How often do we hear people talking about the "good old days".
Were they really so
comfortable or peaceful? When we visit the castle in Nuremberg today
we get a romantic
impression although we have to overcome the quite arduous way up the
castle hill to get there.
When we arrive at the castle our thoughts wander back to ihe days when
it was used as a
fortification for the nobility in times of feudal clashes and wars.
The city-dwellers were protected
by the fortified city walls with moats and drawbridges.
How were the people protected who lived outside the city walls?
In contrast to the people
who lived in the city, who had the right and the duty to protect themselves
with walls and moats.
The villagers however only had hedges and fences to protect them from
the thieving hordes and
marauders in times of feudal clashes. It was obvious, that the villagers
were concerned about their
safety. Then the "good old days" were neither friendly nor romantic.
The possibility of seeking
protection in the city with military security was one way out. This,
at the same time however,
meant social decline. For this reason, fortified buildings were erected
in the villages as early as the
12th and 13th centuries.
With the erection of the kings court in Nuremberg which was at
this time a free city of the
Holy Roman Empire, in the 11th century the church history of Wendelstein
also begins. This was
due to the fact, that an outpost was erected in Wendelstein to supply
the kings court with fish,
meat and other necessities from the land.
The fortified church and graveyard in Wendelstein was erected
on the highest point within
the horse-shoe bend of the Rive Schwarzach. Its position being so near
to the "Tafelhof" (outpost
for supplying the needs of the kings court in the city) would suggest
that as far back as the 11th
century a wooden church might have existed here. In the middle of the
14th century, the church
must have become too small, because on the 29th of April 1357 a hermit
at the Popes court in
Avignon, Marquard Griner, obtained a Letter of Indulgence, signed by
12 bishops. For the church
in Wendelstein. "...Anyone who devotedly attends Services on Sundays
or Holy days held in the
St. George's church in Wendelstein or who is directly involved in decorating
or furnishing the
church shall be awarded 40 days indulgence". Marquard Griner became
the first priest in
Wendelstein. At this time, the Parish of Wendelstein to the south of
the River Schwarzach was
made up of the villages of Sorg, Roethenbach St. Wolfgang, Unterlingen,
Raubersried,
Sperberslohe and Oberhembach.
We can assume, from the structural development of the church,
that the lower part of the
tower and the part of the nave to the east of the two gothic windows,
where the irregular seams
can be seen today, belong to the first part of the church built in
1357. At the end of the 14th
century, the chancel of the old church was demolished, the walls of
the nave were extended and a
new chancel was built. An open grave chapel was built onto the west
side of the tower and a small
tower with a spiral stairway to the upper lords and ladies gallery
was built to the north. The church
is built of sandstone blocks which were quarried from the sandstone
quarries in Kornburg. The
sandstone blocks were marked with a quarry masters mark which was chiselled
into each block for
identification purposes. A number of these marks can be seen even today
around the walls of the
church.
On the third Sunday after Whitsun in the year 1402 (4 July), the day
on which the people of
Wendelstein celebrated the consecration of the church, a Letter of
Indulgence was obtained in
which the renewed consecration of the church and the graveyard and
also the consecration of an
altar in honour of Saint Achatzie, the apostles Petrus, Blasius, Sebald,
Servatius, Ursula and their
companions is reported. This is the first time that the local saint
Azcin or Achahild was officially
mentioned in a document. Saint Achahild was most probably the wife
of Conrad from
Wendelstein, who was an important person at the kings court in Wendelstein.
She donated the
money to build the first church in Wendelstein. She was buried in the
church. Her sarcophagus can
be seen in the chancel of the church today.
A further Letter of Indulgence was issued in 1448. This enabled
the church to be extended.
Unfortunately the extension of the church and the pilgrimages to the
grave of Saint Achahild
wasn't favoured to the Margrave Albrecht Achilles from Ansbach, so
that on the 11th July 1449 he
sent his troops to burn down a number of houses and also the church
in Wendelstein.
It was now time for the people of Wendelstein to do something
about their safety. In 1520
they built the first schoolhouse to the right of the graveyard gate
and four years later the house to
the left. Above the gateway they built the first prison in Wendelstein.
After adding a strong door,
the church had been converted to a place of refuge for all the inhabitants
of Wendelstein together
with their belongings, animals and their worldly wealth. Today the
church serves other purposes.
For a part of the community it is a place of worship and sanctuary,
for others it is till something
more romantic. Quite a lot of couples from other towns and villages
want to get married in
Wendelstein in the fortified church because it is something different.
George Goddard