User Reviews
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 Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.