Sylvester Chapel (Bochum)

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The ruins of the Sylvester Chapel, view from the northeast

The Sylvester Chapel is the former, Catholic house chapel of the manor house Weitmar in the district of the same name in Bochum . It is located in the north-western area of ​​the Weitmar Castle Park. During the Reformation there was a change of denomination to the Evangelical Lutheran faith, and until the completion of the Matthäuskirche in Bochum in 1868 the chapel served as a church for the Lutheran congregation. During the Second World War , the meanwhile dilapidated small church - just like the neighboring Weitmar house - was hit by bombs, so that today it is only a ruin . This was placed under monument protection on April 26, 1995 as a monument .

history

The exact date of construction of the chapel is not known. It is first mentioned in a document in 1397, but is probably a lot older. You probably dates from the early 13th century and was at the center of the Gräftenhofes Weitmar. The namesake and patron saint was Pope Silvester I. During Wennemar von Hasenkamp's time as the owner of the Weitmar house, the chapel was a branch church of the Bochum provost church of St. Peter and Paul . In 1471 the brother of the host, Pastor Johann von Hasenkamp, made it an independent parish church on Laurentius Day (August 10) .

During the Reformation the church became Protestant in 1543 and became the property of the Lutheran parish. In 1572, the first Lutheran pastor was hired to have all powers except baptism and burial. The family who owned Haus Weitmar, however, remained Catholic and built a new house chapel in the 18th century.

The chapel early 20th century

The New Year's Eve Chapel gradually fell into disrepair in the 18th and 19th centuries. After all, its decline was so advanced that it was no longer worth repairing. The parish decided to build a new building elsewhere. This is why today's Matthäuskirche was built on Matthäusstrasse from 1866 to 1868. The carved , baroque pulpit had already been donated to the Protestant village church in Herdecke-Kirchende in 1774 , the baroque altar and the two bells of the Sylvester chapel were reused in the newly built St. Matthew's Church.

In 1890 the Protestant parish sold the property with the ruined chapels for 1,000  marks to Ludwig von Berswordt-Wallrabe. The building returned to the owners of the Weitmar house. At that point it was already badly deteriorated. Bomb hits during an air raid on May 13, 1943 finally destroyed the chapel. In the course of a redesign of the park from 2010, the ruins were restored .

description

Floor plan 1907

The ruin is in the north-western area of ​​the Weitmar Castle Park and has predominantly Gothic elements. The small cemetery next to the chapel shows that the church was the church of the evangelical parish for centuries. Parts of its square west tower still show Romanesque forms. The tower has a round arched portal with a bull's eye above . On the upper floor the lower parts of the formerly arched windows are still preserved. A round archway leads into the nave , under which there is an inaccessible crypt . The crypt was uncovered in 2016 to accommodate a sculpture from the Situation Kunst art collection (for Max Imdahl) that can be viewed through a glass door. According to a pastor from Weitmar, members of the families who owned the Weitmar and Bärendorf houses were buried there in the past . The south wall of the nave is still up to the height of the window sills, but the north wall is only present in the base area. A pointed arch opening on the east side leads into the late Gothic choir , which is three steps higher than the nave. The square area has a 3/8 end and openings for pointed arch windows. The consoles for the former choir vault are still preserved. On the north side there is a late Gothic tabernacle niche with a crowning eyelash . Opposite this is a triangular lava bay .

There are three grave slabs in the ruins. They come from the area around the chapel and were erected there in the 1970s. The years of death 1625, 1705 and 1765 can be found on them.

  • View from the nave into the choir with lava niche

  • Preserved tabernacle niche

  • View from the choir through the nave to the west tower

  • Grave slabs in the ruin

literature

  • Elfie Laschober: Weitmar New Year's Eve Chapel. In: Norbert Humberg (Hrsg.): Lebensraum Kirche. Parish of St. Franziskus Bochum. Parish St. Franziskus, Bochum 2013, ISBN 978-3-00-043834-9 , pp. 8-19.
  • Albert Ludorff : The architectural and art monuments of the Bochum-Land district (= the architectural and art monuments of Westphalia . Volume 23). Schöningh, Münster 1907, pp. 49-50 ( digitized version ).
  • Stefan Pätzold: House Weitmar. In: Kai Niederhöfer (Red.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region. Klartext, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0234-3 , pp. 27–31.

Web links

Commons : Sylvester Chapel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Entry of the Sylvester chapel in the list of monuments of the city of Bochum under A336 (PDF; 812 kB)
  2. ^ S. Pätzold: House Weitmar. 2010, p. 28.
  3. ↑ Wolfram Wintzer, Cornelia Kneppe: A moved fate: on the history of the Weitmar house in Bochum. In: LWL-Archäologie in Westfalen, Antiquities Commission for Westphalia (Ed.): Archeology in Westfalen-Lippe 2009. Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2010, ISBN 978-3-941171-42-8 , p. 101 ( PDF ; 715 kB) . Some publications even date the construction of the chapel to the 11th century due to the Romanesque shape of the west tower. Compare for example Hans H. Hanke: House Weitmar - Artful Romanticism .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Hans H. Hanke: Haus Weitmar - Artful Romanticism , accessed on March 8, 2016.
  5. ^ S. Pätzold: House Weitmar. 2010, p. 29.
  6. ↑ Willi Berneiser: Weitmar. In: Vereinigung für Heimatkunde Bochum (Hrsg.): Bochum. Homeland book. Volume 7. Schürmann & Klagges, Bochum 1958, pp. 93-97
  7. ^ S. Pätzold: House Weitmar. 2010, pp. 29-30
  8. ^ S. Pätzold: House Weitmar. 2010, p. 30

Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 52.6 "  N , 7 ° 11 ′ 19.3"  E