St. Vitus (Veitsaurach)

St. Vitus, north side

St. Vitus, south side

Three sandstone apostles from the Mount of Olives group, probably 16th century

inside view

Ceiling painting in the choir room

St. Vitus is an after St. Veit named Roman Catholic Church in Veitsaurach ( deanery Herrieden the Diocese of Eichstatt ).

Parish

In 1187, St. Vitus and St. Georg (Bertholdsdorf) were consecrated by the Eichstätt Bishop Otto at the same time . This is also the oldest documented mention. The burgrave of Nuremberg originally held the patronage. On July 22nd, 1294 Burgrave Konrad the Pious transferred the patronage rights to the canons of St. Nicholas in Spalt . As a result, both parishes lost their legal personality and their property and their income fell to the monastery. Although both parishes were independent, only one vicar was appointed for St. Vitus and St. Georg. This changed when the Reformation was introduced in Bertholdsdorf in 1589. Until the Reformation, the parish belonged to the Deanery Eschenbach, then to the Deanery Ornbau. With the introduction of the Reformation, St. Laurentius (Wernsbach) became a branch of St. Vitus, since the parish of St. Georg, to which Wernsbach belonged until then, became Protestant. Although the majority of the population was Protestant, Catholic services were held and the church was maintained until 1766. With the expiry of the collegiate monastery in Spalt in the course of secularization, St. Laurentius became a branch of St. Nikolai (Neuendettelsau) in 1810 .

Around 1800 the places Brunn , Buckenmühle , Kapsdorf , Kettersbach , Lanzendorf and Leipersloh were parish after St. Vitus. The parish has belonged to the Deanery Spalt since 1841.

On February 10, 1878, the first Catholic service was held in Heilsbronn in the former refectory of the Heilsbronn monastery , which Pastor Hofmann held there every two weeks. At the end of August 1878, an assistant priest was appointed in Heilsbronn because the pastor of Veitsaurach could no longer provide the Heilsbronn pastoral care district, to which 117 localities now belonged, alone. In 1908 Heilsbronn became a branch of Veitsaurach.

In 1913 the parish of Veitsaurach was assigned the Catholics of numerous parishes that had not previously belonged to a parish: Aich , Betzendorf , Bonnhof , Bürglein , Froschmühle , Großhaslach , Haag , Herpersdorf , Höfstetten , Immeldorf , Kehlmünz , Ketteldorf , Kleinhaslach , Lichtenau , Malmersdorf , Müncherlbach , Neuendettelsau , Saxony near Ansbach , Schlauersbach , Seitendorf , Vestenberg , Volkersdorf , Weißenbronn . In addition, the Catholic parishes of the diocese of Bamberg became the Catholics in Bruckberg (previously the Catholic parish of Ansbach ), Ammerndorf (previously the parish of Fürth), Fernabrünst , Großhabersdorf , Oberschlauersbach , Unterschlauersbach , Dietenhofen , Herpersdorf and Leonrod (all previously parish of Sondernohe) to Veitsaurach. This made Veitsaurach one of the largest Catholic parishes in the Kingdom of Bavaria in terms of area.

The parish has belonged to the Schwabach deanery since 1922 and to the Herrieden deanery from 1975 . Around 1975 St. Vitus had 613 parishioners in the places Barthelmesaurach, Brunn, Buckenmühle, Kapsdorf, Kettersbach, Lanzendorf, Leipersloh and Veitsaurach. The chapel in Kettersbach belongs to the parish .

Since 1980 the pastor of St. Bonifatius (Windsbach) has also been responsible for Veitsaurach. Like St. Boniface, St. Vitus belongs to the parish association Wolframs-Eschenbach.

Church building

Building history

On June 4, 1620, the church burned down after being struck by lightning. Only the tower from 1512 and the sacristy remained. In 1622 the church was consecrated again, and in 1626 an altar was built in, which has been preserved. In 1632 the church was destroyed by the Swedes in the turmoil of the Thirty Years War, except for the lower part of the tower and the foundation walls. It was restored after the war. On August 16, 1828 the big bell broke while the prayer was ringing in the morning because of the freezing cold.

The cemetery fortifications and a defense tower were largely removed when the cemetery was expanded in 1879. From 1880 to 1899 the church was rebuilt again (lengthening the hall, renewing the interior). After the Second World War, new church bells were purchased in 1954 and an electric bell three years later.

Building description

St. Vitus is a former fortified church in the middle of a former military cemetery on a mountain nose northwest of the village. It is said to have originally been a pilgrimage church. The late Gothic choir tower in the east is marked 1512, has three storeys and ends with a pyramid roof . The hall building with a gable roof connects to the west . The hall was extended in 1880 and redesigned in a neo-Gothic style. It has three axes of pointed arch windows on the north and south sides and the portal in the west.

