S T A D T K I R C H E

The Town Church of St. Mary You can see the noteworthy baroque church tower from all directions. It is taller than all other towers and points to the oldest building in the town, the former Benedictine monastery. The ground plan of the church originates from the first half of the 12th Century. It follows the Hirsau style strictly with the quadratic schematics of the high Romanesque architecture. Until the west side was destroyed, the basilica had two towers. After the city was destroyed in 1689, the cloister hired Franz Beer to rebuild the church. Beer was a well-known baroque master builder who built the beautiful churches in Obermarchtal and Weingarten. He shaped the church with a radiant baroque interior that was totally removed during the renovation of 1896. The Inside of the Town Church of St. Mary: Due to the tastes of the time, the goal was to go back and create a Romanesque spatial impression on the inside of this church. During another renovation in 1980, this Romanesque style was kept as the stylistic perception of the turn of the century. Only a few parts were toned down. The women's small chorus was kept as one of the artistic treasures of the church along with the baroque chorus benches. It was the Abbot Konrad von Mülnheim who allowed a two-trussed chapel to St. Mary to be built in the northern part of the church at the beginning of the 16th Century. The late-gothic chapel with its grid vault is home to a very rare work of art, the Holy Grave. The stonemason, probably from Strasbourg, created a work unequalled here in the upper Rhine.

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