The St. Laurentius Church in Grunertshofen has been closed for over two years.
Now the church is finally being renovated.
Church caretaker Werner Nau hopes that masses will take place there again in the spring.
Grunertshofen -
The damage to the church, which is more than 700 years old in the core, in the Grunertshofen district of Moorenweis had recently taken on a dramatic extent. The beams in the roof structure are rotten, which has led to the roof construction giving way. The pressure on the vaulted shell created a crack that extends over the entire nave. Water entered the building through the leaky roof. Whole chunks of plaster and stucco have now fallen from the ceiling, reports Nau. Damage also occurred to the outer tower.
The church caretaker is happy that the work has finally started after the long approval and planning processes.
The church is scaffolded, the top of the tower has been removed.
Now the roof structure is being renewed and the roof is covered with new copper sheets.
The crack in the nave is to be walled up and the building is to be given a new coat of paint.
Last but not least, the onion, which was then also restored, is put back on the tower.
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The top of the church tower was removed because of the renovation, reports church caretaker Werner Nau.
© Osman
“It's the highest railway,” says Nau, also with a view to the approaching winter. It is hoped that the roof work will be completed before the weather turns too bad. The renovation should actually have started in the spring, but one had to wait for the bats that live in the church tower to breed. At last there was a single animal in the building. It was captured, brought to Adelshofen and released there.
Originally, Nau had hoped that the church would be able to open again for Christmas. Now it will probably be spring 2022. Until then, those who attend church services in Grunertshofen have to go to Luttenwang (municipality of Adelshofen). Funeral ceremonies also take place in the neighboring village, only the funerals themselves in the cemetery at the foot of St. Laurentius. At the moment you have to come to terms with the equipment and stacks of building materials that are stored next to the graves.
In the past two years he has been asked again and again why nothing is going on, says church caretaker Werner Nau.
“It took until the ordinariate came into the pots.” The parish association Grunertshofen / Luttenwang belongs to the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which also bears most of the renovation costs.
“Seven digits”, the church clerk answers shortly when asked about the amount.
He estimates that the work will cost a good one million euros.
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