St. Venantius (Wertheim)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Venantius Wertheim
Wertheim St.Venantius, interior of the church before the interior was renovated in November 2014
Church interior after the interior renovation completed in 2016

St. Venantius is the Roman Catholic parish church of Wertheim in the Main-Tauber district , built between 1840 and 1842 . The community is assigned to the Archdiocese of Freiburg . The church bears the patronage of the young martyr Venantius von Camerino , who was executed by beheading during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Decius . His feast day is May 18th.

On January 1, 2015, the Wertheim pastoral care unit was transformed into a Roman Catholic parish of Wertheim with three parishes and one subsidiary parish. The area of ​​the parish of St. Venantius includes the city center of Wertheim, the districts of Wartberg, Reinhardshof (with the Besteheider Höhe) and Vockenrot as well as the towns of Nassig and Sonderriet. The parish of St. Lioba includes the Eichel / Hofgarten district as well as the places Urphar, Lindelbach, Dietenhan, Kembach, Bettingen and Dertingen. The parish of St. Elisabeth includes the district of Besteheid, the village of Grünenwört and the parish of St. Martin Mondfeld. The four parishes make up the parish of Wertheim. St. Venatus has approximately 2800 Catholics.

history

Collegiate church and choir monastery Wertheim

Count Johann I von Wertheim created the prerequisites for the construction of a family burial place in the city of Wertheim in 1384 with the start of construction of today's Protestant collegiate church and then the Catholic parish church of St. Mary. In 1481 the parish church was elevated to the collegiate church of St. Mary. From 1547 a separate administrative authority was created for the entire assets of the Wertheim Collegiate Foundation, the so-called choir foundation. The monastery served as the central ecclesiastical financial center for the county of Wertheim and was responsible for paying the pastors, who had been Protestant since the Reformation, as well as school and church servants.

Lutheran Reformation

Evangelical collegiate church Wertheim, formerly the Catholic parish church of St. Mary in the city of Wertheim, Inneres

In the hope of an intensification of his own statehood and a demarcation from the powerful neighbors, the Archbishopric Mainz and the Hochstift Würzburg , Count Georg II von Wertheim sided with the Reformation very early on . Probably in the middle of 1518, under the impression of Martin Luther's 95 theses , Count Georg had a document pending against costly church funerals and spiritual masses on the door of the St. Marien collegiate church in Wertheim. At the Diet of Worms in 1521, the young Count of Wertheim had the first opportunity to get to know Luther personally. In the following year Count Georg Luther asked for the recommendation of a suitable preacher of the “pure Gospel” for the Wertheim collegiate church. In 1526 the theologian Johann Eberlin von Günzburg came to Wertheim as a confidante of Count Georg and was appointed by him as superintendent of the county of Wertheim. In the years 1527/1528 Eberlin wrote a new church order for the county, in 1528 the church holidays were reduced and the church goods were systematically inventoried for the first time. When Count Georg died in 1530, the Reformation in the county could not be considered complete. Both the traditional Catholic and the new Protestant doctrine of Lutheran character coexisted, but Protestantism had already received a solid foundation in Wertheim.

The Protestant Reformation of the County of Wertheim was only completed under Count Michael III. In 1552 he placed the monasteries Grünau and Holzkirchen under the supervision of the count's administration. The religious and canons were expelled from the monasteries, the income and goods fell partly to the count, partly to the choir monastery of the collegiate church and the Wertheimer Hospital (today Wertheimer Kulturhaus). In 1552, the abbot of Bronnbach Monastery , Clemens Leusser, who was elected in 1548, converted to the Reformation creed out of his own conviction. Count Michael III. a relatively solid Protestant regional church of Lutheran character in the territory of the Counts of Wertheim .

Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years War

Even if the heirs of the Grafschaft Wertheim, Count Ludwig zu Stolberg-Königstein and Ludwig III. Lowenstein , as convinced Protestants recatholicization sought to prevent energetic, could Catholicism Counter-Reformation successes achieved: In 1561 the abbot was from Fulda to return the provost wooden churches to the Catholic denomination achieved, even if the church patronage over the monastery parishes in the County of Wertheim remained. In 1572, the Catholic mass was reintroduced in Bronnbach Abbey.

After the death of Count Ludwig von Stolberg-Königstein in 1574, the conflict with the Würzburg monastery entered a new round. The so-called Würzburg feud meant a significant loss of power for the Counts of Löwenstein-Wertheim. After almost a hundred years of disputes between the Bronnbach Monastery, which was supported by the Würzburg Monastery, and the Counts of Löwenstein-Wertheim over the three villages of Reicholzheim , Nassig and Dörlesberg , almost all of these fell to the Bronnbach Monastery in 1673.

