St. Peter's Church, Rostock
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St. Peter's Church, in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
Petrikirche, was built in the 13th century and is the oldest of three town churches found in the
Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
city of
Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...
, in northern
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. The other two are
St. Mary's Church St. Mary's Church, St. Mary the Virgin's Church, St. Mary Church, Saint Mary Church, or other variations on the name, is a commonly used name for specific churches of various Christian denominations. Notable uses of the term may refer to: Albania ...
''(Marienkirche)'' and St. Nicholas ''(Nikolaikirche''). A fourth, St. Jakobi, was heavily damaged during the Second World War and subsequently demolished.


Building

St. Peter's Church was built in the middle of the 13th century. The first reference to a church on this site is in 1252, which is thought to be the predecessor of the current building. The triple-nave basilica is in
Brick Gothic Brick Gothic (, , ) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Baltic region, Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock (though Glacial erratic, ...
, a building style typical of the Hanseatic port cities of northern Germany.


Damage

The existing church had a tower 127m (413 feet) high, which was destroyed by a thunderbolt in 1543. In 1578 the tower was rebuilt as a polygonal spire after it had been, once again, damaged by storm. With a height of 117m (380 feet), the tower served as a landmark in the local area. After the Protestant Reformation, the church was used by a Lutheran congregation. In the following centuries the church decayed, and in 1902 the Basilica was renovated. Forty years later, however, in 1942, heavy bombing during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
again damaged the church and led to the collapse of the
polygonal In geometry, a polygon () is a plane (mathematics), plane Shape, figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its ''edge (geometry), edges'' or ''sides''. The p ...
spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...
.


Rebuilding

Following the war, the building was gradually rebuilt. Today the church, roofed by a flat timber ceiling, reaches a height of 24m (78 feet). In 1994 a glass window in the choir was built to a height of 17m (55 feet). 1994 was also the year when the rebuilt spire was completed. Public donations funded the building of a copper polygonal spire. With this, St. Peter's once again became a visible landmark in the surrounding area. Additionally, a 45m (146 feet) observation platform (accessed via steps and an elevator) provides fine views of the city of Rostock and the
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.


Description

The church is a three-nave Basilica with a high cross-vaulted ceiling in the west tower. On the north and south façade 4 times over are ever-alternating round arched arcades, each with a large rectangular window. In the central aisle of the tower, three high, round, arched arcades are on each side except the eastern side, where the tower joins the Basilica; at each of the four points there are three round-arched windows. The choir section is polygonal; at the north and south ends are small stair towers with pointed roofs. The design of the dividing inner-wall ('' zweizonige'') exhibits the round-arched arcade design typical of Roman-Gothic style. Prior to World War II damage, the arched gallery was open. But it had been only roughly rebuilt when reconstruction began. The light coming in from the large rectangular windows, flows over the gallery. The cross-ribbed vaulted ceiling that covers the northern end of the nave is preserved. However, the southern nave was too badly damaged to reconstruct the original. Also, the central nave couldn’t be restored, so instead a flat-timbered ceiling was put in place. The baroque decoration in the interior of the church was destroyed by fire during the World War II bombing of Rostock on the night of 26 and 27 April 1942. The stained glass windows of the choir are decorated with scenes from the life of St. Peter. They were designed in the early 1960s by local artist Lothar Mannewitz (1930–2004).


References

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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 ...
Rostock Peter Rostock Peter Rostock Peter PetriChurch