Wendelins Chapel (Butzbach)

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Wendelin Chapel from the southeast

The Wendelinskapelle in Butzbach in the Wetteraukreis is the former hospital chapel of the city. It was built around 1440, making it the oldest half-timbered church in Hesse and one of the oldest half-timbered churches in Germany. The Hessian cultural monument has a turret with a pointed helmet and tracery windows and houses a carved altar from the beginning of the 16th century.

history

West elevation with northern extension
Inscription with the year 1508 in the western post

During archaeological excavations from October 1, 1980 to December 5, 1981, three layers of floors made of different materials and different construction times were discovered. Within the ground plan of today's eastern part there were 0.80 meters wide basalt foundations of an older chapel, which, based on ceramic finds, were dated to the 13th century. This previous building was probably made of stone and not wood, as a chapel in neighboring Griedel from the same construction period was also built from stone. Below these foundations there was a post hole north of the altar base, a dark brown layer and a 0.06–0.07 meter thick layer of peat, which was interpreted as the original floor of an even older building. A late Carolingian shard and human vertebrae in a pit in the area of ​​the altar point to a sacred use of a wooden building that was built around the 10th century on the old Roman road. This led from Friedberg right past the chapel through the camp village of Fort Hunneburg to the Limes crossing at the small fort Degerfeld .

The separation of the hospital from the mother church, the parish church of St. Markus , is attested in a document from 1375, which shows Philip VII of Falkenstein as the founder of the church and hospital. The report of an alleged consecration in 1208 comes from a church book drawn up in 1721. The information is unlikely not to be supported by documents and is due to the fact that the year 1508 in the western post was misinterpreted. The previous chapel was built around 1370 in front of the southern city gate, the Weiseler Tor, and consecrated to St. Wendelin , the patron saint of shepherds and farmers, the elderly and the sick. After Dieter Wolf, Kuno II. Von Falkenstein , whose nephew Philip VII. Was lord of the city of Butzbach, established the connection to Wendelin. The pastor's office, established in 1375 with its own baptismal and burial rights, was mostly supplied by the pastors of St. Mark's Church, about 500 meters away. The church was expanded to include an eastern section around 1440. The year 1438 was dendrochronologically proven as the date of the felling of some bars . The western structure was replaced in 1508.

With the introduction of the Reformation in 1536, the parish changed to the Evangelical Lutheran creed. In the post-Reformation period, the function as a place of worship for the second parish was retained. For centuries, the buildings attached to the chapel served to care for the sick and the poor and housed strangers. From the large, courtyard-like closed building complex of the hospital, which included ten other buildings in addition to the chapel, all other buildings were demolished in 1832 due to dilapidation, except for the hospital church with its northern extension, which basically dates back to the 18th century. Since then, an evangelical nurses' station has been located in the northern extension, which was closed in 1974. Eight to ten people could be cared for in rooms with two or four beds. Interior renovations took place in 1861 and 1886/1887. Until 1864, a small one-manual organ with seven stops and no pedal was used in the chapel . That year it was replaced by a new organ by Johann Georg Förster with eight registers including a pedal register. The east gallery was built in 1897. During the First World War, the extension served as a hospital. During the Second World War, the Wendelinskapelle suffered damage from the bombing of March 9, 1945, which was removed under the direction of the local architect Heinz de Vries. The roof and ridge turrets were reinserted, the ceiling re-plastered and the windows replaced. The inauguration ceremony on January 9, 1949 marked the end of the construction work during which the pulpit was restored. In 1960 the company Förster & Nicolaus Orgelbau delivered a small organ positive with four stops without a pedal. In 1952 the chapel became the property of the city. After the restoration between 1979 and 1987, it was reopened on December 13, 1987. In a license agreement between the parish and the city in 1986, it was regulated that the chapel, in addition to its function as a winter church for the St. Mark's Church, was used for special services and cultural purposes, especially for musical events and concerts.

restoration

Exposed late Gothic ornaments on the headbands of the southern wall supports

At the end of 1979 the city's magistrate decided to carry out a comprehensive restoration that cost 1.5 million marks. First in 1980 the floor was drained and lowered by 0.40 meters to the original level. The entire outside area was also lowered and drained better. In the years 1982 to 1987 the half-timbered building was completely renovated and reconstructed under the direction of Peter Weyrauch , the then architect of the Protestant regional church. By June 1983 the condition was documented and a redevelopment concept was developed.

