Liebfrauenkirche ("Our Lady", literally "Dear Lady") is a Gothic-style

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish church, located in the centre of

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, Germany. It was built in several phases from the 14th to the 16th century and serves today as a monastery church. Close to the shopping district, it serves as a place of rest even to visitors who are not religious. With an organ completed in 2008, it is a major venue for church music events.

History

Frankfurt Liebfrauenkirche Taufkapelle Tympanon

The first sacred building on the site began as a family chapel, which was made in 1325 a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

by the archbishop of Mainz, , dedicated to

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

("Unsere liebe Frau"). It was the third collegiate in the town, after that of St. Bartholomew attached to the

Frankfurt Cathedral Frankfurt Cathedral (german: link=no, Frankfurter Dom), officially Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew (german: link=no, Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus) is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It ...

, and

St. Leonhard Leonard of Noblac (also Leonard of Limoges or Leonard of Noblet; also known as Lienard, Linhart, Leonhard, Léonard, Leonardo, Annard; died 559), is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Hau ...

, founded in 1317. In 1344 the chapel was expanded to a Gothic

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

of three

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

s. A document about its consecration mentions two altars. From 1415, the south facade was transformed, including a tympanum showing the

Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...

made by the workshop of Madern Gerthener. In 1453 the town council permitted to change an adjacent tower of the fortification to a bell tower. From 1506 to 1509 the church was once more expanded, by Jörg Östereicher. The church remained Catholic, part of the

Diocese of Mainz The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...

, even when the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was introduced in Frankfurt in 1533. The church was partly changed to Baroque style from 1763 to 1771. The helmet of the tower was replaced by the one still seen today. The interior was changed almost completely, installing five new altars and a chancel from Mainz workshops. An organ by the Frankfurt organ builder Ernst Weegmann was built at around the same time, installed in 1763. With the secularisation in 1803, Frankfurt became the owner of the church. Friedrich Rumpf built in 1824 a new entrance protecting the tympanum. A Walcker organ was installed in 1864. From 1923, Capuchins became the spiritual leaders, who built a convent north of the church. The church was completely destroyed by bombing in World War II in 1944. Only fragments of the high altar and statue of Mary could be saved. The church was restored in the 1950s, but in a simplified form, replacing the Gothic vaults by wooden ceilings.

Church music

A new organ was completed in 2008 by , with 57 stops (3,370 pipes) on three manuals and pedal. It is especially suited to play both works of the German Romantic period as the French symphonic style. It can be played also from a second keyboard close to the altar, serving music with choir.

Peter Reulein Peter Reulein (born 1966) is a German composer, organ improviser, academic teacher and church musician, from 2000 at the church Liebfrauen in Frankfurt am Main. In 2016 he composed for the Catholic Diocese of Limburg the Franciscan oratorio ''La ...

has been the church musician from 2000, directing a vocal ensemble, the choir Collegium Vocale, the orchestra Collegium Musicum and the youth choir Capuccinis.

Spiritual life

Until 31 December 2013, the church was both a monastery church of Capuchin monks and a parish church. Then it became a "Kloster- und Rektoratskirche" without its own parish". It has developed to a spiritual centre of the

Rhein-Main Region The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...

. It is open daily from 6 am to around 10 pm. The Capuchins offer breakfast to homeless people. Regular services are every day three masses, lauds (morning praise), a prayer at noon (10 minutes of music, spiritual impulse and prayer) and

vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic (both Latin and Eastern), Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , meanin ...

(evening praise), with additional masses on the weekend.

References

External links

*
Liebfrauen
Website of the Frankfurt Cathedral
Die Orgel
(in German) Fa. Karl Göckel, Münstersches Orgelmagazin
Festschrift
Inauguration of the Göckel organ on 9 August 2008
Die Baudenkmäler in Frankfurt am Main (Band 1): Kirchenbauten — Frankfurt a. M., 1896 / Die Liebfrauen-Kirche
Heidelberger historische Bestände – digital

Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Frankfurt
Liebfrauenkirche, Liebfrauenberg 56, Innenrenovierung, Objektplanung
competitionline.com 2015
Liebfrauenkirche: Our Lady’s Church, Has A Long History…
kiwidutch.wordpress.com 2015
Skulpturen an der Liebfrauenkirche / Sculptures at the Church of Our Lady
{{Authority control Roman Catholic churches in Frankfurt Churches in the Diocese of Limburg 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany Tourist attractions in Frankfurt