In addition, the denominational conflict was intensified with Count Johann Dietrich's conversion to Catholicism. From 1631 onwards, Johann Dietrich attempted to usurp sole rule in the county and to recatholicize it again. On July 24th, 1631, after a long time, a Holy Mass could be celebrated in the apse of the collegiate church . The re-Catholicization measures were however nullified by the Thirty Years' War that broke out over Wertheim and the invasion of the Swedes . Count Johann Dietrich had to flee, and all images of the saints in Bronnbach Abbey were radically destroyed. After the Swedes withdrew, it remained with the joint government of the County of Wertheim through the two lines Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort and Löwenstein-Wertheim-Virneburg. From 1651 the collegiate church was used for almost two centuries as a denominational simultaneum by both Protestant and Catholic believers for religious services.

Settlement of Capuchins

In 1631, Count Johann Dietrich zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort brought Capuchins to Wertheim to restore the souls of the Wertheim population to the Catholic faith. However, due to the provisions of the Peace of Westphalia , they had to leave the city again in 1649. The later Prince Maximilian Karl zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort again called Capuchins to Wertheim as court chaplains in 1682 and assigned them the "Klösterle" near the collegiate church as a branch. The Capuchins celebrated holy masses in the choir area of ​​the collegiate church, which became Protestant through the Reformation , until the 19th century . The small Capuchin branch in Wertheim, which housed two to four friars, was supplied with natural produce and financial resources by the Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg class. The brothers were sent to Wertheim for a limited period by their convents ; A change took place approximately every three years. With the retirement of the last President Venantius Arnold in 1834 and his death in 1836, the Capuchin hospice in Wertheim went out.

Father Venantius Arnold (1754–1836) had worked as court chaplain and Catholic parish priest in Wertheim for over 35 years. Venantius Arnold was born as Lorenz Arnold on August 14, 1754 in the Catholic Freudenberg am Main under the maiden name Lorenz Arnold as the son of the married couple Christoph Arnold and his wife Maria Eva (née Schureck). Arnold had entered the Capuchin Order at the age of about 22 and had been ordained a priest on March 20, 1779. Eleven years later, on August 6, 1790, he came to the Protestant town of Wertheim as a priest. On August 25, 1797 Venantius Arnold became President of the branch in Wertheim. From 1808 Venantius Arnold was the last priest living in the Wertheim monastery. It was not until 1829, the year of his 50th jubilee as a priest, that Father Venantius was appointed a spiritual co-worker. Father Venantius held his office in Wertheim until 1832. He died on October 15, 1836 at the age of 82. The building of his own Catholic church had been a major concern for him. He had donated the sum of 5,000 guilders to build a Catholic school in Wertheim. The tomb of Father Venantius Arnold is today to the right of the tower portal of the St. Venantius Church.

Resurgence of Catholicism in the 19th century

In the 19th century, for the first time since the Reformation, an increasing number of Catholics settled in Wertheim, but by the middle of the century they only made up about a fifth of the population. In 1837 there were 571 Catholics in the city. Initially, the parish members belonged to the Reicholzheim parish, which had become Catholic again in 1673. The Catholics only had a chapel room in the royal court for holding services or they could gather in the choir area of ​​the Protestant collegiate church for Holy Mass, which was only possible to a limited extent due to the grave monuments erected there . In addition, the Catholics were not allowed to use the bells or the organ . The Holy Mass was only allowed to take place after the end of the Protestant service. Father Venantius Arnold succeeded in re-establishing the Catholic parish in Wertheim and building a Catholic school. Since 1831, concrete plans had been made to build their own Catholic parish church in Wertheim.

Father Venantius Arnold's successor as the Catholic pastor in Wertheim was in 1832, pastor Anton Gaß. When Gaß died in 1834, the Catholics of Wertheim were looked after by Philipp Gärtner. However, the necessary funds were still lacking for the Catholic church building that had become necessary. The inheritance of the late Father Venantius Arnold in 1836 fell to the Catholic community in Wertheim with the condition that the sum of money be used to build its own Catholic church. On May 3, 1834, the Interior Ministry of the Grand Duke of Baden approved a collection in all Catholic parishes in the Grand Duchy of Baden and a non-denominational house collection in the town of Wertheim with its 3,514 inhabitants at the time. The Baden collection brought 4,118 guilders and the inner-city collection 1593 guilders.

In response to a request, the Ministry of the Interior in Karlsruhe approved state subsidies for the construction of the church in the amount of 16,288 guilders on January 24, 1837. It was made a condition that 1,000 guilders had to be invested as a church maintenance fund. These sums finally made the new building possible.