In detail, Weyrauch initiated the following measures: After removing the interior and exterior plaster, the chapel was scaffolded in September 1983. Since the beam heads and Rähm to a large extent by dry rot destroyed or corrupted, the stone column bases were shifted and the roof had fallen into difficulties, the roof was raised hydraulically and re-listed the truss structure from below. Six renovations and changes had previously been carried out; the building had been plastered for around 200 years (most recently in 1913). Rotten and pest-infested beams of the framework were renewed, secondary repair structures were removed and the central south window that was later broken through was removed. In this way, the original half-timbered appearance, which had been severely impaired by the many alterations and damage, was restored. In July 1984 the roof was lowered again, the compartments were filled with Poroton brickwork and plastered again.

The restoration of the choir closure was based on old photographs. The reconstruction of the framework has not gone without criticism. The double threshold ring should reflect the building history: The lower ring stands for the original half-timbered construction, which was only rudimentarily preserved. The second ring of sleepers marks the second construction phase, which was best preserved and was largely reconstructed on the north and south walls. The reconstructivist building method, which created something new that historically did not exist in this form, was criticized as "purifying".

The north gallery, which was extended in 1895 and on which the organ stood, was removed in 1985, including the gallery stairs, and a new access to the north extension was created instead. The work was interrupted when strangers came in at night in May 1985 and construction water had got under the asphalt screed by opening the water cranes . Another damage was caused in January 1987 by extinguishing water after a fire in the music hall above the chapel annex. Eventually the chapel got underfloor heating and a new floor. The Wendelin altar, which was restored in Würzburg and which had been set up next to the pulpit on the south wall since 1695, was placed again on the east side on a new table, the baroque feet of which come from the St. Mark's Church.

architecture

Steep pitched roof with ridge turret
The choir polygon in the east

The hall church is not exactly east, but deviates by 24 ° from the west-east direction. It consists of two half-timbered structures on a longitudinal axis, an eastern part in post construction with a three-sided choir closure and an almost as long, but slightly narrower and lower western part, which was added in 1508. The gothic windows do not come from the time the church was built; their original shape is unknown.

The eastern part is built on a base made of quarry stone masonry and reaches a height of 6.60 meters from the base stone to the upper Rähm . It is closed by a steep, slated gable roof, which is hipped over the choir polygon. The narrow, six-sided, slated roof turret is placed in the west of the eastern roof. The shaft for the bell chamber is divided into two floors by a cornice , the upper part of which has small round-arched sound holes . The pointed helmet is crowned by a tower pommel with a wrought-iron cross. The interior space above the central bar of the polygon is illuminated by three twin windows with tracery that extend to the eaves. The compartments below the choir windows have cross braces. On the south side there are two tall twin windows with tracery, which after the renovation flank the reconstructed double strut cross, the motif of the man . The wooden tracery imitates stone and partly dates from the Gothic period. The eastern structure is 7.50 meters wide on the inside and 8.75 meters long on the long sides (excluding the eastern end).

The western structure is not exactly rectangular, but 6.20 meters wide on the inner western side and 6.40 meters wide in the east. The southern long side measures 9.02 meters. A portal in the south wall of the western part leads into the church, a door at the western end leads to the gallery. The western support post bears the Latin inscription "1508 in the Margaret" (1508 on the day of St. Margaret, end of July 1508). A small rectangular window is let into the south wall a little to the left of the center. The somewhat shorter north wall merges into a 1.60 meter narrow, rectangular side room, which was added in 1508 in front of the eastern part. A former hospital building is attached to this northern extension, which is used today as a club house and as a Sudeten German home parlor that maintains relations with Butzbach's twin town Teplá .

