Vöppstedter ruin

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Vöppstedter ruin
Archway at the entrance to the Vöppstedter cemetery

The Vöppstedter ruin is the ring-shaped ruin of the Jakobus Church in today's Salzgitter-Bad, surrounded by a cemetery .

history

The Jakobus Church was first mentioned in a document in the 12th century. It formed the core of the probably pre-existing village of Vöppstedt or Veppstedt.

Around 1350 the people of Vöppsted moved to the nearby fortified Salzgitter, the village then fell into desolation, but the church and the cemetery continued to be used. The village church was destroyed either in the Great Hildesheim Beer Feud ( 1481–1486) or in the Hildesheim Stiftsfehde (1519–1523). During the tenure of the second Lutheran superintendent Philipp Saltzmann (1587 to 1592), the church was rebuilt as a chapel for the dead and the surrounding area was used as a cemetery. Burials also took place in the chapel itself, mainly of members of the patronage and pastor families.

The chapel fell into disrepair again during the Thirty Years' War . From 1659 the roof was re-covered and the apse arch was walled up to increase the stability of the gable wall. This work was completed in 1683.

The church was used as a death church until 1806. During the time of the French occupation , the church building was used as a military prison and a food store. The trigger was the request of the French city commandant La Chaise to Superintendent Feyerabend on May 20, 1807, to clear all furnishings from the chapel within one day in order to make room for the prisoners taken by the French army.

In the years after the French left, the chapel fell into disrepair. In 1863 the tower roof collapsed. Around 1900 the walling up of the arch on the east side of the nave collapsed. In 1924, the roof of the nave had to be removed for safety reasons. By 1940 the condition of the building had deteriorated so much that it was cordoned off extensively. After several renovations, only the outer walls of the 12 × 8.5 m nave and the walls of the 5.65 × 4.7 m tower remain today. Access to the tower is only possible through the nave, the main entrance to the church was moved to the south side of the nave in the 16th century.

Since the Protestant old town cemetery was laid out in 1886, the number of burials in the Vöppstedter cemetery has decreased steadily. The last burial probably took place in 1920 in a family grave.

In the years 1958 to 1967 the cemetery and the ruins of the chapel were redesigned into a park-like memorial for the victims of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 , the two World Wars and the Third Reich . On the 30th anniversary of the mining accident in the Hannoversche Treue on July 19, 1960, a memorial plaque was placed on the inner wall of the ruins in 1990 to commemorate the victims.

The archway at the entrance to the Vöppstedter Friedhof originally served as an entrance gate to the Garßenhof in the grid district and was moved here in autumn 1941.

literature

  • O. Kiecker, C. Borchers (ed.): Art monuments of the province of Hanover . Issue 7: District of Goslar. Self-published by the provincial administration, Hanover 1937, Vepstedter Kirchenruine, p. 222-223 .
  • Ursula Wolff: The Vöppstedter cemetery in Salzgitter-Bad . In: History Association Salzgitter e. V. (Ed.): Salzgitter Yearbook 1995/1996 . tape 17/18 , 1996, ISSN  0723-757X , p. 102-132 .

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 47.3 "  N , 10 ° 22 ′ 44.5"  E