St. Vitus (Bontkirchen)

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St. Vitus Church
Old church, photo before 1895

The Catholic parish church St. Vitus is a listed church building in Bontkirchen , a district of Brilon in the Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia .

History and architecture

In 1276, Simon I von Lippe , as Archbishop of Paderborn, initiated the revival of the parish in Bontkirchen and appointed St. Vitus as the church patron. The current neo-Gothic building was erected in 1896.

Old church

The previous church was a rectangle in plan, it was 8.75 m long and 5.75. The stone walls were three feet thick. In an unknown time it was extended to the east by a half-timbered choir. The entrance was in the north wall. In front of the nave in the west stood an undivided, almost square tower with a tent roof . The walls of the bell chamber on the top floor of the tower were massive in the west and east walls . The other two walls were made of timber . All the roofs were covered with slate. The building was demolished in 1895.

At the end of 1672, the church was desecrated and robbed by two Brandenburg regiments when they passed through. The soldiers broke into the church and stole two chalices, a monstrance , a vessel with consecrated oil, vestments, altar cloths and four silk flags. The Holy of Holies was also stolen, and the looters are said to have relieved themselves at the altar. The image of Mary was "littered and besudlet" with "Speigel, feces and dirt". The statue's silk skirts were stolen; The corresponding silver pennies and red corals were removed and the baby Jesus was burned. During the short billing period, the building was probably used as a horse stable, and the animals were fed from the font .

New Church

St. Vitus with adjoining cemetery from the air

The single-nave building with three almost square bays was built in 1896 in the neo-Gothic style. The side aisles were arched with short transverse barrels. The choir rectangle, equipped with a ridge vault, is not quite as wide as the nave. The square west tower with a four-sided tent roof looks simple. The sacristy was added to the south. The organ gallery is in the west yoke.

Furnishing

  • A Gothic Madonna statue made of Baumberger sandstone from the first quarter of the 15th century. It comes from a Munster or Munsterland sculptor's workshop in the early 15th century, whose works can be found in a number of churches in Westphalia and Hesse-Waldeck. The left forearm was added.
  • Two dressing figures of Our Lady. Only the head and upper body are carved, the lower body consists of a slat frame. The baby Jesus is still there.

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments , North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume 2, Westphalia, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1969
  • Paul Michels, Nikolaus Rodenkirchen, Franz Herberhold: Architectural and art monuments of Westphalia, Brilon district, Volume 45 , Aschendorfsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Münster, Ed .: Wilhelm Rave. State curator, 1952
  • Ursula Quednau (arrangement): Dehio-Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, North Rhine-Westphalia, Volume II: Westphalia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-422-03114-2
  • Gerhard Brökel, Past Times, History from Brilon, Volume 5 , Briloner Heimatbund Semper Idem 2012

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Wilhelm Grote, Historisch-Geographisch-statististik-literarisches Jahrbuch , 1817, ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  2. ^ Gerhard Brökel, Past Times, History from Brilon, Volume 5 , Briloner Heimatbund Semper Idem 2012, page 70
  3. ^ Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments, North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume 2, Westphalia, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1969, page 68

Coordinates: 51 ° 21  '17.3 " N , 8 ° 39' 26.3"  E