St. Rochus (wool soaps)

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St. Rochus, Wollseifen (2019)

The former St. Rochus Church was the Roman Catholic parish church of the former village and today's deserted Wollseifen in the urban area of Schleiden in the Euskirchen district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ). The former church was entered under no. 169 on August 7, 2002 in the list of monuments of the city of Schleiden .

General

Interior (2019)
St. Rochus, Wollseifen (2010)
Redesigned choir room (2013)
Altar niche (2016)

Wollseifen originally belonged to the parish of Olef . In 1470 a chapel in Wollseifen is mentioned. The Reformation was able to prevail at times. Around 1550 there were some Anabaptists in the village. Since Schleiden Count Ernst von der Marck wanted to bring his area back to the Catholic faith, he probably had the Wollseifen Church built in 1633–1635. At first it was still a branch church of Olef. The final separation and elevation to an independent parish took place in 1660. The new parish also included the places Einruhr , Herhahn , Morsbach , Hühnerbusch and the Walberhof . Einruhr was separated from Wollseifen in 1864 and made a parish, the other places remained as branch communities with Wollseifen.

Mariawald Abbey had rights to the church and the parish, and it provided the pastor until the French era in 1798 . At that time, Wollseifen still belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne . Since this had been dissolved in 1802, wool soaps were allocated to the diocese of Liège , with the parish remaining until 1818. Then it came to the new diocese of Aachen until its dissolution in 1825. Since then the place belonged again to the archbishopric of Cologne and finally came in 1930 to the re-established diocese of Aachen.

Although Wollseifen was evacuated in 1946 due to the establishment of the Vogelsang military training area , the parish continued to exist, at least on paper. In 1948 the Herhahn branch was separated together with Morsbach and also became an independent parish. It was not until 1957 that the parish of Wollseifen was dissolved and the parish of Herhahn was added, which has since been called Wollseifen-Herhahn.

Building history

The church of Wollseifen goes back to a medieval chapel. Church services in wool soaps are documented for the year 1470.

The current church was built in the years 1633 to 1635 in Baroque style and consecrated on October 22, 1635. In 1660 the church was elevated to a parish church. In 1665 the bell tower was raised . He also received a new eight-sided tower helmet . In 1843 an organ stage was installed, in 1848 a vestibule was built in front of the main portal on the ground floor of the tower and in 1888 a new sacristy was added to the south wall of the choir.

In 1946 the last Holy Mass was celebrated in the church. The village had to be evacuated within three weeks as the British military administration included the area in the Vogelsang military training area. After the evacuation of the village, the military used the buildings, which had not been destroyed by the war, as targets for target practice. In 1947 the church burned down, which meant that much of the interior was lost. Due to the military use, only the outer walls of the church remained. The sacristy and vestibule were even completely destroyed.

Backup and restoration

After the Vogelsang military training area was abandoned by the Belgians in December 2005, wool soaps were also open to the public again. The ruins of the church were fundamentally secured by the Wollseifen association until August 2008. The nave and choir got a new roof structure with slate covering, as well as new windows. The church tower roof, which was erected by the Belgians after the war, also got a new slate covering. In addition, the old weathercock of the church was placed back on the cross and is now in its old place. In the interior of the church, the rubble from the collapsed vault was removed and the old floor exposed. The central aisle is made of rare slate stone. At the end of the renovation work, a simple wooden cross and three simple wooden benches were placed in the choir room. On August 17, 2008, the completion of the work was celebrated with a mass for the St. Rochus Festival.

Furnishing

In the interior of the church there is now only a simple wooden cross and three wooden benches in the choir, otherwise the church is empty.

Before the local residents were driven out and the church was destroyed, there was a simple but rich interior. The organ was the work of the Weimbs Orgelbau company and was only made in 1941 and was therefore only in use for five years. It had 16 registers distributed across two manuals and a pedal. The instrument was dismantled in 1946 and taken to the warehouse of the builder company. In 1961 the instrument was installed in the Keldenich parish church of St. Dionysius and is still in use there today.

The wooden stations of the cross have also been preserved . Today you are in the parish church of St. Nikolaus in Einruhr. The Michael Bell from the bell founder Jakob van Trier from 1652 also survived the Second World War. Today it hangs in the bell tower of the parish church of St. Apollonia in Steckenborn .

Two stone side altars were destroyed, the Mary altar on the left, the Sacred Heart Altar on the right, and the baroque high altar in the choir . The church also had stained glass windows and a painting by the Kurthen brothers from 1906, which were also completely destroyed by the war and use as a military training area.

literature

  • Andreas Züll: "To the glory of God and the pious people of Wolseiffen". For the 380th anniversary of the Rochus Church in Wollseifen 1635–2015. In: Yearbook of the District of Euskirchen 2015, pp. 53–63.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handbook of the Diocese of Aachen 3rd edition, published by the Episcopal General Vicariate, Aachen 1994, p. 596.
  2. ↑ St. Rochus in Wollseifen. In: Internet site wool soaps - the dead village. Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  3. ↑ ST. Rochus Church in the desert of Wollseifen. Memory of the village of Wollseifen. In: NRW Foundation - Projects. North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation for Nature Conservation, Heritage and Cultural Preservation , March 2008, accessed on April 21, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Gudrun Klinkhammer: St. Rochus: The church tower has its cock again. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger . August 14, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Elvira Hilgers: The steeple cock is back home. In: Kölnische Rundschau . August 15, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  6. ^ Gudrun Klinkhammer: St. Rochus in Wollseifen: Church floor under the rubble. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger . July 31, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  7. ↑ New cross in the church ruins met with criticism. In: Aachener Nachrichten . August 28, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Wollseifen: First service in the rebuilt church. In: Aachener Nachrichten . August 15, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  9. ↑ The fate of Wollseifen is still moving. In: Aachener Nachrichten . August 21, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Dominik Reinle: The story of wool soaps: The dead village in the Eifel. In: WDR . July 31, 2008, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  11. ^ Opus list. In: Weimbs Orgelbau website. Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  12. ^ The church organ of St. Rochus. In: Internet site wool soaps - the dead village. Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Handbook of the Diocese of Aachen 3rd edition, published by the Episcopal General Vicariate, Aachen 1994, p. 602.

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 47.8 "  N , 6 ° 25 ′ 28.1"  E