St. Vitus (Ramsthal)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Vitus is the village church of Ramsthal , a market in the Lower Franconian district of Bad Kissingen -The church tower is one of the architectural monuments of Ramsthal and is registered in the Bavarian list of monuments under number D-6-72-142-1 . Ramsthal is part of the parish community "Saalethal".
History of the parish
Ramsthal was a branch of Sulzthal until 1688 and has been an independent parish since then . The first documentary mention can be found in the 15th century. Fortifications were built around the tower and the church became a fortified church . After the protective function no longer played a role, household items and field crops were stored in the church until the Second World War . Finds of human skeletal remains prove the existence of a cemetery around the old church.
Building history of the church
The exact time the church was built is unknown. The substructure of the current Romanesque church tower comes from the 12th / 13th centuries. Century; the lower part from the period between 1000 and 1250. Under the Würzburg prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn , the church tower was raised in 1600. In 1601 the church was given its present form with the construction of a nave . After a renovation and the installation of a new ceiling, the church was expanded in 1615. In the years from 1619 gables were replaced several times . In 1679 the church was destroyed to the ground by a fire; only the church tower remained. A new church was built in 1778. In the meantime, some of the Ramsthal services held in the Sulzthaler Heilig-Kreuz-Chapel . From 1920 a church foundation collected an amount of 18,435.99 M for the construction of a new church. In 1952 the number of believers had grown so much that a new church was planned on April 1, 1959. Construction began on April 6, 1959 and was completed in 1960. On the 1st Sunday of Advent in 1959 on November 29th, a service was celebrated in the shell. On May 21 and 22, 1960, Bishop Josef Stangl stayed for the consecration of the newly built church in Ramsthal. An extensive renovation of the church took place in 1985. In 1999 the outdoor facilities were renovated. During the last renovation in 2009, the church was transformed into a path church .
History of bells and organs
In 1841 a St. Vitus bell was consecrated, probably the largest of the bells of that time . A little bell is even older; it was cast in 1702 and still hangs in the church tower today. In the course of the First World War , bells and organ pipes were melted down. In 1920 a large bell was procured from the Ullrich and Weule company in Apolda and Bockenem . As early as 1940, it was decided to replace the bronze bells to be delivered during the Second World War with cast steel bells. The bronze bells, including the St. Vitus bell from 1841, were picked up on April 1, 1942 and replaced in 1943. In the meantime, bells from the Lady Chapel were used . In the year the organ damaged by woodworms was renovated. In 1953 three simple bells were bought. However, they cannot all have stayed in the church tower: Today four bells with the tones f sharp '- a' - h '- d ”hang in the church tower. In 1997, the Norbert Krieger company from Retzbach built a new organ with 25 registers.
Description and equipment
After being rebuilt in 1959, the church kept its eastward orientation. It does not have a separate choir. The asymmetrical gable roof of the church is visible inside. The church tower is a Julius Echter tower with a pointed helmet and is on the south side. The church has narrow rectangular windows on the south side and a large rose window on the west side.
A wooden crucifixion group hangs in front of the eastern wall . The new altarpiece represents the Last Supper . A figure of the church patron is placed on a pedestal.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bavaria I: Franconia: The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia: BD I , Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, 2nd, revised and supplemented edition, 1999, p. 869
- Robert Kümmert : The bells of the Hammelburg district , Würzburg 1955
- Werner Eberth : Prince-Bishop Julius Echter and his building inscriptions - A PR gag of the 17th century , Theresienbrunnen-Verlag Bad Kissingen, 2017, p. 48
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 23.3 ″ N , 10 ° 4 ′ 16 ″ E