St. Vitus (Handschuhsheim)
St. Vitus is the Catholic parish church in Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim . It is the oldest church in Heidelberg and one of the oldest churches in the region, the use of which is consistently verifiable.
history
The church is first mentioned in a document in 774, when it came to the Lorsch Monastery , presumably together with a noble estate . It was consecrated to St. Nazarius , the patron saint of Lorsch Monastery. The first church in this place was already a stone building. In the triumphal arch and in the eastern tower wall there are still some remains of the wall, probably from this era.
Another construction phase began between 1053 and 1057 under Abbot Arnold von Lorsch. At that time a new early Romanesque building was built. Part of the west wall of the south aisle, the former Nikolaus chapel with the crypt south of the choir and the gable wall above the round choir arch still date from this period . Around 1200, the nave was finally extended to a three-aisled basilica , which rested on round pillars with cube capitals . Around this time the influence of the Lorsch monastery had waned, the church came to the Archdiocese of Mainz and St. Nazarius was replaced as patron saints Vitus and Georg .
The third major renovation took place in the late Gothic period after the church was badly damaged in the wars of Frederick the Victorious . In 1483 a gallery was built in the north aisle for the nuns of the neighboring Augustinian monastery, which was founded around 1470 and demolished in the 17th century , and which had its own entrance from the monastery. At the same time the choir was built with the still existing arcade of the south aisle. During this time, the choir, closed on three sides, was expanded. Its tracery and ribbed vault were renewed around 1629.
After the Bergstrasse recess , in which Handschuhsheim came from the Catholic Kurmainz to the Protestant Electoral Palatinate in 1650 , St. Vitus was a simultaneous church that was available to Protestant and Catholic Christians alike, with Catholics using the choir and Protestants using the nave. In 1905, St. Vitus was given to the Roman Catholic community for sole use, and soon afterwards the Protestants began building their own church, the Peace Church , which was consecrated in 1910.
In 1933/1934 St. Vitus was extended by the Heidelberg architect Franz Sales Kuhn by about 15 meters to the north. This resulted in a spatial reorientation inside. The old Gothic choir became a side chapel. In 1970/1972 the furnishings were renewed and coordinated in accordance with the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council . In 1980 the church was renovated and a new organ was installed.
description
The outer
The medieval impression of the church has been surprisingly well preserved, especially seen from the walled churchyard in the south. The steep roof is only slightly surmounted by the compact, 25 m high Romanesque-Gothic tower. The main access today is from the south through the former right aisle.
Interior
The massive columns in the old church interior and two fresco cycles on the west and south walls have been preserved from the Romanesque building. One, created after 1400, was uncovered in 1911 and shows the life and suffering of Jesus. On the reveals of the added Romanesque windows of the south wall there are frescoes from the 1st half of the 15th century with depictions of saints, which were uncovered in 1961.
The Gothic choir has a polygonal 5/8 end , two-part tracery windows and a ribbed vault . Today it is used as a weekday and baptistery. The stained glass windows were created by Valentin Feuerstein in 1964 and show motifs from the Old and New Testament.
The furnishing of the new church interior essentially comes from the redesign in 1970/72. The free-standing altar made of Kirchheim shell limestone , the altar cross, the candlesticks and the cast bronze baptismal font were created by Karl Rißler , partly based on early Gothic forms. The 7.40 x 2.80 m tapestry in the chancel comes from Inge Heintze-Kress's workshop. It shows motifs from the Revelation of John : Christ on the throne, including seven torches and the earth.
The altars in the side aisles are Saints Konrad von Parzham and Joseph on the right and Our Lady and Saints on the left. Vitus, the statues of St. Joseph and St. Vitus were created by Emil Sutor . The way of the cross made of bronze in the left aisle comes from Karl Rißler. Also in the left aisle is a baroque Madonna depicting Mary of Victory .
The organ in the gallery parapet from 1980 has 22 registers with 1555 sounding pipes .
Tombs
St. Vitus served the Lords of Handschuhsheim as a burial place until it died out in 1600 . There are numerous gravestones in the church interior and on the outer wall, including four large double tombs, which are among the most outstanding works of medieval sculpture in the Heidelberg area.
On the right choir wall is the epitaph for Diether von Handschuhsheim († 1487) and his wife Margarethe von Frankenstein († 1483), created by the “Master of the Heidelberg knee gravestones” , who are shown kneeling in prayer.
In the Gothic choir is the Renaissance tomb for Heinrich von Handschuhsheim († 1588) and his wife Amale Beusser von Ingelheim († around 1622) made of gray Keupersandstone, opposite the tomb for their children Barbara († 1599) and Hans († 1600), who died early ) from Handschuhsheim. The sculptor was probably Jeremias Schwarz from Leonberg, who was court sculptor in Heidelberg from 1583–1589.
The gravestone for Margarethe von Handschuhsheim († 1509) and her husband Hans von Ingelheim († 1517) was placed in the right aisle of the new building. The tomb made of gray Keupersandstone shows the two praying figures life-size and fully plastic. It was probably created by Lienhart Seyffer in 1519 .
Bells
The church tower houses a six-part bell. The oldest and smallest bell (g ") was cast by Anselm Speck in Heidelberg in 1791 ; it survived both World Wars. A bell in h 'comes from the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe from 1921. The remaining bronze bells (e', g ', d ", e") were manufactured by the Schilling bell foundry in Heidelberg after the Second World War (1951 and 1964) .
Rectory
The former rectory of the St. Vitus Church (now privately owned) is to the east at the intersection of Pfarrgasse and Handschuhsheimer Landstrasse . In its current form, it dates from 1741 and is thus assigned to the late baroque . It is of massive construction, has a cellar and consists of two floors under a hipped roof , which has several dormers . The year is carved over the southern entrance (through the former parish garden).
Originally, the sweeping parish garden took up the entire space between St. Vitus Church in the west and the representative rectory in the east, interrupted only by Obere Kirchgasse leading to the Handschuhsheimer Dorflinde ( Lindenplatz ) . Since the beginning of the 20th century, however , the original ensemble has been disbanded and the space in between has been built on; the former surrounding wall has largely been preserved.
literature
- Ernst Blaum : The church in Handschuhsheim near Heidelberg and its monuments , in: New archive for the history of the city of Heidelberg 7, 1907, pp. 1–31. ( Digitized version )
- Adolf von Oechelhaeuser (arrangement): The art monuments of the Heidelberg district (Heidelberg district) . (The Art Monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden, Volume Eight, Second Section). Tübingen 1913, pp. 30-52. ( Digitized version )
- Meinrad Schaab : History of Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim , in: Die Stadt- und Landkreise Heidelberg and Mannheim , Volume II, 1968, p. 96ff
- Renate Neumüllers-Klauser : Heidelberg - St. Vitus , Schnell Art Guide No. 988, 1973.
- Günther Sauer : Archbishop's Building Department Heidelberg, commemorative publication for the 100th anniversary of the church choir Cäcilia , 1996.
- Eugen Holl : The Vitus Church as the burial place of the Knights of Handschuhsheim , in: District Association Handschuhsheim Jahrbuch 2000 , Heidelberg 2000, pp. 19–37.
- Renate Neumüllers-Klauser : St. Vitus Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim . 2nd Edition. Schnell und Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2001, ISBN 3-7954-4725-9 .
Web links
- Parish of St. Vitus
- Bells of the Catholic parish church St. Vitus in Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim (Bell Inspection for the Archdiocese of Freiburg)
Coordinates: 49 ° 25 ′ 35.4 " N , 8 ° 41 ′ 14.6" E