St. Vitus (Bokeloh)

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Catholic Church of St. Vitus in Meppen-Bokeloh

St. Vitus is a Catholic church in the Lower Saxony district town of Meppen in the Emsland district . It goes back to the 10th century. The church, located at Am Kirchberg 1, is a listed building. Their patron is St. Vitus , co-patron saint is St. Catherine .

History and building design

The St. Vitus Church stands on the banks of the Hase River in the Bokeloh district . It has been rebuilt and renovated several times.

Prehistory and Romanesque Church

The original church was consecrated either on the feast of the Assumption of Mary in 948 AD by Bishop Dodo I, or by Bishop Dodo II before 996 AD, both from Osnabrück . Before that, a wooden church may have stood there, which is said to have served as a mission stand.

From the Romanesque church, the eastern church walls, consisting of boulders and lawn iron stone , with a width of approximately 1.40 meters have been preserved.

Conversions and renovations

.. In the year 1462 AD a Gothic vaulted was 8.5 - Choir grown, existing small arched windows in the style of Gothic made wider, and provided the nave with a Gothic vault also in 1500. The tower dates back to 1512 n. Chr. Its spire collapsed in 1811, destroying the vault of the nave. A flat hollow ceiling was built as a replacement.

The first renovations took place in 1901–1903, 1973 and 1985, and the chancel was changed in 1968. Fundamental renovation work began in 1991, the vault of the nave was rebuilt in a Gothic style and the interior was renovated until 1994. The installation of new windows ended the work in 1998. On August 15, 1998, the 1050th anniversary of the consecration of the church, the Bishop of Osnabrück Franz-Josef Bode consecrated the altar and blessed the ambo .

use

In addition to the newer parish church of St. Ludger, St. Vitus serves as a parish church for the 1950 Catholics in the parish (as of 2011). The church has about 270 seats. As a rule, the St. Vitus Church is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Bells and organ

The church tower is equipped with three bells: an ais' bell from 1903 by the Otto bell foundry, Hemelingen / Bremen, made of bronze and two bells, fis' and gis', made in 1957 by the Bochumer Verein, made of steel. Otto had delivered three bronze bells in 1903, but the two larger ones were melted down in the two world wars of the previous century.

The organ from 1845 by the organ builders F. Wenthin & W. Meese, Tecklenburg, was fundamentally renovated between 1989 and 1994.

Works of art

A former sacrament house from AD 1462, a Catherine epitaph from AD 1678, a Vespers picture on the outer wall of the choir from the 17th century and several paintings have been preserved.

photos

  • Saint Vitus, detail

  • Sankt Vitus, 1462, extension of the Gothic choir

  • Saint Vitus, holy water font

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City of Meppen: provisional list of building and art monument maintenance, registered for No. 454035.00117, .pdf file.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website of the city of Meppen. Retrieved September 3, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.meppen.de  
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h St. Vitus Church. Community website. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b c d St. Vitus on the pages of the city of Meppen.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.meppen.de   Website of the city of Meppen. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  4. ↑ a b c History of the parish of St. Vitus. Community website. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  5. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here especially 512 .
  6. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular 478 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud University Nijmegen).

Coordinates: 52 ° 41 ′ 45.8 "  N , 7 ° 20 ′ 42"  E