When looking for a suitable location, they found what they were looking for in the new building area on the left of the Tauber . The new church was to be built on a hillside that offered a good view of the Catholic sacred building to be built from the old city center. In 1838 the Catholic parish bought the property for 870 guilders and the surveying work could begin the following year.

The new church was to be consecrated in honor of Father Venantius Arnold, his patron saint, the holy martyr Venantius. The church patron , Venantius of Camerino , according to legendary tradition to around the year 250 at the age of 15 years under Emperor Decius the martyrdom suffered.

The first highlight of the long-term efforts of the Catholic parish was the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone of the St. Venantius Church on July 2nd, 1840 by the archbishop dean and pastor of Tauberbischofsheim , Johann Baptist Binz. The keynote address was given by the parish administrator Philipp Gärtner from Wertheim. Documents, Wertheim wines and coins from the Grand Duchy of Baden from the years 1783, 1811, 1834 and 1839 were placed in the foundation stone.

Construction of the St. Venantius Church

Wertheim, St. Venantius, interior around 1900 with the high altar destroyed by Anselm Sickinger in 1963
High altar of the St. Ludwig Church in Munich as a design parallel to the Wertheim high altar in St. Venantius

Master masons Anton and Michael Josef Heß, master carpenters Michael and Lorenz Stecher from Königheim and Simon Kuhn from Reicholzheim were entrusted with the construction of the new church in the style of neo-Romanesque historicism with neo-Gothic individual forms . The pure construction costs without the interior fittings and the organ amounted to a total of 23,000 guilders.

On July 12, 1842, the parish church of St. Venantius was inaugurated in Wertheim by the archbishop's dean and pastor of Tauberbischofsheim, Johann Baptist Binz. At the same time, the two flanking houses (today the rectory and organist house) were inaugurated. The celebration took place in the presence of numerous Wertheim citizens of both denominations, as well as students, teachers and state officials. With the construction of the church, the Catholic parish no longer exercised the rights to use the Wertheimer Stiftskirche. The pastor's position was filled alternately by presentations to the Grand Duke of Baden and the Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim- Rosenberg.

It was not until 27 years after the inauguration in 1869 that the parish was financially able to have a high altar designed by the Munich sculptor Anselm Sickinger , which was inaugurated by the parish administrator in Oberle. The high altar of Sickinger, which was destroyed during the purification of the 1960s, had clear design parallels to the high altar of the Ludwigskirche in Munich, which still exists today . In Munich, however, the crucifixion group that crowned the altar in Wertheim is missing.

Renovations

Organ gallery, including v. l. No. the Lourdes grotto, the tower entrance and the staircase to the gallery

The church was first renovated in 1887 and a second in 1914 under Pastor Karl Gottlieb Bär, who had a new floor laid and electric light installed.

In 1963 the historicist interior of the church was radically purified. The high altar by the sculptor Anselm Sickinger (creator of the neo-Gothic furnishings of the Munich Frauenkirche , which was destroyed during and after the Second World War ), the side altars and the pulpit were removed, the apse windows were bricked up and the wall paintings were whitewashed.

When severe deficiencies in the structure of the structure of the St. Venantius Church became apparent in the 1970s, the scaffolding of the sacred building began in May 1980. The restoration work was tracery - spire completely renewed. The 19th century paintings, which were completely whitewashed in the post-war period of the 20th century, were partially exposed again and the choir windows, which were also walled up, with their historical glazing were reopened. The central window in the apse , which was damaged in the process , was replaced by adapted, modern new glazing. During the construction-related closure of the Catholic Church from June 28, 1981 to July 17, 1983, Holy Mass was celebrated in the Protestant collegiate church. In the course of the renovation, a new organ with 27 registers was manufactured by the Bonn company Johannes Klais for 440,000 DM and inaugurated on November 11, 1984.

A new renovation measure was initiated at the end of 2014. Due to the moisture diffusion from the sandstone masonry, the interior plaster was grayed out by soot and dust particles. The heating, lighting, intercom and electrics were also outdated. According to a rough estimate, a construction volume of 500,000 euros was assumed. In the end, the renovation cost 621,000 euros.

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), impressions of the restoration from 2014

  • Makeshift church in the cath. Parish home during the restoration of the Venantius Church from 2014

  • St. Venantius Church during the restoration from 2014, view from the organ gallery into the nave

  • St. Venantius Church during the restoration from 2014, exposed wall painting

  • St. Venantius Church during restoration from 2014, church window

  • St. Venantius Church during the restoration from 2014, inner wall

  • St. Venantius Church during the restoration from 2014, apse

  • Construction of the new flight of steps in front of the church in January 2016

The renovated church was reopened on Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2016.

