This is the seventh batch of church visits that I’ve blogged about. You can read about 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50 and 51-60 as well.
Churches visited this time
61. Neuapostolische Kirche, Willich
62. Auferstehungskirche, Willich
63. St Michael, Waldniel
64. Kapelle St Maria an der Heiden, Overhetfeld
65. St Martin, Oberkrüchten
66. St Sebastian, Nettetal-Lobberich
67. Evangelische Kirche, Elmpt
68. Georg Kapelle, Brempt
69. St Anton, Schwalmtal
70. St Bartholomaus, Niederkrüchten
61. Neuapostolische Kirche, Willich
Franz-Liszt-Straße 9, 47877 Willich
http://www.nak-krefeld.de/site/startseite/gemeinden/willich/
This is the fourth of the Neuapostoliche Kirchen that I have visited here in Kreis Viersen and it looks just like the others (they seem to have very similar designs) and, like the other three, it is located in a residential side street and quite easy to overlook.
Auferstehungskirche, Willich
Krusestraße 20, 47877 Willich
http://www.emmaus-willich.de/auferstehungskirche
This church is already very familiar to me as it’s where the choir that I attend practices some of the time.
Their website explains that the Auferstehungskirche (Resurrection Church) was built in 1931 as a small wooden chapel opposite the Evangelical school in Willich. The build was possible because of the help of the steelwork company Becker, many of whose workers came from the east of Germany. Many of these were protestants.
In 1962 a new church was needed due to the growth of the Willich congregation and it was constructed in its present form.
You can see the tower on the left, the main church in the middle and the building on the right is part of the extensive church halls/music practice rooms etc.
This is a photo of the stained glass window which makes up the left hand side of the main church.
63. St Michael, Waldniel
Niederstraße 31, 41366 Schwalmtal
http://www.sankt-michael-waldniel.de/
This church is the central point of the pretty town of Waldniel which is in the Schwalmtal area.
I visited it partway through a long ride (101km) led by the ADFC. You can read more about that here.
64. Kapelle St Maria an der Heiden, Overhetfeld
An der Kapelle, 41372 Niederkrüchten-Overhetfeld
http://www.sankt-laurentius-elmpt.de/
Visiting this chapel was an almost 70km round trip and I did it on a day which started out in bright sunshine, had a colossal downpour and lightning storm in the middle and finished with warm sunshine again. Penelope was the right choice of vehicle for those conditions although I was a bit hot at times!
I photographed this chapel whilst sheltering under an umbrella during a torrential downpour. It was still very pretty though!
The chapel was built in 1703 and as a pilgrimage church was extended in 1734.
Here’s a picture of it from the church’s website in somewhat better weather conditions!
65. St Martin, Oberkrüchten
Kirchstr., 41372 Niederkrüchten
http://www.katholische-kirche-niederkruechten.de/
This church visit isn’t actually in the correct order as I originally spotted what I thought was another church in Breyell and photographed that. It was only later that I discovered I had actually photographed the Pastor’s house and not an actual church. From the photograph below you can see why I made this mistake!
Anyway, I did visit St Martin, Oberkrüchten, on the Tour des Monats im Kreis Viersen (during which ride I also visited church number 70).
Here is the church – with a lot of other cyclists outside.
This was another one of the few churches that are actually open outside of services. I understand the reasons for this, of course, as there are valuables in these churches, but it’s a shame you can’t go in most of them. This one had solved that problem by the glass wall method – you can see but not touch!
The church has a website with lots of information but not organised in an easy way for someone like me to find out anything much about this church apart from when the services are. But it looks like it’s quite a busy community.
66. St Sebastian, Lobberich
An St. Sebastian 33, 41334 Nettetal
http://www.lobberich.de/stsebastian/
I spent ten days in Lobberich in August 2012 and somehow didn’t ever cycle past this impressively-large church.
The church was originally built in 1818 but as that century neared its close it was too small so in October 1893 the church was enlarged.
It was closed between 1987 and 1990 because of problems with the building (things were falling from the roof!) while repairs were effected.
Their website shows that there is also an almost-identical church, St Aloysius Iserlohn.
67. Evangelische Kirche, Elmpt
Schillerstr. 1, 41372 Niederkrüchten
http://www.kirche-brueggen-elmpt.de/Kirche-Brueggen-Elmpt
This was the church visited on my 126km cycle ride, whose route was as follows:
Stopping to photograph this church almost led to me being flattened by a woman pulling out of a side driveway (as mentioned here). But I survived!
From the website it looks like they’ve got quite a lot going on.
68. Georg Kapelle, Brempt
https://www.niederkruechten.de/C12574B8002AED90/html/64BA69CCF8017F1AC12576CB00468175?OpenDocument
I went past this church two days running – and seeing as it’s a heck of a long way from Kempen that is quite impressive!
As is the chapel itself.
The website describes the following:
Zum wertvollsten kulturellen Erbe Niederkrüchtens gehört die St. Georgs-Kapelle von Brempt, die wahrscheinlich von den Herren der Burg Brempt aus gegründet wurde. Der einschiffige Ziegelbau mit dreiseitigem Chorverschluss wurde in spätgotischem Stil etwa um 1500, wahrscheinlich als Burgkapelle erbaut.
The chapel was founded by the lords of Brempt and was built from 1500.
69. St Anton, Schwalmtal
http://www.sankt-anton-schwalmtal.de/
This church was also visited on my 126km ride. It was impossible to get the whole church in shot, unfortunately! But here are Alfie and his friend the Wild One outside the door.
Parts of the current church date from 1490, including this inscription:
which, translated into German, is
Anno Domini 1490 und eins legte Wilhelm in der Linde und Lisbeth den ersten Stein, da war es also gestellt, dass ein Malter Roggen 7 ½ Gulden galt.
70. St Bartholomaus, Niederkrüchten
Dr.-Lindemann-Str. 3, 41372 Niederkrüchten
http://www.katholische-kirche-niederkruechten.de/
I visited this church whilst on the Tour des Monats im Kreis Viersen.
The route went three sides of a square around the church but I did a small detour to go and visit it.
It was a large church with a more English-look to it than most around here.
So that’s church number 70 visited – here is the complete map of all the churches I have visited so far:
I bought a new Garmin recently and have had issues getting the remaining church waypoints onto it (well, I managed, but then accidentally deleted them and can’t remember how I did it) so I may have to be a bit more organised about visiting the remaining 30 or so…