St. Mary's Church

About

The Saint Mary's Church (Low German: Sünt Marienkark, German: Sankt Marienkirche) is a Lutheran parish church used and owned by the Lutheran parish in Himmelpforten, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Himmelpforten parish forms part of the Stade deanery (Kirchenkreis) within the Stade diocese of the Lutheran Church of Hanover. The church was completed in 1738 and covers the eastern half of the foundations of the demolished abbey church of the former Himmelpforten Convent.

Today's church was erected in 1738 using rests of the former abbey church which had mostly been torn down due to dilapidation in 1737. The previous Cistercian church building was the abbey of the former Conventus Porta Coeli, in 1255 relocated to Himmelpforten on the instigation of the Prince-Archbishop of Bremen. From the beginning on the abbey church served also as the parish church of the local parish (Kirchspiel Himmelpforten).

Noble families from the Elbe–Weser triangle ( Bremian ministerialis ) bestowed land and dues on the Cistercian nunnery, enabling it to sustain their unmarried kinswomen. The nuns, and later the Lutheran conventuals (after the Reformation ), elected a provost as their legal male representative to the outside. The provost was entitled to nominate the candidates (ius nominandi) to be appointed as pastors in the parishes of Großenwörden, Himmelpforten, and Horst upon Oste [ nds ].

Prince-Archbishop Christopher the Spendthrift's [ de ] financially burdensome reign (1511–1547 and again 1549–1558) and prodigal lifestyle fostered the spreading of the Reformation in the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. The conversion of the nuns followed the spreading of Lutheranism among the noble families from whom they originated. By 1550/1555 the Porta Coeli nunnery had transformed into a Lutheran Damsels' Convent, since its aim - to sustain unmarried noble women - was to be maintained. In 1556 Provost Engelbert Gripenstroet/Griepenstroth nominated the first Lutheran preacher for the abbey of Porta Coeli, whom then the competent archdeacon, in personal union the provost of the Bremen Cathedral chapter, invested according to his ius investiendi.

Between 1628 and 1629 during the Catholic Leaguist conquest and subsequent occupation of the Prince-Archbishopric in the course the Thirty Years' War most Protestant preachers fled the area or were exiled. So also Himmelpforten's Lutheran preachers Hermann Marsmann and Ludolphus Eggebert(us) fled.

On 19/29 November O.S./N.S. Jacob Brummer and Wilhelm Schröder, subdelegates of the Restitution Commission ordered the Prioress Gerdruth von Kampe to deliver all liturgical devices which they appropriated in favour of the commission. On 22 November/ 2 December 1629 O.S./N.S. all the seized liturgical devices of Himmelpforten's church were handed over to the Jesuit Father Matthias Kalkhoven, and disappeared with the Jesuits in April 1632. Only one chalice from 1422, preserved until today, remained with the convent.

Since 1630 the Himmelpforten Convent had been deprived of its revenues, first in favour of the Jesuits, subsequently in favour of the Administrator regnant John Frederick, then of the new seigniorial local lord Count Gustaf Adolf Lewenhaupt/Löwenhaupt and his son, and finally thereafter in favour of the general government of Swedish Bremen-Verden, succeeding the Prince-Archbishopric since 1648. So for lack of funds and maintenance the convent buildings and the church fell into decay.

In 1681 Samuel Friedrich Riedell, bailiff of the seigniorial Amt Himmelpforten, informed Bremen-Verden's Governour-General Henrik Horn about the expert report of Master Mason Daniel Sommer from Stade that many of the vaults and the western gable of the abbey church were on the verge to collapse, the same was true for most of the outside walls, already giving way to the pressure by the deranged vaults. In 1684 the Bremen-Verdian general government ordered a greater repair of the decayed church, and also the remaining convent buildings were restored to some extent, all carried out by the socage farmers.

During the vacancy of the pastorate (1696–1703), on 13 May 1699 representatives of the Himmelpforten parish handed in an expertise by the judges Johann Schröder ( Großenwörden ), Erich Schlichting (Breitenwisch), Master Carpenter Erich Dede and Master Mason Hinrich Vörder, describing the former abbey church as being well preserved. According to their report the abbey's external dimensions measured Bremian feet 141 (40.8 metres [134 ft]) in length and Br. ft 46 (13.31 metres [43.7 ft]) in width, whereas its vault ceiling reached a height of Br. ft 44 (12.73 metres [41.8 ft]). The abbey comprised seven bays with 21 pillars carrying the vaulted ceiling. However, the aim of this expertise was to urge the General Government to restaff the pastorate. On 21 January 1706 the new Pastor Michael Schreiner reported the bad shape of the pastorate to his superiors.

Now Bremen-Verden's General Government reacted and began rebuilding the whole convent compound. In 1732 the old pastorate was replaced by a new building recycling preserved parts of the old pastorate and the old bailiff's office. Otto Heinrich von Bonn [ de ] (1703–1785), Landbaumeister (i.e. State Construction Master, about public works architect) planned to renovate the existing church, and calculated cost of Rixdollar (Rtlr) 2,290:26:00.

However, Bonn's plan was not acknowledged by the general government of British-Hanoverian Bremen-Verden and thus the old church was mostly torn down in 1737, and rebuild to half of its previous length and slightly narrower. In 1738 Master Mason Christian Götze led the new construction. The new church was inaugurated in the same year and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Like the abbey the present church is oriented. The eastern part of the northern wall and the adjacent part of the apsis wall of the old abbey church were maintained and thus integrated into the else new structure of today's St. Mary's. Generally the present church has smaller windows than the abbey, so that the bigger window openings in the preserved northern wall are now partially blocked up to fit the smaller windows.