Interior

Baroque pulpit
Interior to the east

The interior is closed off at the top by a flat ceiling with longitudinal beams , which is slightly higher in the western part than in the eastern part. In the area of ​​the roof turret, the ceiling has been pulled down by about one meter. The eastern part rests on two square wooden pillars on stone bases. They each have four templates that mimic services and four headbands . In the western part, the wooden pillar incorporates the gallery in the same construction. The angled gallery in the west and north dates from 1682 and is supported by marbled, framed round columns, each with two headbands and stone bases. The north gallery bears the inscription: "BALTASAR • FERBER • ET • IOHANNES • SPOHN • ANNO • 16 • 82 • DEN • 2 • IVNI". The blue-gray marbled fillings stand out against the brown gallery color. The wall supports also have headbands, which creates the impression of a vaulted room. Late Gothic ornamental paintings have been preserved on two head struts in the eastern south wall.

An organ is no longer available. The polygonal wooden pulpit on the southeast side dates from the 18th century. The octagonal base rests on a stone base. The pulpit fields are painted on three sides with the evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke and their evangelist symbols. The profiled sound cover has flat-carved ornaments on the sides and is crowned by a gilded pelican that nourishes its young with its own blood. The old Christian iconographic pelican motif symbolizes the sacrificial death of Christ. The baptismal font from around 1375 is now in the Butzbacher Markuskirche.

Wendelin altar

Wendelin altar
Transfer of the Wendelin in the lower midfield

The most valuable piece of furniture is the late Gothic carved altar, which was built around 1520 as a winged altar in a workshop on the Upper Rhine. The wings were lost in the bombing of Darmstadt in September 1944 after the entire woodworm- infested altar was brought to the State Museum for restoration purposes in 1942 and only the shrine was moved from there to Ernsthofen. Three figures of saints that stood on the shrine but had been made beforehand were also lost: above Maria with the child , on the right Saint Elisabeth (both 15th century) and on the left a sculpture from the 14th century. Only the shrine returned to the Wendelinskapelle in 1949. The wings were reconstructed from 1972 to 1977 by Peter U. Gartmann in Munich on behalf of the Butzbach shoe manufacturer Jakob Karl Erwin Rumpf, who took over the costs. The outsides remained unpainted, as no photos had been taken of them. When folded, the outer sides showed a later overpainting of Christ on the Mount of Olives on a single surface. Black and white photos from 1928 were used as templates. Gartmann used the Aschaffenburg triptych for the color version.

The three-part retable is divided into six compartments in the middle part. A rectangular cant is filled with filigree tendrils. The shrine shows a lamentation of Christ in the upper middle compartment . A golden cloak envelops Mary, shown in three-quarter view, surrounded by two figures, presumably angels, one of which carries a T-shaped cross and the other a column of torture. Below that, a relief by another hand shows the miracle of the burial of St. Wendelin in two scenes. Since the body did not want to remain in its magnificent grave, grieving monks put it on an ox wagon and let the ox lead them into a forest. The place where the front axle broke marked the grave. The upper scene shows the burial in the forest in the area of ​​today's St. Wendel . In the four fields on the left and right, which end with tendrils at the top, two saints with nimbus flank the middle section. Originally they were not fastened. Your identity is not secured because some of the attributes are missing. At the top left a holy deacon (or John the Evangelist ) holds a book, the beardless figure underneath with a black pilgrim hat and a slung bag is Wendelin, according to another interpretation, Rochus von Montpellier . At the top right there is a bearded saint, possibly Antony the Great , including John the Baptist with the lamb and a book.

The inside of the altar wings show four main scenes and four small background scenes from the life of Wendelin. They describe his divine calling and his resignation as king, his charity and healings as well as his path to the hermitage . At the top left, Wendelin is inspired by an angel to renounce his royal dignity. He leads a monk to a set table. Underneath, Wendelin gives a beggar his ornate robe and is led to a ship by an angel. On the right wing above, Wendelin receives bread from a young woman, which he passes on to a poor man. Shown below is how he heals a possessed woman and walks into the forest to become a hermit. The architecture of the buildings in the background is already influenced by the Renaissance . The choice of subjects for the pictures with their pilgrim motifs is possibly based on the life of Elisabeth of Thuringia , which suggests that Wendelin was worshiped by pilgrims who had visited Elisabeth's grave in the Elisabeth Church in Marburg . In the elevated side wings, two Old Testament prophets hold banners with unreadable Latin capital letters "XEAZPB" and "CTENDV".

Peal

In 1780 there were two bells, the weight of which was estimated at 100 and 150 kg. When a big one broke in 1818, the community bought two bells from Falkenstein Castle, which was converted into a barracks and had three bells in the stair tower. In 1844 the "horeglocke", which had been purchased for the Weiseler Tor in 1408, was transferred to the Wendelinskapelle.

The Wendelinskapelle currently houses four bronze bells. The big bell was cast by Ludwig Kalwert, a citizen of Butzbach, in 1481 and serves as a chime for the clock. The others form a three-way bell.

No.
 		 Founder and casting year
 		 Diameter
(mm)		 Height
(mm)		 Mass
(kg)		 Percussive
( HT - 1 / 16 )		 inscription
 
1 Ludwig Kalwert, 1481 520 470 about 110 " Anno dni mccccl [xxxi] hat me poured Lodiuig kalvi "
2 Ludwig Kalwert, 1504 520 470 about 110 " Anno * dni * mv iiii * loidewig * kalwort * gos * me * "
3 Peter Wagner, 1581 500 430 approx. 78 " MDL XXXI GUS ME PETER WAGNER IEN AVGSPVRK GOT THE ER "
4th unknown, 1478 360 310 approx. 30 " Ave maria anno domino MCCCCLXXVIII "

literature

  • Rudolf Adamy: Art monuments in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Province of Upper Hesse. Friedberg district. Arnold Bergstraesser, Darmstadt 1895, pp. 40–42.
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . Hesse II. Darmstadt administrative district. Edited by Folkhard Cremer and Tobias Michael Wolf. 3rd edition Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3 , p. 128.
  • Ludwig Horst: On the history of Butzbach, from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. City of Butzbach, Butzbach 1971.
  • Angela Kappeler: The Wendelin altar in the former hospital church. In: Butzbacher Geschichtsblätter. No. 267, June 15, 2012, pp. 1-4.
  • State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Heinz Wionski (edit.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. Wetteraukreis II. Teilbd. 1. Bad Nauheim to Florstadt (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ). Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-528-06227-4 , p. 359 f.
  • Werner Meyrahn: oldest half-timbered church in Hesse. On the history of the Wendelinskapelle. In: Butzbacher Geschichtsblätter. No. 50, January 6, 1989, pp. 1-2.
  • Christiane Wächtershäuser: The Wendelin Altar in the Wendelin Chapel in Butzbach. Master's thesis University of Giessen, Giessen 1994.
  • Werner Meyrahn: Wendelin chapel and the hospital garden . In: Butzbacher Geschichtsblätter. No. 109, 1995, pp. 3-4.
  • Gail and Winfried Schunk: Chronicle Butzbach. Timeline for Butzbach and its districts. 2nd Edition. History Association for Butzbach and the Surrounding Area, Butzbach 2007, ISBN 978-3-9809778-3-8 .
  • Peter Weyrauch : The Wendelin Chapel in Butzbach. In: Hessian homeland. ISSN  0178-3173 , Volume NF 37, No. 2/3, 1987, pp. 57-61.
  • Peter Weyrauch, Werner Meyrahn and others: Wendelinskapelle and Hospital St. Wendel. History Association, Butzbach 1988.
  • Dieter Wolf: On the church history of Butzbach in the pre-Reformation period. In: Peter Fleck u. Dieter Wolf (Ed.): Catholic life in Butzbach in the Middle Ages and modern times. Kath. Pfarrgemeinde St. Gottfried, Butzbach 1994, pp. 11–70, notes pp. 207–217.