Architecture of the church

Architect August Moosbrugger

The from Konstanz born on Lake Constance August Moosbrugger (alternate spelling: "Mosbrugger", 1802-1858), the architect of the Wertheimer St. Venantiuskirche, came from a family of painters. After his death on April 28, 1858 in Wertheim, he was buried next to the main portal of the Venantius Church. Since 1836 he worked as a district master builder in Wertheim. Moosbrugger's teacher was the architect Heinrich Hübsch .

Spiritual background

The background to the architectural design of the St. Venantius Church in Wertheim was the fact that at the beginning of the 19th century the almost continuous style development in architecture had ceased. Political turmoil such as the French Revolution and the armed forces of Napoleon as well as the socio-economic changes caused by industrialization promoted the idea of ​​nationalism and a return to national specifics. The discovery of the architecture of the Middle Ages (especially Romanesque and Gothic ) through art history and monument preservation combined with a romantic , longing feeling for the medieval era as a time in which church and state appeared powerful and dignified.

The Baden architect and architectural theorist Heinrich Huebsch had already broken with the classicist architecture of the early 19th century in his architectural theoretical text “In which style should we build?” In 1828 . Indeed, when he asked the question “In which style should we build?”, Hübsch was certain that the modern round arch style was the ultimate option. Even so, his question clearly puts into words the problem that first appeared in art history in the 19th century.

The moment the question was asked it became more and more meaningful and it became more and more difficult to answer it clearly. The epoch of historicism , which assessed classicism of the early 19th century as cold and poor, borrowed from all epochs of Western art and, the older the century got, it made use of an ever more exuberant formal language. It was also felt that classicism was not very suitable for the construction of Christian churches, because on the one hand it was pagan in origin and on the other hand the type of construction of the ancient Peripteros temple offered little possibilities for variation. Another difficulty was to assign the bell tower required for Christian services to a classical ancient architectural scheme.

In the search for new architectural forms for sacred buildings, one first came across Romanesque architecture . So let Leo von Klenze in the years 1826-1837 in the construction of Court Church of the Palace Chapel in Palermo inspired. Even Friedrich von Gärtner was based in the construction of the Catholic Parish and University Church St. Louis in Munich in the years 1829-1844 in Romanesque models in Italy. The connection to Gothic forms, as they came over from the British Isles, in the aftermath of so-called romantic historicism, was increasingly justified theologically. The Gothic, pointing upwards into the heavenly spheres, seemed to give shape to Christian piety to an even greater extent.

In the Wertheim church building, Romanesque and Gothic forms are combined with Bohemian cap vaults. The church was largely built in a Romanesque arched style. With its intricately openwork tracery helmet, the tower takes on Gothic forms. In the vicinity of Wertheim, Moosbrugger designed the church in Werbach in similar architectural forms. Here, too, you can see the influence of Heinrich Hübsch on Moosbrugger's work.

Exterior of the church

The St. Venantius Church in Wertheim, built in red Main sandstone , is a hall church . Behind the apse is the annex of the parament chamber and the sacristy in the longitudinal axis of the church . The tower front is richly structured. The tall, slender tower protrudes from the center of the facade. A round-arched blind roof rises above the arched portal, dividing the high tower. The tower, crowned by an openwork pyramid, is designed for a long view. The school and rectory form two leaping wings to the right and left of the church. This is offset to the rear. This creates a successful courtyard. The side walls of the church are simply designed and only structured by buttresses and arched windows. Under the eaves there is a "German ribbon" as a decorative form, a frieze made of gemstones placed over the roof , the front edge of which lies in the wall surface.

Interior of the church

The internal dimensions of the church are:

  • highest vault height: 12.90 m
  • Intercolumn of the wall arcades: 5.25 m
  • inner width of the nave: 11.90 m
  • Depth of the apse 4.30 m
  • Width of the apse: 7 m
  • Length of the nave from the gallery portal to the side altars: 27.30 m
  • Length of the nave from the gallery portal to the apse axis: 31.60 m

With 19 rows of benches with twelve seats each (six each to the left and right of the center aisle), the church has 228 seats for church visitors. There are also places on the gallery.

