St. Salvator (Untersiemau)
The Evangelical Lutheran parish church of St. Salvator in Untersiemau in Upper Franconia in the Coburg district goes back to a foundation from 1392.
history
In 1392 Petzold and Götz as well as their cousins Hermann and Nentwig von Schenk zu Siemau founded a little church in Untersiemau. On May 6, 1392, the Würzburg prince-bishop, Count Gerhard von Schwarzburg, confirmed the messbeneficium built by the Siemau taverns in the Johanniskapelle zu Untersiemau and the establishment of a local chaplaincy . The mother parish was in Altenbanz , about five kilometers away , where the deceased continued to be buried. In 1417 Anna and Götz von Schenk zu Siemau founded a parsonage and the measurement pillars for the pastor. By the middle of the 15th century, Siemau was finally raised to a parish. The core of the church tower was built around 1500. During the Peasants' War in 1525, the church was set on fire. After the village master Lorenz von Schenk zu Siemau had accepted the Lutheran doctrine in 1521, the parish followed in 1527, which withdrew from the Altenbanz parish with its district.
During the Thirty Years War , imperial troops also destroyed the church in 1632. In 1653, as the new patron saint, Wilhelm von Könitz had the church restored and placed it under the Salvatorian patronage . After a collection that was carried out both inside and outside the Principality of Coburg , the church tower was built in 1677. The church patron raised the nave to increase the gallery in 1687 and 1705. In 1694 there were three bells in the church tower.
From 1880 the parish of Scherneck was merged with Untersiemau. In 1946 Scherneck got his own pastor again and two years later became independent again.
In 1864 the sacristy was replaced by a new building. In 1910 the parish had extensive repairs and redesigns carried out for 8,800 marks, and in 1922 the church tower was renovated. Structural damage in 1967/68 led to the demolition and rebuilding of the nave and the sacristy as well as the repair of the church tower. The planning came from the Schwürbitz architect Herbert Fischer, the costs were around 370,000 German marks. The inauguration took place on December 22, 1968.
Building description
The choir tower church stands in the center of the village on a small hill between the road to Lichtenfels and Siemauer Mühlbach. The choir room on the base of the tower is 3.9 meters long and 3.7 meters wide. It is spanned by a late Gothic ribbed vault and illuminated from a round-arched window on the east side.
The church tower consists of ashlar masonry without cornices. It has a light column on the east and south side on the first floor, a later, large basket-arch window on the second floor on the east side , on the third floor with the bell chamber on the east, north and south side an old large pointed arch window and on the West side two younger, small rectangular windows. The upper end is a slate octagonal pointed helmet. A round arched triumphal arch connects the choir with the nave.
The old nave was 11.3 meters long and 8.1 meters wide and had three-story galleries. The interior was spanned by a plastered flat ceiling, which was decorated with an 18th century painting of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse .
The new, very simple nave is lower but wider than the previous building. It has a covered with red bricks gable roof and a boarded roof soffit of wood. A single-storey gallery is available on the south and west side. On each of the three sides of the building, three window axes with square lattice windows are arranged. The sacristy is built on the north side of the church tower.
Furnishing
The pulpit, the altar and the baptismal font are works by the Untersteinbach artist Reinhart Fuchs. The baptismal font is behind the altar in the choir. Under the nave there is a crypt with the last burials of von Könitz, Hermann and his wife Pauline.
On the south wall of the choir is a sandstone tomb with an inscription for Christoffel Schenk von und zu Siemau († 1557) and his wife Anna née. Schettin († 1556). It shows the crucifix adoring in a framed round arch panel, on the left the armored knight of Siemau, behind him three sons and on the right the wife and behind her two daughters.
Bells
There are two bells in the church tower that were cast by Johann Andreas Mayer from Coburg in the 18th century. The larger one with a diameter of 100 centimeters and striking note G was created in 1776 with two rococo friezes and the names of those von Könitz. In 1784 it was followed by a bell with the strike note A with a diameter of 81 centimeters, with a rococo and palmette frieze , a coat of arms with a fish head and the names of those from Koenitz and the inscription "THE GREAT GOD ALLEYN SHOULD FAME AND HONOR SEYN". A third bell was made in 1752. It had the strike note D, 68 centimeters in diameter and was named Johann Jacob Luther. On October 22nd, 1918 the bronze bells were removed, but they never melted down. On January 6, 1942, the two small bells were picked up again. The bell, 81 centimeters in diameter, returned in 1948. In 1955 a new bell with a diameter of 124 centimeters and a weight of 1,033 kilograms was cast at the Bachert bell foundry .
organ
For the first time a small organ is documented as a foundation for 1683 , which was expanded in 1687 and 1705.
In 1893, the Coburg organ builder Anton Hasselbarth completely converted a baroque organ with eleven stops to pneumatic cone chests . Of the twelve registers on two manuals and pedal , about seven were taken over in whole or in part and the case of the old organ. The instrument had a five-part prospectus with three towers and intermediate fields. After the nave was rebuilt in 1968, the Rieger organ building company installed a new, relatively small, compact organ with two manuals, a pedal and eleven stops. The organ stands on the gallery in a rectangular case with an open pipe prospect. This is divided into three sections, the middle one contains the treble of the main work , above that is the upper work .
Parish
The parish has around 1500 members (as of 2016), in 1992 there were 1856. In addition to Untersiemau, the parish includes Obersiemau , Birkach am Forst and Weißenbrunn am Forst . Obersiemau originally belonged church and school to Buch am Forst , whose northern district with church and school was in the Duchy of Coburg. In a state treaty negotiated between Bavaria's Prime Minister Maximilian von Montgelas and Prince Leopold von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1811, Buch am Forst was finally awarded to Bavaria and Obersiemau subsequently became part of the Untersiemau parish.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Church council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Parish of Untersiemau (Ed.): Chronicle and commemorative publication for the 600th anniversary of St. Salvator's Church in Untersiemau. Resch-Druck, Coburg 1992, p. 36f
- ^ Lothar Hofmann: Monuments Region Coburg - Neustadt - Sonneberg: Places of contemplation and prayer. Historical sacred buildings. A guide through the churches in the districts of Coburg and Sonneberg . Verlag Gerätemuseum des Coburger Land, Ahorn 2007, ISBN 3-930531-04-6 , p. 95
- ↑ a b c d Paul Lehfeldt : Architectural and Art Monuments of Thuringia, Booklet XXXII, Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha, Landrathsamt Coburg, District Court District Coburg. Jena 1906, p. 460f
- ↑ Susanne Kasch: Untersiemau . In: Evangelical parishes in the Coburg region. Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission Erlangen, Erlangen 1984, ISBN 3-87214-202-X , pp. 201f
- ^ Hermann Fischer, Theodor Wohnhaas: Alte Orgeln im Coburger Land, Part II. Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation 1971, p. 122
Coordinates: 50 ° 11 ′ 37 ″ N , 10 ° 58 ′ 26.1 ″ E