St. Martinus is a Catholic church and parish in

Hattersheim am Main Hattersheim am Main (, ) is a town in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Main-Taunus district, Hesse (Germany) and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Geography Neighbouring towns Hattersheim borders the cit ...

Main-Taunus-Kreis Main-Taunus is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hessen, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region as well as the Frankfurt urban area. Neighboring districts are Hochtaunuskreis, district-free Frankfurt, Groß-Ge ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, Germany. It belongs to the

Diocese of Limburg The Diocese of Limburg () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Cologne, with metropolitan see being the Archdiocese of Cologne. Its territory encompasses parts of the States ...

. The present church was built by Ludwig Becker in

Romanesque revival style Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a Architectural style, style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Reviv ...

with allusions to

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

, completed in 1915. He incorporated features from the earlier

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 ...

building.

History

The present church is in the centre of Hattersheim, prominently at its highest point at . A medieval chapel was the first house of worship at the location in the former village, documented in 1313 when Hattersheim became an independent parish. In 1747, a

church was built, with a

ridge turret A ridge turret is a turret or small tower constructed over the ridge or apex between two or more sloping roofs of a building. It is usually built either as an architectural ornament for purely decorative purposes or else for the practical housing ...

. It was dedicated to

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third French Republic, Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hung ...

. A statue of Mary from the 15th century and a pulpit from around 1800 were kept, when the church was mostly demolished to make room for a larger building. The present building in

with elements of

was designed by Ludwig Becker. He used part of the previous church as a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

in the back of the new building, now serving as a chapel for baptisms. He also retained the windows and the entrance in the west, and the turret. Building was completed in 1915. The choir of the new church faces west, with a high tower on the side, covered with a double-arched elongated

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. The interior is covered with

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

s. All vaults are decorated with painting. The glass windows are by August Martin from

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

, notably of the chancel windows with the

Seven Sacraments The expression seven sacraments mainly refers to: * Sacrament ** Sacraments of the Catholic Church ** Eastern Orthodox Church § Holy mysteries (sacraments) ** Anglican sacraments ** Sacrament § Hussite Church and Moravian Church It can also ref ...

behind the pulpit. The church contains three altars: the Virgin Mary Altar from 1915, and the High Altar and the Sacred Heart Altar, added in 1930, all created in Hans Steinlein's

Eltville Eltville am Rhein (; from ''Alta Villa'', Latin for "high estate, high town", corrupted to ''Eldeville'', ''Elfeld'' and later Eltville ) is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. It lies on ...

workshop. The

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

, with 36 stops, three manuals and pedal, was built in 1936 by Eduard Wagenbach. It is suitable for music of the

Romantic era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. The church is a venue of the

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

; the vocal ensemble Voces8 appeared on 14 July 2022 with a program named Stardust, of music from

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...

. It was recorded to be aired in the ARD Radio Festival of the German public broadcasters. The parish is part of the

. Other churches within the parish St. Martinus are Christ König in Okriftel and St. Martin in Eddersheim.

References

External links

* (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hattersheim, Martinus Romanesque Revival church buildings in Germany 1910s architecture Roman Catholic churches in Hesse Buildings and structures in Main-Taunus-Kreis Churches in the Diocese of Limburg

History

References

Further reading

External links