St. George's Minster, Dinkelsbühl, Germany

St. George's Minster is the impressive and quite massive church at the historic heart of Dinkelsbühl. The core of the current structure was built in the 15th century - adding on to older buildings that had existed in this area.

The tower of the church was originally not planned to be the church tower at all - it was a free-standing structure to the west of the main building which had been built in the 12th century. However the ambitious plans for a tower at the northern end had to be put aside because of lack of money and the architects extended the church building to the old tower. The style of the main building is late Gothic.

The minster became popular with pilgrims in later centuries because of the highly-decorated altars inside the church. It is possible to climb the tower during weekend afternoons with good weather in the summer months.

References:

Romantic Road Germany

User Reviews

Louis (3 years ago)
Very high gothic cathedral with some Romanesque elements. This massive building overlooks the rest of the town.

Kelly H (3 years ago)
Beautiful architecture and a place to light a candle/offer a prayer for those in need.

Mr Sun (3 years ago)
Very beautiful and peaceful cathedral. A lady was singing with a harp, beautiful voice as well.

Michael Nish (3 years ago)
Prominently located in the center of the old city, this is one of the most beautiful late Gothic churches in southern Germany built during 1448-1499 with a free-standing Romanesque tower portal built earlier than the current sanctuary during 1220/30. It was extended and connected with the church in 1238. Eleven pairs of pillars support a varied ribbed vault inside. The high altar with a large shrine tablet (crucifixion scene, around 1490). It's really impressive to be in this church looking at all the details of architecture. I was attempting to imagine the great sounds of the pipe organ (3939 pipes) in this spacious sanctuary... Altars: The Sebastian altar (1520) and Trinity altar (1500) in the south aisle, the cross altar (after 1470) and the neo-Gothic Joseph altar in the north nave, the ciborium altar with Pieta in the ambulatory (1490) was in the 17th century destination of numerous pilgrims. The baptismal font, pulpit and sacraments house are artistic stonemasonry from the time it was built. The famous "pretzel window" indicates a foundation of the bakers' guild. If you are in Dinklesbühl, this is a must stop. You will be amazed to see all the details of this medieval church...photos will give you some ideas, but they really don't justify the real thing IMHO.

Peter Pan (4 years ago)
A beautiful quiet place. Quite impressive to imagine building such a structure without modern tools and machines...

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Zvonimir Hrvoj

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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.

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St. George's Minster

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