St. Thomas of Canterbury (Ellen)

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St. Thomas of Canterbury in Ellen
Bell tower

St. Thomas von Canterbury is the Roman Catholic parish church in the Niederzier district of Ellen in the Düren district in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The building is entered under No. 2 in the list of architectural monuments in Niederzier and dedicated to St. Consecrated to Thomas Becket .

history

The Premonstratensian monastery was probably built in Ellen around 1190 by a foundation from Count Wilhelm the Great von Jülich . A church was probably built in Ellen around this time. It is not known whether there was a church or chapel in Ellen before.

In the Liber valoris from 1308, the church and monastery are listed, and at this time Ellen is already an independent parish in the deanery of Jülich , Archdiocese of Cologne . The monastery church was also the parish church of the village and the prior of the Premonstratensian women was also the local pastor. Since the 13th century, the monasteries have alternated between Steinfeld , Hamborn and Knechtsteden . These were also the priests and priors.

In the course of the French occupation of the areas on the left bank of the Rhine and the secularization , the Premonstratensian monastery was dissolved in 1802 and the nuns expelled. This ended the history of the Ellener monastery after more than 600 years. From now on the church only served as a parish church, the monastery buildings were gradually demolished. Since the Archdiocese of Cologne had been dissolved by the French, Ellen was assigned to the new diocese of Aachen . In 1825 the parish came back to the Archdiocese of Cologne, since the Diocese of Aachen was dissolved again. Since 1930 Ellen belongs to the so-called Second Diocese of Aachen.

Building history

According to tradition, there is said to have been a chapel in Ellen around the year 700, which was destroyed around 1100, but this is nowhere documented. Probably during the foundation of the monastery at the end of the 12th century, a church was built in Ellen. It was probably a hall church in Romanesque forms . A fire in 1548 damaged this place of worship, after which the church building had to be renovated.

In the middle of the 17th century a new church was necessary and the Romanesque church was demolished in 1661. The construction of a new church in the same place began in 1662. The church consecration took place in 1683. This structure and the adjacent monastery buildings were badly damaged and partially destroyed by French revolutionary troops in 1794. The church was probably poorly restored in the following years.

Since the parish church from 1662 in the middle of the 19th century no longer met the requirements and was badly damaged by the destruction in 1794, it was decided to build a new building with the addition of the bell tower. So around 1856 today's parish church was built in neo -Gothic style . Between 1881 and 1887 the upper floors of the old bell tower were demolished and the sacristy was installed in the two lower floors . At the same time, the current bell tower was added to the west side of the nave according to plans by August Carl Lange .

During the Second World War , the church was so badly damaged that some of the vaults collapsed. During the reconstruction, the vaults were completely restored. By 1954 all damage had been repaired.

Building description

The Ellener parish church is a neo-Gothic, seven-bay hall church made of bricks with a four-story bell tower in front of it with an eight-sided spire , which is accompanied by four small branch towers. In the east the building closes with a choir closed on three sides . The two-storey sacristy is attached to the east wall . The entire nave is spanned by ribbed vaults. The windows have tracery and have two lanes.

Furnishing

Figure of the risen Christ at the sacristy

There is modern equipment in the interior. The popular altar is made of marble and is part of the chancel, which was redesigned in 1978. Adolf Zech from Kreuzau provided the plans . The altar was consecrated on October 15, 1978. The stations of the cross are reliefs from the post-war period. The oldest piece of equipment is a Vesper picture made of flute stone from 1420 and was taken over from the previous church. The black marble baptismal font was created in 1673 and also comes from the previous church. The stained glass windows are works by Gudrun Müsse-Florin from 1979.

A cross relic has been owned by the parish since the 15th century . As a result, Ellen was also a destination for pilgrimages in the past. The festival of the cross in Ellen is still very important today.

organ

The organ has 16 registers and is a work of Weimbs Orgelbau from Hellenthal . The instrument was built in 1973.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Principal 8th'
2. Reed flute 8th'
3. Octave 4 ′
4th Capstan whistle 2 ′
5. Mixture V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
6th Trumpet 8th'
II subsidiary work C – g 3
7th Wooden dacked 8th'
8th. Pointed flute 4 ′
9. Principal 2 ′
10. Pointed fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
11. Sharp IV 2 ⁄ 3 ′
12. Shawm Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
13. Sub-bass 16 ′
14th Pommer 8th'
15th Chorale bass 4 ′ + 2 ′
16. Bassoon bass 16 ′

Bells

No.
 		 Surname
 		 Diameter
(mm)		 Mass
(kg, approx.)		 Percussive
( HT - 1 / 16 )		 Caster
 		 Casting year
 
1 - 965 511 as ' +5 Willibrord Stocky, Jülich 1798
2 Nicholas 866 425 b ' +5 Johannes Mark; Eifeler bell foundry , Brockscheid 1971
3 Maria 726 245 of the " +6 Johannes Mark; Eifeler bell foundry, Brockscheid 1971

Pastor

The following pastors have worked as pastors at St. Thomas so far:

from ... to Surname
before 1830-1847 Johann Leonhard Nybein
1847-1865 Hermann Joseph Meckel
1865-1870 Wilhelm Ketteler
1870-1900 Peter Joseph Beuel
1900-1904 Edmund Hubert Klein
1904-1940 Viktor Timmermann
1941-1970 Josef Lambertz
1970-1974 Father Johannes Arndt
1974-1981 Johannes Spölgen
1981-1983 Vacant
1983-2011 Heinrich Muller
Since 2011 Andreas Galbierz

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Hartmann, Edmund Renard: The art monuments of the Rhine province. Volume 9: The art monuments of the Düren district . Published by Paul Clemen, Düsseldorf 1910, p. 126.
  2. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 319.
  3. ↑ St. Thomas of Canterbury in Ellen. In: Internet site for church music in the Düren region. Retrieved November 5, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Catholic Parish Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Niederzier - Ellen. In: Homepage of Käthe and Bernd Limburg. Retrieved November 5, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 320.
  6. ↑ St. Thomas of Canterbury in Ellen. In: Internet site for church music in the Düren region. Retrieved February 28, 2016 .
  7. ^ Niederzier-Ellen, Catholic Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury. In: Internet site Forschungsstelle Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhundert eV Retrieved on February 28, 2016 .
  8. ↑ St. Thomas of Canterbury Ellen. In: Internet site for church music in the Düren region. Retrieved February 28, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Norbert Jachtmann: Bell music in the Düren region
  10. ↑ Bischöfliches Generalvikariat (ed.): Handbuch des Bistums Aachen 3rd edition, Aachen 1994, p. 319.
  11. ^ Archbishop's General Vicariate (ed.): Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 3, Cologne 1833, p. 18.
  12. ^ Archbishop's General Vicariate (ed.): Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 10, Cologne 1863, p. 88.
  13. ^ Archbishop's General Vicariate (ed.): Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 12, Cologne 1869, p. 71.
  14. ^ Johann Peter Ferdinand (Ed.): Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 16, Cologne 1892, p. 81.
  15. ^ Archbishop's General Vicariate (ed.): Handbook of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 18, Cologne 1901, p. 82.

Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 28.4 "  N , 6 ° 29 ′ 41.2"  E