Notre-Dame de l′Assomption (Our Lady of the Assumption) is a Catholic parish church in the small town of Bergheim. The current church building was preceded by an earlier one, already dedicated to Mary, recorded in the year 705 and visited by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1146, while on his way from Basel to Worms to rally for the Second Crusade. That previous church was destroyed in 1287 during the great fire of Bergheim, which was started by the troops of Rudolf I of Germany. The current Bergheim church was built from 1320 to 1347 and largely modified from 1718 to 1725, which accounts for the fact that it presents features both of Gothic architecture and of Neoclassical architecture.
The church is remarkable for its Gothic frescoes (both on the outside and the inside), which had been concealed in the 18th-century and rediscovered in 1959. A pair of Gothic statues from around 1460 are thought to be from the workshop of Nikolaus Gerhaert.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.