Web links

Commons : Former hospital chapel St. Wendelin (Butzbach)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Former. Hospitalkapelle St. Wendelin In: DenkXweb, online edition of Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen , accessed on July 5, 2019.
  2. ↑ Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelin Chapel and Hospital St. Wendel. 1988, p. 10.
  3. ↑ Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelin Chapel and Hospital St. Wendel. 1988, p. 21.
  4. ↑ Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelin Chapel and Hospital St. Wendel. 1988, p. 20.
  5. ↑ Kappeler-Meyer (arrangement): Medieval retable in Hessen , p. 1 (PDF).
  6. ^ Gail and Winfried Schunk: Butzbach Chronicle. Timeline for Butzbach and its districts. 2nd Edition. History Association for Butzbach and the Surrounding Area, Butzbach 2007, p. 12 ( online , accessed on July 5, 2019).
  7. ^ A b Wolf: On the church history of Butzbach in the pre-Reformation period. 1994, p. 49.
  8. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 14.
  9. ^ Gail and Winfried Schunk: Butzbach Chronicle. Timeline for Butzbach and its districts. 2nd Edition. History Association for Butzbach and the Surrounding Area, Butzbach 2007, p. 20 ( online , accessed on July 5, 2019).
  10. ↑ Kappeler-Meyer (arrangement): Medieval retable in Hessen , p. 10 (PDF).
  11. ↑ a b c d State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.), Heinz Wionski (arrangement): Cultural monuments in Hesse. Wetteraukreis II. 1999, p. 360.
  12. ↑ Meyrahn: Wendelin chapel and the hospital garden. 1995, p. 3.
  13. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3: Former province of Upper Hesse (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history 29.1 . Part 1 (A – L)). Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 , p. 218 .
  14. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 16.
  15. ↑ Meyrahn: Oldest half-timbered church in Hesse. 1989, p. 2.
  16. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3: Former province of Upper Hesse (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history 29.1 . Part 1 (A – L)). Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 , p. 219 .
  17. ^ Gail and Winfried Schunk: Chronicle of Butzbach. Timeline for Butzbach and its districts. 2nd Edition. History Association for Butzbach and the Surrounding Area, Butzbach 2007, p. 56.
  18. ↑ Meyrahn: Oldest half-timbered church in Hesse. 1989, p. 1.
  19. ↑ Weyrauch: The Wendelin Chapel in Butzbach. 1987, p. 60.
  20. ↑ a b Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelinskapelle and St. Wendel Hospital. 1988, p. 13.
  21. ↑ Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelin Chapel and Hospital St. Wendel. 1988, p. 15 f.
  22. ↑ Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelin Chapel and Hospital St. Wendel. 1988, p. 16.
  23. ↑ Weyrauch: The Wendelin Chapel in Butzbach. 1987, p. 57.
  24. ↑ a b Weyrauch: The Wendelins Chapel in Butzbach. 1987, p. 61.
  25. ↑ Weyrauch: The Wendelin Chapel in Butzbach. 1987, p. 58.
  26. ↑ Weyrauch: The Wendelin Chapel in Butzbach. 1987, p. 59.
  27. ↑ Heimatstube Tepler Hochland
  28. ^ Adamy: Art monuments in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. 1895, p. 40.
  29. ^ Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. 2008, p. 128.
  30. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 15.
  31. ^ Wolf: On the church history of Butzbach in pre-Reformation times. 1994, p. 52.
  32. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 121 f.
  33. ^ Kappeler: The Wendelin altar in the former hospital church. 2012, p. 2.
  34. ↑ On the Aschaffenburg Altar, see: Gunther Ulrich: Das Aschaffenburger Tritychon , (PDF file; 394 kB), and a photo from the Artothek of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen : Meister des Wendelin Altar , accessed on December 4, 2014.
  35. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 52.
  36. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 71 f.
  37. ↑ a b Kappeler: The Wendelin altar in the former hospital church. 2012, p. 3.
  38. ^ Wächershäuser: The Wendelin altar in the Wendelin chapel in Butzbach. 1994, p. 85.
  39. ^ Adamy: Art monuments in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. 1895, p. 42.
  40. ^ Kappeler: The Wendelin altar in the former hospital church. 2012, p. 1.
  41. ↑ Weyrauch, Meyrahn: Wendelin Chapel and Hospital St. Wendel. 1988, p. 38 f.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 13, 2014 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 51.2 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 14.5"  E