St Walpurgis' Church () in the upper part of the village of

Großengottern Großengottern is a village and a former Municipalities in Germany, municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis Districts of Germany, district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the municipality of Unstrut-Hainich. Ge ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

, Germany, is a Late Gothic

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

dating from the 15th century. Today, it is a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

. St Walpurgis' Church is known for its large

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

organ by the significant organ builder Tobias H. G. Trost.

History and architecture

Like St Martin's Church in the lower part of Großengottern, which is also Late Gothic and was first mentioned in a document in 1318, St Walpurgis' Church is older than the written records indicate. A priest has been resident in Großengottern since 1280. St Walpurgis' Church was first mentioned in a document in 1494 when it was reconstructed and extended. Since 1500, both churches have hardly been changed structurally. The many similarities include the appearance and are applied to the church and village seals. St Walpurgis' Church was built on pre-existing foundation walls and walls of a predecessor church. The vicarage and the gateway to the church are located next to it. The

aisleless church An aisleless church () is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated from the nave by col ...

is built of rubble stone masonry. The rectangular

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with a three-sided

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

was built in 1478, and the west tower bears an inscription with the date 1494. Alterations were made in the 18th century and 1851–1852. Restorations were carried out in 1952 and 1993–1995. The tower has a pointed arch portal and curtain arch windows, while the nave has pointed arch windows and the choir has

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

windows. The interior is finished with a wooden barrel vault and surrounded by a two-storey wooden gallery from 1739.

Interior

In the east is a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

pulpit altar with

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

s and tracery. In the tower room is a Romanesque baptismal font with a round-arched frieze on the basin. There is another baptismal font from 1739 in the choir. A Late Gothic St James altar from the beginning of the 16th century is now set up in the St James chapel at the bottom of the tower. The central shrine of the winged altar shows carved figures of Saints

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

, James and Walpurgis. The open wings show scenes from the life of St James on their inner sides. In the choir, there are coloured stained-glass windows with biblical motifs from 1908. An altar

crucifix A crucifix (from the Latin meaning '(one) fixed to a cross') is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the (Latin for 'body'). The cru ...

was created in the first half of the 18th century. A gravestone for a knight of Großengottern is preserved on the outer northern portal. Großengottern St. Walpurgis 03.jpg, Interior view Großengottern St. Walpurgis 04.jpg, The altar Großengottern St. Walpurgis 07.jpg, The Trost organ Großengottern St. Walpurgis 08.jpg, St James chapel

Organ

Since 1717, the church has had a valuable organ by Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost with 26 stops on two manuals and pedal. A special feature is the arrangement of some of the stops above the manuals. In 1848–1849, Ernst Siegfried Hesse reworked the actions and the manuals and replaced individual stops. In 1878, the organ suffered damage from a lightning strike. Friedrich Petersilie restored the organ and replaced some stops. A proposal for a fundamental change of the organ remained unrealised. In the years 1940–1947, Rudolf Kühn restored the organ under the guidance of Rudolf von Beckerath. In 1999, the organ was restored by Eule Orgelbau Bautzen according to the original stop list, which reads: * ''Effect stop:'' Cymbelstern in C, Cymbelstern in G * '' Couplers:'': manual coupler, pedal coupler – I, pedal coupler – II. * ''Subsidiary stops and auxiliaries:''

tremulant __NOTOC__ A tremulant (; , , ) is a device on a pipe organ which varies the wind supply to the pipes of one or more divisions (or, in some cases, the whole organ). This causes their amplitude and pitch to fluctuate, producing a tremolo and vibr ...

, shutoff valve * ''Annotations:'' : (T) = stop wholly or partially by Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost (1716) : (H) = stop wholly or partially by Ernst Siegfried Hesse (1849) : (n) = stop wholly or partially new (1997)

Bibliography

References

External links

*
Website of the parish
(in German). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walpurgis, Grossengottern Buildings and structures in Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis Grossengottern Walpurgis Gothic architecture in Germany 15th-century churches in Germany Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism