A pensioner has been restoring the village church in Wölkau on a voluntary basis for almost four years with painstaking detailed work. Now the end is in sight.
Leuna (dpa/sa) - Under the blue starry sky in the village church of Wölkau near Bad Dürrenberg, Gerald Hartmann is on his last legs. The retired master painter has been working on the building on a voluntary basis for more than four years. In over 3000 hours of work since then he has renewed the wooden pews and the floor, restored the altar and painted the walls and ceiling painting. But now the end is in sight: "The work will be completed by Pentecost," says Hartmann.
Only work on the facade is still ahead of the 68-year-old. He is also very happy that the project is coming to an end, he admits. "I can already feel the physical wear and tear." After that, he wants to continue to carry out maintenance work, but take things a little easier.
Since his retirement in 2019, Hartmann has been restoring the interior of the church, which was built in the 12th to 13th centuries and then modified and expanded several times, on a voluntary basis. On the initiative of the parish and villagers, the outer shell of the church, which has not been used since 1996 and was severely damaged by flooding, was renovated in the years up to 2019. The money for the material that Hartmann needs comes from donations.