  • Painting in the Bohemian caps

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), ceiling painting, inscription: David Rex, Sacrificabo hostiam laudis (German translation: I want to bring you an offering of thanks, Psalm 116.17)

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), ceiling painting, inscription: Aaron, sanctificatus ministret mihi, Ex 28 (German translation: So that he may be sanctified and serve me as a priest, Exodus 28, 3)

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), ceiling painting, inscription: Moses, Panem coeli dedit eis, Ps 77 (German translation: Moses, He gave them bread from heaven, Psalm 78, 24)

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), ceiling painting, inscription: Melchizedech, Rex Sal., Proferens panem et vinum, Gen, 14, 18 (German translation: Melchizedek, King Solomon, He brought out bread and wine, Genesis 14, 18)

The church interior is vaulted with hanging domes, so-called "Bohemian caps". This vault formation is similar to the dome vault. They differ, however, in that the base circle of the Bohemian Cap is outside the rectangular or square space to be vaulted. This results in wall arches in the form of segment arches. Starting from the main portal in the direction of the apse, the domes show ceiling paintings with the depictions of King David with the harp, Aaron in priestly robes, Moses with the tablets of the law and the priest-king Melchizedek or King Solomon with chalice and paten in round medallions surrounded by quatrefoils and floral ones Frame. The gussets of the caps are also adorned with floral ornaments.

The pillars stand as a template directly on the inner wall. Today's historicist glazing was only designed and installed in 1866. The left row of windows, starting from the main portal in the direction of the apse, shows St. Anthony of Padua with the baby Jesus, St. Charles Borromeo , St. Aloisius of Gonzaga and St. Sebastian .

  • Window in the nave, left

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Anthony of Padua"

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Karl Borromäus"

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Aloisius von Gonzaga"

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Sebastian"

The right row of windows, starting from the main portal towards the apse, shows St. Notburga von Rattenberg , St. Elisabeth of Thuringia , St. Agnes of Rome and St. Teresa of Ávila .

  • Window in the nave, right

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Notburga von Rattenberg"

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Elisabeth of Thuringia"

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Agnes of Rome"

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), nave window "St. Theresa of Avila"

The five-part row of windows in the apse shows from left to right St. Joseph of Nazareth , the Virgin and Mother of God as Immaculate as well as the modern central window with the representations of the resurrection of Jesus Christ , the appearance of Jesus to the unbelieving Thomas and the event of Pentecost . The row of windows ends with the depiction of the church patron St. Venantius von Camerino and the depiction of John the Baptist .

  • Window in the apse

  • Apse window "St.Josef"

  • Apse window "Immaculate Received"

  • Apse axis window

  • Apse window "St. Venantius of Camerino"

  • Apse window "St. John the Baptist"

In a niche to the right of the tower portal is a Lourdes grotto , which recalls the Marian apparitions from February 11 to July 16, 1858, which Bernadette Soubirous, then fourteen, was given at the Grotto of Massabielle by the Gave de Pau river .

The Stations of the Cross from the 1960s, made of sandstone-imitating stucco , were imposed during the renovation of the church , which began at the end of 2014 and ended at Whitsun 2016, with the original historicist Stations of the Cross painted on sheet metal.

  • Historic stations of the cross

  • Jesus sweats blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, Stations of the Cross 1-2

  • Stations of the Cross 3-5

  • Stations of the Cross 6-8

  • Stations of the Cross 9-11

  • Stations of the Cross 12-14

The sandstone ambo and altar with ceramic decorative elements date from the renovation phase in the 1980s. The baptismal font , which is attached to the right outer wall near the entrance to the choir area, was designed in the neo-Gothic style and is crowned by a Gothic canopy .

  • Apse design

  • apse

  • Apse painting "Jesus Christ revered by angels as ruler of the world"

  • Crucifixion group in the apse with tabernacle

  • Heart of Jesus statue

  • Madonna statue

The chancel arch is flanked by representations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (left) and the Blessed Virgin Mary with baby Jesus (right) in the baroque- , gold leaf ring should . The two statues stand in front of painted carpet ornaments held by a pair of angels. Large acanthus ornaments with stylized passion flowers rise above it . The choir arch is decorated with the Latin inscription "+ BENEDICAMUS + PATREM + ET + FILIUM + CUM + SANCTO + SPIRITU +" ("We praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"). In the central vaulted area of ​​the apse, in the ceiling painting between the vaulted ribs, Christ appears as Pantocrator surrounded by angels . There is a statue of Konrad von Parzham near the entrance to the organ gallery . Johann Wilhelm Völker , who grew up in Wertheim , caricaturist of the Vormärz and the German Revolution of 1848/1849 , created the two large-format oil paintings "St. Venantius von Camerino" and "The Virgin Mary" for the church in 1852.

Vasa sacra and vestments

The Venatius Church has a rich array of chalices, monstrances and reliquary vessels from several different styles. A halo monstrance comes from the style epoch of classicism . A tower monstrance from the neo-Gothic style, made by jeweler Jos. Junes from Antwerp in 1906, comes from the previous property of the Belgian Convent Turnhout (province of Antwerp ). A baroque foundation chalice dates from the 17th century, the tabernacle in the makeshift church during the restoration phase from 2014 was made in the second half of the 20th century (gold coating with rock crystals ).

