St. Stephanus (Oberthal)

The catholic parish church St. Stephanus in Oberthal

Another view of the church

The St. Stephanus Church is a Catholic parish church in Oberthal in Saarland , in the St. Wendel district . It bears the patronage of St. Stephen . In the list of monuments of the Saarland, the church is a single monument listed.

history

In June 1803 the Bishop of Metz raised Oberthal, which belonged to the parish of Bliesen , to the position of vicarie . The place Oberthal, which was in the Duchy of Lorraine , which in turn became part of France in 1766 , had emerged from the villages of Imweiler, Linden and Osenbach a few years earlier during the French Revolution . On October 7, 1805 Oberthal became succesful and thus independent of the parish of Bliesen. Oberthal became an independent parish on August 28, 1808. The chapel on the Steffesheck near Imweiler, which is believed to have been built between 1284 and 1399, served as the parish church. The chapel was dedicated to St. Stephen and was expanded into a parish church in 1805 after an approved petition to the Bishop of Metz, inside of which an altar from Trier was set up. At the same time a rectory was also built.

When the Stephanus chapel became too small and also had structural defects, it was demolished and replaced by a new parish church. On May 3, 1823, the foundation stone for the construction of the church below the cemetery was laid, the inauguration of which could take place on December 8 of the same year. The church was an approx. 200 m², single-nave hall church with a tower on the west side. The interior had a flat ceiling and the windows were made of ordinary glass . As early as 1844 the tower had to be demolished due to its dilapidation . A year later, it was replaced by a new tower with a weathercock and cross .

Since the population of Oberthal had more than doubled towards the end of the 19th century compared to the time the parish church was built in 1823, Pastor Peter Wiesen , who took office on August 4, 1896, had plans drawn up to enlarge the church. The architect Wilhelm Hector ( Saarbrücken-St. Johann ) received the order for this . The foundation stone was laid on June 10, 1897. The enlarged nave now had an area of 400 m² without the choir and gallery . The construction costs amounted to 35,000 marks.

On May 10, 1903, Johann Menzenbach replaced Wiesen, who had moved to Kürrenberg / Eifel , as the new pastor. Menzenbach initially had a new rectory built to the west of the church, which was ready for occupancy in 1907, and then in 1913 applied to the Episcopal Vicariate in Trier to expand the existing parish church. The outbreak of the First World War prevented the planned renovation. Only in 1922 could the application be approved. The architects Ludwig Becker and Anton Falkowski ( Mainz ) were responsible for the plans for the renovation . After the tower and nave from 1823 were demolished (the transverse building with the choir of the Hector extension from 1898 remained), the foundation stone of the church, which still stands today, was laid on September 9, 1923. The construction company Jung ( Bad Münster am Stein ) was responsible for the execution of the construction plans. During the construction work, a storm from November 1st to November 2nd, 1924 led to the collapse of the west gable . The completion of the construction work could be announced in December 1925. The auxiliary bishop of Trier, Antonius Mönch , carried out the inauguration on June 19, 1926. The final expansion of the church, to which u. a. The installation of the benches , the laying of the floor , the erection of the pulpit and the construction of the sacristy were all part of it, but dragged on until 1933.

As the church suffered severe damage during the Second World War, repairs to the roof , the vault and the windows had to be carried out after the war . As part of this first renovation , the church was also painted by the Feltes company. Two paintings above the side altars were later repainted.

At the end of the 1950s and 1960s there were further renovation, conversion and redesigning measures. In 1959 a sacristy was built and the choir room was redesigned, new church windows were installed in 1961 and a new floor was laid in 1965, and the walls of the interior were renewed. In 1984 an exterior renovation of the church was carried out, which was followed by a fundamental exterior renovation from 2009 to 2010, which was accompanied by the removal of a side entrance on the south side and the re-leading of a side window.

Architecture and equipment

View from the gallery inside the church

The church building was built in the style of historicism , with particular reference to neo-Gothic style elements. The Oberthal parish church is a three-aisled hall church . The nave is divided into a central nave and two aisles , the central nave being divided into four bays and the aisles into three bays. In the fourth, westernmost yoke of the central nave there is a gallery on which the organ is placed. A five-sided choir with a polygonal finish is attached to the nave . The ceilings of the three naves are formed by ribbed vaults. In the vaulted areas there are paintings with floral motifs. The church tower with a pointed helmet is attached to the west side of the central nave.

