Paris1972-Versailles2003

And once again updating these wonderful older posts on my memorable trips to Germany. In my road warrior trip, yes in Germany too, I rode and rode stopping for these unusual off the beaten path monuments for the thrill. I like to update for you and me the other monuments of Saarburg!

Expanding a bit more on my previous posts on the town of Saarburg! A nice picturesque town by the Sarre river with quant city center. The Churches have an interesting history and different architecture.

The Church of St. Lawrence (St Laurentius) is a parish church dedicated to St. Lawrence in Saarburg. It replaced the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built here in the 13C.  In the same place since 1368 was the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which belonged to the Mother Church of St. Lambertus near Saarburg. This steady enlargement led to the fact that the Church of St Lawrence was re-consecrated as a church in 1658 by the Trier auxiliary bishop, and was given the patronage of Saint Lawrence. The next two hundred years led to such severe structural damage that repair was no longer possible. The town of Saarburg decided to demolish and build a new Church in the same place.

The new St. Lawrence Church was built between 1854 and 1856 in the neo-Gothic style. The double-helmet double tower was integrated into the new Church. In June 1855, the Archbishop of Trier ordained the new church.  During a bombing in WWII in 1944, the nearby Saar Bridge felled and destroyed the Church at around 50 percent. The aisle, the choir, the tower group as well as parts of the perimeter wall remained.  The reconstruction again of a new church took place between 1946 and 1949 in a simplified form.  In 1962, the Church St Lawrence received an additional fourth bell. Also in the 1960s, the interior was refurnished with modern elements.  The neo-Gothic Church of St Lawrence, which draws on 13C styles, is a monumental slate fragment structure. The closed massive figure with a slate roof with roof gauss was given to the Church on the occasion of the reconstruction in 1947.

The new Church of St Lawrence is run as a three-aisled hall church with a three-sided closing choir and a portal front. The Church portal in the tympanum above the main pillar portal, the crucifixion of Jesus is sculptively depicted and at the portal post there is a mother God sculpture. The tower, which is stemming from sandstone stone stones and quaked on the corners, is the oldest part of the church. It was doubled to a façade tower in 1563 and raised in 1854 by a fourth floor in the style of early Gothic. The tower was also given the incisive twin pyramid helmet. A Baroque portal dating back to 1780 is embedded in the extension of the tower.

Inside you can see the octagonal Renaissance baptism, which dates back to 1575 and was restored in 1983, as well as two of the former four epitaphs in the eastern chapel room. Other features include four Rococo-style figures representing Saints Anna, Andrew, Franz Xavier and John of Nepomuk, which form a side altar in the eastern aisle. The figures flank an oil painting of the Cross from 1706. The stained glass windows, donated by the Prussian King Frederick William IV in 1855 are preserved in the choir from the construction period of the neo-Gothic church. The Choir, the aisle and the entrance porch above the cross rib vault on bundle pillars still present themselves in the original first-construction state. In the previous Church stood a used organ, acquired in 1739, which was replaced after almost forty years in 1777 by a two-manual instrument .The new organ built in 2004, with high shape reflecting the Gothic tradition of the Church of St Lawrence, the blue cloth behind the pipes the Saar.

The city of Saarburg on heritage in German: https://www.saarburg.de/sehenswert

The Saar Obermoselle tourist office on the Church St Laurentius of Saarburg in German: https://www.saar-obermosel.de/fr/event/is/Pfarrkirche-St-Laurentius_Saarburg

The Evangelical Church of Saarburg is a Protestant congregation church located underneath the Castle ruins. It was built at the end of the 19C for the diaspora congregation, which had been newly created by continuous migration in the hitherto purely Catholic area and has grown, and remains its spiritual center to this day.  Completed in 1893 in the Historicism style, the Church, like the neighboring rectory,despite severe damage during WWII, the structure of the church is largely that of the edification period. The original furnishings include the altar and the pulpit basket.  Today, the stained glass windows are the main attraction of the Church.

With the Congress of Vienna of 1815, the influx of Protestant inhabitants to the newly built district of Saarburg began in the first half of the 19C. These evangelical residents were initially predominantly Prussian.  It was not until 1893 that a dedicated Evangelical Church was inaugurated in Saarburg. The foundation stone was laid on May 8, 1892, and the inauguration took place on July 11, 1893.

In the period after the seizure of the Nazis, tensions arose and ultimately there was a break between the pastor Schmidt and the presbytery.  In 1945 ,the pastor Schmidt was stripped of his duties for his Nazi affiliation and replace by a new pastor but he remain there refusing to give up his duties until 1950. In December 1944, the church suffered severe damage from air raids and was no longer usable thereafter. After the damage caused by the war, the church was inaugurated again on 10 April 1949.

The Evangelical Church stalls consist of two blocks of straight cross benches, between which a central passageway leads from the entrance portal in the tower to the choir room. In the choir room, which has three set windows, stands the neo-Romanesque altar table made of sandstone, on this one a metal cross. To the left of the altar is the baptism. During the last renovation, the pulpit can now be reached directly from the choir. Altar and pulpit  are still part of the original furnishings. Inaugurated in 1968, a manual organ is the masterpiece, and has a mechanical structure without supports. In 1983, the Evangelical Church underwent an extensive interior renovation. In this context, the stained glass windows were created.

