St. Martin, Church building in Nettelkamp, Germany.
St. Martin is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Nettelkamp, part of Wrestedt in Lower Saxony. The nave, 25 metres long and 10 metres wide, seats about 320 people under a dark red ceiling. Its neo-Gothic tower, rebuilt in 1881, is made of red brick, and the spire was completely renewed in 1981.
A Romanesque predecessor church burned down in 1519 during the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud; the present building was completed in 1521 after two years of construction. The parish archive burned in 1782, so its early history is uncertain, though a priest named Jordanus is recorded in 1282 and the first Lutheran pastor arrived in 1534. The dilapidated tower was replaced in 1881 and its spire renewed in 1981.
The church is named after Martin of Tours, and its patron saint is documented on the Maria bell, which Johann von Bodendick of Wrestedt donated in 1521; its inscription names "Sankt Martin" as bishop and patron. That bell still hangs in the tower, while a second bell from 2008 replaced the iron "Martha" bell.
St. Martin stands in the middle of Nettelkamp on the street "An der Kirche", not in Wrestedt itself. The nave holds around 320 people, and the church is 25 metres long and 10 metres wide. The teak depiction of the Last Supper, 4.50 metres long and 1.30 metres high, is mounted on the wall opposite the church.
The tower that stands today is not medieval: the dilapidated predecessor was demolished in 1881 and replaced by a neo-Gothic tower of red brick. In 1981 the entire spire was renewed, an operation that caused a stir throughout the village. The baptismal font inside, carved from sandstone around 1370, survives from the Romanesque building that burned in 1519.
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