The new western façade was partially built with brick in Klosterformat gained from the rubble of the demolished abbey. Since the apsis is at its original location the western façade of the shorter new church (23.5 m [77 ft ]) stands within the scope of the length of the former abbey (40.5 m [133 ft ]). The present church is also slightly narrower than the abbey, which is why today's apsis, including a northern section of that of the previous abbey, is somewhat irregular. Like the previous church of a mendicant Cistercian order the new church has no spire but only a wooden ridge turret. The ceiling is completely flat. In 1759 the Amt Himmelpforten adjusted the church attic as a seigniorial granary for the dues in kind it collected, a wheel of the crane of which is preserved under the roof until today. In 1877 the southerly entrance was added a brick portico with a sandstone cross and plaque.

Inside, above the western door there is a decorated relief monogrammed with the initials G.R.II in honour of the then Supreme Governor of the Lutheran church, George II, King and Elector of Great Britain and Hanover. The congregation owns two chalices, one from 1422 and another donated by the convent's last Prioress Gerdruth von Kampe in 1636. Furthermore, there are a paten granted by the Conventual Anna Voss in 1648, and a silver, internally gilded jug, created in 1780 fulfilling the last will of the widow of Bailiff Tiling, née Prilop (d. 1779).

In 1684 on the occasion of the renovation of the abbey, during the term of Bailiff Lothar Feindt, an unknown donator granted a wooden putto which was later translated to the new church. The offertory box is a massive oaken chest, created at the turn of the 16th and 17th century. On the southern wall is a mounted sandstone epitaph for Prioress Maria von Weyhe (officiating between 1591 and 1616), translated from the old church and dating from the first half of the 17th century displaying the Weyhe family coat of arms, baroque figural allegories of Faith, Hope and Charity, reliefs of the Transfiguration of Jesus and of Jesus with the five wise virgins. The altar bible, edited by Caspar Holwein and printed in 1702 in Stade, is a valuable print from the Swedish era.

There are two crypts underneath the church floor discovered in 1964 at installing a modern heating and a pertaining boiler room. The older one, located in front of the altar, is built from brick of obsolete size and buried with rubble from the demolition of the abbey in 1737. Findings of rests of women's hair portend the burial crypt of the convent's donators, the Brobergen family. Close to the western entrance the second burial crypt (called the Amtsgruft, i.e. bailiff's crypt) was found under the aisle, estimated to an age of more than 200 years. The prominent barrel vault of the bailiff's crypt is why the church floor, elevated with rubble, is now 0.9 m (3.0 ft ) higher than that of the former abbey.

The six richly decorated zinc and lead coffins in the bailiff's crypt contain the remains of Bailiff Ernst Friedrich Pflueg [ nds ], of his wife Margaretha Elisabeth Pfluegen, of Bailiff Johann Hermann Meyer [ nds ], of his wife Anna Maria Meyer, as well of the grandchildren of Bailiff Heinrich Wilhelm Rautenberg [ nds ], who died from a feaver when in 1788 they visited their grandparents in Himmelpforten. After being examined also the bailiff's crypt was buried again with sand.

Being a typical 18th-century aisleless church (Saalkirche) the 1737/1738 eye-catching typically Protestant pulpit altar by Joachim August Relling dominates the inside scene. The pulpit altar is topped by the Tetragrammaton יהוה in an auriole. Left and right the pulpit is flanked by veil-like carved elements bearing the Latin inscription «Vere hic est nihil aliud - nisi domus Dei et porta coeli» (English: Here is none other than the house of God, and the gate of Heaven. ), paraphrasing verse 28:17 from the Book of Genesis and alluding to the name of Himmelpforten (English: Gate of Heaven ), derived from that of the former local convent. The former abbey still had three altars, one high altar and two side altars.

In 1794, on the occasion of redistricting Hammah, Hammahermoor [ nds ] and Mittelsdorf [ nds ] into the Himmelpforten parish, galleries (lofts) were installed to seat the additional parishioners. Since the installations of the galleries, men sat above and women at grade. Traditionally women from Himmelpforten (including its components Löhe [ nds ], Ochsenpohl [ nds ], and Ramels [ nds ] ) sat southerly of the middle aisle, whereas northerly those from Hammah, Hammahermoor and Mittelsdorf.

In 1798 Himmelpforten parish bought a second bell from Harsefeld. The first line of pews on the northern gallery used to be the stand of the choir boys. Close to the pulpit altar stood the individual pews for influential and wealthy families such as those of the bailiff, the preacher, the innkeeper Hancken, the post-office keeper Wehber and the great cotter von Issendorff, the first lines of pews north of the aisle were reserved for officials of the bailiwick and other clerks of church or municipality.

When in 1834 Stade's merged St. Cosmae-St. Nicolai parish sold the old St. Nicholas Church in Stade for demolition the Himmelpforten parish bought several furnishings from that church. Among them are 15 paintings of the Passion of Jesus of Nazareth, bought for Rtlr 206 and 14 good groats, created around 1620. Since 1985 they are hung on the parapet of the northern gallery beginning with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with the descent from the Cross, with each painting showing the coats of arms of the donating families from Stade's St. Nicholas parish (such as Marschalck von Bachtenbrock [ de ], Stade's then burgomaster Heinrich Hintze [1576–1646], Johann von der Medem [1580–1644]) and canting arms of craftspeople. The paintings had later been covered and forgotten and only rediscovered in 1933 on the occasion of a renovation.