St. Christopher's Church (Reinhausen)

[5] The west wing of the church faces west-southwest and borders a paved parking lot where the current access road ends.

Unfortunately, the intermediate building that connected the west front of the church with the Amtshaus was destroyed by fire in 1955, leaving only the outer walls of the two massive basement levels.

Beginning in the 9th century, the Counts of Reinhausen had a castle complex on the spur of the mountain above the village of Kirchberg, which was naturally protected by rockfalls towards the valley.

At the end of the 11th century, the Counts Konrad, Heinrich, and Hermann von Reinhausen and their sister Mathilde converted their ancestral castle into a monastery.

[16] The steep slope of the terrain did not allow for a portal in the west façade, so the entrance for visitors not coming from the monastery was moved to its present location in an intermediate bay on the south side to the east of the tower.

The main entrance on the south side lost the tympanum that had originally filled the vaulted field of the round-arched portal and received a pointed arch doorway.

[32] According to recent findings, the passage from the northern bay of the church to the southwestern corner of the adjacent cloister was walled up from the inside already in the Middle Ages.

[38] According to a recent reading of the inscriptions on the two keystones in the Maurice Chapel, it is likely that a major expansion or rebuilding of the monastery took place in 1522, and that a vault was added to one of the buildings.

The Gothic lancet windows, which belong to the Maurice Chapel above the entrance hall, are arranged in close proximity at a slight distance above the portal.

The outer wall area of the chapel is constructed from coarsely hewn sandstone blocks, with only large-format and carefully smoothed stones present on the originally exposed eastern edge.

[27] The larger stones of the Maurice Chapel exhibit pincer holes, in contrast to the ashlars on the older west transom and in the portal zone.

[54] To the east of the portal zone, the south wall of the nave is predominantly of roughly hewn sandstone, with the eastern section, about 7.50 meters wide, bounded by a building seam and where the transept was located until the beginning of the 18th century, having an even more irregular stone setting and less surface treatment.

[55] They are framed by simple but carefully carved stone surrounds of red and light sandstone, with the lintels and keystones projecting slightly from the rest of the jambs.

To the north of the extension is an old sandstone wall that shows the consoles of a former cross-ribbed vault and the lower bases of the ribs facing the pit.

[27] From there, a door leads to the west to the south tower and the staircase to the upper floors, to the north to the community room, and to the east to the actual interior of the church, which is three steps higher.

The aisles are separated from the central nave by two rectangular piers, each of which supports round-arched arches above narrow arcades that are wide in relation to the dimensions of the church interior.

[27] The area visually separated from the outside in the southern view, namely the towers and the adjoining intermediate bay with the portal zone and the Maurice chapel, is also recognizable in the interior layout.

The first floor of the north tower, with the adjoining intermediate bay, thus forms an optically separate part of the community room, in which a kitchenette is installed.

In the northeastern corner of the Maurice Chapel, a wall pillar, which runs vertically across the entire height of the room in the entrance hall and is decorated with mural paintings, breaks off irregularly above the floor.

The figures of the saints, the tracery and the pedestals are similar to those on the Marian retable in the church of St. Martin in Geismar, which can be attributed to Bartold Kastrop on the basis of an inscription.

[61] Each carved figure is situated on a pedestal with beveled corners at the front, on which it is inscribed in black lettering: "S(an)c(t)a maria magdalena", "S(an)c(t)a katerina ora p(ro nobis)", "S(an)c(t)a barbara virgo" and "S(an)c(tu)s ciriacus mar(tyr)".

[60] While some authors posit that the crucifixion group was also created at that time,[61] others suggest that the figure of the crucified Christ was crafted during the Baroque period,[67] while the cross itself was renewed at a later date.

[71] On the outside, the lower edge bears the inscription "Anno dni 1498 pletum est hec tabella / Jn honore gloriose marie virgini" as the date of production.

TV · PEPERISTI · CREATOREM · ET · SALVATOREM · MVNDI · IN QVO (ego non dubito)“ (English: "Hail, most holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Gateway to Paradise, Mistress of the world!

In the center of the left wing is a verse from the Latin translation of the Song of Songs:„TOTA · PVLCRA · ES · AMICA · MEA · ET · M(acula non est in te)“ (English: "You are perfectly beautiful, my friend, and there is no blemish on you"), on the right wing:„O · FLORE(n)S · ROSA · MATER · DOMINI“ (English: "O blooming rose, mother of the Lord") from an antiphon by Hermann von Reichenau.

[3] Three figures - all holding a book - depict St. Judoc[78][66] as a pilgrim with a scallop shell on his head in the center, St. Bartholomew on the left, and Saint Blaise on the right.

The segment of the base bears the initials of the bailiff: "M(ATTHIAS) - S(CHILLING) - A(MT)M(ANN) - Z(V) - R(EIN)H(AVSEN)-", which allows an approximate dating: Matthias Schilling took office as ducal Amtmann of Reinhausen in 1578, Duke Erich died in 1584.

[106] It weighs 360 kilograms[104] and bears the following inscription on its shoulder: "DVRCHS - FEVWR - BIN - ICH - GEFLOSSEN - MIT GOTTES - HILF HAT - MICH - ROFMAN - GEGOSSEN - 1585 -".

[108] From 1548 to 1553, the monastery and church were re-catholicized by Elizabeth's son Erich II as part of the Augsburg Interim,[109] and an abbot was appointed in the person of Peter of Utrecht.

[122] In 2014, special services, concerts, lectures, guided tours and other events have been planned and held to celebrate the church's thousand years of history.