The Weilmünster Protestant Church is a listed

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 ...

located in

Weilmünster Weilmünster is a municipality in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Weilmünster is among the most richly wooded places in Limburg-Weilburg. The forestry office looks after not only the State Forest but also twelve municipal ...

, a historic market town in the Limburg-Weilburg district of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

. The church belongs to the Weilmünster I parish in the

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

on the Lahn of the

Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (, EKHN) is a United Protestant church body in the German federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. There is no bishop and therefore no cathedral. One of its most prominent churches is Katharinen ...

. It is a protected

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...

site in Hesse, listed by the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen.

The church

The

aisleless church An aisleless church () is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated from the nave by col ...

, which was built or converted in several construction phases, is east-facing. Its oldest part is the free-standing church tower with a square floor plan on the north side, the tower of a former fortified church from the 12th or 13th century that has become too small. The two lower floors are covered with

barrel vaults A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

. In 1731 it received a slate-covered, octagonal tower that houses the tower clock and the belfry. On top of it sits a bell-shaped hood crowned by a lantern. The

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 ...

was completed in 1511. Between 1580 and 1620, the three-sided gallery on

balusters A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

was built into the flat-roofed nave for the growing community. In the years 1789–1791, today's rectangular windows were broken through. The portal in the west also dates from this time. The choir has a three-sided end and is covered with a groin vault. The choir and the nave are connected by a wide, pointed choir arch. On the basket of the pulpit there are reliefs with the busts of the

four evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...

. The

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 ...

stood behind the

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 ...

until 1950, but is now free-standing. The

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

was built in 1776.

Literature

* Georg Dehio: ''Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Hessen 1, Regierungsbezirke Gießen und Kassel.'' Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin und München 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3, p. 932–33.

References

External links

Protestant Church Weilmünster
(German) {{commons category, Evangelische Kirche (Weilmünster) Protestant churches in Hesse