St. Peter's Church (in German ''Peterskirche'') is located beneath Deutschhaus Mainz in the northwest of the historical center of

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is one of the most important

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

buildings in Mainz. Originally it was a collegiate church monastery of ″St. Peter before the walls″, which had existed since the 10th century and is dedicated to the

apostle Peter An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary. The word is derived from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", itself derived from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to se ...

as patron. Today it serves as a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

for the parish of St. Peter / St. Emmeran.

History of the collegiate

The collegiate was founded 944 by archbishop

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

north of the city wall. Collegiates were key administrative units, on which the archbishop relied. The provosts, the head of the collegiate, each led an

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...

. Due to its location before the gates, the collegiate was completely destroyed by Swedish attacks 1631 in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, and is to be seen on the north side portal of Saint Peter as paintings, 1631 at the Swedish attacks completely destroyed. At the behest of Archbishop

Johann Philipp von Schönborn Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious ...

a reconstruction was not considered. For over a century the collegiate community had no own building. It was only in 1749 Archbishop Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein decided for a new building. The collegiate was moved to its present location near the

palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

church St. Gangolph, later vanished in the Napoleonic era. At this location there was previously a romanesque church, the so-called ″Odenmünster″ or ″St. Mari underm Münster″. This has not been used since 1724 and was left to decay. The construction of the new St. Peter's Church lasted from 1749 to 1756/57, and was carried out in the context of the valorisation of the bleaching district (Bleichenviertel). The church was consecrated 2 May 1756 by Archbishop Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein. With the beginning of

secularization In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

, the collegiate was repealed on 4 July 1802. Due to the fact that

Mainz Cathedral Mainz Cathedral or St. Martin's Cathedral ( or, officially, ') is located near the historical center and pedestrianized market square of the city of Mainz, Germany. This 1000-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral is the site of the episcopal see of th ...

lay partially in ruins St. Peter's was chosen for the inauguration of bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar in 1803.

The building

The present building of St. Peter's is a baroque hall (three bays) with double

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point. It is a typical ...

tower façade by architect Johann Valentin Thoman.St. Peter's - A church with late-baroque elegance
digital
Until 1762 the church was completed yet. Under French occupation, the church became a stable in 1813. When the control of the

Fortress of Mainz The Fortress of Mainz was a fortressed garrison town between 1620 and 1918. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, under the term of the 1815 Peace of Paris, the control of Mainz passed to the German Confederation and became part of a chain of str ...

passed to the

German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...

it became the garrison church of the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

garrison parts, which it remained until 1918. Then it was dedicated a parish church. In 1872 Ferdinand Becker painted an altarpiece for the church. St. Peter had survived the first major air raid on Mainz in August 1942. The second serious attack on Mainz in autumn 1944 had significantly worse consequences. The South Tower was hit by a high explosive bomb and fell onto the nave, where it hit a big hole in the vault. The north tower, the choir room and large parts of the nave, however, were undamaged. On 27 February 1945, Mainz was almost completely destroyed by air raids with incendiary bombs. St. Peter's Church lost its tower façade, the nave was burnt out. Until 1952 the church was provisionary repaired, so that it could be used by the community. In 1959 the reconstruction began. In 1961, the twin towers were restored to the original. After years of restoration from 1973 to 1989, the church was returned to the parish. During this period the ceiling

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

s were created new by Karl Manninger according to old photographs. The decoration of the church was much irretrievably lost in the original, most notably the organ, the ceiling frescoes from 1755 by Joseph Ignaz Appiani, showing the life and work of St. Peter, and the choir stalls. The great baroque altars, stucco decoration and the most valuable piece of equipment, the great

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

of Johannes Förster, were not destroyed.

Recent additions

A modern altar of the artist

Gernot Rumpf Gernot Rumpf (17 April 1941 – 20 January 2025) was a German sculptor known for his fountains and other bronze sculptures, with the Palatinate and biblical motifs. These can be seen not only in German cities, but also in Jerusalem and Tokyo. ...

was added recently. It refers to the ″fisher of men″ Peter with a net. Herein, frolicking fish that turn out as people on closer inspection - even one of them with a fool's cap thereunder. The same artist also created the ambo and the

Paschal candle A Paschal candle is a large candle used in Liturgy, liturgies in Western Christianity (videlicet, viz., the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and the Methodist Churches, among others). A new Paschal candle is b ...

. At the 50th anniversary of the death of Father Franz Adam Landvogt, who was pastor at St. Peter, a bronze statue of

Karlheinz Oswald Karlheinz Oswald (born 1958) is a German sculptor known for his portraits and cast iron sculptures, many of dancers, often displayed in public places. He studied at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1981, and between 1983 and 1988 ...

was erected in the Landvogt crypt in October 2003.

References

Literature

*Wilhelm Jung: ''St. Peter in Mainz. Ehemals Stifts- und Pfarrkirche'', Mainz, 1989

External links

Interior
on the web page of the parish {{DEFAULTSORT:Mainz Peter's Church

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

Rococo architecture in Germany 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany Roman Catholic churches completed in 1757