Parish Church of St. Nikolai (Bad Liebenwerda)

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Nikolaikirche in Bad Liebenwerda

The Protestant parish church St. Nikolai is a sacred building in the spa town of Bad Liebenwerda in the Elbe-Elster district in the state of Brandenburg . It is dedicated to Nikolaus von Myra , the patron saint of seafarers.

history

The exact construction date of the church is not known. In 1231, a pastor was first mentioned in Bad Liebenwerda, who presumably worked in another church in addition to the castle chapel. The building first appeared in a document in 1376. The Meißen register mentioned a total of eight altars ; another was added as a foundation by Heinrich von Weltewitz in 1391. In 1490, a fire destroyed the castle and numerous houses as well as the church. The community rebuilt it, but already in 1513 two pillars of the building gave way and led to the collapse of the entire church. Friedrich III. campaigned in 1515 (other traditions speak of 1516) to rebuild the church. In 1519 and 1544 Martin Luther visited the parish and, among other things, assigned superintendent Liebenwerdas Martin Gilbert to his office. During the Thirty Years' War there were three major fires in Bad Liebenwerda. The structure of one of them was badly damaged again. Another church consecration is handed down from 1655. In the following decades, numerous improvements and repairs were carried out, which were financed, among other things, by donations in 1702. Further repairs were completed in 1740 and 1790, according to archived invoices. There is evidence of major changes in the interior from the years 1850 to 1911. During this time, the interior was largely neo-Gothic and an organ was installed by Johann Gottlob Mende from Leipzig . On May 29, 1894, a lightning bolt destroyed large parts of the west tower , which was then renewed in the following four years under the direction of the district building inspector de Ball and the royal site manager Echtermeyer . Experts suspect that they used brickwork remains from the 14th century in the lower area. On October 31, 1917, the congregation put a plaque on the building for Luther's two visits. In 1922 Wilhelm Rühlmann from Zörbig rebuilt the organ. In 1991 the parish renovated the roof structure and covered the roof again. The flat ceiling was insulated and the floor of the roof structure was renewed.

Two years later, the Mitteldeutsche Orgelbau A. Voigt built a new organ with three manuals and 41 registers using the Mende organ case and parts of the Rühlmann organ .

In 1995 the ovens, some of which had already cracked, were replaced by a modern heating system. In 1999, strangers destroyed some windows in the church in the choir, which were then secured against further attacks by protective bars. In the same year there was also an arson attack on the west portal, in which the church doors were damaged. The parish then installed a new locking system. In 2004 there was another arson attack, whereupon experts installed a fire alarm system in the building. In 2005 the community renovated the two church windows in the area of ​​the west gallery. A year later, craftsmen installed a sanitary area in the tower room, and in 2011 other craftsmen renewed the stairs to the organ gallery. In 2015 there are plans to build barrier-free access to the south nave .

architecture

Organ gallery and flat ceiling

The building envelope bears the design language of the late Gothic and was built from red brick . Excavations in 1994 revealed that the building as a three-nave , vaulted hall church created, but after the collapse in the 16th century as a hall church was restored. The choir has a flat, three-sided end. The nave and choir are reinforced with stepped buttresses , which are also made of brick and extend to the top of the large, pointed-arched windows. These are available with a wide, light plastered jambs provided. They are divided into three parts and were probably enlarged during the renovation in 1513. In the second half of the 16th century, the builders built a two-storey extension with a sacristy with a cell vault and a reticulated council box on the inside. From the outside, the pillar gable from the late Renaissance catches the eye. Next to this extension, the parish installed a bust of Martin Luther with a plaque for his two visitations. A flat, arched opening can be seen on the southern wall of the choir, which has been carefully closed with brick and takes up almost the entire space between the two buttresses.

On the upper floor of the rectangular tower there are three arched sound arcades on all three sides . The tower spire ends with a cornice with a frieze . Above that, the builders erected a staggered gable , which was artfully decorated with tracery and houses a tower clock. The pointed helmet adjoining it is covered with black slate and ends with a ball and a cross. The lower half of the sphere dates from 1898, the upper half was made anew with the help of a donation from an unknown citizen.

Furnishing

The neo-Gothic pulpit and the paneled wall plinth date from 1911. In that year August Oetken also designed the neo-Gothic, ornamental painting of the wooden flat ceiling with Art Nouveau elements . Remains of the polygonal pillars can be seen on the west wall and in the choir. The stained glass in the four windows of the choir depict the birth, baptism , crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ . They date from 1908, were created in Gerstner and Werner's workshop in Görlitz and can be traced back to foundations of the pharmacist Liebe and the office machine manufacturer Reiss. The fifth, made of sandstone , is dated June 5, 1671. It is decorated with an early Baroque decoration and is based on an octagonal cup , which is decorated with putti and fruits and at the base of which masks have been incorporated. The larger than life crucifix in front of the triumphal cross on the south wall probably dates from the 16th or 17th century.

The organ loft was built by the parish in 1850. A year later, Johann Gottlob Mende from Leipzig built an organ there with a late Classicist organ front . The Man of Sorrows , which comes from a Gothic shrine, was dated around 1500. It was deposited in June 2015 and is not on display.

An epitaph on the south wall commemorates the carpenter Johanna Sibylla Tischerin, who died on May 27, 1671. On the opposite side of the north wall is an altarpiece that dates from around 1700. In the original equipment, the two wooden figures Moses and John the Baptist stood next to the picture , which were attached to the parapet of the organ gallery. The late altarpiece from around 1900 is on the south wall of the church in June 2015.

literature

  • Georg Dehio (arr. Gerhard Vinken et al.): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 .
  • Parish of St. Nikolai (ed.): Small church leader , flyer, no date

Web links

Commons : Nikolaikirche (Bad Liebenwerda)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City of Bad Liebenwerda (Ed.): Historical city tour , flyer, no date.
  2. ↑ Information on the organ , website of Mitteldeutsche Orgelbau A. Voigt, accessed on June 23, 2015.
  3. ↑ The facade of the St. Nikolai Church is to be renovated . In: Lausitzer Rundschau of March 25, 2008, accessed on the website of the Förderkreis Alte Kirchen Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. on June 20, 2015.
  4. ^ Ceremonial crowning of the Bad Liebenwerda St. Nikolai Church . In: Lausitzer Rundschau of October 1, 2010, accessed on the website of the Förderkreis Alte Kirchen Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. on June 20, 2015.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 56.8 "  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 36.2"  E