St-Nicolai-Kirche - Wittmund, Germany - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

"The Church of St. Nicolai is about 41 meters long and 13 meters wide and appears from the outside as a simple baroque hall, which is structured by six relatively narrow arched windows on the long sides and two decorative windows in the east. The facade is made of red brick. The pointed gable roof is about 20 meters high and is also covered with red roof tiles. Today, we can only speculate when exactly the first church was built in the city, since such a church is not mentioned in any known document. However, it can be strongly assumed that a place of worship was already built in Wittmund around the late eighth century. After the beginning of Christianization, the district church associations under the rule of Charlemagne had branches built in every larger community, first in Sendkirchen and later in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, presumably also in Wittmund.

This probably the earliest church in the city was built of wood and, along with other houses and buildings, fell victim to a fire in 1164, which is said to have been set by the Oestringers, who were enemies with the Harlingers. The oldest document, in which the following second church is named, comes from a servant of the East Frisian chief Tanno Kankena from the year 1491. It mentions, among other things, a well and a mill inside the church building. Such a use as a fortified church was not uncommon for medieval churches, as the buildings at that time were not only used for worship and devotion, but above all for defense. At the time of Kankena, the Wittmund church, which this time was not made of wood but of stone, officially only served religious purposes again, since Sibet Attena had already had a new castle built on the site of today's castle wall in 1461, which was now used by the Wittmunders for the defense was used. However, this first stone church in the city was again destroyed by fire, this time in 1540 during a feud between Balthasar von Esens and Enno II von Ostfriesland, in which the latter died. In 1541 a stone church was built again, which was now dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of seafarers.

This church building served its purpose for over two hundred years until it was replaced by a new church at the request of the population and due to dilapidation. After it became apparent that the old Nicolai Church urgently needed to be renovated, the financing was considered. A lottery was initially planned, the proceeds of which could have been used to pay for the new building. This lottery was initially only held at the regional level, but due to poor sales in the district, the sale of tickets soon spread to all of Germany and sometimes even to Denmark. But here, too, far from enough tickets were sold to finance the construction of the church, and so the lottery was canceled. After this failure, those responsible were forced to take out a loan, since the old Nicolai Church was in a condition that could no longer be saved. In 1775 construction work began on the new church, which was consecrated almost a year later, on the 1st Sunday in Advent 1776."
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Date the Church was built, dedicated or cornerstone laid: 01/12/1776 Age of Church building determined by?: Cornerstone or plaque If denomination of Church is not part of the name, please provide it here: Lutheran church If Church holds a weekly worship service and "all are welcome", please give the day of the week: Sunday If Church is open to the public, please indicate hours: Not listed Indicate the time that the primary worship service is held. List only one: Not Listed Street address of Church: Not listed Primary website for Church or Historic Church Building: Not listed Secondary Website for Church or Historic Church Building: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/05/2024 PetjeOp visited it