The building is on the eastern border of the old village centre, near the steward's house. The chancel and
the belfry were built around the year 1500. The old Gothic nave was replaced by a larger one in 1783, when
the sacristy was built, too. The church is made of plastered quarry-stones; in the Gothic part, there are also
grey square sandstones.
In the recent years, the roughcast and the masonry were in very bad shape, as well as the roof-truss and the
bell-tower's timber-work. The parish has therefore begun a complete renovation, supported by the
monument office of the Land, by the ordinariate (the office of episcopal administration) and a society exclusively
founded for this purpose. There has also been a lot of monetary contribution by the population.
Dettensee had an own chaplain as early as in the 15th century - he was first mentioned in a
subsidy register of 1468 -, but merely possessed a castle chaplainy (“Schlosskaplanei”).
In fact, we had the unusual situation that one half of Dettensee belonged to the parish of
Empfingen and the other half to the parish of Nordstetten; the inhabitants could chose which of
the two should baptize, marry and bury them.
In 1756, it was tried to improve the religious welfare for the citizens of Dettensee by trying
to seperate the morning service from the parish of Nordstetten. This trial, however, failed.
When, in 1779, the inhabitants of Dettensee repeated their wish, Gerold II, the prince abbot (Fürst-Abt)
of Muri, considered a school more urgent. Ten years later, however, he had realized that Dettensee
needed a priest. He offered a building, as well as land, and raised Dettensee from a castle chaplainy
to a full parish on May 17, 1790, whith the permission of the bishop of Constance, entirely separate
from Empfingen and Nordstetten.
More pictures of the church and the war memorial in front of it may be found on the pictures page.
| Zeitraum | Name |
|---|---|
| 1790 - 1805 | Johann Nepomuk Diener von Reichenau |
| 1802 - 1814 | Konrad Ägidius Engelhardt |
| 1814 - 1816 | Johann Lenz |
| 1816 - 1819 | Joseph Schwarz |
| 1819 - 1824 | Anton Stocker |
| 1824 - 1837 | Fidel Klein |
| 1838 - 1851 | Christian Eger |
| 1851 - 1852 | Joseph Anton Hieber |
| 1852 - 1853 | Lorenz Schmider |
| 1853 - 1856 | Gsell |
| 1856 | Eduard Mattes (Parish Administrator) |
| 1857 - 1866 | Raphael Bumüller |
| 1866 - 1867 | Fidelis Futterer |
| 1867 - 1879 | Ignaz Kotz |
| 1879 - 1885 | Administration from Betra and Nordstetten |
| 1885 - 1888 | Thomas Speidel |
| 1888 - 1891 | Administration from Betra, Mühringen or Ahldorf |
| 1891 - 1895 | Johann Steinhart |
| 1896 -1914 | Albert Fritz |
| 1915 - 1927 | Karl Hiller |
| 1927 - 1957 | August Beiter |
| 1957 - 1994 | Josef Schmiederer - Priest of Betra; permanent administrator for Dettensee |
| 1995 | Klaus Rudershausen |
| 1995 - 1996 | Mr. Winterhalter |
| since October, 1996 | Gerhard Hauk |
Last update: April 1, 2003 - www.dettensee.net
Ground-plan from: Die Kunstdenkmäler Hohenzollerns