St Joseph's Church () in the town of

Mühlhausen Mühlhausen () is a town in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's Central Germany (geography)#Geographical centre, geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

, Germany, is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

. The cruciform 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 ...

hall church A hall church is a Church (building), church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height. In England, Flanders and the Netherlands, it is covered by parallel roofs, typically, one for each vessel, whereas in Germany there is often one s ...

was built from 1903 to 1905 according to plans by the Paderborn diocesan architect Arnold Güldenpfennig.

History and architecture

A church building association took the initiative to build St Joseph's Church in 1884. The foundation stone was laid on 14 July 1903. The church was consecrated on 15 August 1907, two years after completion, by Bishop Wilhelm Schneider. St. Joseph's is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

hall church with a

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

and likewise polygonal

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

arms. The tower is high.

Interior

The internal decoration took decades to complete. The statues of the saints were created at the beginning of the 20th century in the workshops of the Wiedenbrück School. In 1907, the painter Eduard Goldkuhle created the Stations of the Cross. In 1934, the walls were painted with saints. In 1962, the interior of the church was redesigned and the wall paintings and some of the saints' statues were removed. The Gothic-Revival church windows were replaced by rhombus glazing and the side

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

s and the high

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 ...

were removed. In 1981, the parish church received a new organ. In 2001, St Joseph's Church was given its present interior design: the altar was moved forward into the crossing, and the walls and vaults were repainted. Five choir windows designed by the artist Maren Magdalena Sorger from Magdeburg were realised by the Paderborn glass workshop ''Peters Floatglasmalerei''. Mühlhausen St. Josef 03.jpg, View into the transept Mühlhausen St. Josef 04.jpg, The Jehmlich organ Mühlhausen St. Josef 06.jpg, Interior view

Bells

In 1928, the first four bells were hung in the tower of St Joseph's Church. After the loss of the bells in the Second World War, the parish struggled to find a new set of bells. On 15 June 1967, the Schilling company from Apolda handed over the new bronze bells, tuned to d – f – g – b flat. The new instruments with the inscriptions "Christ our Lord" (), "Mary our Advocate" (), "Joseph our Patron" () and "Boniface our Messenger of Faith" () fit harmoniously into the overall ringing of the Mühlhausen town churches.

References

External links

St Joseph's Church on the parish's website
(in German)
St Joseph's Church on the town's website
(in German) {{Authority control Mühlhausen Muhlhausen Joseph Gothic Revival church buildings in Germany 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Germany Roman Catholic churches completed in 1905