St. Petrus (Wuppertal)
St. Petrus is a Catholic church in the extreme south of the Heckinghausen residential area in Wuppertal . It is located on the Zu den Erbhöfen road in the Eschensiepen settlement and, next to the St. Elisabeth church, was one of the two churches of the parish of St. Elisabeth and St. Petrus , which in turn is integrated into the parish community of Wupperbogen Ost .
history
First construction from 1910
The mostly immigrated Catholics in the north of the then independent town of Ronsdorf held their own church services since the beginning of the 19th century and formed an independent congregation in 1895. In 1897 a school house was built in which services were held until a prayer house was built in 1904. After a plot of land in the then still sparsely developed north of Ronsdorf was acquired in 1906 to create a cemetery, the number of Catholics living there rose rapidly, so that the construction of a church began only a few years later. This was completed in 1910 and consecrated to the Apostle Peter , with which the parish joined the parish of St. Johann Baptist in Oberbarmen . After the completion of the Church of St. Elisabeth in 1937, both parishes were spun off from the parish of St. Johann Baptist, in 1961 St. Petrus was also spun off from the parish of St. Elisabeth and became independent.
The church survived both wars unscathed.
New building from 1977
In 1959 the church was closed due to dilapidation. The slope on which the church was built had sagged and severely damaged the structure, so that the church was in danger of collapsing. The now independent parish decided to demolish and rebuild the church, which initially failed due to funding. The church, consecrated as a provisional in 1966 and only completed in 1977, was designed as a simple concrete structure, which, in contrast to the first church, was extended to the edge of the slope. The preserved church tower was able to be stabilized and since then it has been integrated into the new building, clearly set back. The interior is determined by the huge, larger than life crucifix on the south wall and the simple, rectangular rows of windows on the west wall. The north side is preceded by a branched staircase, over which the height difference of the slope is overcome.
Profanation
In 2003 the parish was reunited with the parish of St. Elisabeth. In the spring of 2015, the community applied to the Archdiocese of Cologne for the church to be profaned . Reasons for this are, among other things, the sharply declining number of visitors to the monthly church services and an unexpectedly negative population development in the Eschensiepen settlement. Until the final closure, the community was looking for new ideas for use and hopes to be able to maintain at least a small chapel in the tower even if the new building, which is not listed, is demolished.
Finally, on Christmas Eve 2015, the last Holy Mass took place in the church, but the desecration by the archbishop is still pending and should only take place when the final plans for subsequent use of the church building have been determined. Since December 2016, the church has been available to the Arabic-speaking Christian community in Wuppertal, which will continue to use the church until it is finally used.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ New users wanted for St. Petrus Westdeutsche Zeitung . Retrieved January 8, 2017.
- ^ Another church less Wuppertaler Rundschau . Retrieved April 27, 2017.
- ^ "Rebirth" of the church in Laaken - The growing community of Wuppertaler Rundschau . Retrieved April 27, 2017.
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 13.6 ″ N , 7 ° 14 ′ 7.1 ″ E