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St.Peter’s Church was built atop the ruins of a Roman villa and a merovingian tomb. A sketch made in 1571 by the abbot Bertels of the Münster Abbey shows a chapel with a rather simple architecture. It was replaced by a three-nave church later.
Dominique-Henri de Neunheuser, vicar of Steinsel, bought in 1785 two stone altars from the Dominican monastery of Marienthal, which had been suspended under the reign of emperor Joseph II of Austria. One of the altars featured a stone statue of St. Peter of Milan. That’s how the veneration of this saint came to Steinsel.
In the mid-1800s, the church was decaying and a part even fell into ruins. It was decided to dismantle the old structure. On June 12, 1851, the first stone for a new and larger building was laid. It was a neogothic style sanctuary planned by the building conductor Jean-Baptiste Kintzelé of Heisdorf. The new church was inaugurated on December 19, 1852. The main altar of the dismantled church was sold to the Wormeldange parish church, where it is still conserved today. The two lateral altars remaint at Steinsel and advantageously fitted into the new church. The latter was consecrated in July 14, 1866 by the apostolic vicar, bishop Nicolas Adames. It is dedicated to St. Peter apostle. St. Peter of Milan is the second patron.
With the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the choir was remoulded. The roughly sculptured altar bloc is a work of the artist Pitt Nicolas. The tabernacle structure is a combination of the same stone with carved oak beams aspiring towards heavenly light. Three of the choir stained glass windows were re-designed by Ben Heyart.
The interior of the church was renovated in 2004. The architectural elements were enhanced by a neogothic type polychromy.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.