Limburg City Church
The Limburg City Church with the patronage of St. Sebastian is a listed Catholic church on Bischofsplatz in the old town of Limburg an der Lahn and part of the adjacent Episcopal Ordinariate of the Limburg Diocese . The monastery church of the former Franciscan monastery is now a branch church of the cathedral parish of St. Georg in the pastoral area of Limburg .
history
The erection of today's town church by the Franciscans can no longer be precisely dated; it was probably at the beginning of the 14th century. The Franciscans settled in Limburg around 1232 and initially used a wooden church in 1252, the predecessor of the town church. The new building was made possible for them by donations from the wealthy Limburg citizens. During the reform movements in the Franciscan order in the 15th century, the Limburg Franciscans joined the stricter "observance movement" and in 1485 transferred their entire property to the Archbishop of Trier in 1458 . The Reformation led to the closure of the monastery - and thus the church - between 1577 and 1582.
It was continued in the 17th century and enjoyed a significant upswing. In 1742 the church was rebuilt in baroque style. The Franciscan monastery was closed in 1813 in the course of secularization . The church was taken over by the state and declared a city church in 1820. Since 1827 it has belonged to the then newly established diocese of Limburg .
Architecture and equipment
The three-aisled basilica with a long, polygonal closing choir, which is Gothic in structure , is simple in the style of a mendicant church , in accordance with the rules of the Franciscan order . Therefore it does not have a church tower , but carries a roof turret with a bell.
The six-bay nave has a basilical cross-section with a higher nave and low aisles. Since the naves were flatly roofed, buttresses could be dispensed with. The choir, as wide as the central nave, measures three narrow bays and has a 5/8 end and large tracery windows , between which only narrow remains of the wall stand, in front of which stepped buttresses divert the thrust of the ribbed vault in the choir. A large, five-part tracery window also characterizes the west facade.
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More elaborate interior decorations were not made until the Baroque era in 1742, and the exterior has retained its simple shape to this day. The renovation was led by the architect Martin Ulrich, who mainly limited the measures to the vaulting of the nave and the stuccoing of the wall and ceiling surfaces. The gothic framework with wide arcades over slender round pillars was preserved. The central nave received a colored mirrored ceiling with stitch caps over a heavy cornice and rich stucco decorations by Brother Angelus Homburg. The picture program with Maria Immaculata in the center features the religious saints Francis , Antonius , Berhardin and Kapistran in the corner medallions and the saints Elisabeth and Sebastian in the middle of the nave; eight angels support the vault between the saints. Six pictures with stations of the cross are located on both sides in the Obergade zone . The wooden ceilings of the aisles are painted with images of Franciscan saints. The inlaid pulpit also comes from the baroque modernization phase.
Only a few pieces of medieval equipment have been preserved: one of the original consecration crosses on the west side and a Gothic wall painting in a pointed arch niche in the north aisle at the level of the organ gallery with a standing Virgin in the center, surrounded by statues of Saints Peter and Anthony and a donor figure. The tombstone of Johann von Isenburg († 1312) is on the north wall of the choir. A former lecture cross from the early 15th century now serves as an altar cross .
The organ was built in 1970/71 by the organ building company Johannes Klais ; the prospectus created in 1686 by the Franciscan Father Adam Öhninger from Lohr am Main was preserved in its original color. The confessionals, which unfortunately have been robbed of their color, date from the same period.
The inventory was almost completely cleared between 1820 and 1830. The original altarpieces disappeared , the late Gothic altarpieces of the aisles of today were moved to their location towards the end of the 19th century. The Gothic high altar was created in 1891 and was a gift to the then Bishop Karl Klein for his golden jubilee as a priest.
literature
- Monika Jung: The town church Sankt Sebastian zu Limburg an der Lahn: The church of the former Franciscan monastery of this town. Cardamina Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-8642-4091-1 .
- Theodor Kloft: City Church St. Sebastian Limburg ad Lahn . 1st edition. Verlag des Bischöflichen Ordinariates Limburg, Limburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7954-7038-8 .
- Christoph Waldecker : Limburg on the Lahn. Verlag Schnell & Steiner 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2559-3 .
- Harald Wagner: Discover Limburg! A city guide for tourists and locals. Limburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-031762-0 .
Web links
- State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Former. Franciscan monastery and Franciscan church of St. Sebastian, now Episcopal Ordinariate and City Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website Pastoraler Raum Limburg
- ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Former. Franciscan monastery and Franciscan church of St. Sebastian, now Episcopal Ordinariate and City Church In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
Coordinates: 50 ° 23 '15.1 " N , 8 ° 3' 58.7" E