In a message dated 7/9/01 6:02:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
oldenburg-l-request@genealogy.net writes:
<< in Oythe. The church's name is Beatae Mariae Virginis." But I didn't see
that Church name on the list - >>
There was a S. Marien though; perhaps that is the one. I suppose "Blessed
Virgin Mary" could be just St. Mary these days, but I don't know for sure.
Does someone else know this church's history?
N.P.
Last year I visited the church and bought a booklet about the church - in German. Using
this source I will give some information concerning the curch's history.
Originally Oythe belonged to the pairsh Langf�rden. In the 13th or 14th century, Oythe
became an own parish. It is assumed that at this time a stone church was errected, where
before a wooden chapel was. 1336 Oythe is first called a parish.
The stone church of today is a product of different building activities. The oldest part
are the three segments near the steeple. This part is built from natural stones and had
no formerly no vault. The vault was built later with large sized bricks (Klosterziegel).
The construction of the stone steeple began in 1770. Before that the steeple was from
wood. The North side of the steeple has a mark which looks like the print of a horse shoe.
A tale tells that this is from the devil who was annoyed about the building of the
steeple.
In 1840 the church was enlarged from three segments to four segments. In 1842 a vestry was
added.
Between 1543 and 1614 the parish was Lutheran.
All this is from the following source:
G�nter Meyer: Kirche und Pfarrei St. Marien in Oythe. In: Geschichte und Pfarrei St.
Marien in Oythe. Edited by Kath. Pfarrgemeinde St. Marien, Oythe, 1992, Sonderdruck aus
"Beitr�ge zur Geschichte der Stadt Vechta"
Mit freundlichen Gr��en
Hubert Bomas
http://www.bomas.de/hubert.htm