Worth mentioning are the donated church windows, which were designed and installed by the Dornhoff company (Trier) in 1926. They show the Holy Trinity (in the choir of the church, middle window), the emblems of the four evangelists (in the tops of the side choir windows), St. Stephen, St. Matthias , St. Francis , St. Barbara , St. Elizabeth , Mother Anna , the holy Guardian Angels and Saint Charles Borromeo (in the nave).

The windows of the baptismal ship showed the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan , the two windows flanking the main portal received a representation of the announcement of the birth of Christ as well as the lamentation of Christ and the window above the organ gallery, which forms the end of the central nave to the west, shows Saint Cecilia .

Bells

In the Stephen chapel hung a donated by Johann Hans from Imweiler bell , probably in 1762 in Two Bridges was cast. This bell was taken over in the parish church, which was newly built in 1823. After a crack finally made the bell unusable in 1835, it was decided to have two new bells cast in Zweibrücken. As early as 1851, the smaller of the two bells dedicated to the Mother of God jumped and weighed 293 ¼ pounds. The larger bell, weighing 281 kg, bore an inscription in Latin , which translated into German reads as follows: "The parish of Oberthal had me cast in honor of Saint Stephen, the arch-martyr, in 1837 by Peter Lindemann in Zweibrücken." The big bell was confiscated by the War Ministry during the First World War in 1917 and transported away for ammunition production . After the war, two additional bells were purchased in 1923, one of which was dedicated to St. Donatus and the other to St. John. At the end of 1925, the three-part bell was extended to a four-part bell by purchasing a fourth bell weighing 1242 kg. The four bells rang together for the first time at Easter in 1926. These bells were confiscated for war purposes during the Second World War.

The current four-bell bell was purchased in 1951. It was cast by the Causard company ( Colmar / Alsace ). The bells are named Saint Stephen, Saint Mary, Saint Barbara and Saint Donatus.

organ

View from the chancel towards the organ gallery

Organ prospectus

The organ of the church was built by the French organ building company Haerpfer & Erman ( Boulay ) and inaugurated on November 22, 1950. The cost was FRF 4,785,000 .

The cone shop instrument is set up on a gallery and has 35 (37) registers , distributed over 3 manuals and pedal . The game and stop action is electro-pneumatic. The disposition is as follows:

I Rückpositiv C – g ³
1.	Night horn	8th'
2.	Principal	4 ′
3.	Octavin	2 ′
4th	third	1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
5.	Zimbel III
6th	Krummhorn	8th'

II Hauptwerk C – g ³
7th	Quintad	16 ′
8th.	Principal	8th'
9.	Dulciana	8th'
10.	Covered	8th'
11.	Prestant	4 ′
12.	Pointed flute	4 ′
13.	octave	2 ′
14th	Mixture III
15th	Trumpet	8th'

III Swell C – g ³
16.	Violin principal	8th'
17th	Flûte harmonique	8th'
18th	Salicional	8th'
19th	Italian principal	4 ′
20th	Flute	4 ′
21st	Nasat	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
22nd	Forest flute	2 ′
23.	Scharff IV – V
24.	bassoon	16 ′
25th	Bassoon oboe	8th'
26th	Clairon	4 ′
	Tremulant

Pedal C – f ¹
	Great bass	32 ′
27.	Principal bass	16 ′
28.	Sub bass	16 ′
	Subtle bass (= No. 7)	16 ′
29	Quintbass	10 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
30th	Octave bass	8th'
31.	Covered bass	8th'
32.	Choral bass	4 ′
33.	Covered flute	4 ′
34.	Night horn	2 ′
35.	Bombard	16 ′

Pairing :

- Normal coupling: I / II, III / II, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P
- Sub-octave coupling: I / I, I / II, III / II, III / III
- Super octave coupling: I / II, III / II, III / III
Playing aids : 2 free combinations, 2 free pedal combinations, tutti, crescendo kick, III Ab, collective move