Warnfried Church (Osteel)

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Side view of the Warnfried Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Warnfried Church is in the East Frisian town of Osteel in the joint community of Brookmerland . Its furnishings are of supraregional art historical importance and include objects from ten centuries. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the church deteriorated more and more, so that it was mostly demolished in 1830. During the subsequent renovation, it was given its current shape.

history

The church in Marienhafe before its partial demolition in 1830. View from the north side

Large-scale settlement began in northern Brookmerland after the Julian flood of 1164, which devastated the coastline in East Frisia. Many residents of these areas moved inland to settle there. However, the region was not uninhabited before. This is evidenced by the sarcophagus covers made of red sandstone found in the local area, which were exported to East Frisia from the middle of the 11th century to the second half of the 12th century. They also point to a previous church, which, however, has not yet been located.

In the 13th century, the villagers began building the current church, which was completed in the third quarter of the century. After completion, the church was consecrated to St. Werenfried . This was probably an Irish missionary to the Frisians who died in 760 in Westervoort near Arnhem .

At the time it was built, the building was much larger than it is today. It was closely related to the Marienhafer Church, only about three kilometers away, and was clearly stylistically influenced by this. Like the model, it had 47 niches on the transept and choir. However, it is unknown which figures should stand here, or whether any were ever there. The Warnfried Church was a single-nave, vaulted cruciform church with a length of around 63 meters and was thus roughly the same length as the Church of Engerhafe . The building was not erected in one go, but rebuilt several times over the centuries. It is possible that the villagers expanded their church in the west (tower) and in the east (transept and choir) under the impression of the growing church of Marienhafe. In the 14th century it was given a new vault after the wall was raised by 2.5 meters. This is also indicated by the narrow-ribbed pillars in the building.

In a storm in 1686 the roof of the church was badly damaged and the vault of the nave was destroyed. It was then replaced by a flat wooden ceiling.

In 1830 the transept and choir nave were demolished and the nave shortened by 30 meters. In 1891 the wooden coffered ceiling that exists today was installed. In the course of this partial demolition, the tower also lost its upper floors, so that only three remain today.

Building description

Church and monument

The Warnfried Church is a rectangular one-room church with a built-in west tower. Due to its close architectural connection to the Marienhafer Church, the church can be assigned to the early Gothic . As in the original, the Osteel building also had a walkway between the outer and inner walls. The outer walls are kept simple. In contrast, the preserved upper floors of the tower are structured by pilaster strips and arched friezes.

There are three pillars on the south side of the church because the wall there inclines 40 centimeters outwards.

Inside, the church is closed at the top by a flat wooden ceiling. On the walls are the strong, multi-tiered wall services that once supported the vault. In the course of the partial demolition, the west portal was renewed and the building was completed with a new wall to the east, which is divided by two pointed arch windows.

Furnishing

The furnishings of the church are of national art historical importance. It includes objects from ten centuries, of which several sarcophagus lids on display in the church from the 11th to the end of the 12th centuries are the oldest. The relic of a baptismal font, which is assigned to the 12th to 13th centuries and was made from Bentheim sandstone , points to the Romanesque period . The modern attachment was purchased in 1993. The church is equipped with a silver communion chalice from 1535. It is embedded in Gothic decor. There are Renaissance angel heads on its pommel and Gothic pinnacles on the shaft . The chalice is no longer used and is on loan to the Johannes a Lasco Library in Emden.

The organ

The two-manual organ with attached pedal and 13 stops was created in 1619 by the organ builder Edo Evers from Groningen . From 1616 to 1630 he had his workshop in Emden and Jever. This makes the instrument the second oldest surviving organ in East Friesland after the Rysum church organ . It is now on the west gallery of the church. It originally stood on the north side of the transept in the area of ​​the crossing . After the partial demolition in 1830, the organ was placed on a new gallery on the east side of the church. In 1890 it was moved to its current location after a new altar was purchased.

The richly decorated pulpit is the work of master Egbert Harmens Smit from the north and is dated to the year 1699. The basket is structured by turned corner columns. In the gaps there are round arches made of tendrils and statuettes of the evangelists . The sound cover has an unusually high, richly decorated structure. It is crowned at a height of around seven meters by a victorious Christ waving a flag.

The chandeliers are works from 1656 and 1700. They were donated to the church by parishioners.

The chairs with the flat relief carvings were created, as was the altar table, the southern prehistory, the representations of the apostles on the gallery and the grave tablet for David Fabricius around 1700. The neo-Gothic altarpiece was installed in the church in 1891. It shows a picture of Jesus crucified in its middle field, while two apostle figures are placed in the open side fields. The top is crowned with pointed arches and pinnacles.

The eastern glass windows were created in 1999 by Günter Grohs , the no longer used reredos on the north wall in 1979 by the sculptor Erich Brüggemann from Winsen (Luhe) .

Memorial to David and Johann Fabricius in the cemetery.

In front of the church is a monument to the astronomer David Fabricius . It stands in the cemetery where the high altar was until it was partially demolished in 1830 and shows the Urania . In her hands she carries a telescope and a tablet with the sun disk and the sunspots and indicates that David and Johannes Fabricius made important astronomical discoveries from Osteel around 1600, including the discovery of sunspots and the variability of the star Omikron Ceti im Constellation belonging to whale . David Fabrizius was a Protestant pastor in Osteel and was killed there on May 7, 1617 by a villager whom he had accused of theft in a sermon. A memorial stone for the crime is in the Osteel Church. The memorial in the cemetery was erected in 1895.

See also

literature

  • Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Heinz Ramm: Frisian churches in Auricherland, Norderland, Brokmerland and in Krummhörn , Volume 2. 2nd edition. Verlag C. L. Mettcker & Sons, Jever 1983, p. 58.
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Warnfried Church in Osteel. In: If stones could talk . Volume IV, Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover 1998, ISBN 3-7842-0558-5 , pp. 171-173.
  • Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . 2nd Edition. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebs-GmbH, Aurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-940601-05-6 , p. 95, 102, 104 f., 118 .

Web links

Commons : Warnfriedkirche (Osteel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Peter Seidel (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape ): Osteel (PDF file; 150 kB), viewed on June 26, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b Monika van Lengen: Warnfriedkirche and organ in Osteel , viewed on June 26, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b c d Gottfried Kiesow: Architectural Guide Ostfriesland . Verlag Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-86795-021-3 , p. 230ff.
  4. ^ A b Georg Dehio: Dehio - Handbook of German Art Monuments: Handbook of German Art Monuments, Bremen, Lower Saxony . German art publisher; Edition: revision, greatly expanded edition. Munich, Berlin (January 1, 1992), ISBN 3-422-03022-0 , pp. 1067f.
  5. ↑ Reinhard Ruge: Osteel, Ev.-luth. Warnfriedkirche organ by Edo Evers (1619) , viewed on June 26, 2011.
  6. ↑ Irmi Hartmann: Organ birthday is especially celebrated . In: Ostfriesland Magazin 6/2019, SKN Druck und Verlag, Norden 2019, p. 54 f.
  7. ↑ Karin Hammermaier: A church window describes a way , viewed on June 26, 2011.
  8. ↑ Menso Folkerts: David Fabricius in: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland Volume 2, Aurich 1997, ISBN 3-932206-00-2 , pp. 106 to 114, here quoted from the online edition.

Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '58.8 "  N , 7 ° 15' 51.5"  E