The richly embroidered historicist-neo-Gothic Corpus Christi - carrying sky shows in needle painting the half-length portrait of Jesus Christ, who points to his most sacred heart as a symbol of divine love, on the right the pelican with three young pelicans in the nest and on the left the Lamb of God as symbols of the sacrificial death of Jesus; The IHS lettering is on the back. The inner sky is again embroidered with the IHS lettering. The accompanying lettering reads: Benedictus, qui venit in nomine domini! (Praised be he who comes in the name of the Lord; Ps 118,26  EU ). On the four drooping, with passementerie ornate -Kordeln baldachin valances following logo is embroidered: "O salutaris hostia!" (O salvific sacrifice!), "Quae coeli PANDIS" (The you open the door of heaven), "Bella premunt Hostilia "(Urge hostile wars)," Da robur fer auxilium "(give strength, bring help). The lines come from the hymn verbum supernum prodiens , which Thomas Aquinas wrote in 1264 for the lauds of the feast of Corpus Christi. The verses O salutaris hostia , like the Panis angelicus , are often sung in the liturgy as a chant for the Eucharistic blessing or for the distribution of communion . The four rods of the sky have rich, filigree metal attachments.

Bells

The parish church of St. Venantius in Wertheim has a four-part bell (2443 kg).

  • Bell 1 was cast by the bell caster Bustelli ( Aschaffenburg ) in 1847: bronze, Ø 1220 mm, 1116 kg, nominal e '+ 1. It is dedicated in memory of the Archbishop of Freiburg, Hermann von Vicari, whose namesake Hermann von Reichenau (Hermann the Lame). In the ornamental relief of the bell you can see St. Hermann in adoration of the Blessed Mother Mary, as the antiphons Alma redemptoris mater and Salve Regina are ascribed to him.
  • The bell 2 comes from the bell foundry Rosenlächer ( Konstanz ) from the year 1861: bronze, Ø 994, 586 kg, nominal g'-2
  • Bell 3 was cast by FW Schilling ( Heidelberg ) in 1959: bronze, Ø 868, 415 kg, nominal a'-1
  • Bell 4 comes from the Rosenlächer bell foundry (Constance) in 1849: bronze, Ø 840, 326 kg, nominal h'-1. The decorative relief of the bell shows Saint Peter with the inverted cross of his martyrdom and the keys of the kingdom of heaven

The filled minor motif sounds in the melody line. In a bell tower placed in the middle of the entrance gable of the parish church, the bells hang in a three-storey steel belfry built in 1981. Bell 2 was retuned by the Schilling bell foundry in connection with the additional chimes by turning it inside out. The tower is not equipped with clock faces. The system has no striking mechanism.

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), impressions of the outside of the church

  • Church from Tauberhofgarten with a view of the collegiate church and the castle

  • Church with rectory

  • Parish hall

  • sacristy

  • Old tower cross in the parish garden

  • apse

  • Tomb of Father Venantius Arnold to the right of the tower portal

  • Tomb of the architect Moosbrugger (here written Mosbrugger) to the left of the tower portal

Branch establishment

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), branch establishment

  • Wertheim-Besteheid, St. Elisabeth

  • Wertheim-Besteheid, St. Elisabeth, Inneres

  • Wertheim-Hofgarten, St. Lioba, exterior view

  • Wertheim-Hofgarten, St. Lioba, interior with a view of the altar

  • Wertheim-Hofgarten, St. Lioba, facade relief

  • Wertheim-Dertingen, Maria Rosenkranzkönigin branch parish

Since there was hardly any industrial development in Wertheim in the 19th century, the population grew only moderately. Until the Second World War , the Catholic population numbered a maximum of 1,100 souls. With the influx of refugees caused by the war, the number of Catholics had already increased to 1,900 souls at the beginning of 1946. At the end of the same year there were already 6,000. 2,200 Catholics from Hungary and South Moravia alone were temporarily housed in the buildings of the former air base on Reinhardhof. The first refugee services were held here in a hall. 800 Catholic refugees had settled in the neighboring evangelical communities of Wertheim (Dertigen, Bettingen, Lindelbach, Dietenhan and Kembach). In 1951 a Catholic branch was set up for them and the barrack church that still exists today was built in Dertingen. When the air base at Reinhardshof was cleared in 1952, the expellees were moved to the newly built federal settlement in Neu-Besteheid / Glashütte. The first Catholic services were held here in a tent provided by the US Army.

