Evangelische Stadtkirche Ravensburg: A Protestant Church in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page14 sections
History
Evangelische Stadtkirche Ravensburg is a Protestant church in Ravensburg, Germany. The Carmelites, a Catholic mendicant order whose members combined communal religious life with preaching and reliance on alms, built it in the mid-fourteenth century as their monastery church. The church was consecrated in 1349 and developed by about 1400 into a three-aisled basilica, with a taller central nave, lower side aisles, and a high rectangular choir.
The Carmelite monastery church
The building was established without a tower and followed the practical traditions of a mendicant-order church. Its nave and choir were given flat wooden ceilings rather than stone vaults. During the medieval and early modern periods, wealthy Ravensburg families endowed five chapels. The Faber Chapel was established in 1404, followed by the Möttelin Chapel in 1448, the Society Chapel as an All Saints Chapel in 1452, the Humpis Chapel in 1483, and the St. Anne Chapel in 1508. The Society Chapel was converted in 1461 for the Ravensburg merchants’ association.
Reformation and divided use
The Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement that created Protestant churches and changed religious institutions across Europe, reached Ravensburg in 1544. Around 1554, the church became a simultaneous church, meaning that different confessions shared its use. The nave served the Protestants, while the choir remained with the Catholic Carmelites. Apart from a brief interruption during the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict of 1618 to 1648 that brought religious and political upheaval to the German lands, this arrangement continued until the early nineteenth century.
The Carmelite monastery was dissolved in 1810, and the whole church then passed to the Protestant congregation. The former monastery beside the church now houses Ravensburg District Court. In 1844, the Faber and Humpis Chapels were removed to make way for a new church tower, a 56-metre-high structure in the Classical style.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century changes
Between 1859 and 1862, the nave, side aisles, and choir received Neo-Gothic false vaults. The altar, pulpit, baptismal font, and pews were renewed to match this interior. A new Walcker organ was installed in the nave in 1861, and the glass painter Ludwig Mittermaier produced stained-glass windows for the choir and the second southern aisle between 1860 and 1862.
A major alteration in 1965 and 1966 removed the Neo-Gothic furnishings and returned much of the church to its monastic-period appearance. Contemporary works of art were added, while fourteenth- and fifteenth-century frescoes with biblical subjects were uncovered and restored, especially on the eastern nave wall around the chancel arch and former rood screen, the partition that once separated the nave from the choir. The Mittermaier windows removed during this work were placed in storage, but the seven Reformers’ Windows made in 1862 were retained.
A new Weigle organ followed in 1967. The church underwent comprehensive renovation and modernization from 2016 to 2020, including extensive restoration of the Reformers’ Windows. Its musical history includes organists and cantors such as Paul Horn, Johanna Irmscher, and Michael Bender. Since December 2024, Carmen Jauch has served as cantor and organist.
Remains
The surviving church retains a central nave, two side aisles, and a high rectangular choir. The main structure was built chiefly from rubble stone, with dressed stone used sparingly because suitable building material was scarce around Ravensburg. The southern side contains two medieval chapels that were opened into one another and into the church, forming a second southern aisle. Behind the northern wall of the choir stands the Society Chapel, while the nineteenth-century tower occupies the former position of the Faber and Humpis Chapels.
Southern chapels and northern memorial chapel
Möttelin and St. Anne Chapels
The Möttelin Chapel, added to the southern aisle in 1448, and the St. Anne Chapel, added in 1508, retain their original rib vaults. These vaulted structures are supported by intersecting ribs, with decorated corbels supporting projecting architectural elements and carved bosses marking the intersections of the ribs. Their opening into each other and into the church created the second southern aisle that survives as part of the present interior.
Society Chapel
The Society Chapel behind the choir’s northern wall contains a net-rib vault, whose ribs form a network-like pattern, and a window made of six individual lights produced around 1450. This is described as the church’s oldest window. The chapel also holds numerous wall epitaphs, commemorative monuments or inscriptions for deceased people, dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Most commemorate Ravensburg patricians and merchants, and the collection was brought together from the cloister and chapels of the former monastery. Among the named memorials are those of Franciscus Deyring, Johanna Precht Hochwart, Joseph Hundbiss, and Johanna Liebenfeld and Maria Gleyzin, with associated coats of arms.
Choir windows and works of art
Stained glass
The choir’s eight stained-glass windows were designed by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen and show scenes from the Old and New Testaments. He also designed the large western window as a meditation on the Cross. The seven Reformers’ Windows, made in 1862, survived the interior changes of 1965 and 1966 and were extensively restored during the renovation carried out from 2016 to 2020.
Bronze sculptures
Ulrich Henn created two bronze works in 1969. One shows Christ surrounded by angels within a mandorla, an almond-shaped aureole used around sacred figures, and hangs in the chancel arch. The other is a bronze crucifix on the main altar incorporating separate scenes from the life and works of Jesus.
Tower and organ
Classical tower
The church tower was erected in 1844 over the area formerly occupied by the Faber and Humpis Chapels. It is a 56-metre-high Classical-style structure. Other nineteenth-century stained glass includes windows donated by royal houses and prominent Ravensburg families.
Weigle organ
The organ installed in 1967 was built by the Friedrich Weigle organ-building company of Echterdingen as opus 1147, following a design by Walter Supper and Paul Horn. Its 51 stops, each controlling a separate rank or group of pipes, are divided among three manuals, the hand keyboards, in the left case and the pedal keyboard in the right case. The swell organ is enclosed, and the detached console stands in front of the left case. The key actions and couplers are mechanical, while the stop actions are electric. Its couplers connect manuals and pedal through the combinations II/I, III/I, III/II, I/P, II/P, and III/P. Four free combinations, two free pedal combinations, fixed combinations, and cancelers provide additional control.
