St. Wendelin (Herbolzheim)
The St. Wendelin Church was the oldest church in Herbolzheim , a district of the Neudenau community in the Heilbronn district . It was on the right bank of the Jagst in today's cemetery. The tower of the church was demolished in 1784 because it was in disrepair, the nave, which was renovated in the 14th century, was demolished in 1825. A Gothic niche in the cemetery wall has been preserved from the church, in which a wooden figure known as the man of the dead was once kept.
history
The oldest modern settlement center of Herbolzheim was on the right bank of the Jagst. The first church in the town was built there. While the place was relocated to a ridge on the opposite left bank of the Jagst after the Hungarian invasions in the early 10th century, the cemetery and the church on the right bank were preserved. The church of St. Wendelin was older than the surrounding cemetery, as the original burial took place a little further to the west and the current cemetery at the church was only laid out around 1200.
Little is known about the appearance of the church and its building history. In analogy to the Gangolf Chapel in Neudenau, it is assumed that the tower base was the oldest part of the church and dates from the Romanesque period . Nothing is known about the nave of this building period. The nave was probably renewed around the 14th century in the Gothic style. Structural remains of the nave are the stone Gothic niche that is still walled up at the site of the church in the cemetery, as well as a wooden Gothic frieze that was later moved to a residential building in Herbolzheimer Kreßbachstrasse.
During the Peasants' War in 1525 , Oswald Lewer was pastor in Herbolzheim. He was already preaching according to Lutheran doctrine and called for participation in the peasant uprisings, for which he later had to answer in court. Although he was acquitted of the allegations of agitation, he was nevertheless executed in Tübingen in 1530 because he had meanwhile joined the Anabaptists . Due to the affiliation to Kurmainz and despite some disputes over the patronage right , Herbolzheim remained Catholic even during the Reformation in the 16th century.
The Wendelinskirche on the other side of the Jagstufer than the place brought some difficulties. The villagers had to cross the Jagst over a wooden footbridge to worship before the first stone Jagstbrücke was built in 1761. In order to be able to ring the bells in the village, a chapel, mentioned as early as the 17th century, was built there. In the second half of the 18th century it was finally decided to build a new church on the site of that chapel. The construction of the old Kilian's Church , which is still located there today (it has now also received a successor building at another location with today's St. Kilian's Church ) began in 1770. The church was consecrated in 1780.
After the inauguration of Kilian's Church, the tower of the Wendelin Church was demolished in 1784 because it was dilapidated. Its stones were used to repair the stone Jagst Bridge from 1761, which was damaged by ice . The nave was preserved for a few decades before it was finally released for demolition in 1825 due to the risk of collapse.
The originally oval and walled cemetery on which St. Wendelin was located was rebuilt in 1839 in a rectangular shape. In the newly created walls, a Gothic niche has been built on the site of the old church, which once served as a tabernacle shrine. In the niche, an ancient wooden figure was kept for a long time, which was ultimately headless and badly worm-eaten. Since the remains of a shepherd's bag could still be seen on the figure, it is believed that the wooden figure was originally a Wendelin figure. However, since the patronage of the old church was temporarily forgotten, the figure was traditionally only referred to as the man of the dead . At an unknown time, the male was lost. The walled-in niche has survived in the cemetery to this day.
literature
- Rudolf Unser: History of the village of Herbolzheim an der Jagst , Mosbach 1956, pp. 56–64 (on the local churches) and pp. 96/97 (on the cemetery).
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 3.2 ″ N , 9 ° 15 ′ 23.1 ″ E