All Catholic parishes in today's Wertheim city area belong to the Wertheim pastoral care unit in the Tauberbischofsheim deanery of the Archdiocese of Freiburg .

Bestheid

In the glassworks settlement built after the Second World War from 1949, later the district of (Neu-) Besteheid, the church of St. Elisabeth was built in 1953, which was elevated to parish church in 1970 . The church building was built for the displaced people from Hungary, Bohemia and Thuringia who had settled there. The church was therefore given the patronage of Saint Elizabeth , who came from Hungary . In addition, the sacred building also has a second patron, St. Klemens Maria Hofbauer , who came from South Moravia .

Acorn courtyard garden

The Church of St. Lioba was built in the Eichel district in 1968/1969 and is responsible for the entire eastern area of ​​the city of Wertheim. The patronage refers to St. Lioba von Tauberbischofsheim , a relative of St. Boniface , who worked as a missionary in the Franconian Empire and was abbess of the local monastery in Wertheim's neighboring town of Tauberbischofsheim . Lioba had made a decisive contribution to Christianization in the Taubertal with her work. The elevation to the parish took place in 1972. However, the parish church only had its own pastor until 1989.

Dertingen

The Maria Rosenkranzkönigin branch church has existed in the Dertingen district since the post-war period and is housed in a temporary wooden barrack building to this day.

Co-governed churches

  • St. Venantius (Wertheim), co-administered churches

  • Wertheim-Mondfeld, branch church St. Martin

  • Wertheim-Mondfeld, Filialkirche St. Martin, Inneres

  • Wertheim-Wartberg, community center

  • Wertheim, Catholic hospital chapel

Moon field

Mondfeld is also a predominantly Catholic district. The local church of St. Martin dates from 1887 with older parts. The earlier church was expanded at that time by adding a larger nave to the previous one at a right angle. The former chancel became the sacristy, the old nave became the altar area.

Wartberg church center

The church center on the Wartberg, belonging to the parish, was inaugurated in 1976.

Catholic hospital chapel

In the Rotkreuzklinik Wertheim (facilities of the Munich Sisterhood of the Bavarian Red Cross e.V.) there is a Catholic hospital chapel. Pastoral care is provided by the Wertheim Pastoral Care Unit.

Pastor in St. Venantius

The following pastors have worked in the parish so far:

  • Philipp Gärtner (1836–1842)
  • Rock (1842–1844)
  • J. Grimm (1844-1853)
  • Bischoff (1853)
  • Franz Anton Gerber (1854-1856)
  • Bernhard Josef Mayland (1856-1860)
  • JM Schleyer (1860-1862)
  • Störbel (1862–1867)
  • Oberle (1867–1872)
  • Lorenz Murat (1872–1879)
  • Battlehner (1879-1882)
  • S. Otto (1882-1887)
  • Albert Laub (1887–1901)
  • Adolf Gassner (1901–1902)
  • Viktor Barth (1902–1913)
  • Karl Gottlieb Bär (1913–1940)
  • Emanuel Kern (1940–1944)
  • Anton Nohe (1944–1963)
  • Hugo Werle (1963-1976)
  • Manfred Helfrich (1976–1977)
  • Georg Röser (1977–1999)
  • Jürgen Banschbach (1999 ad multos annos)

See also

literature

  • Jörg Paczkowski: The Catholic parish church St. Venantius zu Wertheim and its architect August Mosbrugger. In: Wertheimer Jahrbuch 1986/87. (1989), pp. 177-203.
  • Parish of St. Venantius Wertheim (Ed.): 150 years, 1842–1992, St. Venantius Wertheim. Kreuzwertheim 1992.

