The catholics of Wiesse had to give up the dream of building a new parish home on a green meadow.
Instead, the aisle of the St. Anton church is being rebuilt.
Bad Wiessee -
"It's an incredibly rocky road," sighs church caretaker Herbert Stadler.
“I really wouldn't have imagined it to be that difficult.” The planners of the long-desired Wiesse parish home are currently working on the renovation of the St. Anton church.
As reported, the right aisle of the church is to be optically separated and expanded so that a hall for almost 100 people, a small kitchen and group rooms will be created.
How big the rectory integrated into the church can be also depends on how far the extension can move from the building.
Stadler reports that they are currently negotiating clearance areas with the municipality.
The plan should be ready in spring, which will then be presented to the Archbishop's Ordinariate's award committee.
Two attempts at planning the parish home have already failed
“We're always dependent on the committees,” says Stadler.
Already two attempts to plan the parish hall have crashed.
The idea of placing the parish hall on the hill next to the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin failed in 2015 because of the monument protection.
In 2016, it looked like the parish had hit the jackpot.
The Beil family, very close to the church, sold her a 3,000 square meter plot of land on Dr-Scheid-Straße with the stipulation that a parish home would be built on it.
But when the parish submitted its plans for a new building on the area, the Archbishop's Ordinariate declined.
The parish hall is too big for the community and, at three million euros, much too expensive.
According to the specification, the costs should not exceed 1.7 million euros.
Planning ensures the preservation of Sankt Anton
At the same time, the Ordinariate made a new proposal: Instead of putting a new building on the green field, the side aisle of the St. Anton church could be converted into a parish hall.
At the same time, the long-term preservation of the church, which had been in question until then, was secured.
"Two churches are actually too many for 2,200 Catholics," says Pastor Wieland Steinmetz.
The decision to renovate St. Anton was made over a year ago.
An architectural competition has now taken place, and a Munich office won the race.
The project has now progressed so far that Steinmetz wants to present it to the congregation in the Christmas parish letter.
According to Steinmetz, he would rather not name a time for the opening based on previous experience.
If the congregation can move into their parish home, it is completely open.
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The repair of the defective organ has to wait.
© Thomas Plettenberg
It is only clear that the planned renovation of the organ in St. Anton will have to wait until the renovation is done.
“We don't want to dust the new organ with building dust,” says Steinmetz.
The old instrument is defective and can only be played by musicians who are familiar with the particular pitfalls.
"When a temporary employee plays, it sounds grotesque," reports Steinmetz.
Parish has very little space
The parish currently has only very limited rooms available.
It moved out of the Josefheim, which the community had leased for a long time, in autumn 2019.
A conference room above the sacristy is now available in St. Anton.
There is space for around 20 visitors.
In light of the pandemic, the scarce resources are currently not an issue.
Nevertheless, the planning should finally go ahead.
“But it all takes a long time,” says Stadler.
Meanwhile, it is unclear what will happen to the property on Dr. Scheid-Strasse.
It now belongs to the parish, which no longer has any use for it.
"We suggested it as a location for the kindergarten," reports Stadler.
But the community declined and is planning a center with a daycare center on the school premises.
By the way, apartments are not allowed to be built on the area - this is already set out in the purchase contract.
