 750 kg, 700 kg, 525 kg.

organ

The organ on the small gallery in the west choir was built in 1960 by the organ building company Johannes Klais ( Bonn ). The instrument has 35 registers ( slider drawers ) on three manuals and a pedal . The key actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electrical. The rare Venetian flute forms the prospectus of the Rückpositive .

I Rückpositiv C – g 3
1. Quintad 8th'
2. Wooden dacked 8th'
3. Venetian flute 4 ′
4th Principal 2 ′
5. Sif flute 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
6th Cymbel III
7th musette 8th'
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C – g 3
8th. Pommer 16 ′
9. Principal 8th'
10. Reed flute 8th'
11. Octav 4 ′
12. Pointed flute 4 ′
13. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
14th Super octave 2 ′
15th Mixture IV-VI
16. Spanish trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
III Swell C – g 3
17th Wooden flute 8th'
18th Gemshorn 8th'
19th Principal 4 ′
20th Swiss pipe 4 ′
21st Forest flute 2 ′
22nd third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
23. Octave 1'
24. Scharff IV-V
25th Dulcian 16 ′
26th Schalmey oboe 8th'
Pedals C – f 1
27. Principal 16 ′
28. Sub-bass 16 ′
29 Octav 8th'
30th Tube bare 8th'
31. Chorale flute 4 ′
32. Night horn 2 ′
33. Back set IV 2 ′
34. trombone 16 ′
35. Trumpet 8th'
  • Coupling : I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
  • Playing aids : Two free combinations, one free pedal switch

Surroundings and former church of St. Walburga

The parish church of St. Walpurgis, which was first mentioned in the 16th century, but was probably much older, existed north of the collegiate church for a long time. In 2013 and 2014, the city of Merzig carried out extensive construction work on the church square, which was accompanied by archaeological excavations. As expected, the foundations of one of St. Walburga church will be exposed. Merzig temporarily had two important Romanesque churches right next to each other. St Walburga was a four-conch building with a square central part to which four semicircular apses / conches were attached. A tower rises above the central square that dominated the cityscape of Merzig at the time. In the course of the earthworks, up to three layers of sandstone and rubble were found in places, but in places only the bottom of the foundation pit.

The floor plan has a diameter of almost 14 meters with a wall thickness of around 1.2 meters. After the parish church service was moved to St. Peter in 1725, St. Walpurgis was canceled in 1752. On the church square, the ground plan of the church has been visibly reconstructed using sandstone slabs. A bronze sculpture by Werner Bauer on the square, erected in 1964, depicts Saint Walburga.

To the east is the Marienkapelle, a small classical hall with a portico from the beginning of the 19th century.

literature

  • Konstantin von Briesen: Documented history of the Merzig district in the Trier administrative district, Merzig 1863.
  • Dehio : Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1985.
  • Alfred Diversy: Merzig buildings tell history, Merzig 1982.
  • Alfred Diversy and Fritz Ludwig Schmidt: Merziger picture book, Saarbrücken 1986.
  • Alfred Diversy and Heribert Schreiner (eds.): Merzig, Pictures of a City, Merzig 1971.
  • Anton Jakob: Merziger history in the 17th century, in: Journal for the history of the Saar region, 9th year, pp. 267–275, Saarbrücken 1959.
  • Catholic Parish Office St. Peter Merzig (Ed.): 750 years St. Peter - Merzig 1200 years parish, commemorative publication on the occasion of the restoration of the provost and parish church of St. Peter Merzig, Merzig 1966.
  • Johann Heinrich Kell: History of the City of Merzig and the Merziger Land, Merzig 1958.
  • Karl Kirsch: The excavations at the Catholic parish church St. Peter in Merzig in the summer of 1963, in: Contributions to Saarland archeology and art history, 11th report of the state preservation of monuments in Saarland, Saarbrücken 1964.
  • Martin Klewitz , St. Peter in Merzig . (Rheinische Kunststätten), Neuss 1972.
  • Martin Klewitz: The Romanesque lintel stones of Fechingen, Merzig and leasing, in: Saarbrücker Hefte, Saarbrücken 8/1958.
  • Hans-Günther Marschall: The parish church of St. Peter in Merzig, Saarbrücken 1988.
  • Parish Leader St. Peter Merzig, ed. from the Catholic Parish Office of St. Peter Merzig, Merzig 1960.
  • Matthias Reiss: Explanations of the mosaic pictures in the parish church of Merzig, Saarlouis 1889.
  • Karl August Schleiden: Interior restoration of St. Peter in Merzig, in: Saarheimat 9, Saarbrücken 1984.
  • Michael Tritz: History of the Wadgassen Abbey, at the same time a cultural and war history of the Saar area, unchanged reprint of the Wadgassen 1901 edition with an introduction by Hans-Walter Herrmann and a register, Saarbrücken 1978.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the Saarland, sub-monuments list of the Merzig-Wadern district (PDF; 320 kB), accessed on May 30, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c d Information on the parish church of St. Peter On: kunstlexikonsaar.de, accessed on May 30, 2013
  3. ↑ H. Klier: The Romanesque churches in Cologne . 2nd Edition. JP Bachem, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-7616-2842-3 , pp. 74-85 .
  4. ^ Dehio: Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland, edited by Hans Caspary, Wolfgang Götz and Ekkart Klinge, 1972, p. 569
  5. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells - family and company history of the bell foundry dynasty Otto . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular pp. 85, 561, 566 .
  6. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular 104, 514, 517 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).
  7. ↑ www.sankt-peter-merzig.de ( Memento from September 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  8. ^ Ferdinand Luxenburger: St. Walburga, the missing church of Merzig. In: Saarland reading. Bestich Verlag GmbH, accessed on August 2, 2020 (German).

Web links

Commons : St. Peter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 26 '37.1 "  N , 6 ° 38' 32.5"  E