Web links

Commons : St. Venantius (Wertheim)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Catholic Church Congregation Wertheim, Parishes , accessed on July 5, 2019.
  2. ↑ Catholic Church Parish Wertheim, St. Venatus , accessed on July 5, 2019.
  3. ↑ Jörg Paczkowski, Kurt Bauer, Stefanie Zwicker: Wertheim, Stadt an Main and Tauber, Gerchsheim 2012, pp. 14-18.
  4. ^ A b Thomas Wehner: Wertheim, in: The Territories of the Reich in the Age of Reformation and Confessionalization, Vol. IV, Münster 1992, ed. by Anton Schindling and Walter Ziegler, pp. 214–232.
  5. ^ Judith Wipfler: The choir of the Wertheimer Stiftskirche as a manorial burial place, The epitaphs of the regents up to the early 17th century, in: Wertheimer Jahrbuch 1996, pp. 87–178.
  6. ↑ Leonhard Scherg : On the history of the Cistercian Abbey Bronnbach, in: Peter Müller (Hrsg.): Kloster Bronnbach 1153-1803, 650 years of the Cistercians in the Taubertal, Wertheim 2003, pp. 11–35, esp.
  7. ^ Hermann Ehmer: Luther and Wertheim, in: Wertheimer Jahrbuch 1977/78, 79-97.
  8. ↑ Matthias Simon: Zur Reformationsgeschichte der Grafschaft Wertheim, in: Zeitschrift für Bavarian Church History 29 (1960), 121-144 (with an edition of the most important sources from the stand books of the State Archives Würzburg).
  9. ^ Hermann Ehmer: History of the Grafschaft Wertheim , Wertheim 1989, esp.p. 181f.
  10. ↑ Thomas Wehner: Wertheim , in: The Territories of the Reich in the Age of Reformation and Confessionalization, Vol. IV, Münster 1992, ed. by Anton Schindling and Walter Ziegler, pp. 214–232.
  11. ^ Hellmuth Rößler: Count Johann Dietrich von Löwenstein , in: Wertheimer Jahrbuch 1953, pp. 27–42.
  12. ^ Paul A. Veith: Church history of Löwenstein, in: Karl-Heinz Dähn (Red.): 700 years city of Löwenstein, Löwenstein 1987, pp. 295-310.
  13. ↑ leo-bw.de: Capuchin monastery Wertheim , accessed on December 13, 2014.
  14. ↑ Erich Langguth: P. Venantius Arnold, President and Pastor, in: Main-Tauber-Post, Wednesday, April 1, 1954.
  15. ↑ Vera Schauber and Hanns Michael Schindler: Saints and Patrons of the Year, Augsburg 1998, p. 233.
  16. ↑ a b Parish of St. Venantius Wertheim (ed.): 150 years, 1842-1992, St. Venantius Wertheim, Kreuzwertheim 1992, pp. 9-20.
  17. ↑ a b c The Archdiocese of Freiburg in its government and pastoral care offices, ed. from the Archbishop's Ordinariate, Freiburg im Breisgau 1910, pp. 756–757.
  18. ^ Parish of St. Venantius Wertheim (ed.): 150 years, 1842-1992, St. Venantius Wertheim, Kreuzwertheim 1992, pp. 17-18.
  19. ↑ Jörg Paczkowski, Kurt Bauer, Stefanie Zwicker: Wertheim, Stadt an Main and Tauber, Gerchsheim, 2nd edition 2012, p. 66.
  20. ↑ http://www.main-netz.de/nachrichten/region/wertheim/berichte/art4021,1523769 , accessed on February 28, 2015.
  21. ↑ http://www.fnweb.de/region/main-tauber/wertheim/vorfreude-auf-neuen-glanz-ist-bereits-gross-1.1980447 , accessed on February 28, 2015.
  22. ↑ Reopening of the City Church of St. Venantius , accessed on June 19, 2019.
  23. ↑ Birger-Daniel Grein: Article "Special place to pray and explore", Fränkische Nachrichten, May 17, 2016, p. 17.
  24. ↑ Ernst Badstübner: Art history picture and building in historical styles. An attempt on the interrelationships between the understanding of art history, monument preservation and historical building practice in the 19th century. In: Karl-Heinz Klingenburg (Ed.): Historicism, Aspects of Art in the 19th Century, ( Seemann, Contributions to Art History , 8), Leipzig 1985, pp. 30–49.
  25. ↑ Gottfried Kiesw: Romantic Historicism 1835-66, in: The misunderstood century, The historicism am example Wiesbaden, pp. 148-159.
  26. ^ Sigrid Thurm, Frank T. Leusch: Deutscher Glockenatlas, Vol. 4: Baden, Munich 1985, 1367-1368.
  27. ↑ Bell report from March 25, 2015, J. Wittekind, Archbishop's Bell Inspection, Building ID: 3368_01_3368.5; Internal object no. 22581, Category II (every 14 years)
  28. ↑ http://ebfr-glocken.de/html/liste/glockensuche.html?&tab=detail&scene=detail&m=33923&e=34012&id=1588 , accessed on May 30, 2015.
  29. ^ Catholic parish Wertheim: Parishes . Online at www.kath-wertheim.de. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  30. ^ Deanery Tauberbischofsheim: Pastoral care units of the Deanery Tauberbischofsheim . Online at www.kath-dekanat-tbb.de. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  31. ^ Parish of St. Venantius Wertheim (ed.): 150 years, 1842-1992, St. Venantius Wertheim, Kreuzwertheim 1992, p. 22.

Coordinates: 49 ° 45 ′ 37.2 "  N , 9 ° 30 ′ 43.3"  E