A weathered gravestone whispers tales of centuries past. This is St Johannes Arsten a church steeped in history. It stands proudly in Bremen’s Obervieland district. Its origins trace back to around 1250. It’s one of Bremen’s oldest churches. Since 1973 the building itself has been protected as a Bremer monument. The adjacent parsonage built in 1853 is also a protected landmark.
The village of Arsten first appeared in written records in 1211. Arsten was one of two church villages in the Vieland region. The other was Seehausen mentioned as early as 1187. A large area between these two parishes belonged to Bremen’s Martinikirche from the 13th century until 1746. In the 13th century Arsten fell under the Hoya and Bruchhausen lower counties. By the end of the 14th century however it was directly linked to the Archbishopric and the city of Bremen. This was due to the expansion of the Ochtum into the Bremer Landwehr.
St Johannes Arsten was first mentioned in writing in 1325. The Dehio handbook suggests construction in the third quarter of the 13th century. This was a time when brick construction was well-established in Northern Germany. To protect against flooding the church was built on a warft a type of artificial mound. The warft’s peak was more pronounced in the 10th century than it is today. The village’s Thingstätte the ancient assembly place was supposedly located in front of the church.
The original early Gothic pointed arch windows of the choir remain. The fishbone pattern on the gable triangle of the choir gable is largely original. The nave’s windows on the south side were rectangular. This was due to a modernisation in the early modern period until their restoration in 1899. Christian Grabau’s depiction of semi-circular arches above the window lintels is found in several Bremen Renaissance buildings. They resemble the design of Baroque to Classical portals of several Bremen suburban churches.
The east gable of the nave which rises above the choir is decorated with tooth friezes. Since 1899 three pairs of buttresses have stabilised the nave. On the south side the outer corners of the slightly lower choir are emphasized by a pilaster. Variations in brick sizes suggest the building was constructed in several phases. The square west tower about 7.5 meters on each side joins the nave without any interlocking. There’s a construction joint. The brick layers in the tower’s side walls are about one centimeter higher than those of the western nave.
Further construction joints exist in the tower’s brickwork. This is particularly near the western corners. The brick in the tower’s west wall is largely the same height as that of the nave and choir. These joints and additional diagonal disturbances suggest that a timber frame was once walled into the upper half of the tower. Its sound openings in the north and south walls are bifora with round arched individual openings. A segmental arch serves as a relieving arch.
Because the sound openings are intersected by traces of beams they may only have received their present form after the removal of the beams. Despite their round arches they are therefore not Romanesque but rather from the late Middle Ages or even from 1691. This was when the present octagonal pointed spire was added. The design of the nave windows until the end of the 19th century also fits this period. The tower walls are 1.55 meters thick. An iron ring on its south side once held the halsiron a curved fetter used as a pillory.
In 1899 the church was restored. Apart from the changes already described to the side walls of the nave the west portal received its present pointed arch shape. In the final weeks of World War II the church’s roof was destroyed. The priest’s door in the choir was severely damaged. The vaults remained intact and were initially provisionally covered. During the church’s repair in 1949/59 the portico in front of the priest’s door was not restored.
St Johannes Arsten truly is a testament to time. It has witnessed history unfold. It continues to stand as a symbol of faith. A silent guardian of Bremen’s rich past.