The city of Saarburg on heritage in German: http://www.saarburg.de/sehenswert

The Saar Obermoselle tourist office on the Evangelical church of Saarburg in German: https://www.saar-obermosel.de/poi/is/Evangelische-Kirche_Saarburg

There you folks, go for a nice ride into Saarburg, easy from my base south of Trier and a lovely city center in addition to some interestings other monuments of Saarburg!

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

And in my continuing saga of updating older posts for this period and enjoying every letter of them I bring you and I back to Germany. Many memorable moments of the family decision to come for our vacation here and we love it. Memories forever ,as is the case of visiting Saarbrüecken and seeing its many monuments. Let me tell you a bit about them here ok. Hope you enjoy it as I.

Now that I rumbling thru Germany why not bring you to a major city have visited and written on it previous posts in my blog. However, as there is so much to see, believe fair to write a post just on the other monuments of the city of Saarbrüecken! There is a lot more info in German of course I just try to give you some historical background and main pictures , in the hope you can come and see them. It is a nice city to walk its center indeed. We came here by car but once parked walked all over!              

The Saint Jakob Church is the parish church in Old Saar , the center of the Saarland capital Saarbrücken in the southern part of the Diocese of Trier. The patron Saint of the church is the Apostle James the Elder. With regard to its patronage, the church is in the historical tradition of the medieval Saarbrüecken Castle Chapel.  The inhabitants of the original town of Saarbrücken, now the Old Saar Bridge district, belonged to the parish of the Collegiate Church of St. Arnual. But they had their own chapel as early as the 13C. This chapel was built under the reign of Countess Lauretta . The Bishop Philip of Flörchingen  had given permission to build the chapel in 1261.  By 1549, Saarbrüecken became an independent parish. In 1575, the Reformation was introduced by Count Philip III of Nassau-Saarbrücken, and by the beginning of the 19C there was no Catholic parish in Saarbrücken. In 1803, a cantonal circle was built in Saarbrücken, which was then part of France (Département de la Sarre), but it did not have its own church, but had to use the Church of St. John.

The Church of Saint Jakob was originally a three-aisled neo-Gothic stepped hall with a west tower, a little sprawling cross-aisle, a recessed choir room with a chorus and an enclosed three-sided. The facade was emphasized by pillars of four half columns with polygonal fighter plates. The furnishing of the Church of St Jakob includes an altar that can be rotated around a fixed point of view, which can therefore be used for various sacred uses. In addition, it is also possible to completely evacuate the altar and thus free up the altar space for cultural uses.  Other things to see are the sculpture of Ste. Barbara in the left side chapel, the sculpture group Mother Anna  in the right side chapel, the Madonna with Child Jesus in the Chapel of St. Mary, the wood-carved sculpture group St. Anthony , and the tabernacle with sacrament scene. The organ was built in 1950.

The official Church of St Jakob webpage in German: https://sanktjakob.de/

The Ludwigskirche or Church of St Ludwig (aka Prince Louis of Nassau) is a Protestant Baroque-style church. Symbol of the city, it is with the Frauenkirche of Dresden and the Michel of Hamburg one of the best examples of Protestant church built in Germany.  Built from 1762 under the patronage of Prince Guillaume Henri of Nassau-Saarbrüecken in the center of a typical baroque square, it was completed and inaugurated in 1775 by Prince Louis of Nassau-Saarbrüecken, son and successor of Guillaume-Henri, who gave it his name and the square on which the Church was built. Restored in the 19C and 20C, it was severely damaged by the bombardments of 1944. Rebuilt from 1949 and until the 1970’s. 

The ground plan is shaped somewhat like a Greek cross; the arms are 38.5 meters ,and  34.2 meters long each and are each 17 meters wide. There are niches on the outside which contain statues of the four Evangelists. The stone balustrades were decorated with 28 figures, depicting the apostles, prophets and other Biblical people. The interior of the Church of St Ludwig is decorated with ornamental stucco . Each of the four arms of the cross has a gallery supported by two to four caryatids. The floor is made of sandstone. Until 1944 there has been an organ, the modern organ case is a reconstruction of the historical case. The current organ was built in 1982.

The Saarbrüecken tourist office on the church: https://tourismus.saarbruecken.de/en/discovering/sights/ludwigskirche_ludwig_s_church

The Church of Saint John ( Johanneskirche) is a neo-Gothic Church built between 1894 and 1898. The Church was not affected by the bombardments of WWII, which razed almost all of the center of Saarbrücken between 1942 and 1945. Today it is used for Protestant worship, but also for many events such as dinners, film screenings, cocktails, etc. It is possible to rent this Church to organize an event. Located at  Cecilienstr. 2, (street) ,not to be confused with the Basilica of St John.

The Saarbrüecken tourist office on the church: https://tourismus.saarbruecken.de/en/discovering/sights/johanneskirche_st_john_s_church

When you walk a lot in a city you get to places off the beaten path, some of the above can be considered that and you find jewels to be visit and hope you enjoy the tour to make you visit them, on the Other monuments of Saarbrüecken!

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!