Saint Vitus Church (Meppen): A Late Gothic Hall Church in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page11 sections
History
Saint Vitus Church is a Roman Catholic church in Meppen, Germany, dedicated to Saint Vitus, an early Christian martyr traditionally invoked among the Fourteen Holy Helpers. It belongs to the Meppen-South parish association in the Emsland-Middle deanery of the Diocese of Osnabrück. The church developed into a Late Gothic three-aisled hall church through rebuilding in 1462, continuing a Christian foundation on the site that reached back to the age of Charlemagne.
Early Christian Foundation
A small baptismal church stood on a hill in the centre of Meppen’s old town around 780, during the reign of Charlemagne, the Frankish ruler and emperor whose government supported the expansion and organization of Christianity in western Europe. A larger Romanesque church, built in the robust rounded-arched style associated with the eleventh and twelfth centuries, replaced it in 1225.
Late Gothic Rebuilding
The present church took shape during major rebuilding in 1462 as a three-aisled Late Gothic hall church. Its predecessor may have been a cruciform building with two bays in the nave and a choir ending in a straight wall. This interpretation is based on projections visible in the interior walls. The two-bay choir was built in 1461 and ends in a five-eighths polygonal termination, an eastern plan formed by five sides of an imagined eight-sided figure. The south portal carries the date 1471.
The earlier Romanesque north portal, known as the Pilgrim’s Portal or Bride’s Portal, was later bricked up. It reopened in the early 1980s, when Heinrich Gerhard Bücker designed its new door. Its decoration is related to the richly ornamented portals of the hall churches at Billerbeck, Coesfeld, and Vreden.
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Changes
In 1870, plans by Johann Bernhard Hensen extended the nave and side aisles by one bay arch each. The same campaign produced the present Neo-Gothic west building with its three portals. In 1895, the church received a Neo-Gothic winged altar made by the Osnabrück sculptor Heinrich Seling and donated by Wilhelm Anton Riedemann, a petroleum magnate born in Meppen. Seling also made the right side altar.
Shellfire struck the high tower on 7 April 1945 and burned out its upper section. A folded roof designed by the Cologne architect Dominikus Böhm was erected on the surviving tower stump in December 1950. During renovation in 2007, the former left side altar was replaced by a baptismal place.
Remains
Church Layout and Gothic Construction
Saint Vitus Church has an approximately square ground plan and a three-bay hall arrangement. The central nave is divided into square bays, while the side aisles contain longitudinally rectangular bays. As in other hall churches, the nave and aisles are of broadly comparable height, creating a unified interior rather than a strongly raised central space. Tall three-part windows light the building. Their Gothic fish-bladder tracery consists of curved, flame-like geometric patterns, while the surrounding reveals are moulded and fluted.
The interior has a compact, somewhat squat appearance because the groin vaults, formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults, have low crown heights. They rest on short, powerful columns. Part of the earlier church survives in the north wall of the eastern side-aisle bay, or more probably in the north arm of an earlier transept.
Altars and Interior Furnishings
Choir Altar
The large choir altar was made in 1895 in the manner of Flemish carved altarpieces. It is a Neo-Gothic winged altar, an altarpiece with side panels that can be opened or closed. The choir stalls and pulpit are also Neo-Gothic. The right side altar is another work by Heinrich Seling.
Historic Sculptures
A larger-than-life-size Man of Sorrows, dated 1517, was made by Jöste Beldensnyder, who is probably identical with Jost von Vorden of Münster. A seventeenth-century Madonna was probably made as a free copy of an older type by Heinrich Meiering of Rheine. A Baumberg sandstone Pieta, showing the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead Christ, was produced in 1685 as a donation from Judge Hermann Morrien in the manner of Wilhelm Heinrich Kocks of Münster. A statue of Saint Joseph from the beginning of the eighteenth century is the only signed work by Theodor Jöllemann.
Organ and Bells
The organ has a case in Baroque forms and was built in 1991 by Gebrüder Hillebrand Orgelbau. It has 40 stops, three manuals, and a pedal division. Its couplings are I/II, III/I, III/II, I/P, II/P, and III/P.
The tower contains three bells. They are named Salvator Mundi, Maria Mater Dei, and Saint Vitus and Saint Margaret. They were cast in Meppen in 1643 by the Hemony brothers, among the earliest works by these bell founders. The bells are described with the pitches c’, d’, and e’, while the peal is also given as d-flat’, e-flat’, and f’.
Calvary Group and Way of the Cross
A larger-than-life-size Calvary group stands on the church square. Made of Baumberg sandstone in 1517 by Jöste Beldensnyder, it depicts Mary, John, and Mary Magdalene. The Good Thief is original, while the heads of the other figures were replaced during the seventeenth or eighteenth century. The figure of Christ dates from the nineteenth century.
One station of the Way of the Cross contains a relief of a Pieta dated 1715.