The single-aisled hall closes flat with ceiling paintings (in the middle a large painting of St. Vitus surrounded by six smaller paintings of other saints). A wooden gallery with an organ is attached to the west wall. The groin vaulted choir with ceiling frescoes has a profiled pointed arch arcade against the hall. In it stands a high altar with a wooden top. On the south wall of the hall there is a side altar with a statue of the Madonna on the left, a side altar with a statue of St. Sebastian on the right and a Regina Coeli above the pointed arch . The baptismal font is in front of the side altar of St. Sebastian.

Pastor

Until 1586 St. Georg and St. Vitus had a common parish vicar.

Around 1295 0: Burkhard von Seckendorf (...) Around 1417 0: Friedrich Örtel Around 1454 0: Konrad Löffler Around 1466 0: Jörg Schmid Around 1480 0: Jakob Pechler Around 1491 0: Lorenz Erhard ???? - 1528: Lorenz Schmauser 1528 - ????: Johann Beck ???? - 1552: Hans Scherer Around 1552 0: Magister Lorenz ???? - 1555: Jakob Faustling ???? - 1557: Andreas Mitleiden Around 1562 0: Anton Schwarz (en) bach Around 1565 0: Bartholomäus Meyr Around 1567 0: Anton Schwarz (en) bach Around 1571 0: Johann Breunlein 1582-1588: Sixtus Agricola 1589 -0000: Michael Dollmann 1589 - ????: Johann White 1591–1598: Ulrich Gulden 1598–1604: Wolfgang Stuellacher

1604 - ????: Johann Göppelius 1606–1620: Michael Windisch 1620 -0000: Johann Schiller 1620–1626: Johann Gastell 1626–1630: Ulrich Preunlein 1631 -0000: Jakob Molitor 1632 -0000: Johann Pfleger Around 1632 0: Andreas Kögl Around 1637 0: white hair Around 1663 0: Sixtus Jan Around 1667 0: Ignaz Glaser Around 1675 0: Johann Jakob Volnhals Around 1688 0: Johann Christoph Sartor Around 1695 0: Lorenz Hartmann 1700–1701: Andreas Lang († 1713) 1701–1708: Johann Seingrien 1708–1718: Michael Bader († 1726) 1718–1723: Egidius Amler († 1723) 1723–1726: Franz Ignaz Widmann († 1752) 1726–1746: Johann Georg Jobst († 1746) 1746–1782: Franz Martin Kremer († 1782) 1778–1781: Lorenz Lotter

1781–1782: Franz Krieger 1782–1801: Johann Friedrich Breith († 1804) 1801–1810: Michael Fritz († 1838) 1811–1821: Johann Jakob Gerig 1821–1830: Georg Schraid 1830–1833: Christoph Memmel († 1882) 1834-1839: Alois Hoseman 1840–1870: Jakob Bauer († 1879) 1870–1876: Thomas Albrecht 1876–1884: Alois Hofmann 1884–1893: Karl Schneider 1894–1902: Johann Bachmeier 1902–1906: Michael Kneißl 1906–1913: Josef Biersack 1913–1930: Ludwig Schadt 1930–1933: Dr. Isidor Zottmann († 1933) 1933–1950: Andreas Meyer 1950–1955: Josef Kühnel, provisional 1955–1964: Adolf Heinz, provisional 1964–1968: Karl Weber, provisional 1968–1981: Josef Maget, pastor 1981–1987: Wolfgang Forsten 1987–1989: Reinhard Kurzinger 1989–1993: Bruno Fischer 1994–1999: Dr Josef Schierl 1999-2005: Jan Jagodzinski 2005: Günther Schmid since 2005: Hans Josef Peters

literature

• Günther P. Fehring : City and district of Ansbach (=  Bavarian art monuments . Volume 2 ). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1958, DNB  451224701 , p. 144 .
• Ludwig Hefele: History of the parish Veitsaurach . Funk Druck, Eichstätt 1977, p. 23-92 .
• Manfred Jehle: Church conditions and religious institutions on the upper Altmühl, Rezat and Bibert: Monasteries, parishes and Jewish communities in the Altlandkreis Ansbach in the Middle Ages and in modern times (=  Middle Franconian Studies . Volume 20 ). Historical Association for Middle Franconia, Ansbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-87707-771-9 , p. 196-197 .
• Konrad Rosenhauer et al. (Ed.): The district of Ansbach. Past and present . Publishing house for authorities and business Hoeppner, Aßling-Pörsdorf 1964, DNB  450093387 , p. 199 .

Web links

Commons : St. Vitus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Veitsaurach on the website bistum-eichstaett.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ L. Hefele, p. 23.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} L. Hefele, p. 29.
3. ↑ L. Hefele, p. 30.
4. ↑ M. Jehle, p. 196.
5. ↑ M. Jehle, p. 197. According to L. Hefele, p. 29, the Roman Catholic Christians in Neuendettelsau were provided for by the parish of St. Vitus as early as 1838.
6. ↑ L. Hefele, p. 34.
7. ↑ K. Rosenhauer et al. (Ed.), P. 199.
8. ^ GP Fehring, p. 144.

Coordinates: 49 ° 17 '21.7 "  N , 10 ° 53' 5.1"  E