Construction - fire victims - and reconstruction of St. Boniface's Church

The old parish church of St. Boniface was used until 1872 and fell victim to the flames twice in its time. In 1801, the church and rectory burned down completely, and in 1804 the church was rebuilt. In 1872 it was again destroyed by fire and in 1879, seven years after the old church from the 16th century (parish in 1551) had fallen victim to the fire, the present parish church of St. Boniface was built high on the rock above Lorchhausen, the “Bischofsberg”.

The church was finally consecrated on June 5, 1879 by Pastor Wilhelm Aloys Ohlenschläger on the patronal feast of St. Boniface. According to the Lorchhausen chronicle, the episcopal consecration of the church took place five years later on 5 June 1884 by the Bishop of Hildesheim, Dr. Wilhelm Jakobi. At the time of its consecration, the church was not yet decorated. In the years that followed, however, it became a jewel of the parish. The high altar from 1884 (the work of sculptor Theodor Stracke 1842 - 1919) depicts the life and work of St. Boniface.

The parish church of St. Boniface is a highly visible focal point of Lorchhausen and the center of religious customs. It is a neo-Gothic three-nave cross-vaulted hall church with transepts, a choir with a polygonal end and a tower as a west porch.

The architect was Maximilian Emanuel Franz Meckel (* November 28, 1847 in Dahlen (Mönchengladbach); † December 24, 1910 in Freiburg im Breisgau). Meckel designed more than 50 churches, most of them in the neo-Gothic style. The large number of designs is due to his activities as diocesan master builder of the diocese of Limburg from 1887 to 1892, from 1892 as archbishop's building inspector and from 1894 as archbishop's building director of the archdiocese of Freiburg. His most important task was the renovation and redesign of the façade of the Römer, Frankfurt's medieval town hall.

Text by Klaus-D. Wupper from Witten